Finally you asked about comments that General Odierno made the other day. I was not there at his conference, but I've discussed many times with him this increasing frequency with which we find Iranian arms and munitions over here. And I can tell you that much of the indirect fire that we receive, especially that which is pointed at the International Zone, the Green Zone, is in fact Iranian.
And when we check the tail fins of the mortars, when we find the rockets -- and frequently we're able to find them preemptively, before they actually launch -- we're -- there's no doubt that they're coming out of Iran. Most of them are made fairly recently, in the past several years, and they have lot numbers that we can track -- trace later on.
I'll also say that most of these are coming from the eastern side of the river, by far the majority, in and around the Sadr City area. And so we focused our efforts very strongly into discovering where these areas are that they're frequently shooting from and denying those. And that's a major effort for their vision that will of course
continue.
And they've been waging war, including the Karbala attack in January:
[BG] Bergner said al-Kazaali's group carried out the January attack against a provincial government building in Karbala and that the Iranians assisted in preparations. Al-Khazaali and his brother Ali al-Khazaali were captured with Dakdouk.
Dakdouk told U.S. interrogators that the Karbala attackers "could not have conducted this complex operation without the support and direction of the Quds force," Bergner said.
Documents captured with al-Khazaali showed that the Quds Force had developed detailed information on the U.S. position at the government building, "regarding our soldiers' activities, shift changes and defenses, and this information was shared with the attackers," Bergner said.
The Karbala attack was one of the boldest and most sophisticated against U.S. forces in four years of fighting in Iraq, and U.S. officials at the time suggested Iran may have had a role in it.
In the assault, up to a dozen gunmen posed as an American security team, with U.S. military combat fatigues, allowing them to pass checkpoints into the government compound, where they launched the attack. One U.S. soldier was killed in the initial assault, and the militants abducted four others who were later found shot to death.
At least now, we are fighting the Iranians inside Iraq (including an engagement in Sadr City cited in this post) and inflicting losses:
In the last ten weeks, Iranian forces in Iraq (mainly members of the Quds Force) have been subject to several attacks, leaving over fifty dead and more than a hundred captured. The interrogations of these men has led to more arrests, and a growing pile of evidence concerning Iranian support of terrorist activity in Iraq. Iran denies it all.
This is only half the fight. We have to go after the Iranians and make them pay.
UPDATE: More on Iran's war. Our Left truly is determined to prove their lunatic belief that "it takes two sides to have a war." Iran is perfectly happy if they're the only side fighting. This isn't tolerance on our part. This is suicidal.
UPDATE: Peters thinks we must make Iran pay very directly:
An invasion of Iran isn't the answer. But selective strikes against the infrastructure of the Revolutionary Guards (and the Quds Force in particular), as well as against Tehran's security services, are the minimum needed to get the regime's attention. Our Air Force's combat capabilities are distinctly under-utilized: It's time for 30 seconds over Tehran. Let's see if those F-22s really work.
At maximum, it would look an awful lot like war. Remember, it's the regime that's the problem.
And with 21 brigades in Iraq, would Iran dare tangle with us if the Air Force and Navy paid them a visit? Would they really bet their lives on us being truly tied down?
