For some time now, U.S. officials have suspected that the violence and instability in Iraq was being supported by Iran. In early March I wrote in this report that Pentagon officials were alarmed by the increasing lethality of the improvised explosive devices (IEDs) being used by Iraqi terrorists against U.S. soldiers and that there was evidence the improved IEDs were being manufactured in Iran. Yesterday, the New York Times reported that Hezbollah – the Iranian backed terrorist group – is training members of the Mahdi Army, the Iraqi militia controlled by radical Islamist cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. According to Madhi Army commanders, at least 300 militia members fought alongside Hezbollah fighters in Lebanon against Israel this summer. Last night, CNN reported more recent evidence of Iranian involvement with the Shiite militias.
CIA Director General Michael Hayden, testifying before Congress this month, said, “I’ll admit personally that I have come late to this conclusion, but I have all the zeal of a convert as to the ill effect that the Iranians are having on the situation in Iraq.”
Given this mounting body of evidence, Iran’s nuclear program, and repeated statements by Iranian President Ahmadinejad that Israel and the United States will soon cease to exist, Iran appears to be at war with the United States. How odd then that big media, the James Baker Iraq Study Group, and all the leading liberals are saying we need to talk with Iran so that it will “help us.”
(Gary Bauer; End- of-Day; Nov. 28, 2006)
