It’s getting harder and harder for people to dismiss the allegations that Iran is behind much of the bloodshed going on in Iraq against our troops:
The most deadly improvised explosive devices being used against U.S. soldiers in Iraq continue to come from Iran, and Iran continues to provide more tactical training, according to explosive experts working with the U.S. military.
The Iranian-made devices are known as EFPs, or Explosively Formed Projectiles. When exploded, the copper disc center becomes a molten liquid bullet that can penetrate the thickest armor the United States has.
Earlier this month, CIA Director General Michael Hayden told the Senate Select Intelligence Committee that the EFPs from Iran cause more casualties on an incident-for-incident basis than any other type of improvised explosive device.
"EFPs are coming from Iran. They are being used against our forces," said Hayden. "They are capable of defeating some of our heaviest armor."
ABC News first reported on the use of EFPs last March when U.S. officials told ABC News that they discovered the link to Iran via tell-tale manufacturing signatures — certain types of machine-shop welds and material indicating they are built by the same bomb factory.
"I think the evidence is strong that the Iranian government is making these IEDs, and the Iranian government is sending them across the border and they are killing U.S. troops once they get there," says Richard Clarke, former White House counterterrorism chief and an ABC News consultant.
U.S. intelligence officials say Iran is using the bombs as a way to drive up U.S. casualties in Iraq without provoking a direct confrontation, but a looming question remains. According to CIA Director Hayden and others, most of the EFPs are provided to the Shia militias, while it is the Sunnis who are responsible for many more U.S. deaths. Officials are now asking, could Iran be arming both sides of the sectarian violence?
Either way, Clarke says the evidence is clear that the Iranians know they are causing damage to the U.S.
"I think it’s very hard to escape the conclusion that, in all probability, the Iranian government is knowingly killing U.S. troops," said Clarke.
Notice the name of who said this. One Richard Clarke, a name every moonbat can woon over. IF he says it they must believe it right? Cough.
Then we have the ongoing investigation into who was behind that compound attack that killed five of our troops: (via The Fourth Rail)
On Friday, we reported that the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps’ Qods Force was very likely behind the attack on the Provincial Joint Coordination Center in Karbala, which resulted in the kidnapping and execution of four U.S. soldiers. Five soldiers total were killed in the operation, and three others wounded. We noted, based on multiple sources in the military and intelligence community, that the attack was far too sophisticated for Shia militias (particularly the Mahdi Army) and it was unlikely al-Qaeda in Iraq carried out the operation. We also noted the attack and kidnapping may have been revenge for the Baghdad and Irbil raids on Iranian diplomatic missions. Today, CNN is reporting the Pentagon is seriously investigating Iran’s involvement in the attack, and the Irbil raid was likely a motive for the Qods Force operation
This is an act of war I’m afraid. If this investigation checks out you can come to no other conclusion. I have no doubt that Bush will respond to this attack. But it may take sometime to shore up support. Earlier the Administration was set to brief the press on their evidence against Iran but they quickly cancelled it:
A plan by the Bush administration to release detailed and possibly damning specific evidence linking the Iranian government to efforts to destabilize Iraq have been put on hold, U.S. officials told FOX News.
Officials had said a "dossier" against Iran compiled by the U.S. likely would be made public at a press conference this week in Baghdad, and that the evidence would contain specifics including shipping documents, serial numbers, maps and other evidence which officials say would irrefutably link Iran to weapons shipments to Iraq.
Now, U.S. military officials say the decision to go public with the findings has been put on hold for several reasons, including concerns over the reaction from Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad — as well as inevitable follow-up questions that would be raised over what the U.S. should do about it.
I’m betting they cancelled due to this kind of idiocy:
Republican and Democratic senators warned Tuesday against a drift toward war with an emboldened Iran and suggested the Bush administration was missing a chance to engage its longtime adversary in potentially helpful talks over next-door Iraq.
"What I think many of us are concerned about is that we stumble into active hostilities with Iran without having aggressively pursued diplomatic approaches, without the American people understanding exactly what’s taking place," Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., told John Negroponte, who is in line to become the nation’s No. 2 diplomat as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s deputy.
Aggressively pursue diplomacy when Iran has executed five of our soldiers? Wow.
So the left is already in spin mode in which they will attempt to turn the lense back on America and Bush. I can see it now, "the evidence is all fabricated!"
Doesn’t matter that Iran’s stated goal has been the destruction of this country along with Israel. It doesn’t matter that Iran supplies terrorists in Iraq with explosives capable of getting through the heaviest armor we put into the field. None of that matters to the left. The only thing that matters is "peace at any cost".
And as Prager alluded to yesterday, peace at any cost actually creates less peace, and more destruction.
Some things are worth fighting for and if Iran sent agents into Iraq to kidnap and execute five of our soldiers you better damn well believe that is worth going to war over. If they are sending weapon into Iraq that are capable of defeating our armor you better believe it’s worth going to war over. Iran unchecked is a very dangerous Iran since they will not stop at just sending in small units and supplying our enemies weapons. Not by a long shot.
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