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Iraq was Story of the Day yet again as President George Bush and Defense Secretary Robert Gates both spoke out and the Senate unanimously confirmed the appointment of Gen David Petraeus to lead the military effort there. CBS and NBC led with the debate inside the Beltway over whether the Congress should oppose Bush's troop build-up in Baghdad. ABC chose the foreign policy angle: the President warned Iran not to infiltrate its agents into Iraq.

ABC's Martha Raddatz (subscription required) reported that the President threatened Teheran that its agents would be killed if they joined the fight against US troops--while reassuring Iran that any killing would be done on the Iraqi side of the border. Raddatz repeated the Pentagonese in explaining the gripe with Iran. Regular IEDs (Improvised Explosive Devices or roadside bombs) have been improved into EFPs (Explosively Formed Penetrators or antitank weapons) and Teheran is accused of producing the upgrade.

Raddatz explained that the new weapons are being delivered to "insurgents" to fight against the US military. Her terminology is confusing. Usually the term "insurgent" refers to the Sunni resistance to the US military occupation and the Shiite-led government in Baghdad; whereas the term "militias" is used for irregular Shiite fighters and their sectarian death squads.

It is hard to believe that Shiite Teheran is providing sophisticated weaponry to the Sunni insurgents, the enemies of its own co-religionists.

Andrew Tyndall 1/28/07 3:35:57 am

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