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Well, here's something interesting for you... I'm not sure if the allegations about Iran are true or not, but I can assure you 100% that as of Spring 2007, the US was prepared to send troops into Iran from Afghanistan. In fact, there was a troop mass-up on the western border of Afghanistan for exactly that reason... in areas that are not under US-led forces (but rather other coalition forces). Who knows what happened, but the troops were redisbursed into US-occupied areas about mid-summer.
If you want the next big war, look at Pakistan. With the new government working to appease the "wild west", aka the lawless border region with Afghanistan, they have been putting less pressure on the regional tribes, most of whom are pro-Taliban. A large spike of cross-border snatch and grabs of Afghan citizens known to be working with the US for the sake of execution on the Pakistan side of the border is making things rather uncomfortable in many eastern provinces. An example of this... look up news over the past year or so on Khost province. During the entirety of 2007 and early 2008, it was THE de facto model of the US counterinsurgency in Afghanistan. That status is rapidly falling apart, in great deal due to what I mentioned above. The locals are becoming alarmingly less willing to cooperate with US forces.
At any rate,1) the Iran thing almost escalated heavily and, 2) expect troops on ground in Pakistan before Bush leaves office.
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The prospect of achieving a peace agreement with the extremist group of MILF is almost impossible...
-- Emmanuel Pinol, Governor of Cotobato
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