Bachmann on Iran
GOP Rep. Michele Bachmann appears to be backing away from her earlier comments on Iran. The 6th District Congresswoman told St. Cloud Times reporter Lawrence Schumacher earlier this month that Iran had a plan to partition Iraq. Schumacher posted the podcast but it didn't really surface with the MSM (which includes me by the way) until The Big Question posted it today. MPR and AP also have stories out there.
Bachmann's spokeswoman declined an interview request. She released this statement:
Bachmann Responds to Misconstrued Coverage of Iran Statement
(Woodbury, Minnesota) - Congresswoman Michele Bachmann released the following statement this afternoon:
"I am sorry if my words have been misconstrued, but it is well known that Iraq is a conglomeration of many groups of people that emerged out of European colonialization. The three primary sects in Iraq are Kurds, Sunnis and Shi'a, and the idea that Iraq might be partitioned into three distinct entities - Kurdish, Shiite and Sunni - has been intermittently considered since the beginning of the Iraq war in 2003. One of the reasons that this never became policy is because the Shi'a and the Kurds had larger states that many believed would have engulfed them, either peacefully or by force - Turkey in the case of the Kurds, and Iran in the case of the Shi'a.
"In the case of Iran, there are multiple reasons to believe they would seek to expand their territory to include Shi'a Iraq - namely, their natural cultural ties, the long history of Iran and Iraq wars, and regional security. A fourth and powerful reason is that success in Iraq for the West could threaten the future of the current Iranian leadership and its Islamic Revolution. There is already a strong antagonism against the ruling regime in Iran and a successful, democratic Iraq could pose trouble for Iran.
"Although it is difficult to ascertain Iran's intentions toward Iraq, they are clearly not in the U.S. interest - for example, the Iranian weapons that have fallen into the hands of insurgents. If Iran is allowed to freely operate in Iraq and continues to thwart the U.S. and the Iraqi government, then we may very well see a de facto partition in which the western Anbar province continues to house and develop terrorists."
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