Alleged Chump Change

The USA Today article on the January Karbala attack had two interesting points. The first was the complete infilitration of the Iraqi police and security forces that were responsible for guarding the outer perimeter of the compound:

The U.S. "defense hinged on a level of trust that … early warning and defense would be provided by the Karbala Iraqi police. This trust was violated," the report dated Feb. 27 says.

The information is contained in an investigative file made available to USA TODAY and authenticated by the Army.

The attack has drawn special scrutiny from Pentagon officials because of the unprecedented breach of security and the insurgents' tactics.

The investigation reveals several new details about the assault, including:

•Iraqi police suddenly vanished from the government compound before the shooting started.

•Attackers, evidently briefed on how U.S. forces would defend themselves, bottled up more than three dozen soldiers in a barracks and headquarters complex using a combination of smoke and fragment grenades and satchel charges to blow up Humvees.

•Gunmen knew exactly where to find and abduct U.S. officers.

•Iraqi vendors operating a PX and barbershop went home early.

•A back gate was left unlocked and unguarded.

The second and far more interesting to me is something that Cernig will probably run with, and it is a statement from the new US military spokesman on the alleged involvement of the Quds force and the depth of their activity in southern Iraq:

he Quds Force, an elite unit of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards, helped plan and direct it with Iraqi militants, said Brig. Gen. Kevin Bergner, a military spokesman.

The Quds Force, he said, supplied Shiite militias with weapons and up to $3 million a month in aid. [emphasis mine]

$3 million dollars a month --- that is geostrategic chump change.

I am assuming that every intelligence service based with 2,000 miles of Iraq's borders have someone or someones on the ground and spending money for information and influence. What we are to believe from Gen. Bergner is that the Iranians are spending two A-Rods per year and causing all of the trouble in Iraq that the great and glorious surge has not been able to suppress.

Come on --- the US spent $75 million in nine months, or three times as much money per month on the Anbar Salvation Council and all we got from that was a nice medium sized Iraqi heist from the conman fronting that group.