Finally, Iran Put On The Spot For Weapons Smuggling

The U.S. government has, for the past year, inexplicably refused to link the highest echelons of Iran's theocracy to the arming, training and funding of proxies in Iraq, and the smuggling of weapons to the Taliban. That seems to have ended today, at least in as much as to the smuggling of weapons to the Taliban in Afghanistan. Today, Secretary of Defense Gates laid responsibility for the smuggling at the feet of the mad mullahs. This from the Washington Times:

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates tied Iran's government to large shipments of weapons to the Taliban in Afghanistan and said yesterday that such quantities were unlikely without Tehran's knowledge.

Mr. Gates' comments, following accusations by a State Department official, were the strongest yet by a Cabinet secretary about Iran's support of the terrorist group in Afghanistan.

Basing his conclusions on new intelligence, Mr. Gates said "given the quantities [of weapons] that we're seeing, it is difficult to believe that it is associated with smuggling or the drug business or that it's taking place without the knowledge of the Iranian government."

He said that the latest information indicates a "fairly substantial flow of weapons" is crossing into Afghanistan.

Undersecretary of State R. Nicholas Burns told CNN yesterday that "there's irrefutable evidence the Iranians are now doing this."

"It's certainly coming from the government of Iran," he said. "It's coming from the Iranian Revolutionary Guard corps command, which is a basic unit of the Iranian government."

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters "it certainly is hard to believe that the Iranian government isn't involved in some way, shape or form in this." . . .

Read the entire story here. Kind of like alcoholism, the first step towards making Iran pay a price for their involvment is to acknowledge their role. Iran's daily acts of war have been going on for some time and have cost the lives of numerous U.S. soldiers as well as innocent Iraqis. There needs to be an appropriate military response.