Iran: "A Tougher Nut" than N. Korea (Armitage)

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/sep2004/nf2004097_2792_db052.htm

Deputy Secretary of State Richard L. Armitage is an experienced troubleshooter. A Vietnam veteran with previous stints at the State Dept. and the Pentagon under his belt, Armitage has been involved in everything from handling Philippines' efforts to boot U.S. troops out of the country to the collapse of the former Soviet Union. He has had no end of troubles to shoot in the Bush Administration. An Asia hand, Armitage helped negotiate the extrication of pilots downed in China early in President Bush's term. He has played a role in everything from Iraq to Iran to North Korea.

Armitage sat down with BusinessWeek Chief Diplomatic Correspondent Stan Crock on Sept. 1 to discuss some of the issues at the top of his in-box, including the challenges in Iraq, North Korea, and Iran. Edited excerpts of their conversation follow in two parts. Here is Part 1:

Q: In Najaf and Fallujah, the options seemed to be between what's portrayed as a military defeat that lets Al-Sadr's militia melt away and what would be a political disaster: If you went in and holy sites got damaged. The trade-off was made to avert political blowback. A similar calculation was made in Fallujah. But when is the military going to say we're killing ourselves here by letting these guys loose?
A: Let me differentiate between Najaf and Fallujah. Najaf, I think, by all accounts, is a stunning victory for the Allawi government. The reason I say that is Grand Ayatollah al-Sistani came down on the side of the government. And unlike when he was last negotiating with young Sadr, in April, this time he was successful.

He was successful because military pressure had been applied, and both Iraqi forces and coalition forces right outside the compound wall were sitting there immediately after. It's an overall victory.

Al Jazeera went right into Najaf and started photographing and speaking to Iraqi National Guard soldiers in full uniform and full kit. That's the first time Al Jazeera has shown sort of a different face to this conflict.
<snip>

[UpsideDownFlag]

1. 2003: iraq. 2005: iran. 2007, the world.

[The_Casual_Observer]

2. Oh, with enough draftees it would be do-able

"Grand Ayatollah al-Sistani came down on the side of the government"
So who is winning the battle, Sistani or us????

Have we got enough regime changing bradleys and abrams to take on Iran too?