President Bush accused Democrats yesterday of aiding the enemy in Iraq as a Senate bill calling for a troop withdrawal by next March appeared to be headed for passage.

With the vote expected today, Bush reiterated he will veto any bills that set a timetable for withdrawal.

The United Nations hit Iran with sanctions over the weekend to try and stop its nuclear program while Washington and London blame Iran for backing insurgents battling their forces in Iraq. Now Britain seeks international help to isolate Iran in a standoff over Irans capture of 15 military personnel and has gone to the UN. In response, Iran has now refused to release the female sailor as had been promised.

“This is not just a UK-Iran spat. This is Iran facing down a good deal of the international community,” the British government source said.

Britain published proof the Royal Navy sailors and marines were captured within Iraqi waters.

Teheran angered many in Britain by releasing video of the only woman crew member captured. Britain said parading the female sailor and other captured British personnel was completely unacceptable and it fears the sailors may have been coerced into appearing, and in Teheran, a small group of demonstrators outside the foreign ministry called for the sailors to be executed as spies.

The prisoners are legally Prisoners Of War and their public display and the letters are open violations of International Law. This is a clear Act of War.

The United States has called Iran’s behaviour ”reprehensible” and “odious”.

Okay, now let’s break all this down. Bush’s rhetoric, essentially calling all Democrats traitors, is not helpful but more than that, it’s a sign of his growing desparation that he would say something so grossly undiplomatic. Why is he desparate? After all, calling for a withdrawal one year from now doesn’t seem unreasonable. It is a civil war over there. The Iraqi Shiite police just got through joining in with a bunch of militants to go house to house killing Sunni men. The sectarian war rages on. Why then is he desparate?

Because the plan was, as I’ve repeatedly pointed out, to establish bases in Iraq to replace the ones Bush Senior got us booted out of in Saudi Arabia by attempting to vastly enlarge the areas they’d allowed us. There never was a timetable for withdrawal from Iraq because there is no intention to. Ever. We currently have 14 permanent bases in Iraq, which is the biggest oil plum imaginable.

Because Bush never once squared with the American public about the Plan and instead created a false scenario as an excuse for the invasion, he now finds himself unable to get honest and it’s hard to say which way the fallout would drop if he did so. So he’s stuck with refusing to budge and has been prodding Iran to give him an excuse to attack them with the support of the American people. Iran sees this maneuver and has been careful not to fall into the trap.

In Iran, there is a conflict between the religious zealots, the ayatollahs and imams, and a more moderate political base. It appears that the British sailor abduction was originally done to repress the Brits from inspecting cargoes but has escalated under the orders of the ayatollahs. The moderates see what’s coming and want the sailors released but the zealots want to push this to the limit and they are very likely creating the exact excuse Bush needs to attack Iran alongside the British and possibly the Israelis.

If Bush wants to keep this war going until at least the end of his tenure, he has no choice now but to expand it. I don’t think Congress will let it be otherwise.

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