Top military officials claim Iranians supplying Iraqi insurgency

The Facts:\nAccording to national reports, the U.S. military declared Feb. 11 that it holds physical evidence that Iran supplied Shiite extremists in Iraq with weapons, though Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Peter Pace disagrees. Estimates show that weapons in question have accounted for approximately 170 American deaths. What effects should this have on U.S. policies toward Iran?\nU.S. punishment of Iran a must\nBy Brian Stewart\nThomas Jefferson implored his fellow countrymen to show the world that they were "just friends and brave enemies." If the unpunished Iranian subversion of Iraq is any indication, Americans are failing in that first duty to Iraqi comrades. \nA little preface is needed to show how derelict we are in the second duty. The regime in Tehran has sponsored terrorism ever since 1979. Lately, it has denied the Holocaust while making its desire for a new one patently obvious. Toward this end, it has claimed the right to procure nuclear weapons.\nOn its own, this is enough to make sinister nonsense of any implication that the Bush administration is engaged in "saber rattling." The fact that Iranian agents are unmolested when they kill American soldiers and Iraqi civilians validates the fear of the great scholar Bernard Lewis: Americans are becoming more like harmless enemies and treacherous friends.\nRetaliation would hinder mission\nBy Rachel Fullmer\nThe invasion of Iraq did not turn up weapons of mass destruction, though the U.S. government justified the use of military force to overthrow Saddam Hussein in the name of security. The explosively formed penetrators that top U.S. officials claim are being manufactured strike an eerie parallel to the WMD situation. Given the dependability of those allegations, if we have learned anything from Iraq, we will not further agitate a hostile Iran, especially given its volatile location and politically unstable region. \nClearly none the wiser from Iraq, the Bush administration is accusing Iran using circumstantial "evidence" that is clearly a cheap ploy to shift the blame in Iraq. Does Afghanistan ring a bell? Confronting Iran over these allegations will only further hinder America's mission in countries it's currently occupying, and risk spreading thin forces over an entire region. One war at a time, already.