Two weeks ago, Paul Krugman advised for Wag-the-Dog Protection
The campaign against Social Security is going so badly that longtime critics of President Bush, accustomed to seeing their efforts to point out flaws in administration initiatives brushed aside, are pinching themselves. But they shouldn’t relax: if the past is any guide, the Bush administration will soon change the subject back to national security.
The political landscape today reminds me of the spring of 2002, after the big revelations of corporate fraud. Then as now, the administration was on the defensive, and Democrats expected to do well in midterm elections.
Then, suddenly, it was all Iraq, all the time, and Harken Energy and Halliburton vanished from the headlines.
I don’t know which foreign threat the administration will start playing up this time, but Bush critics should be prepared for the shift.
Today’s WaPo writes that the "Social Security Vote May Be Delayed"
The Senate’s top Republican said yesterday that President Bush’s bid to restructure Social Security may have to wait until next year and might not involve the individual accounts the White House has been pushing hard.
Delayed until next year? To play up Social Security before the 2006 elections would cost the repubs 30% of their seats in Congress. This beast may still twitch a little, but it is dead as it can be and Bush for now a lame duck in domestic politics.
So here comes the shift to a foreign threat just as Krugman expected. Reuters titles U.S. Ratchets Up Pressure on Iran Over Atomic Plans
Bush’s envoy Jackie Sanders told the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) board of governors that Iran was "willing and apparently able to cynically manipulate the nuclear non-proliferation regime in the pursuit of nuclear weapons."
Quite cynical manipulation – isn´t it?
Iran says it does not want to make nuclear weapons. The IAEA has found no hint that Iran is working on, or planing nuclear weapons. They are planing and working on enriching their natural uranium for their nuclear reactor. They are exercising their right and their duties under the Non Proliferation Treaty. But the Bush regime comes up with accusations and now "ratchets up pressure".
"Who are you gonna believe, Bush or your lying eyes?" some may ask. "Bush!" will be the answer of a blinded US public and it will come pretty fast.
The first enriched uranium load from Russia to the Iran’s Bushehr reactor could be ready in April or May, though Putin might choose to delay this a bit. When the uranium is in place, an air attack on the reactor is out of question. The fall out would bring all kinds of trouble. Therefore expect an American/Israeli air attack on Bushehr and several other Iranian sites before that train leaves Russia.
But how will Bush play this up to the 2006 congress election which is more than a year from now? That piece is still missing, but be assured, they do have it in somewhere.