The decision of the Bush Administration last week to push ahead with sanctions aimed at the Quds Brigades of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps, numbering at least 125,000,  (U.S. Levels Sanctions Against Iran Military Unit) was long overdue recognition of the challenge Iran poses to the U.S. on the battlefields of Iraq. To remind: these two entities once were part of the same Persian Empire. And for sure, the renewed focus on Iran as a formidable military adversary will draw the Democrats into an intensifying face off with the Bush Administration just as happened over Iraq policy. (Iran Becomes an Issue in Democratic Contest)

“The Quds Force – ‘Quds’ is Arabic for Jerusalem’ -- controls (Iran’s) policy for Iraq,” said General David Petraeus, the top commander in Iraq earlier in October. “There should be no confusion about that.”  The Quads Force enjoys special status and influence at the top of the Iranian political-military hierarchy, reflected in its control of the Revolutionary Guard Corps substantial economic, industrial and investment power inside the Iranian economy.

The Iranian presence inside Iraq is all but invisible -- Iranians look, dress and speak like Iraqis -- but it helps explain America's frustration and possible defeat. And it could have enormously greater destructive and psychological impact should Tehran's strategists decide to use their full offensive, potential strength against U.S. troops in Iraq. Or they may stick simply to the sidelines and watch the inevitable victory of their proxies unfold.

Iran's Army is known to include an estimated 15,000 elite troops organized as "Quds Brigades.”  Specially trained, these troops could be used to fight a war of annihilation against the Americans in Iraq. Some of them saw action as "boy soldiers" in the decade-long war against the Iraqis in the 1980s and were shaped and hardened by that bloodbath which caused an estimated one million Iranian casualties. Deploying the "Quds" in Iraq would be a clear signal of Iran's intentions that Tehran prefers to leave ambiguous. Thus, the new sanctions targeted at the Brigades. (Administration Fact Sheet on the sanctions)

Leaders among the Iranians and the Iraqis (especially Saddam Hussein) closely studied the 1960-1975 Vietnam War and absorbed the lessons of America's defeat. They regard the Americans as extremely averse to taking casualties, and they see the possibility of achieving a pivotal military triumph by staging another stunning "Tet Offensive" against the U.S., a bloody series of battles that would send American casualties soaring and traumatize the domestic U.S. population. By demoralizing the U.S. home front and causing the collapse of political will in Washington, the enemy would seek a decisive victory in Iraq.