PACE SHOOTS DOWN...

PACE SHOOTS DOWN THE ANONYMICE. The A.P. reports:

Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said U.S. forces hunting down militant networks that produced roadside bombs had arrested Iranians and that some of the material used in the devices were made in Iran.''That does not translate that the Iranian government per se, for sure, is directly involved in doing this,'' Pace told reporters in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta. ''What it does say is that things made in Iran are being used in Iraq to kill coalition soldiers.''His remarks might raise questions on the credibility of the claims of high-level Iranian involvement, especially following the faulty U.S. intelligence that was used to justify the invasion of Iraq in 2003.

It's obvious that the Iranian origin of some of the weapons used against U.S. forces in Iraq is going to be used by the administration as part of an argument about Iran's hostile intentions to the U.S. and to buttress the case for eventual military confrontation. But the U.S. and U.S. weapons manufacturers also supply and have supplied many different armed forces, militias, and even insurgent groups over the years. Absent proof of Iranian government orders to attack U.S. troops, applying the administration standard of international accountability to Iran would result in a situation where the U.S. government is also held to blame for every war carried out with weapons built by American companies. And that would be a huge mistake.

--Garance Franke-Ruta