OK I confess. I watched Fox News this evening. It was about 15 minutes altogether as I was flipping through the channels. And so I have learned that some reporter was giving Tony Snow a hard time about the interpretation of 'the highest levels of government' of Iran that were directing forces in Iraq. Apparently there was enough dissonance between the administration position and that of the Chair of the Joint Chiefs for perennial skeptics to go off on their 'faulty intelligence' rants.
Reading Michael Yon tonight, bored with that spectacle, I learned something about the military that I only vaguely appreciated before which is the size of a battalion. Generally, a Lieutenant Colonel would lead a combat battalion which is about 700 soldiers. Suddenly Oliver North doesn't seem to be such a small guy.
Snow's answer, that seemed to shut down the pesky reporter, was that the Quds Forces were Iranian. No question? No question. The IEDs were Iranian. No question? No question. So how big are the Quds Forces? Nobody's saying, but they are led by a Brigadier General. Even my 13 year old boy knows that a General is bigger than a Colonel, and if a LT Colonel can direct 700 troops.. well you do the estimation.
I do a lot of thinking these days about what organizations can accomplish, and I'm aiming to do some leadership of ever larger teams. It's a hunger I feel especially as a software guy and as a writer. What can you do with 100 soldiers? 300? 700? You can train them way beneath the nose of the executive, especially if you try. For all we know, the Parliament of Iran has explicitly passed legislation forbidding their supreme leader from funding any troops in Iraq. But we oughta know what ideologues can get away with, at least for a short period of time.
Say it with me: Hasenfus.
Good now say 'Iran is a state sponsor of terrorism'. I knew you could.
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