Iran - Situation Update II

Another carrier strike group has been sent to the Persian Gulf for the purpose of "warning" Iran.

Keith Olbermann: "...the problem is this, no matter what the intentions of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, or Saddam Hussein before him, the Bush administration is providing scant evidence to support the claims, “The Los Angeles Times” reporting that journalists traveling with U.S. troops in Iraq have failed to see these extensive signs of Iranian involvement, a recent sweep through a stronghold of Sunni insurgents uncovering only a single Iranian weapon among dozens of arms caches, in addition, the newspaper reports, U.S. officials declining to provide documentation of seized Iranian ordinance, despite repeated requests to do so, the military often releasing photographs of other weapons finds."

Senator Clinton: "You know, our president will not talk to people he considers bad. Well, there are a lot of bad actors in the world, and you don‘t make peace with your friends. You‘ve got to deal with your enemies, your opponents, people whose interests diverge from yours.

Right now, we‘re flying blind when it comes to Iran. We don‘t have good intelligence about Iran, about, you know, what their real motivations are, who‘s calling the shots. The same with Syria. And I would immediately open a diplomatic track.

And I don‘t think we would lose. In fact, I think we would gain insight. I mean, if we have to take a firm stand against Iran to prevent it from obtaining nuclear weapons, let‘s get more information before we do that. Let‘s figure out, you know, what levers of power in their society we might be able to pull and push."

One of Iraq's top Shia politicians condemned the US arrest of several Iranians during recent raids.

Another thing that I believe should be noted concerns the Iranian people. While it is true that the leaders of Iran are quite possibly insane, the Iranian people are not. Nor are the Iranian people ignorant. It is vital to note that the Iranian Parliament has begun collecting signatures in order to impeach President Ahmadinejad. It is also important to note that more than 100 Iranian activists around the world have signed a document condemning the holocaust-deniers conventions held in Iran.