More Evidence U.S. Is Preparing for Iran Strike

Last week I argued that that the escalation of the war in Iraq was actually an escalation of the quiet war we have been indirectly waging with Iran. The facts just seemed to add up because the movement of troops and military equipment don't lie, only the politicians that send them. Now, more evidence is piling up, as we have deployed Patriot Missiles to the region.

Clearly every military expert understands the 20,000 more troops entering Iraq will not lead to long term security. We have done this before, before, and before that. We now have a carrier group in the region, a battle group on the way, and for the first time that I can remember an Admiral in charge of CENTCOM.

As the composition of the newly deployed force becomes clear, it unfortunately looks like this is a true escalation of the war with Iran. The heroes of Operation Desert Storm were our Air Defense Artillery units located in Israel and Saudi Arabia, that protected both our troops and civilians from Iraqi Scud Missile attacks. We kept patriot assets in the Gulf region for the 12 years in Saudi Arabia, and after we successfully removed Saddam Hussein in 2003, all our high and medium range anti aircraft units returned to state side with the exception to the Korean peninsula.

So, as the President claims these 20,000 troops are for security in Baghdad, why are we sending a Patriot Missile Battalion from Ft. Bliss Texas? In my time in Iraq we were attacked by RPGs, small arms fire, and of course IEDs, but there just wasn't an intermediate range ballistic missile threat, which Patriot Missiles are a defense against.

So why deploy Patriot Missiles to the Middle East? Because of Iran.

If the United States strikes Iran it will certainly push Hezbollah to confront Israel, and certainly destabilize Iraq by forcing the Mahdi Army to confront the United States. But, in addition, Iran does have intermediate range ballistic missiles known as the Shihab-3. Most recent reports are that the Iranian Revolutionary Guard has integrated a Chinese global positioning system that can accurately range 1400 kilometers. Iran would certainly use them if we conducted strikes, therefore the deployment of Patriot missiles is a clear sign the Bush Administration is positioning itself to strike Iran.