Bush threatens to confront Iran over alleged support for Iraqi insurgents

Bush is ramping up the rhetoric against Iran.

"Iran has long been a source of trouble in the region," he said." Iran's active pursuit of technology that could lead to nuclear weapons threatens to put a region already known for instability and violence under the shadow of a nuclear holocaust."

The blunt terms in which Mr Bush portrayed the Iranian threat, and his threat of military confrontation with Tehran involving US troops based in Iraq, elevated the tense standoff between Washington and Tehran to a new level.

The speech also contained the implicit desire on Mr Bush's part for regime change, calling for "an Iran whose government is accountable to its people, instead of to leaders who promote terror and pursue the technology that could be used to develop nuclear weapons".

However, in a sign of the weakness of the American position vis a vis the Middle East, Ahmadinejad has given his response, and it was a bold one.

Mr Ahmadinejad said US influence in the region was collapsing so fast that a power vacuum would soon be created. "Of course, we are prepared to fill the gap," he said.

Though the Iranian president said he backed the leadership of the Iraqi prime minister, Nuri al-Maliki, and welcomed the involvement of Saudi Arabia, his offer to occupy the space the Americans might leave behind is unlikely to cool emotions in Washington.

Ahmadinejad is a hot head, and he may come to regret those words, which are sure to enrage the Cheney's of this world and tempt them, in their extreme impotence, to hit out through air strikes.

But it is a sign of the loss of US power in the region since the botched invasion that Ahmadinejad feels he can shrug off such US threats.

He (Amadinejad) went on to deride the possibility of the US pursuing military action in Iran, saying it was in no position to do so.

The more Bush is cornered, with even Republicans starting to turn against his war in Iraq, the more I worry about what he is going to do next.

Mr Bush's bullish talk of his determination to "take the fight to the enemy" in the carefully choreographed setting of a veterans' convention in Reno, Nevada, was the second of a two-part appeal by him to shore up public support for his flagging strategy on Iraq. In the first speech, made last week, he invoked Vietnam to argue that quitting Iraq now could put the lives of millions of innocent civilians at risk.

Mr Bush yesterday vowed to persevere with his controversial military policy in Iraq, insisting that political and security progress was being made, despite a rising tide of dissent even from high up within his Republican party.

"Our strategy is this: every day we work to protect the American people. We will fight them over there so that we don't have to fight them in the United States of America," he said.

The idea that Sunni and Shia insurgents would cross an ocean to fight on US soil is absurd on it's face and is a further indication of the corner Bush now finds himself in.

However, as support for the Iraq war hemorrhages away - even amongst Republicans - Bush is moving towards ever more extreme positions. Dear God, he's even invoked Vietnam, suggesting that the US were wrong to disengage from that war.

And now he is focusing his attention on Iran, making ever more threatening noises.

The worst President in the history of the United States is looking for a way out of the corner into which he has pinned himself. All reasonable people should be very nervous at this point.

There's no knowing what he's going to do now...

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