Iran

…President Obama and John Kerry have just given the green light to Islamic terrorists and their state supporters — which is what Iran is — to do as they wish with our men and women if captured. Since Obama has told the global Islamic jihad we are not at war, and combat operations have ended, then this statement means they are not bound by the Geneva Convention – as if they would care anyway.

I must ask the repeated rhetorical question, on whose side are Obama and Kerry? …

Ten sailors and two boats were taken into Iranian custody Tuesday after their patrol boats drifted into Iranian-claimed waters, according to two defense officials.

The riverine sailors are believed to have drifted into Iranian territory after having mechanical issues with their boats. The defense officials said Secretary of State John Kerry was immediately involved and Iran has agreed to turn the sailors and vessels over, though they have not been turned over as of 4 p.m., Eastern Standard Time.…

…That said, it is impossible to return to Iraq without a keen sense of opportunities lost. These include the mistakes we, the U.S., made here, and likewise the mistakes the Iraqis themselves have made. This includes the squandering of so much of what we and our coalition and Iraqi partners paid such a heavy cost to achieve, the continuing failure of Iraq's political leaders to solve longstanding political disputes, and the exploitation of these failures by extremists on both sides of the sectarian and ethnic divides.

Having said that, my sense is that the situation in Iraq today is, to repeat a phrase I used on the eve of the surge, hard but not hopeless. I believe that a reasonable outcome here is still achievable, although it will be up to all of us— Iraqis, Americans, leaders in the region and leaders of the coalition countries — to work together to achieve it. …

I think Iraq and the coalition forces are making considerable progress against the Islamic State. In fact, I would argue that the foremost threat to Iraq’s long-term stability and the broader regional equilibrium is not the Islamic State; rather, it is Shiite militias, many backed by — and some guided by — Iran.

[Emphasis added]

That said, many in Iran worry what would be on the other side of regime change. They fear Iran devolving into an Iraq, or Syria: a precarious state, plagued by sectarian violence. “Better the devil you know than the devils you don’t,” the small business owner said. “At least this is a system we know how to game.”

The top U.S. military commander in Iraq on Tuesday accused Iran of continuing to support and train militants who are carrying out attacks, including most of the ones in Baghdad... made the comments just after the U.S. relinquished security for Baghdad and other urban areas to Iraqi forces...

The Iranian regime has appointed one of its most feared prosecutors to interrogate reformists arrested during demonstrations, prompting fears of a brutal crackdown against dissent.... [As opposed to what's been happening already???]

It is Khamenei who has the ultimate responsibility for the apparent decision to skew Iran's presidential election in favor of his preferred candidate Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and for unleashing the security forces that have killed at least 17 Iranians protesting the outcome in the past week, sending Iran into its greatest political crisis in 30 years. Khamenei is preserving his vision, say analysts, of what the Islamic Republic should look like in the short term by denying the popular will. But he has taken that step, they say, at a cost so great to his own image and to that of the office he occupies that the Islamic Republic is unlikely to be the same again. ...

Iran's hardline Islamic Basij militiamen killed at least one person on Monday and wounded more when their building was attacked by demonstrators protesting an election they say was stolen

The United States and Iraq on Saturday dismissed fears a rash of bloody bombings could tip Iraq back into all-out sectarian war, while Iran said Washington was to blame for the attacks on Shi'ite Muslims. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, visiting Baghdad after bomb blasts that killed 150 people in two days, rejected the charge from Tehran.