Iran at war with US

James Lyons:

With the addition of more than 21,000 combat troops being sent to Iraq plus the president's recent declaration to kill or capture Iranian Revolutionary Guard-Quds members these actions could be seen as a first step in addressing the Iranian problem. Further, the raid and capture of Iranian agents in the compound of Iraqi Shia leader Abdul Aziz al-Hakim certainly reinforces that premise.
The Iranian problem has been building for more than 27 years, manifested by the regime of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini conducting numerous attacks against the United States. First in November 1979, the radical "students" and possibly the current Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad overran the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and held our diplomatic personnel hostage for 444 days. Aside from the various hostage takings, the next major act of war against the United States was the car bombing of our embassy in Beirut in April 1983 with the loss of almost all our Mideast operatives.
While we cannot provide the complete audit trail on the embassy bombing, we have proof positive on the Iranian culpability for the Beirut U.S. Marine barracks truck bombing in October 1983 with the loss of 241 of our finest military personnel. We know the orders came from the Iranian Foreign Ministry through the Iranian ambassador to Damascus. The U.S. response was to move the U.S. Marines offshore. Osama bin Laden has often cited this as evidence that, when faced with losses, we will "cut and run." Following the barracks bombing, the Iranians sponsored numerous hostage takings during the next several years, including the kidnapping, torture and murder of the CIA's Beirut Station Chief William Buckley.
The next major event occurred during the Persian Gulf tanker war 1986-1989 when the Iranians towed a mine in the path of the recently reflagged U.S. tanker Bridgelon which when triggered basically crippled the ship. Several other U.S. Navy ships were struck by mines as well. The U.S. response to these flagrant acts of war was minimal.
Now with the balance of the situation in Iraq becoming very tenuous, Iran's continued meddling in Iraq can no longer be tolerated....
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The Democrats have been so spooked by the new toughness against Iran's war effort that the President and Secretary of Defense have had to say that we are not planning to go to war with Iran. This undercuts the effectiveness of the new measures. Sec. Gates has given some hints at Iran's involvement in Iraq.

Serial numbers and markings on explosives used in Iraq provide "pretty good" evidence that Iran is providing either weapons or technology for militants there, Defense Secretary Robert Gates asserted Friday.

Offering some of the first public details of evidence the military has collected, Gates said, "I think there's some serial numbers, there may be some markings on some of the projectile fragments that we found," that point to Iran.

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Speaking to reporters at a defense ministers conference here, Gates said Friday, "I don't think there was surprise that the Iranians were actually involved, I think there was surprise we actually picked up some."

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It should be noted that Fatah picked up some Iranian in their attack on Hamas. Iran is clearly at war with the US, the Israelis and the new government of Lebanon. It is attempting to achieve its objectives clandestinely because it knows it is too weak to take on the US directly, despite its saber rattling.