Time to deal with Iran

BAGHDAD, Aug. 7 — Attacks on American-led forces using a lethal type of roadside bomb said to be supplied by Iran reached a new high in July, according to the American military.

The devices, known as explosively formed penetrators, were used to carry out 99 attacks last month and accounted for a third of the combat deaths suffered by the American-led forces, according to American military officials.

“July was an all-time high,” Lt. Gen. Raymond T. Odierno, the No. 2 commander in Iraq, said in an interview, referring to strikes with such devices.

Such bombs, which fire a semi-molten copper slug that can penetrate the armor on a Humvee and are among the deadliest weapons used against American forces, are used almost exclusively by Shiite militants. American intelligence officials have presented evidence that the weapons come from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in Iran, although Tehran has repeatedly denied providing lethal assistance to Iraqi groups.

It is long past time when we should have done something about Iran. I am not suggesting and invasion, even though one would be legally and morally justified. Our hands are full with Iraq and Afghanistan at the moment and taking on another large project like that would not be a good idea. However there are things we could do take Iran out of the fight, and demonstrate to them and anyone else who happened to be looking, what folly it is to take on the United States.

The United States should use its air power to systematically destroy every military instillation in Iran. We should destroy their one oil refinery, bomb every government building and police headquarters we can identify and hit every one of their nuclear research and production sites. the latter might need some limited boots on the ground to make sure that not only was the equipment destroyed, but the scientists and engineers were killed as well.

We should render every airport in the nation unusable by cratering the runways and destroying the control tower and radar installations and declare a no-fly zone over the entire nation. The only thing we should leave alone is their oil production in that we don't want to drive up the world price of crude too much.