CAPT Ed reports via the UK Daily Telegraph that the Iranian National Police have lost over a hundred high-end, Austrian-built sniper rifles. They’ve just, you know: Gone missing. People lose things.
There’s good news and bad news for all of those concerned about what mischief may arise when a sniper rifle goes missing: The good news is that Coalition troops have found the rifles. The bad news is that they found the rifles in Iraq. In the hands of Shia extremists who have been using them to kill American soldiers. So maybe Iran ought not hold their breath until we give them back:
This appears to aubstantiate the findings of the Department of Defense, presented this weekend, that Iran has actively supplied weapons to the Iraqi insurgencies, and that those weapons have killed American troops. The DoD focused on the EFPs, explosive devices that can destroy vehicular armor, and counted 170 American deaths from the super-IEDs. The HS50s have also killed Americans, and seem designed to do so. The first American to die from the HS50 was shot 45 days after the Iranian police received their shipment.
US forces have captured over a hundred of the HS50s from the Iranian police shipment. That amounts to over 12% of the total number of rifles imported by Iran to fight drug dealers, a dodge that has grown more threadbare ever since the invasion of Iraq. The Iranians have not claimed — yet — that they managed to lose one-eighth of all the new rifles intended for their police, and the Iranian government was clearly the recipient of the arms.
The American embassy in Tehran. The American embassy in Lebanon. Khobar Towers. EFPs in Iraq. And now this. This is too much.
But maybe I’m being ungenerous. After all, everbody loses things from time to time. I think it might be about time we lost a few 2000 pound JDAMS. I have an idea who might lose them for us. And a couple of notions where they ought to go.
A wise man once told me “One war at a time.” May I safely assume YOU no longer hold that position?
Whoa boy, I’m wid ya as usual, but since when is this news? That smoking gun is red hot.
Fox is CENTCOM and the stars are aligning, yet the bad behavior of ol Beady Eyes persists. While our country is focused on crap like your last post is what’s holding us back. Today. All we need is a UN sanction or two and 28 years or so frustration will be released….remember that stupid B2 hornet’s nest analogy.
It’s in the cards, so to speak. Game face, you steely-eyed killer..
b2
Couldn’t agree more, sir. Prior to 9/11, the Iranians, through Hezbollah, were responsible for more American terrorism related deaths than anyone else.
We’ve been letting them get away with this sh!t for far too long. You kill Americans on as regular of a basis that Iran has done and you must pay a price.
Cap’n,
In the spirit of inter-service cooperation, I’d be willing to let the Sky Skouts a chance to display some of their toys. Might be even nicer to give them a taste of their own medicine; say from a Marine sniper from a range of, oh say, 1 mile?
Say again your last..
MSNBC quotes Gen. Peter Pace, USMC, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, as saying there is “no proof” that the Iranians are providing..etc. His photo on that website also features an, “I dunno” gesture.
That begs the question:
1. Who’s kiddng who?
2. Is the General out of the Intel loop?
3. Is he another “politician” in uniform?
4. Is he right and everyone else is wrong?
Whiskey Tango Foxtrot Oscar!
There is an interesting backstory here. The rifles were initially meant for American domestic consumption – that is, civilian long range shooters in the US. Steyr have been trying to get into the local 50-cal market for some time, but couldn’t.
However, the State Department reneged on Steyr (the Austrian manufacturer)’s import permit, so Steyr had some 850 rifles they’d no way of selling in the US.
Who would want 850 50 cals? Hmmm . . .
If the State Department hadn’t got prissy over the import of ‘foreign’ 50 cals, then those rifles would be in American hands, being used by good ol’ boys to make holes in pieces of paper at long range.
If I wasn’t laughing so hard at your witty sarcasm, I’d be hiding in a corner.
Hmmm. If this administration tells me one thing, and the CJCS says something different, whom should I believe?
It’s a UK newspaper, and the UK Foreign Office are quoted as well as US defense sources.
Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.
Seriously though, on the issue of EFPs people of good will can disagree on provenance. There’s little doubt that the weapons or their components are being assembled in Iran, the only question is whether the build-up and transshipment is being done with the knowledge or at the behest of the Iranian government, or whether it’s someone lower down the execution chain. That’s what GEN Pace is questioning. We can infer that the since the troubles the US is experiencing in Iraq serve the purposes of the Iranian government that they are involved at some level, but that doesn’t equate to hard evidence.
That’s the problem with intel: The bad guys do their best to keep the best stuff to themselves.
I generally agree with your summation.
While I have little doubt as to Iranian meddling in Iraq, given the varying Iranian factions it’s difficult to determine direct responsibility to any faction, or the State.
Indeed we once had some U.S. citizens funding and supplying arms to the IRA terrorists ?
I generally agree with your summation.
While I have little doubt as to Iranian meddling in Iraq, given the varying Iranian factions it’s difficult to determine direct responsibility to any faction, or the State.
Indeed we once had some U.S. citizens funding and supplying arms to the IRA terrorists – but that was certainly not justification for Great Britain to attack America and bomb the Boston Irish sympathizers.
Also, I don’t doubt that terrorists and weapons are also coming into Iraq from friendlier nations, i.e. Saudi Arabia. Should we then also attack the Saudi’s? (And didn’t most of the 9/11 terrorists come from there?) And if we attacked every country that supplied AK-47′s to Iraq, much less a hundred sniper rifles, we would indeed have a long list of disparate targets on many fronts.
Are we looking for excuses here, or trying to solve a grave and serious problem intelligently?
Whether the influx of weapons is state sponsored, state-supported or not, what’s wrong with trying effective interdiction first?
We did that with the Ho Chi Minh trail. But it was a longer and far more difficult route for the enemy; multiple trails concealed by jungle, and wandering through other countries.
The open Iraqi desert roads should be much easier. Why can’t we seal the border, and interdict any insurgents and/or weapons crossing and coming into Iraq? We certainly should have the technology and weaponry. And if we don’t have the manpower for effective interdiction, we certainly will not have the manpower for what will follow from an attack on Iran, especially with Iraq still boiling.
Surgical strikes in Iran will not solve the problem, they will exacerbate the problem. Then what?
[And as far as losing weapons, did we ever find the 80 Stinger missiles we once gave to the Muhajadeen who became Taliban, or the (thousands?) of hand-held surface-to-air missiles missing from Iraq, shortly after our invasion? ]
Lots of enormous and essential questions; few real concrete answers.
re “Surgical strikes in Iran will not solve the problem, they will exacerbate the problem. Then what?”
Surgical? That’s a McNamara term I remember from long ago..Personally, I prefer amputation, like in keeping the Iranian people in the dark, cold and hungry while destroying anything of military value in the infrastruce. No invasion. No occupation. Bad behavior must be rewarded. Payback time Baby! It will happen fliterman-just hang in there.
Exacerbate is sorta like escalate, ain’t it? I know where you’re coming from. I reckon you never got my hornets nest thang either.
b2
PS- From what I’ve read Stingers are like milk- they have a definable expiration date…
Along the stingers/manpads route, I’ve read that some people are wondering if that’s what been bringing down our helicopters in the last few weeks. The mujahideen (sp?) used the Stingers the CIA gave them to knock the Soviet helicopters out of the sky, way back when.
Plus by using people lower on the execution chain, the higher-ups in Iranian gov’t have their plausible deniability. It would be a tough go to actually get proof that president Ahm@#$%*& is explicitly ordering the arms and parts to Shiites in Iraq. Either way it stinks.
[...] in February?Ǭ
[...] in February I posted on the UK Daily Mail article about those missing Austrian sniper rifles – you know, the ones sold [...]