While the Washington political world is engrossed with the U.S. Attorneys firing scandal, which is more a scandal about the Attorney General's incompetence than anything else, on the other side of the world the cold war between Iran and the U.S. (and our allies) continues to build. As I mentioned on Larry Kudlow's radio show over the weekend, the Iranian regime is far less secure than is publicly understood in Europe and America.

The capture of 15 British servicemen is clearly an intentional provocation on the part of the Iranian dictatorship and is almost certainly tied to Iranian internal politics. It is also not coincidental that this action was timed alongside the most recent UN Security Council action on Iran. In fact, it's very similar to the Hizbullah provocation last summer that sparked Israel's brief incursion into Lebanon, which also happened to coincide with Security Council action on Iran.

Dr. Whalid Phares had a very good analysis of the situation yesterday on RealClearPolitics:

The capture of British Navy servicemen by Iranian forces is not simply an incident over sea sovereignty in the Persian Gulf. It is a calculated move on behalf of Teheran's Jihadi chess players to provoke a "projected" counter move by London and its American allies. It is all happening in a regional context, carefully engineered by the Mullahs strategic planners.

He listed three possible reasons for Tehran's provocation:

1.) Iran's domestic front is putting pressure on the Ahmedinijad regime.

2.) The regime "needs" an external clash to crush the domestic challenge.

3.) The regime plan is to drag its opponents into a trap.

Dr. Phares concluded:

The "War room" in Tehran has engaged itself in an alley of tactical moves it feels it can control. But the Iranian regime, with all its "political chess" expertise, may find itself in a precarious and risky situation. For while it feel that it can control the tactical battlefield in the region and fuel the propaganda pressure inside the West with its Petro-dollars, it may not be able to contain the internal forces in Iran, because of which it has decided to go on offense.

The Ahmedinijad regime wishes to crumble the international consensus to avoid the financial sanctions: that is true. But as important, if not more, it wants to be able to crush the revolt before it pounds the doors to the Mullahs palaces.

The US Attorney's fiasco (which in all likelihood will barely register a footnote in history) dominated the Sunday talk shows yesterday and in so doing provided further illustration of how the out-of-control partisan bickering in Washington continues to distract the nation's attention and collective will against the real enemy.

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