“The highest levels of the Iranian government”
U.S.-led forces in Iraq presented on Sunday what officials said was “a growing body” of evidence of Iranian weapons being used to kill their soldiers, as U.S. anger at Tehran’s alleged involvement in the war rises. A senior defense official from the U.S.-led Multinational Force in Baghdad told a briefing that 170 coalition forces had been killed by Iranian-made roadside bombs known as explosively formed penetrators (EFPs)…
“The weapons had characteristics unique to being manufactured in Iran … Iran is the only country in the region that produces these weapons,” the senior defense official said in Baghdad…”We assess these activities are coming from the highest levels of the Iranian government,” said one of the officials, a senior defense analyst, referring to the training and funding of Iraqi militant groups….
The U.S. officer said Iran was working through surrogates — mainly “rogue elements” of the Shiite Mahdi Army — to smuggle the EFPs into Iraq. He said most of the components are entering Iraq near Amarah, the Iranian border city of Meran, and the Basra area of southern Iraq….
the officer said that one of six Iranians detained in January in a raid on an office in the northern city of Irbil was the operational commander of the Quds Brigade, a unit of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards that trains and equips Shiite militants abroad. He was identified as Mohsin Chizari, who was apprehended after slipping back into Iraq after a 10-month absence, the officer said.
The Iranians were caught trying to flush documents down the toilet, he said. Bags of their hair were found during the raid, indicating they had tried to change their appearance, he added. He said the dates of manufacture on weapons found so far indicate they were made after fall of Saddam Hussein — mostly in 2006. He said the “machining” on the components was traceable to Iran but did not elaborate.
Raise or fold.
February 11th, 2007 at 12:03 pm
Raise or fold.
Indeed. And this time think it through.
1. If we hit the Iranian nuclear capability, what if we are unsuccessful? If we are successful, will that have the effect of consolidating an unpopular regime? How seriously can Iran retaliate without nukes? How will hostilities end, and what if they don’t?
2. If we remove the Iranian regime, what will happen with Islam within Iran and elsewhere? Will regime decapitation have the effect of giving a free hand to Saudi Wahabism? If so, what should we do?
3. Does all significant islamofascism spring from Iran and Arabia? Etc.
I support prosecution of the war with seriousness, vigor, and enlightened ruthlessness, but I am unqualified to answer the above questions.
Addressing such complexities is the province of a host of nicely compensated analysts and planners. The top war leadership should exercise oversight, choose among conflicting viewpoints, formulate and implement strategies, adjust to circumstances, manage public opinion, and accept responsibility.
The unlamented Michael Stanley Dukakis said there’s a Greek proverb that a fish rots from the head down.