Well this should be real simple, since all the Iranians in Iraq run around with the word “IRANIAN” stamped on their forehead. So “aggressive new strategy” = “war with Iran.” Ok…..now I get it. Nevermind all the Sunni and Shiite militia death squads. Nevermind the democracy crap. Nevermind a better life for the Iraqis. It’s all about Iran now.

The Bush administration has authorized the U.S. military to kill or capture Iranian operatives inside Iraq as part of an aggressive new strategy to weaken Tehran’s influence across the Middle East and compel it to give up its nuclear program, according to government and counterterrorism officials with direct knowledge of the effort.

For more than a year, U.S. forces in Iraq have secretly detained dozens of suspected Iranian agents, holding them for three to four days at a time. The “catch and release” policy was designed to avoid escalating tensions with Iran and yet intimidate its emissaries. U.S. forces collected DNA samples from some of the Iranians without their knowledge, subjected others to retina scans, and fingerprinted and photographed all of them before letting them go.

Gen. Michael V. Hayden, the director of the CIA, told the Senate recently that the amount of Iranian’supplied materiel used against U.S. troops in Iraq “has been quite striking.” (By Lawrence Jackson — Associated Press)

Last summer, however, senior administration officials decided that a more confrontational approach was necessary, as Iran’s regional influence grew and U.S. efforts to isolate Tehran appeared to be failing. The country’s nuclear work was advancing, U.S. allies were resisting robust sanctions against the Tehran government, and Iran was aggravating sectarian violence in Iraq.

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