{"id":471,"date":"2007-07-02T14:44:50","date_gmt":"2007-07-02T18:44:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/2007\/07\/02\/so-lets-start-in-with-iran-already\/"},"modified":"2007-07-02T19:11:14","modified_gmt":"2007-07-02T23:11:14","slug":"so-lets-start-in-with-iran-already","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=471","title":{"rendered":"So let&#8217;s start in with Iran, already"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Everywhere I look, I see reasons to use military\u00c2\u00a0force inside of Iran. For months now we&#8217;ve heard about the advanced conventional weaponry manufactured in Iran to use against US forces in Iraq. Now <a href=\"http:\/\/www.iht.com\/articles\/2007\/07\/02\/news\/iraq.php\" target=\"_blank\">today I read<\/a> that some Hezbollah doofus has been scooped up in Iraq while he was taking part in a direct-action operation directed and funded by Iranians;<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Ali Mussa Dakdouk, accused of being a senior Lebanese Hezbollah operative, was captured March 20 in southern Iraq, Brigadier General Kevin Bergner, a U.S. military spokesman, said. Dakdouk was &#8220;working in Iraq as a surrogate for the Iranian Quds Force,&#8221; organizing militants into cells for attacks on U.S. and Iraqi forces, Bergner said.<\/p>\n<p>He also said that Dakdouk was a liaison between the Iranians and a breakaway Shiite militant cell led by Qais al-Kazaali, a former spokesman for the cleric Moktada al-Sadr.<\/p>\n<p>Bergner said Kazaali&#8217;s group attacked a provincial government building in Karbala in January and that the Iranians assisted in the attack preparations. Khazaali and his brother, Leith al-Khazaali, were captured with Dakdouk.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>How much more proof do we need that we are currently at war with Iran? Well here&#8217;s some more proof from the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/wp-dyn\/content\/article\/2007\/07\/02\/AR2007070200174.html?hpid=topnews\" target=\"_blank\">Washington Post<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0(in case you&#8217;re not convinced yet),\u00c2\u00a0which summarizes a briefing to journalists from a military spokesman;<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>While U.S. officials have repeatedly alleged that sophisticated Iranian-made weapons are killing Americans in Iraq, and that the Quds force is complicit in the violence, today&#8217;s briefing offered the most specific accusations to date of direct Iranian involvement in specific attacks against U.S. forces.<\/p>\n<p>The general also drew a new link with Hezbollah, saying an operative arrested in March had spent the previous 10 months worked with the Quds force to train Iraqis after years of commanding a Hezbollah special operations group.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The Iranian Quds force is using Lebanese Hezbollah essentially as a proxy, as a surrogate in Iraq,&#8221; Bergner said. &#8220;Our intelligence reveals that senior leadership in Iran is aware of this activity.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Bergner&#8217;s briefing for reporters in Baghdad emphasized a Jan. 20 attack on a provincial government compound in the southern city of Karbala, where gunmen wearing American-style uniforms and driving sport utility vehicles breached the compound and killed five U.S. soldiers.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>And of course the <a href=\"http:\/\/news.yahoo.com\/s\/ap\/20070702\/ap_on_re_mi_ea\/iraq;_ylt=ApI1kTiDywIPxreHNxYZkYlbbBAF\" target=\"_blank\">Iranians deny involvement<\/a>;<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Iran has denied past claims that it was backing Iraqi militants \u00e2\u20ac\u201d including accusations that it was providing them with a particularly deadly type of roadside bomb, the explosively formed penetrator. Its ally Hezbollah has denied having any role in <span id=\"lw_1183404282_3\" style=\"cursor: hand; border-bottom: #0066cc 1px dashed\">Iraq<\/span>, saying it operates only in <span id=\"lw_1183404282_4\" style=\"cursor: hand; border-bottom: #0066cc 1px dashed\">Lebanon<\/span>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>So despite the fact that we capture Hezbollah chieftains in Iraq, they&#8217;re not operating there. That makes perfect sense to me. Southern Iraq must be where they rest and recuperate in the off season.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>And then, we read from the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.breitbart.com\/article.php?id=D8Q4JQN80&#038;show_article=1\" target=\"_blank\">Associated Press<\/a>, that Putin and the President both agree that something needs to be done about Iran&#8217;s nuclear program;<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>President Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin projected a united front Monday against Iran&#8217;s suspected nuclear weapons program.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;When Russia and the United States speak along the same lines, it tends to have an effect and therefore I appreciate the Russians&#8217; attitude in the United Nations,&#8221; Bush said. &#8220;We&#8217;re close on recognizing that we got to work together to send a common message.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Putin predicted that &#8220;we will continue to be successful&#8221; as they work through the U.N. Security Council.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Oh, and did I mention that there are at least <a href=\"http:\/\/ca.news.yahoo.com\/s\/reuters\/070523\/us\/usreport_iran_usa_soros_dc\" target=\"_blank\">four American citizens being held hostage<\/a> in Iran to forestall economic sanctions against the rogue nation? I say at least four because there&#8217;s a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/news\/washington\/2007-04-02-missing-iran_N.htm?csp=34\" target=\"_blank\">former\u00c2\u00a0FBI agent missing over there<\/a> somewhere whom the Iranian government may or may not be holding.<\/p>\n<p>Iran has been begging for an airstrike for decades, and now is the time to do it. They&#8217;ve declared war on us almost every morning since 1979, they&#8217;ve walked over us, they&#8217;ve walked over our allies &#8211; because they know they can get away with it with no repercussions. It&#8217;s time to deal them a blow. And one good stiff air strike would rock the entire terrorist community back on their heels for a minute &#8211; probably exposing themselves and their cells in the ensuing\u00c2\u00a0flurry of activity to deal their own counter-blow.<\/p>\n<p>Fourth of July would be nice.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.blackfive.net\/main\/2007\/07\/can-we-bomb-the.html\" target=\"_blank\">Blackfive<\/a> asks Can We Bomb Iranian Camps and Military Now?<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/crotchetyoldbastard.com\/blog\/2007\/07\/this_must_stop.html\">Crotchety Old Bastard<\/a> finds Iran&#8217;s fingerprints on the Taliban, too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Everywhere I look, I see reasons to use military\u00c2\u00a0force inside of Iran. For months now we&#8217;ve &hellip; <a title=\"So let&#8217;s start in with Iran, already\" class=\"hm-read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=471\"><span class=\"screen-reader-text\">So let&#8217;s start in with Iran, already<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,5,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-471","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-foreign-policy","category-politics","category-terror-war"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=471"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=471"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=471"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=471"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}