Sometimes I hate it when Seth is right. Don Rumsfeld took a few minutes out of his busy schedule to confirm, as Seth and my boss have suggested, that Syria will be our next target in this increasingly frightening international escalation:
"Rumsfeld said that equipment including night vision goggles had passed through Syria and that Tehran-backed Iraqi rebels had been seen crossing the border from Iraq.
"We don't want neighboring countries or anyone else for that matter to be in there assisting Iraqi forces," the defense secretary told a press briefing.
Rumsfeld said the United States had information that "shipments of military supplies have been crossing the border from Syria into Iraq, including the goggles.
"These deliveries pose a direct threat to the lives of coalition forces. We consider such trafficking as hostile acts and will hold the Syrian government accountable for such shipments," he warned.
Rumsfeld declined to say whether the Syrian government was behind the shipments, but stressed: "They control their border. We're hopeful that kind of thing does not happen again." (Source: AFP)
On a brighter note, we watched a great Iranian film called Secret Ballot this week. An idealistic young Iranian woman is dispatched to a desert island to collect votes from the locals who have mixed reactions to her presence. I haven't seen any other piece that so effectively conveys the varied sentiments of the middle east's diverse population towards government and democracy. Available at Vulcan Video (29th St).