We Need U.S. Troops to Stay in Iraq to Fight Iran: New U.S. 'Defense' Secretary
Submitted on July 12, 2011
By PATRICK COCKBURN - July 12, 2011
The United States could take unilateral military action against Shia militias armed by Iran if they continued to attack US troops, Leon Panetta, the new US Defense Secretary, said on a visit to Iraq yesterday. The threat marks an escalation in the long-running battle for influence in Iraq between Washington and Tehran that has gone on since the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003.
