Iran wages undeclared war against coalition

I have been jumping up and down for months now about how we are at secretly at war with Iran and it's only a matter of time before the secret is out. As I've posted in the past, Scott Ritter seems to think as I do. To be sure, what I'd like to see happen is that well before the mullahs ever get their hands on a nuclear weapon, the people of Iran overthrow the Islamic regime and approximate a secular government in short order. I would hope that this could be done with little to no Western influence unless explicitly called for by the Iranian reformists themselves. What I'm trying to avoid by beating these sorts of stories to death is a full-scale war against the mullah regime because inevitably, more innocent Iranian civilians will die than Islamic fundamentalists. If we're attacked that's one thing and it would be a horrible but unavoidable tragedy for us to level Tehran. My hope is that if I and others beat the drum continuously and loud enough, we can stop Iran from becoming the next Iraq.

However, the mullahs don't make that prospect very likely. There have been a litany of sources that cite the mullahs as having a solid hand in the wreaking havoc throughout Iraq. They have been cited, along with the Saudi's, in inciting the insurgency and generally prolonging the entire rebuilding process. The following article is yet another piece of evidence that shows Tehran clearly poking at America to see if we'll bite back. It's obvious this thing with Iran is going to come to some sort of head because it's clear that overt confrontation, on their terms is exactly what the mullahs want. For their part, I'm certain that there are those in Washington that equally want direct confrontation with Tehran and are chomping at the bit for the next adventure.

As usual, I will continue to beat the drums and do my part to stop that from happening, for what it is worth.

Here's the article:

At least nine British soldiers have been murdered in Iraq by terrorists working for the radical Islamic regime in neighbouring Iran, it was reported last night.

US and British military intelligence officers told Time magazine that the three British troops killed in Amarah last month were among the victims of the undeclared war between Iran and the West.

"One suspects this would have to have a higher degree of approval [in Teheran]," a senior American officer told the weekly.

A British officer expressed astonishment at the reluctance to confront Iranian interference in Iraq.

"It's as though we are sleepwalking," he was quoted as saying.

The allegations will aggravate tension between the western allies and Iran still further. The two sides are already at loggerheads over Iran's shadowy nuclear programme and fears that it is trying to develop atomic weapons.

The British dead in Amarah, 2nd Lieut Richard Shearer, 26, Pte Leon Spicer, 26, and Pte Phillip Hewett, 21, of 1st Bn, Staffordshire Regiment, were killed by a sophisticated roadside bomb.

According to a leaked military intelligence paper, the men were victims of a hitherto unknown Iranian-controlled terrorist group led by a man called Abu Mustafa al-Sheibani

He is described as the leader of a 270-man organisation established by Iran's radical Revolutionary Guard to kill coalition troops in Iraq.

Soon after the Anglo-US invasion two years ago Teheran despatched up to 12,000 men organised under the banner of the Badr brigade into Iraq and arranged support for other armed groups, western intelligence believes.

One was allegedly a cell of the Mujahedin for Islamic Revolution in Iraq, linked to the Revolutionary Guard.

A British military intelligence paper seen by Time suggested that this group could have been behind the mob attack on a Royal Military Police post in Majarr al-Kabir in June 2003 in which six RMP soldiers were murdered.

Of most concern to coalition intelligence officers is the growing relationship between Teheran and the new Iraqi government of Ibrahim al-Jaafari.

The level of distrust was revealed in the statement of one western diplomat, who told the magazine: "We have to think that anything we tell or share with the Iraqi government ends up in Teheran."