War Hawks Blame Iran for US Soldiers’ Deaths in Iraq instead of Themselves

Newsweek is reporting a story regarding how Iran “was responsible for the deaths of at least 608 American troops in Iraq between 2003 and 2011.”

The account is sourced to a newly revised estimate prepared by analysts at the Pentagon that was discussed by Special Representative for Iran Brian Hook at a State Department press briefing on April 2nd. According to Hook, Tehran is now being blamed for 17 per cent of all US military deaths because it supplied weapons to the several Shiite militias that were opposing the US invasion, occupation and subsequent presence in the country.

By Philip M. GIRALDI Ph.D

Hook also stated that the American casualties are in addition to the “thousands” of Iraqi troops and civilians that were killed in attacks initiated by what he referred to as the Iranian proxy forces. Hook noted that the new number is higher than the 2015 confirmed death total of 500 that was reported by then Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Joseph Dunford, who qualified his estimate by saying “We were not always able to attribute the casualties that we had to Iranian activity, although many times we suspected it was Iranian activity, even though we did not necessarily have the forensics to support that.”

There is little doubt that Tehran provided weapons to Shiite militias in Iraq after the invasion of the country by American forces in April 2003 and the defeat and replacement of the Saddam Hussein regime. The US was occupying the country at the time and Shiites were a repressed majority of the population given the fact that Saddam ruled through his Sunni minority.

The most controversial and lethal weapons used by the Shiite and Sunni resistance to the United States were the Improvised Explosive Devices or IEDs, subsequently also referred to as Explosively Formed Penetrators or EFPs which were capable of penetrating the armor on US military vehicles. They first appeared in Iraq in the summer of 2004, but they were initially mostly used by Sunni insurgents, not by the Shiites.

Now that the US occupation has ended, Iran and Iraq enjoy a close relationship that is based on their common Shiite religion. The former militiamen are now referred to as Popular Mobilization Forces, which were key to the eventual defeat of ISIS. The United States, which retains a major military base inside Iraq, continues to rail against Iran. During the briefing, Hook said “We are imposing costs on the [Iranian] regime for behaving as an outlaw expansionist regime. The regime is weaker today than when we took office two years ago. Its proxies are also weaker. Unless the regime demonstrates a change in policy and behavior, the financial challenges facing Tehran will mount.”

There are several problems with the Hook analysis, if that is actually what it was. The United States government has been arguing since 2005 that Iran is “interfering” in neighboring Iraq, combined with allegations about “they are killing our soldiers” to make sure that Tehran continues to be everyone recognizable regional enemy. Specific claims by generals and US politicians were made between 2005 and 2007 regarding Iranian involvement in the production of the shaped charges, which were increasingly exacting a bloody toll of US and allied military personnel.

But the claims being made by the Bush Administration, by Congress, and by the media regarding Iranian support of militants in Iraq had a number of things in common: they were generic and lacking in specificity, they were based on possibly unwarranted assumptions about Iranian interactions with other players in the region, they played fast and loose with statistics, and they seldom provided actual verifiable evidence to back up the assertions being made. One might also point out that nearly all the reports were derivative in that they build on each other to develop credibility, much like the reports about Iraq in 2002.

It has also been noted that the arguments about Iranian involvement are logically inconsistent. The Iraqi insurgency in the period 2004-2006 was largely Sunni. That the Iranians would be supplying the Sunnis or that the Sunnis would even seek such assistance does not appear probable. In an April 2007 briefing Major General William Caldwell explained, “We have, in fact, found some cases recently where Iranian intelligence services have provided to some Sunni insurgent groups some support.” Three uses of “some” in one sentence suggest a degree of uncertainty. Even the relatively tame media at the briefing were skeptical, asking “Do the Iranians support all the militias in Iraq?”

The fact that the EFP is very simple to make also argues against a largely Iranian provenance. The EFP or variations thereof has been around for a long time. It was reportedly used under its old name “shaped charge” by the French resistance against the Germans and by the Irish Republican Army against British armored vehicles and it has been used extensively by both Hezbollah and Hamas against the Israelis.

The case against Iran basically relies on a basic argument that the EFP is actually a sophisticated weapon that has to have its copper disk machined in a weapons shop that is accustomed to milling metal to the finest tolerances. According to those who believe in an Iranian hand in EFP attacks, it is not possible that the weapons are being produced by Iraqis without Iranian assistance but the fact is that the Iraqis are more than capable of making the weapon. Iraq had a large and relatively sophisticated military prior to 2003. It had its own weapons shops and ordnance experts, many of whom were Sunnis and many of whom became unemployed in the spring of 2003 when the army was disbanded.

So Iran’s EFP weapon of choice that, according to the Pentagon, has killed 608 Americans turns out to be not that hard to make and not uniquely Iranian. But the real argument against Brian Hook’s numbers is the assumption made by the government analysts that supplying weapons, even if and when the end user can be demonstrated, makes one responsible for who gets killed as a result. Since the US is the world’s leading arms manufacturer, that argument leads down a slippery slope as “Made in USA.” weapons are likely featured in every conflict.

Also bear in mind that the United States in Iraq was an invading army in what became a guerrilla war in which that country’s civilians ultimately constituted most of the victims. By one estimate, 460,000 Iraqis died, many by US-made ordnance. To cite one other more recent example of what that measure of accountability might mean, the United States could be considered responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands civilians in Yemen, 5,000 in 2018 alone, as the Saudis are using US supplied weapons. And there are a lot of other instances of American made weapons winding up in all kinds of places, including the arsenals of ISIS and al-Qaeda. Al-Qaeda in its war against the Russians in Afghanistan relied largely on American weaponry. Some of those weapons are still being used to kill American rather than Russian soldiers.

Since the United States government is selectively charging Iran with offenses that might well be exploited by neoconservatives named Bolton and Pompeo to initiate a war it should be more careful in how it attempts to frame its arguments. Iran did not kill those 4,424 American soldiers who died in Iraq. President George W. Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and the band of psychopaths at the Pentagon and National Security Council did that when they initiated a chain of events that began with attacking a country that they knew posed no threat against the United States. The bloody consequences of that action continue to this day.

Philip M. GIRALDI Ph.D., Executive Director of the Council for the National Interest.

https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2019/04/11/who-killing-whom-middle-east-blaming-iran-might-excuse-for-war.html

26 thoughts on “War Hawks Blame Iran for US Soldiers’ Deaths in Iraq instead of Themselves”

  1. They should be referred to as war whores not war hawks. Be nice to the raptor. Thank you.

  2. Translation: “You’re getting sleepy. Very sleepy. Now, repeat after us, ‘Islam. Iran. Dangerous. Islam, Iran. Dangerous.’ You will now surrender to us, your Jew masters, further use of you children to kill the children and people of ‘dangerous.'”

    “Ignorance is Strength.” I’m weak.

    1. More evidence that voting only “counts” as verification of one’s subservience to the Jew fifth-column, while making one an accessory to the tyranny’s crimes.

      “Ignorance is Strength.” I’m weak.

    1. Just INHUMAN…. and they dare to say we have to live like this and their Sustainable Development BS.

    1. With all do respect, the “Whore,” “Harlot,” is the Jews, and the beast it, they, ride, their partners in crime, is the Catholic Church “Beast.”

      “Ignorance is Strength.” I’m weak.

  3. PAPAL ROME RUNS THE U.S.
    It is not Zionist or Khazarian Jews – or Israel – or Jewish neo-conservatives who have been – or are – running the USA, as some folks allege but they play a rather large role with the relationship of the Illuminati with the Jesuits. RATHER, agents of Papal Rome have been running the U.S. for over a century! Yes, they do occasionally place a Papal “court Jew” in a prominent position (e.g., the head of the Federal Reserve) to give the New World Order conspiracy a Jewish “flavor”; however, Papal Rome is the real controller of the U.S.! (And she rules the U.S. from “behind the scenes”!)

    Make no mistake, the U.S. and all its townships, cities, counties and states are incorporated separately and owned by Papal Rome. http://www.americaismyname.org/black-pope.html

    1. Excellent site you posted, so many enlightening topics covered, and i thought its was mere rothschilds greedmerchants wanting jerusalem to rule the world.

  4. Just as in the 6th century, when the Papacy received power from the nations of Europe after the fall of the Roman Empire, Prophecy declares that the Papacy will receive power once more, as it is stated … “And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast. These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast. These shall make war with the Lamb.” (Rev.17:12-14).

  5. What Does the Top Russian Orthodox Priest, The Pope and S.S. Skull and Bones Have in Common? Jesuits Run the World. Period. If this doesn’t convince you, then please read the links below with many articles chronicling their control of world events for hundreds of years.

    Did you know Fidel Castro is a full-blown Jesuit?

    Did you know the Bay Of Pigs was a Jesuit operation?

    Did you know that CIA director Allen Dulles, a Knight of Malta and Nazi-protector, backed Castro calling him “the Abraham Lincoln of Cuba”?

    Did you know that the Bolshevik Revolution that killed 30-60 million ethnic Russians was created in the Bronx (NY) by the Jesuits?

    Did you know the Cold War was a Jesuit-engineered psyop?

    Did you know that both Russia and the U.S. were working together on Operation Fishbowl from ‘1958-1962’ during the supposed Cold War?

    Did you know that Russia and the U.S. are both identical signatories to the Antarctic Treaty in 1961, during the supposed Cold War?

    Did you know that Russia and the U.S. staged the Cold War collapse together to eventually destroy America?

    Did you know that Russia’s SURA Program is the equivalent to the U.S.’s HAARP program but much more powerful?

    If Russia was truly anti-NWO how come not a peep about the geoengineering above their skies?

    Why does the U.S. buy Russian RD-180 rocket engines?

    Why did the U.S. buy dozens of Russian MI-17 Helicopters for the Afghan Army?

    Do you find it interesting that Judge Antonin Scalia (jesuit-trained) was murdered the day after on the occult Lupercalia day (Valentines Day)?

    ****

    Does all this make you feel that the U.S. and Russia are playing Punch and Judy? https://aplanetruth.info/2016/02/17/what-does-the-top-russian-orthodox-priest-the-pope-and-s-s-skull-and-bones-have-in-common/

  6. PT: IF THE PENTAGON WANTS TO FIND WHO IS AT FAULT FOR “ALL” USA MILITARY DEATHS IN IRAQ THEIR REPORT SHOULD LOOK LIKE THIS:
    #1 THE REPUBLICAN PARTY FOR LYING ABOUT 9/11 AND WHAT SADDM HUSSEIN WAS DOING.
    #2 CONGRESS FOR VOTING FOR WAR AND FOR FUNDING THE WAR TO THIS DAY.

    PT: “REVOLUTIONARY FORCES” BY ANY OTHER NAME:
    # THE AMERICAN MINUTE MEN
    # THE JEWISH HAGANAH

    1. While I agree with you, the greater blame lies with we Americans for submitting to the Jews and their criminal US Tyranny tools.

      Freedom, Liberty, is not words on paper, promises, hopes, or an aspiration. Liberty is a state of being, shelter, built and lifted up out of the mud and muck of tyranny. Like anything depended upon, Liberty must be continuously demanded, maintained, lest we fall back into the mud and muck of tyranny.

      Liberty is a demand. Tyranny submission.

      “Ignorance is Strength.” I’m weak.

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