We all know that this is a war between Iran and America.

[kpete]

NYT's Hassan Fattah: In the end, numbers become names again.


The bodies of more than 80 Lebanese people were put in coffins Friday and were buried in a mass grave. Once the conflict ends, they will be exhumed for formal burials.

“If you speak the truth here you are called a traitor,” Mr. Abdullah said. “But we all know that this is a war between Iran and America. I am paying part of the price for it.” Then he suddenly grew pensive as he stood at the edge of the trench.

“That’s my daughter, No. 9,” he said, pointing at a coffin coming out of the truck as. “It’s a nice number, don’t you think? And No. 7, it’s a nice number, too. It’s my wife. And there’s No. 10. I hope they will be lucky.”


http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/22/world/middleeast/22tyre.html?ex=1311220800&en=7fc0335786b0f4d4&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss

[Master Mahon]

1. Let's all recall who Armed Iran

Not all that long ago. We sold them top notch technology, including Nuclear Technology. AND who aided and abetted us in this endeavor now known as the Iran Contra Affair.

The Iran Arms Sales

<>
What we now know as the Iran arms sales, or the Iran initiative, was actually a series of related but distinct events that began in the summer of 1985 and continued through 1986. Israel sent U.S.-supplied weapons to Iran on three occasions in 1985. These shipments took place with U.S. approval, and, in one instance, with U.S. participation. They led to the release in September 1985 of one American held hostage in Lebanon. The United States delivered missiles and missile parts to Iran on five occasions in 1986, after President Reagan signed an intelligence ``Finding'' authorizing such shipments. These 1986 shipments led to the release of two more U.S. hostages, though terrorists seized two additional Americans in September 1986.

The first shipment of U.S.-made weapons from Israel to Iran took place August 20, 1985. But discussion and debate within the U.S. Government as to the desirability of arms sales to Iran had been going on for months at the time of the first Israeli shipment.
<>
In early May of 1985, Michael Ledeen, a part-time consultant to the NSC, obtained National Security Adviser Robert McFarlane's approval to meet in Israel with Prime Minister Shimon Peres to explore whether Israel would share information on Iran with the United States.

According to Ledeen, Peres expressed displeasure with Israel's intelligence on Iran and suggested that the United States and Israel should work together to improve their information about and policies toward Iran. He also mentioned a recent Iranian request to buy artillery shells from Israel. Israel would grant the request, Peres said, only if the United States had no objection. Ledeen agreed to relay the question of the proposed weapons sale to McFarlane.35

http://fas.org/irp/offdocs/walsh/part_i.htm

[Redstone]

3. Just like we armed and created the Taliban.

That Big Circle comes around again.

Redstone

[Master Mahon]

4. And of course, Bin Laden!

We armed Iraq and Syria as well!

[Redstone]

2. It may very well be. And if so, they started it. I always though bush

would have been the one to start, but I think they beat him to the punch.

Kinda shooting themselves in the foot, though, giving bush such a handy excuse to do what he'd have been impeached for doing a month ago.

Redstone

[enough]

5. Heartbreaking article.