...and will not hesitate to get involved in some fashion if things don't go their way...

This could get very, very nasty indeed...

So glad Lt AWOL created this whole mess in the first place...

I still remember that Iraq/ Iran war. I keep wondering if Kerry or somebody is talking to them. What happened to the talks? I would imagine there is an ongoing dialog still going on. It has gotten very quiet on that front.
Still remember McGramps singing BOMB Bomb Bomb Iran. What do the Israelis think of all of this?

Possible cataclysmic shift in re-alliances?

The myopia of the bush bunch was staggering.

It would make a whole lot of sense to Iran.

http://online.wsj.com/articles/iran-deploys-forces-to-fight-al-qaeda-inspired-militants-in-iraq-iranian-security-sources-1402592470

Iran Deploys Forces to Fight al Qaeda-Inspired Militants in Iraq
Iranian Revolutionary Guard Forces Helped Iraqi Troops Win Back Control of Most of Tikrit, the Sources Said

June 12, 2014 1:05 p.m. ET
BEIRUT, Lebanon—Iran deployed Revolutionary Guard forces to fight in Iraq, helping government troops there wrest back control of most of the city of Tikrit from militants, Iranian security sources said.

Two battalions of the Quds Forces, the overseas branch of Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps that has long operated in Iraq, came to the aid of the besieged, Shiite-dominated government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, they said.

Combined Iraqi-Iranian forces retook control of 85% of Tikrit, the birthplace of former dictator Saddam Hussein, according to Iraqi and Iranian security sources.

They were helping guard the capital Baghdad and the two Shiite holy cities of Najaf and Karbala, which have been threatened by the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham, an al Qaeda offshoot. The Sunni militant group's lightning offensive has thrown Iraq into its worse turmoil since the sectarian fighting that followed the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.

Shiite Iran has also positioned troops along its border with Iraq and promised to bomb rebel forces if they come within 100 kilometers, or 62 miles, of Iran's border, according to an Iranian army general.

<snip>

http://online.wsj.com/articles/iran-deploys-forces-to-fight-al-qaeda-inspired-militants-in-iraq-iranian-security-sources-1402592470

An ISIS spokesman, Abu Mohamad al-Adnani, urged the group's Sunni fighters to march toward the "filth-ridden" Karbala and "the city of polytheism" Najaf, where they would "settle their differences" with Mr. Maliki.

That coarsely worded threat further vindicates Iran's view that the fight unfolding in Iraq is an existential sectarian battle between the two rival sects of Islam-Sunni and Shiite—and by default a proxy battle between their patrons Saudi Arabia and Iran.

"Until now we haven't received any requests for help from Iraq. Iraq's army is certainly capable in handling this," Iran's Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Marzieh Afgham said Wednesday.

Despite those assuring comments, measures by the Iranian government in the past day indicated that an air of crisis had enveloped Tehran. Iran's army and border guards have been placed under full alert along the country's long border with Iraq, Iranian media reported.

And it's getting bizarre: I think we're going to end up on the same side of this conflict as the Syria-Iraq-Iran axis. Helping Iraq fend off ISIS, while at the same time, our Syria policy of bleeding Assad only strengthens them.

the reason ISIS is taking cities is because sunni's in the Iraqi army have been fleeing en-masse and letting ISIS take control, not because ISIS an unstoppable juggernaut.

i wish when then use the word ISIS to stand for a terrorist group they would spell it like this I.S.I.S. my Goddess is not a terrorist. She is the great Mother Goddess and believes in love and caring. i would be upset if they use the word Jesus to stand for a terrorist group. it may sound silly to some but my Goddess is so very special to me.

That won't go over well in Riyadh.

I fully expect the Iranians to come across the border. They will go south to the border with Saudi Arabia and west to reduce the distance to Israel, then north to link up with Syrian gov't forces.

Our using any armaments or forces there makes about as much sense as China getting involved in the European wars that erupted from the Catholic-Protestant split five hundred or so years ago.