They just got a different tool to use than we do: They kill innocent lives to achieve objectives. That's what they do. And they're good. They get on the TV screens and they get people to ask questions about, well, you know, this, that or the other. I mean, they're able to kind of say to people: Don't come and bother us, because we will kill you. Bush - Joint News Conference with Blair - 28 July '06

Sunday, August 07, 2005

Iranian influence in Iraq only speculation - UK general

Reuters: The British general commanding multinational troops in southeastern Iraq said on Friday that worries about Iranian influence in Iraq appeared to be based largely on speculation, not facts.

The comment to Pentagon reporters by British Royal Marines Maj. Gen. J.B. Dutton came as senior U.S. officials continued to charge that Tehran's government was actively trying to sidetrack Baghdad's fledging democracy.

"The question of Iranian involvement is always a difficult one because there's a lot of speculation about it and not many facts," Dutton said in a teleconference interview from his Basra headquarters in southern Iraq. Read more

db: Juan Cole at Informed Comment points to this item which, spin-free, contrasts with the increasingly alarmist reports coming out of the US concerning Iranian influence in Iraq.