Posted by
on Monday, February 12, 2007 2:07:55 PM
Enough is enough. This is not the first time that we have been infomred that Iran is killing our soldiers and I demand that the US military do something about it.Senior U.S. military officials in Iraq sought Sunday to link Iran to deadly armor-piercing explosives and other weapons that they said are being used to kill U.S. and Iraqi troops with increasing regularity.
During a long-awaited presentation, held in Baghdad's fortified Green Zone, the officials displayed mortar shells, rocket-propelled grenades and a powerful cylindrical bomb, capable of blasting through an armored Humvee, that they said were manufactured in Iran and supplied to Shiite militias in Iraq for attacks on U.S. and Iraqi troops.
"Iran is a significant contributor to attacks on coalition forces, and also supports violence against the Iraqi security forces and the Iraqi people," said a senior defense official, who was joined by a defense analyst and an explosives expert, both also from the military.
The officials said they would speak only on the condition of anonymity, so the explosives expert and the analyst, who would normally not speak to the news media, could provide information directly. The analyst's exact title and full name were not revealed to reporters. The officials released a PowerPoint presentation including photographs of the weaponry, but did not allow media representatives to record, photograph or videotape the briefing or the materials on display.
An official at the Iranian Embassy in Baghdad called the U.S. accusations "fabricated" and "baseless."
"We deny such charges. We ask those who are claiming such evidence: Show the documents in public," said the official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity. "We cannot compensate for the American failure and fiasco in Iraq. . . . It is not our policy to be involved in any hostile operations against coalition forces here."
The U.S. officials said weapons were smuggled into the country by the Quds Force, an elite unit of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard that U.S. officials believe is under the control of Iran's supreme religious leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The officials in Baghdad said that Iranians recently detained in Iraq by U.S. forces belong to the Quds Force.
Our soldiers are getting killed and maimed in Iraq because of Iran's direct interference. They can deny it, but we have caught Iranians in Iraq delivering the product. It is time that we send a clear message to the Iranian regime that we will not tolerate this. I personally think it is time that the president presents what he has to Congress, and ask for a declaration of war. Do it now before this feckless meandering costs us more than just the troops being killed.
Ahmadinejad has promised nuclar surprises in April. Anyone care to speculate as to what they may be? We should hope that it is not an announcement that he has a working nuclear weapon. More than likely, it is a boast that his centrifuges are up and online, which does not make us too happy.
It is time we quit playing games with Iran. They cannot be reasoned with or negotiated with. It is time to start slipping special operations into Iran (if we are not doing it already) to help the dissident movement bring the regime to an end. Either that, or formally declare war on them, and take them out. They seem to like killing our soldiers. Let us see if they can withstand the casualty count we can inflict.
Marcie
UPDATE: Michelle Malkin has a round-up of othgers keeping an eye on this story, including Bill Roggio's report on Iranian involvement in Iraq. That includes this image of a mortar. The BBC has a slide show on the munitions found and revealed by US military briefers in Iraq.
Marcie