So the United States decides to take out another country’s consulate. It’s probably not surprising, seeing that international rules most nation-states have lived by for decades, if not centuries, are meaningless to the Bush Administration.

Geneva conventions? We’ll re-write them the way we see fit.
Inviolability of another nation’s embassies and consulates? Nah, forget it.

Now I’m not saying that the raid will not produce some damning evidence of Iranian interference in Iraq. It probably will. But that’s not the point. We lived for decades with Russian, Chinese, and Israeli spies in the heart of Washington and NY City. For some strange reason we could live within the bounds of international law through the whole Cold War, when every major city had a thermonuclear target painted on it. Why can’t we live by those rules now?

The reason is this. We have an Administration that is bent of dragging the entire region into its version of the apocalypse. What we’ll get is just a bloodier version of Apocalypse Now (by the way, based on Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad – i.e., Teodor Józef Konrad Korzeniowski).

Do they really think that they can relive Vietnam and ‘win’ this time? The parallels are pretty evident, Iran as Cambodia, Syria as Laos, the domino theory.

Here’s the synopsis of the days events from the NYT. 5 Iranians Detained at Consular Office

American forces backed by helicopters raided the Iranian consulate in the mainly Kurdish city of Erbil in northern Iraq before dawn today, detaining at least five Iranian employees in the building and seizing some property, according to Iraqi and Iranian officials and witnesses.

Kurdish forces were in control of the consulate building when a reporter went there after the raid. There was broken glass on the pavement outside the building, and no sign of the Iranian flag.

A statement from the United States military today did not mention the Iranian consulate specifically, saying only that six people were taken into custody in —routine security operations— in the Erbil area. Other than saying they were —suspected of being closely tied to activities targeting Iraqi and Coalition forces on Jan. 11,— the statement did not say who the people were.

But the American statement did warn that —the Coalition will continue to work with the Government of Iraq to prevent interference by hostile actors in Iraq’s internal security affairs.—

Statements by the Iranian government were more explicit. A Foreign Ministry spokesman, Mohammad Ali Hosseini, said that United States forces arrested five Iranian staff members at the consulate early this morning, and confiscated computers and documents.

The Iranian embassy in Baghdad has sent a letter of protest to the Iraqi Foreign Ministry, Mr. Hosseini told the IRNA news agency.

A statement issued by the presidency office in Kurdistan said the American forces were backed by helicopters.

Noting that the consulate was protected by international agreement and that the regions under Kurdish control have been fairly calm, the statement said the raid —does not help the efforts to bring peace, stability and security to the rest of Iraq.—

The statement suggested that the raid was an unwelcome surprise to the Kurdish authorities. —It is better to inform the Kurdistan government before taking actions against anybody,— it said.

…

Mr. Hosseini, the Iranian spokesman, also reacted sharply to the speech Mr. Bush gave last night about Iraq, telling the news agency that the dispatch of more than 20,000 additional American troops to Iraq was intended to prolong the United States occupation, and that it would increase insecurity and tension.

Referring to Mr. Bush’s accusations that Iran and Syria were interfering in Iraq’s domestic affairs, Mr. Hosseini said that Washington was seeking —pretexts for its failed policies— in Iraq.

IRNA also quoted an Iraqi Kurdish security official, whom it did not name, as saying that Kurdish forces were responsible for maintaining security in Erbil, including protecting the consulate. American forces —disarmed the Kurdish guards of the consulate and used force to enter the building,— IRNA quoted the Kurdish official as saying.

Secretary of the War State, Condoleezza Rice was exceedingly blunt in testimony before Congress:

The US stepped up pressure on Iran Thursday with the secretary of state warning that Washington will not stand “idly by” if Tehran disrupts a new strategy to stabilize Iraq hours after US troops raided an Iranian government office in Irbil. Condoleezza Rice faced a fierce grilling by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee over the plan to send 21,500 more troops to Iraq and President George W. Bush’s warning that US soldiers would tackle Iranian and Syrian elements there.

Rice declined repeatedly to rule out US military action against Iran.

“I don’t want to speculate on what operations the United States may be engaged in, but you will see that the United States is not going to simply stand idly by and let these activities continue,” she said.

Rice defended the Gulf military deployments as necessary to assure US allies they “have the defense capacity that they need against a growing Iranian military buildup.”

She also said Bush in his speech was referring to taking action against Iranian and Syrian operatives inside Iraq.

“Obviously, the president isn’t going to rule anything out to protect our troops, but the plan is to take down these networks in Iraq,” she said.

No, he won’t rule out anything, because ruling things out takes judgment, something sorely lacking in this administration.

In her testimony, Rice also reaffirmed the Bush administration’s refusal to open a dialogue with Iran on stabilizing Iraq, as strongly recommended last year by the bipartisan Iraq Study Group and many foreign-policy experts.

She said Iran would seek in any such talks to obtain concessions in the standoff over its nuclear program in exchange for help in Iraq. “That’s not diplomacy, that’s extortion,” she said.

Rice insisted that Bush’s revised strategy would put more pressure on Iraqis to take over their own security, vital to any eventual US military pullback.

She also defended the reliance of the Bush administration on the much-derided government of Iraqi Premier Nuri al-Maliki, which has failed to satisfy past US demands for robust action.

“I think he knows that his government is, in a sense, on borrowed time,” she said…

Threats – those help. He’s bad, he’s good, he’s I don’t know… You’ve just pushed the Iraqi Premier closer to Shiite terrorists and radicals.

[Senator Joe] Biden said that Americans’ prayers for a workable strategy had not been answered.

“I believe the president’s strategy is not a solution, Secretary Rice. I believe it’s a tragic mistake,” Biden said.

Yep. He and 70+% of the American public.

In response to our actions, the war is coming to us tit-for-tat (and that didn’t take long). See: Blast rips through U.S. embassy compound in Athens

ATHENS (Reuters) – An explosion ripped through the U.S. embassy compound in central Athens on Friday, a police source said.

It was not clear what caused the blast and there was no immediate word on whether there were any casualties.

Police cordoned off all roads around the embassy.

Police officials at the scene said that whatever caused the explosion damaged the official embassy sign outside the mission, but there was little other indication of the extent of damage inside.

Syria and Iran will pull Israel in and U.S. interests will be hit. People will feel less secure, the police state will grow…

I pray not. Let’s go Congress and God have mercy on us all.

From the NY Times: Bush’s Strategy for Iraq Risks Confrontations

WASHINGTON, Jan. 10 —” By stepping up the American military presence in Iraq, President Bush is not only inviting an epic clash with the Democrats who run Capitol Hill. He is ignoring the results of the November elections, rejecting the central thrust of the bipartisan Iraq Study Group and flouting the advice of some of his own generals, as well as Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki of Iraq.

The obvious…

In so doing, Mr. Bush is taking a calculated gamble that no matter how much hue and cry his new strategy may provoke, in the end the American people will give him more time to turn around the war in Iraq and Congress will not have the political nerve to thwart him by cutting off money for the war.

Don’t you just hate it when the truth smacks you in the face. Our leaders have no courage, our king has no clothes. Still, we must pray and witness.

The plan, outlined by the president in stark, simple tones in a 20-minute speech from the White House library, is vintage George Bush —” in the eyes of admirers, resolute and principled; in the eyes of critics, bull-headed, even delusional, about the prospects for success in Iraq. It is the latest evidence that the president is convinced that he is right and that history will vindicate him, even if that vindication comes long after he is gone from the Oval Office…

Now where was I? Step 1, Put the steak through the meat grinder. Step 2, Re-create the cow. Thank you Dr. Frankenstein*.

—It’s more than a risk, it’s a riverboat gamble,— said Leon E. Panetta, a Democratic member of the Iraq Study Group and former chief of staff to President Bill Clinton. —There’s no question that under our system he’s going to be able to deploy these troops without Congress being able to stop him. But he’s going to face so many battles over these next few months, on funding for the war, on every decision he makes, that he’s basically taking the nation into another nightmare of conflict over a war that no one sees any end to.—

And whose consequences we will live with well into the future.

I think the NY Times is stretching the analysis angle. I know that they’ve got to make it fit the format, but perhaps they should add a new section – pointing out the obvious.

*Stay tuned for the movie. Gene Wilder as George Bush, Marty Feldman as Ey-gor, I mean the Vice-president, and Cloris Leachman as Frau Rice.