Enough with the hysterics, already!

So I've had CCN on for a couple of hours. And, apparently, the issue that has us all worked up today is "Bush okays killing Iranians plotting against Iraq."

It seems we're supposed to talk about this. Perhaps, we're even supposed to debate it.

Sigh...we've talked before about Iran and the fact that they're
A) Not just some innocent country that happens to be next door. Iran is not Canada.
B) Killing our soldiers.

I did a google search on this, because I don't want to be the one who talks about things we don't talk about. I'm not, so I will. Let's try to do this quickly, though.

Iran is chock full of Shiites. That aligns Iran with Al Sadr and the Mahdi Militia. That ties Iran to anti-Iraqi and anti-Coalition activities in heavily Shiite areas. MMMkay? We're talking about the city of Najaf, of Karbala, certain (but not all) part of Baghdad.

(We face different enemies and influences in our more Sunni areas - other parts of Baghdad, Ramadi, Tikrit, etc. We can talk about Sunni extremism - Al Qaeda and a certain great big rich country that rhymes with Paudi Bapabia - some other time.)

Iran contributes materials and know-how to build certain types of IEDs. If you go to the DoD News Release page and look for those releases that involve IEDs that kill two or more American soldiers (particularly soldiers in vehicles, where that is noted), a significant number of those were caused by the type of IED that comes from Iran. If you conducted this search, you would note the phenomenon really kicked off in late summer/early fall 2005.

There are different kinds of violence in Iraq. Most of my tour was spent in an area that was largely Sunni. There was lots of violence. There were lots of IEDs. But they were a different kind of IED. They could still kill you, but you had to be pretty unlucky if you were in an armored vehicle.

Not so with the Iranian-made specials in largely Shiite areas. These are bombs that are specifically developed to kill Americans by defeating vehicle armor.

Iranian influence is not just "unhelpful." We need to be clear about this. That would be like...the Canadian government using intermediaries to give money to a U.S. political candidate aligned with Canada. This is different. This is like the Canadian government working through intermediaries to kill...I dunno...Republican party members in Iowa. Or democratic get-out-the-vote people in Kansas City.

Not that they would. Canadians seem nice enough.

We've got to remember - Iran is not our friend. Iran is not neutral. Iran is not a country we "deal with" the same way be deal with Canada over fishing disputes. Iran is a country that expends its efforts to KILL OUR SOLDIERS.

And personally, I think CNN needs to freakin' stop it. I want my President to be all about killing people who kill our soldiers.