Iran Stoking the Fire

Iranian madman President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, whose speechwriter must have been off that day, decided to add this gem to the argument between Israel and Hezbollah:

"The Zionists think that they are victims of Hitler, but they act like Hitler and behave worse than Genghis Khan"

And so's your mother! Ahmadinejad's rantings have become so comical it's really hard to take him seriously anymore. However crazy he might be, members of his government are making some serious threats should Israel carry the fight to Syria:

"We hope the Zionist regime does not make the mistake of attacking Syria. Expanding the front of aggression and attacks ... will definitely face the Zionist regime with unimaginable damages," (Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza )Asefi said.

While the Iranians have tried to deny any involvement in Lebanon, the rest of the world isn't buying it. President Bush stated in an interview with Newsweek that he believes the Iranians are playing a big role in the conflict:

In an exclusive interview with NEWSWEEK's Richard Wolffe, President George W. Bush said he thinks those suspicions are legitimate: "There's a lot of people who believe that the Iranians are trying to exert more and more influence over the entire region and the use of Hizbullah is to create more chaos to advance their strategy." He called that "a theory that's got some legs to it as far as I'm concerned."

One aim of "those who perpetuate violence," said Bush, would be to disrupt the international consensus against Iran's nuclear-enrichment program. Hizbullah launched its attack on Israel the same day that foreign ministers from the permanent members of the United Nations Security Council and Germany agreed to push ahead with demands that Iran suspend its nuclear efforts. The second part of the Iranian strategy, Bush suggested, would be to "create conditions such that moderate governments tend to step back in fear, and the vacuum would then be filled by the proponents of an aggressive ideology."

Meanwhile the rocket attacks from Lebanon continue, claiming 8 fatalities in the Israeli port city of Haifa. At this point there's certainly no reason for Israel to pull back, and I can imagine they'll keep dismantling Hezbollah, and if necessary, all of Lebanon, until the attacks stop and they get their soldiers back.