Target Iran: where's Harper?

The hawks have changed tack in the past few weeks because their first gambit — trying to scare Americans with images of Iranian nuclear weapons — wasn't working. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that it is the U.S. and Israel who pose a nuclear threat to Iran, not the other way round.

The new tack is to crank up American anger by tying the Iranian government directly to the deaths of American soldiers by claiming that the war's most deadly IEDs are being supplied by official Iran.

The problem with this theme is that it is on equally shaky ground. Iran has no strategic interest in seeking to destabilize Iraq. In fact, the Iranian government supports the same two powerful Shia institutions currently backed by the U.S. government: the Supreme Islamic Council of Iran and the Dawa Party of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.

Iran has excellent diplomatic relations with the al-Maliki government. This may explain why the U.S. has had such difficulty in coming up with even a shred of hard evidence for its claims. There is none.