The Gathering Storm

War clouds gather in Iraq:

In 1917, most Russians were not Bolsheviks. The Bolsheviks were a minority, but they were fanatical and ruthless. So they prevailed — and for most of the 20th century Russians lived and died under Communist oppression.

In 1933, most Germans were not Nazis. The Nazis were a minority, but they were fanatical and ruthless. Tens of millions would perish before Hitler’s dream of world conquest collapsed.

Today, it is not clear that most Iraqis want to slaughter other Iraqis and return Iraq to despotism. But a fanatical and ruthless minority does.

This minority — actually two rival minorities, one Sunni, one Shia — enjoys the support of both al-Qaeda and the regime that rules Iran. That is not surprising. What is: the fact that such mass murderers are neither opposed nor even seriously condemned by “the international community.” Instead, in the Middle East, Europe and even America, opposition and condemnation are meted out in fullest measure to those reluctant to quit the fight against the mass murderers.

Iran is caught red-handed fueling attacks against Americans in Iraq:

Iran is supplying deadly shoulder-fired missiles and armor-piercing bombs to Iraqi insurgents, along with TNT, triggering devices, rockets and other weapons that are killing and injuring hundreds of U.S. and allied troops, a U.S. military intelligence report made public yesterday says.
The detailed briefing report, titled "Iranian Support for Lethal Activity in Iraq," stated that Iranian Misagh-1 portable anti-aircraft missiles were found after a failed attempt to shoot down a plane at Baghdad's airport in 2004.
Disclosure of the Iranian provision of anti-aircraft missiles comes as six U.S. helicopters have been shot down by insurgents in the past three weeks. It is not known whether Iranian missiles were used in the attacks.
The armor-piercing bombs have killed at least 170 American and allied troops in Iraq, defense officials told reporters in Baghdad, where the report was released.
"More than 170 U.S. and coalition troops have been killed by these things, and 620 wounded. There was a significant increase in their use over the past six months," one defense official said.
"The weapons had characteristics unique to being manufactured in Iran. ... Iran is the only country in the region that produces these weapons," said a defense official who briefed reporters in Baghdad, adding that Tehran was using Shi'ite cleric Sheik Muqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army as a surrogate in Iraq.
The report stated that the Iranians involved in supporting Iraqi extremists are members of the Qods Force of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps, Tehran's Islamist paramilitary shock troops. The Qods Force is known to back terrorists throughout the Middle East, according to the 16-page report.
A senior defense official said the Iranian terrorist support is "coming from the highest levels of the Iranian government."
Much of the intelligence in the report was obtained in the past several months, including an identity card of a Qods Force member who was captured along with four other Iranian agents in a raid on the group's office in the northern Iraqi city of Irbil last month. The identity card bore the logo of the Qods Force.
"Over the last 60 days, Iranian and Iraqi detainees have told us that the Qods Force provides support to extremist groups in the form of money and weapons," the report said. "Their information included references to Iranian provision of weapons to Iraqi militants engaged in anti-coalition violence, as well as weapons and training to these same militants."

Arab states begin to ally against Iran and her slave states:

The Mecca accord is a blow to the Islamic Republic's investment in Hamas and in Islamic Jihad in the hope of overthrowing President Abbas and extinguishing any chance of talks with Israel. Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, had designated the Palestinian territories as part of Iran's turf in an eventual war with Israel and the United States; with the Mecca accord, Tehran loses that part of its imagined power.

Back in 2004, with the United States apparently bogged down in Iraq, the "revolutionary cause" advocates in Tehran moved onto the offensive. They argued that America would run away, first from Iraq and then from the whole region, burying dreams of a Pax Americana - so that Tehran could then impose a regional Pax Khomeinista as a first step toward claiming the leadership of Islam.

The first move was to turn Syria into a client state; the next, to trigger last summer's war between Israel and Hezbollah. The perception that Israel was humiliated in that conflict enhanced Iran's prestige as a power capable of, one day, wiping "the Zionist enemy" off the map.

But then Tehran overplayed its hand by ordering Hezbollah to try to seize power in Beirut. The specter of a "Shiite Crescent," first evoked by Jordan's King Abdullah II and dismissed as hyperbole, suddenly appeared real.

After some initial hesitation, the 6+2 nations decided to draw a line in the sand on Lebanon: Tehran would not be allowed to seize power in Beirut. The group's determination made it possible for the broader international community to also rally behind the government of Prime Minister Fuad Siniora. By the end of January, it had become clear that Tehran's bid in Beirut, although damaging Lebanon, had no chance of sweeping Hezbollah into power.

The next few months will be quite dangerous ones. With Russia in the Iranian orbit, spring 2007 may well become August 1914 all over again.