The real purpose of George Bush's Middle East trip

If you think that George W. Bush went to the Middle East to try to get the Israelis and the Palestinians to make nice, guess again. This lunatic is going to have his war against Iran come hell or high water:

U.S. President George W. Bush said on Sunday that Iran was threatening security around the world by backing "extremists" and urged its Gulf Arab allies to "confront this danger before it is too late".

Speaking in Abu Dhabi, the third stop of his tour of Arab allies, Bush said that Shi'ite Muslim Iran was the world's number one sponsor of terrorism and accused it of undermining peace by supporting the Hezbollah guerrilla group in Lebanon, Palestinian Islamist group Hamas and Shi'ite militants in Iraq.

"Iran's actions threaten the security of nations everywhere. So the United States is strengthening our longstanding security commitments with our friends in the Gulf and rallying friends around the world to confront this danger before it is too late," he said in his keynote speech which, with the auditorium two-thirds full, received only polite applause at the end.

"Iran is today the world's leading state sponsor of terror. It sends hundreds of millions of dollars to extremists around the world while its own people face repression and economic hardship at home."

Returning to familiar themes that have been at the core of Bush's approach during seven years in the White House, the president praised democratisation efforts in the Arab world, but acknowledged "some setbacks". He did not name any country but cited arrests of political opponents.

Earlier in the day, Bush visited the U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet in Bahrain amid new tensions with Iran over an incident in which Washington says its ships were harassed in the Strait of Hormuz.

The United States says Iranian boats threatened its warships on Jan. 6 along the vital route for crude oil shipments from the world's biggest producing region.


'DEADLY SERIOUSLY'

Vice Admiral Kevin Cosgriff, commander of the Fifth Fleet, made it clear to Bush his forces took the incident "deadly seriously," White House spokeswoman Dana Perino told reporters.

"All of the people in the military remember what's happened in the past such as the USS Cole," she said, referring to the attack on the U.S. warship in Yemen in 2000 using a boat packed with explosives.

During a stop in Israel at the start of his Middle East trip last week, Bush warned Iran of "serious consequences" if it attacked U.S. ships and said all options were on the table.