From Cambodia to Iran

Stephen Zunes annotates -- in some detail -- the president's speech at Foreign Policy in Focus .  Here's what he has to say about the supposed basis for an attack on Iran:

President Bush: “Succeeding in Iraq also requires defending its territorial integrity—and stabilizing the region in the face of the extremist challenge. This begins with addressing Iran and Syria. These two regimes are allowing terrorists and insurgents to use their territory to move in and out of Iraq. Iran is providing material support for attacks on American troops. We will disrupt the attacks on our forces. We will interrupt the flow of support from Iran and Syria. And we will seek out and destroy the networks providing advanced weaponry and training to our enemies in Iraq.”

Stephen Zunes: The idea that the Shiite government of Iran is providing material support for the insurgency against U.S. forces is ludicrous. It is apparently yet another of a series of false allegations leveled by the administration against Iran as part of an effort to justify possible future military action against that country. What Iran has done, however, is to actively support Shiite militias within the Iraqi government. For example, Iraqi Interior Minister Bayan Jabr was trained by Iran's infamous Revolutionary Guards and later served as a leader of the Badr Brigade, the militia of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq . Americans have also trained Interior Ministry police and commandoes and has effectively allied with Iran in supporting Shiite extremists in an effort to suppress Sunni insurgents. In other words, Iran is not backing the insurgency fighting U.S. forces but is backing elements of the same government supported by the United States.

Claims of active Syrian support for the insurgents are also grossly exaggerated. The ruling Baath party of Syria long opposed what have become the two main elements of the insurgency: Saddam's Iraqi wing of the Baath party and the radical Sunni Islamist groups (which have also challenged the regime in Damascus ). While foreign fighters supporting the insurgency have slipped through the long poorly demarcated desert border between the two countries, the Bush administration has not presented any convincing evidence that the Syrian government is actively encouraging or facilitating such activity. By promising to “seek out and destroy” those allegedly supporting the insurgency, President Bush may be preparing a pretext to expand the war into neighboring countries, as previous presidents expanded the Vietnam War to Laos and Cambodia.

Meanwhile, the Bush administration has rejected the Baker Commission's key recommendation to engage diplomatically with Syria and Iran in order to help stabilize the region.