No Iranian Guards In Lebanon? Ha!

Lefty commenter Marshall Darts posted a comment to my earlier post about Iranian Revolutionary Guard troops in Lebanon:

As of today, no credible news outlet has confirmed or even reported your flight of fantasy.

Fortunately, I've got Nexis, so a search of "iranian revolutionary guard AND lebanon" to show that many publications have written about Iranian Revolutionary Guard activities in Lebanon and one besides Net World Daily wrote specifically about the dead IRG troops. It was the New York Sun on July 24:

The bodies of Iranian Revolutionary Guard soldiers killed by the Israeli army in Lebanon have been transported to Syria and flown to Tehran, senior Lebanese political sources said.

Israeli and Egyptian security officials confirmed the news, which follows a report that first appeared in The New York Sun, that Iranian forces posted to southern Lebanon have been aiding Hezbollah terrorists in their attacks against Israel, including helping to fire rockets into Israeli population centers.

The Lebanese sources said between six and nine dead Iranian Revolutionary Guard soldiers were brought in trucks last week into Syria for a flight back to Iran. They said the bodies were transported along with the tens of thousands of Lebanese civilians fleeing to Syria.

(Apologies: I'm on a very slow Internet connection, so I don't have time to look up any of the links for the cited articles, which Nexis does not provide.)

Actually, BBC reported on the incident, to report that the Iranians subsequently called the report "baseless." Perhaps Marshall finds the Iranians to be believable. Yet he calls me gullible.

For the life of me, I can't understand why this guy is so unwilling to accept Iranian involvement in Lebanon. Does he want to be a poster child for the Pollyanna Left? The Iranians are evangelical jihadists and helped found Hezbollah in 1983. WaPo once wrote that the Hezbollah manefesto has a picture of Ayatollah Khomeni on its back cover. And he can't put two and two together?

Here's a gleaning from 61 Nexis hits on "Iranian Revolutionary Guard AND Lebanon" in just the last week:

• New Republic, July 31: Hezbollah is equipped with a variety of Iranian rockets, and, according to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), the missile that hit an Israeli warship last week was launched from Lebanon by members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.
  
  
• Mideast Mirror, July 27: The rockets he has capable of that range are Iranian and are believed by Israel to be under control of Iranian Revolutionary Guards in Lebanon, despite Nasrallah's claims that his people have been trained in their use.
  
  
• The Scotsman, July 27: With aid from the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, Hezbollah has turned south Lebanon into a series of minefields and fortifications, forcing the Israelis to resort to air strikes to wear the enemy down rather than embark on a costly frontal assault.
  
  
• Jerusalem Post: July 26: Iran and Hizbullah believe that the ferocity of the attacks against Israel will deter us all from taking action against Iran's nuclear facilities. But by giving the West the opportunity to fight it first in Lebanon Teheran is providing the US Israel and others with critical intelligence about its own installations. The subterranean bunkers in south Lebanon that IDF ground forces are now conquering were built by Iranian Revolutionary Guards units and designed by Iranian engineers - the same forces that conceived and constructed Iran's nuclear installations.
  
  
• John McCain on Larry King Live, July 26: "I do not believe Hezbollah would have attacked Israel without the encouragement of the Iranians. The Iranian Revolutionary Guard are training Hezbollah in Southern Lebanon."
  
  
• The (Canadian) National Post, July 25: But here's what we do know: We know that the missile that wrecked an IDF warship and killed four sailors on July 15 was manufactured in Iran to a Chinese design. We know that Hezbollah's longer-range weapons are commanded by Iranian Revolutionary Guards. We know that Hezbollah's fighting forces were equipped and trained by Iranian officers. And we know above all that Hezbollah is financed, equipped, and trained by the Iranian secret service. It carries out terror missions on behalf of Iran. For all practical purposes, Hezbollah is an arm of the Iranian state.
  
  
• The New York Post, July 24: Master terrorist Imad Mugniyah was in Beirut just days before the Hezbollah kidnapping of two Israeli soldiers - raising strong suspicions that the longtime U.S. foe played a central role in the crime that sparked the conflict in Lebanon. His likely involvement would mean that Iran had a more direct role in the conflict than previously thought, since Mugniyah, 44, is now considered an Iranian agent who lives in Tehran and is under the protection of the Quds Force of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.
  
  
• San Diego Union Tribune, July 23: Indeed, Iran provides Hezbollah with at least $100 million per year and an estimated 11,000 of the 13,000 rockets in the group's possession. Dozens of Iranian Revolutionary Guards have been working with Hezbollah in Lebanon for many years.

There are many more but this slow download time is killing me.

If it's so obvious and widely accepted that Iranian Revolutionary Guard help Hezbollah and are in Lebanon, what's so unbelievable that the IDF didn't take out a few of the fascist pigs (to use an old Lefty term)? Indeed, they probably, and justifiably, sought out the IRG positions for extra special treatment.