So let’s start in with Iran, already

Everywhere I look, I see reasons to use military force inside of Iran. For months now we’ve heard about the advanced conventional weaponry manufactured in Iran to use against US forces in Iraq. Now today I read 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;

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 “working in Iraq as a surrogate for the Iranian Quds Force,” organizing militants into cells for attacks on U.S. and Iraqi forces, Bergner said.

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.

Bergner said Kazaali’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.

How much more proof do we need that we are currently at war with Iran? Well here’s some more proof from the Washington Post (in case you’re not convinced yet), which summarizes a briefing to journalists from a military spokesman;

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’s briefing offered the most specific accusations to date of direct Iranian involvement in specific attacks against U.S. forces.

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.

“The Iranian Quds force is using Lebanese Hezbollah essentially as a proxy, as a surrogate in Iraq,” Bergner said. “Our intelligence reveals that senior leadership in Iran is aware of this activity.”

Bergner’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.

And of course the Iranians deny involvement;

Iran has denied past claims that it was backing Iraqi militants — 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 Iraq, saying it operates only in Lebanon.

So despite the fact that we capture Hezbollah chieftains in Iraq, they’re not operating there. That makes perfect sense to me. Southern Iraq must be where they rest and recuperate in the off season. 

And then, we read from the Associated Press, that Putin and the President both agree that something needs to be done about Iran’s nuclear program;

President Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin projected a united front Monday against Iran’s suspected nuclear weapons program.

“When Russia and the United States speak along the same lines, it tends to have an effect and therefore I appreciate the Russians’ attitude in the United Nations,” Bush said. “We’re close on recognizing that we got to work together to send a common message.”

Putin predicted that “we will continue to be successful” as they work through the U.N. Security Council.

Oh, and did I mention that there are at least four American citizens being held hostage in Iran to forestall economic sanctions against the rogue nation? I say at least four because there’s a former FBI agent missing over there somewhere whom the Iranian government may or may not be holding.

Iran has been begging for an airstrike for decades, and now is the time to do it. They’ve declared war on us almost every morning since 1979, they’ve walked over us, they’ve walked over our allies – because they know they can get away with it with no repercussions. It’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 – probably exposing themselves and their cells in the ensuing flurry of activity to deal their own counter-blow.

Fourth of July would be nice.

Blackfive asks Can We Bomb Iranian Camps and Military Now?

Crotchety Old Bastard finds Iran’s fingerprints on the Taliban, too.

Category: Foreign Policy, Politics, Terror War