so long mr schwartz, i suspect that we are not for long in this world. it was nice reading your blog.

Some might see this, particularly in context of last night's BushCo communique, as opening the war with Iran. I particularly liked the part where the article edited out this, which the German version retains:

"Meanwhile, a source close to the Kurdistani government said the administration was unaware of the US plans to raid the Iranian consulate and didn't know the purpose of the operation.

After raiding the consulate, the US forces headed for Eikawa district, which hosts foreign companies and countries' representatives. Security forces of the Democratic Party of Kurdistan (KDP) reportedly surrounded three US military vehicles to prevent them from further action."

Wadda ya gettin so worked up about? The multinational forces (heh heh) only "detained" those Iranian intruders on sacred Iraqi soil.
All verbs with "tain" are OK with America: detain, retain, obtain, maintain, contain (as when we contained creeping Communism) and most of all,plain old tain, as in tain gonna rain no more...
For a democratic Iraq and a multinational Endsieg.

Nothing like an old-fashioned provocation. How long will it be before US planes start straying into Iranian airspace?

"How long will it be before US planes start straying into Iranian airspace?"

Start?

Uh, this picture is of the AMERICAN hostages taken in Teheran in 1979 after our embassy was stormed by "students".

What Marcus said. In fact, we almost certainly have actual troops sneaking around in Iran in addition to the planes flying overhead.

Of course, it's all in self-defense. God knows if Iran were doing the same thing to us we'd understand it was all in self-defense for them. That's the way we are: we always insist on a uniform standard that applies to everyone.

Time for us all to start studying up on the Gleiwitz Incident:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gleiwitz_incident

On the hopeful side, maybe we don't have enough operatives who can pose as Iranians, since we kicked the Farsi speakers out of the military for being gay (one looks for optimism where one can).

If Irbil (Erbil? Arbil? depending on what you read) is Gleiwitz (Gliwice?), who are the Germans and who are the Poles?

(Nice, Gerry. Very dry.)

The embassy hostages resonance is interesting but I'm more reminded of the deliberate provocations prior to the invasion of Panama, attempts to goad a response that would pass for a casus belli.

Apparently it's true that if they're stupid enough to try and take out Sadr, they're stupid enough to attack Iran. Hold on to yer butts.

I don't think Irbil is Gleiwitz, but I fear there may be plans in the works. If you think only the Nazis came up with this kind of stuff, there is also:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Northwoods
(more generally, the "false flag" entry at wikipedia is interesting).

Having said that, I should say I'm not normally a conspiracy buff, and I don't really think another "Operations Northwoods" is Bush's master plan, but if there is even a chance that this is so, the implications would be so great that it has to be stopped before it can start. Once the "provocations" from Iran start, I don't trust that there is enough wisdom in Iran or the US to stop the march towards war.

Marcus & Jonathan-
Go on and pull the other one. Next thing you'll tell me is that the US is funding the terrorist Mujahadeen Al Khalq.