More on Iran

I started to comment on Cuznate's post below, but it was getting long-winded (surprise!) so I just decided to post.

Not only is Iran allegedly supplying arms to the Mahdi Army, but also to the rival group SCIRI, which is (nominally) an ally of the Iraqi government and the US.

And not only is there evidence of Iran supplying arms to the Shiites, there is evidence to suggest that the Saudis are doing likewise for the Sunnis. So yay! A good old-fashioned proxy war.

In re the specific allegations about Iran supplying EFPs to the Shiites, I think Josh Marshall had a good take on it. He asks three questions:

1) Would it tell us anything we don't already know about the clerical regime in Iran? 2) Is the volume of arms sales a necessary or sufficient cause of our predicament in Iraq? and 3) Would successful aggressive action against Iran materially improve our current situation in Iraq?

And his answers are (I'm paraphrasing): 1) No, we already know they're hostile to us, they have a vested interest in what happens in Iraq, so it should come as no surprise at all. 2) No. These munitions, while deadly and a grave threat, comprise only a small portion of the threat, and they are hardly the *cause* of the problem, but more of a symptom. And 3) (again I paraphrase, while channelling Don Rumsfeld) good grief, no. Even if we were able to take successful action to interdict the flow of arms from Iran to the Shiites, it would not even make a dent in the source of the matter.