A thank you to Power Line, which has posted highlights of General David Petraeus’s spoken testimony on Iraq, given Tuesday before the Senate Armed Services Committee. Let’s home in on one exchange in this text, between Senator Joe Lieberman and Petraeus, which ought to preface any further talk about Iran:

LIEBERMAN: Is it fair to say that the Iranian-backed special groups in Iraq are responsible for the murder of hundreds of thousands — excuse me — hundreds of American soldiers and thousands of Iraqi soldiers and civilians?

PETRAEUS: It certainly is. I do believe that is correct.

For more, see Petraeus’s written testimony, referring to “the destructive role Iran has played” … “Iran has fueled the violence in a particularly damaging way, through its lethal support to the Special Groups” … “These elements are funded, trained, armed, and directed by Iran’s Qods Force, with help from Lebanese Hezollah. It was these groups that launched Iranian rockets and mortar rounds at Iraq’s seat of government two weeks ago, causing loss of innocent life and fear in the capital, and requiring Iraqi and coalition actions in response.”

Separately (or maybe not), one might add a P.S. — Despite years of U.S. sanctions, plus EU negotiations, plus three recent UN sanctions resolutions, Iran is also busy building nuclear bombs. Hello, White House? Hello?…. Hello?