On Monday Apr. 14, the French news agency (AFP) in a commentary from Crawford, Texas wrote the rationale for war in Iraq has morphed from ousting strongman Saddam Hussein to countering Al-Qaeda militants to its latest incarnation — facing down what officials in the administration of President George W. Bush call the Iranian “threat.”

“Iraq is the convergence point for two of the greatest threats to America in this new century: Al-Qaeda and Iran,” Bush said last week, renewing accusations that the Islamic republic is backing Iraqi militias hostile to US forces and covertly seeking nuclear weapons.

“Unchecked, the ’special groups’ pose the greatest long-term threat to the viability of a democratic Iraq,” Petraeus said last week as he told US lawmakers of military strategy in Iraq for the coming months.
However, exactly what steps the United States may take to counter this “threat” remain unclear, and depend largely on Bush’s decisions in his remaining nine months in the White House.

Bush told ABC News that he had no intention of attacking Iran, but vowed to protect US interests and refused to rule out the use of force altogether. “The message to the Iranians is: we will bring you to justice if you continue to try to infiltrate, send your agents or send surrogates to bring harm to our troops and/or the Iraqi citizens,” Bush said. Asked to elaborate on this “justice,” Bush replied: “It means capture or kill, is what that means.”