The Bush Regime has no choice. They do this next war for themselves, for their grasp on power. They do this because war is their only hope, and because saying and doing anything to create war is their only creed.
Bush/Cheney will NOT wait until the summer or fall to bomb Iran. They need to distract the American public now, right now, before impeachment hearings are launched, and this Administration falls like the house of cards it is.
Only a wider Middle Eastern war can save them now. With a wide open war Over There, they can declare martial law back here, open up the Selective Service for immediate inductions, and never look back. Their Four Horsemen will be turned loose; their names are Dick Tater, Marshall Law, Jack Bootz, and GI Joe. They must loose them soon on America, or Americans of both parties will escort them out of the White House, and into prison.
If the Pentagon or their Big Business backers cannot stop the neocons, this next war will drag in every other major power to some degree, overnight. They will have to act to preserve their access to Middle Eastern Oil, to preserve their own nation. They won’t talk about it much, either. They will have to choose sides and take action immediately to get the oil flowing again. It will be a world war within 72 hours. Let us hope it is not nuclear war.
These neocons in our White House honestly see no choice, for themselves or the American nation, but wider war in the Middle East. They believe it will save America, and make us greater than ever. That’s why they will act — because they Know that they are absolutely right, and that history will judge them as true visionaries and enlightened leaders whose creative destruction established an American Empire that lasted a thousand years.
They do not believe their next excellent adventure will go down in flames. They will bomb Iran. They’ll do it in the dead of night, in the weeks just ahead, and tell us about it on CNN in the morning. Soon your sons will get a call from the draft board. There will be curfews. There will be no need for political parties or elections until the war ends, if ever. It will be the war of survival that Dick Cheney has always wanted. Like Hitler, he doesn’t want any place but uber alles for America. He wants us on top, or reduced to ashes.
It’s crunch time.

Posted by: Antifa | Apr 16 2006 9:28 utc | 4

Blair doesn´t want to go along?
Blair refuses to back Iran strike

TONY Blair has told George Bush that Britain cannot offer military support to any strike on Iran, regardless of whether the move wins the backing of the international community, government sources claimed yesterday.
Amid increasing tension over Tehran’s attempts to develop a military nuclear capacity, the Prime Minister has laid bare the limits of his support for President Bush, who is believed to be considering an assault on Iran, Foreign Office sources revealed.
…
While the sense of crisis over Iran has been escalated by the fiery rhetoric between Tehran and the West – particularly Washington – many within the British government are now convinced that the impasse can be resolved by repeating the same sort of painstaking diplomatic activity that returned Libya to the international fold.

Posted by: b | Apr 16 2006 12:06 utc | 6

I really think the cons won’t be able to do Iran. If you look at the economic statistics the 10 year bond interest rate is rising fast. The Japanese have re-patriated 90 billion so far, and the cries from the Chinese poor will require a re-patriation of money to help ease the Chinese least affluents dis-satisfaction with being left out of the new Chinese economy.
The US has a negative savings rate, where will the money come from? Tax the rich? I doubt it.
A targeted strick against Iran may happen, but the world is already pissed at the US over Iraq, the funds are drying up and Bush is toast. There is no political support and I don’t think a diversion of this type will work. It’s mostly saber rattling. As posted here before on another thread, Russia is fully against US foriegn policy funding the Palistinians. They’re also fully on Irans side. The US is weak right now and others know it. We are in a corner and Iran isn’t the way out.

Posted by: jdp | Apr 16 2006 13:41 utc | 8

Antifa—what impeachment hearings? No one’s going to do impeachment hearings? The GOP Rubber Stamp congress won’t. The Dems have no power and even if they get it, they don’t have the spine or stomach for impeachment—-as they’ve proved over nad over and over again in these disspiriting six years.
I think they’re going to attack Iran—about two months before the elections, i.e. September. That way they can make it look like they really have “exhausted” their options.
As to how they;d pay for it? Staff the army? They don’t know and they don’t care.

Posted by: Midwest Meg | Apr 16 2006 14:50 utc | 10

Antifa, that was a good post, it put into proper words what I have often thought 😉
Nevertheless, I think it won’t happen. The EU, China, Russia are against. Japan and Australia I don’t know exactly right now… Blair won’t back it and can’t change tack soon. If Rove is opposed as well, see above, (as I would expect him to be) Bush may stand firm, get the voice of God or whatever.
Strategically, the cost would too great.
It was inevitable that someone would stand up and say – we can saber rattle too – we can inflict pain as well – we are prepared – and that it is Iran is no surprise. That is some chunk of oil and real estate…and one bunch of determined people. They will stand behind their president like one man. It is obvious. The neo-cons are spinning in the wind, using past sell-date scenarios.
I hope!

Posted by: Noisette | Apr 16 2006 16:20 utc | 12

The Straussians, the neocons, call it ‘creative destruction.’
Their abiding faith is that when you blow something to pieces, when you shatter what exists, nothing but good can come of it.
Fresh energies and new perspectives are released, that could have come into play by no other means.
To embrace creative destruction is to truly live, it is to be a giant among mortal men, it is to be awake among the sleeping masses of humanity.
It is to make reality, not just accept it.
What if there is blood, and tears, in buckets and rivers?
It is all so far away. It’s way over there.
The abiding faith of the neocons is that they have transcended power politics, and that they serve no masters.
They are wrong. They serve amassed capital, and they now serve poorly, indeed.
Their bill is due.

Posted by: Antifa | Apr 16 2006 17:34 utc | 14

Billmon, The Flight Forward :

In other words, it may be the United States, not Iran, that is preparing to “lash out” – in a deliberate, calculated war of aggression.

According to my analysis of the powers behind the present regime they are The War Lobby, The Oil Lobby, The Israel Lobby.
The first two are going along for the ride chiefly for profit, but for fun too, in the case of The War Lobby. Halliburton is an example of an outfit that has morphed into a creature adapted to suck in the bucks on both the Oil and War fronts. The folks in the driver’s seat are the theoreticians and executives, many Jewish but many not, from The Israel Lobby. They have morphed, long ago, an example of diversification to Halliburton, and now suck their bucks as much from War itself as from the Israeli Entitlement Program.
Oil may well be ready to bow out of The Triad. They have made plenty of bucks and the system seems well enough munged up to guarantee years more record profits without having to risk The Whole Machine itself for diminishing returns. God pity the Iraqis.
That leaves The War and The Israel Lobby as The Diabolic Duo.
The War lobby, of course, is in favor of war anywhere at anytime, for any reason. They are perfectly willing to let the policy wonks decide where. And they are probably tickled pink that nukes may become an expendable part of the arsenal. Repeat sales. A whole new market. God pity the Iranians.
The Israel Lobby never believed any of this stuff about Democratizing The Middle East. That was a sales pitch that ran second or third to Eliminating Weapons Of Mass Destruction. They’re back on point again now. They went into this from the beginning to spread death and destruction, devastation and chaos throughout the Middle East. Only Israel, which they view as their feif, left standing when the, possibly radioactive, dust clears. With enough nukes and delivery systems to retaliate for the expected revenge killings. God pity ordinary Israelis.
They are “smart” people. They know full well that Israel’s policies vis a vis the Palestinians have been unjust for the past forty years. They know that war in defense of injustice is necessarily an open ended commitment. So they have no problem doubling down when the others’ backs are against the wall.
Always remember that The Israel Lobby is playing with someone else’s bankroll. Ours. Our IOUs and not our long gone bankroll, actually. And now they’ve got us marks to do the fighting and dying too. God pity us as well.

Posted by: John Francis Lee | Apr 17 2006 3:42 utc | 16

ask & ye shall rcv
transcript of gardiner on democracy now this morning

AMY GOODMAN: We’re talking to retired Air Force colonel, Sam Gardiner. You were quoted on CNN on Friday night, saying the question isn’t if we would attack Iran, that military operations are already happening. What do you mean?
COL. SAM GARDINER: Well, the evidence is beginning to accumulate that a decision has already been made to use military force in Iran. Now, let me do a historical thing, and then I’ll tell you what the current evidence is. We now know that the decision and the actual actions to bomb Iraq occurred in July of 2002, before we ever had a U.N. resolution or before the Congress ever authorized it. It was an operation called Southern Focus, and the only guidance that the military — or the guidance that the military had from Rumsfeld was keep it below the CNN line. His specific words. The evidence that we’ve already —
AMY GOODMAN: Keep it below what?
COL. SAM GARDINER: The CNN line. In other words, I don’t want this to appear on CNN, okay? That was his guidance to the military, you can begin to bomb Iraq, but don’t let it appear on CNN. You’re catching your breath.
AMY GOODMAN: Yeah.
COL. SAM GARDINER: I think the same thing has happened, and the evidence — let me give you two or three evidences. First of all, the Iranians in their press have been writing now for almost a year that the United States is involved inside Iran conducting and supporting those who conduct military operations, attacks on military convoys. They’ve even accused the United States of shooting down a couple airplanes inside Iran. Okay, so there’s that evidence from their side.
I was in Berlin three weeks ago, sat next to the Iranian ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency, and I asked him a question. I read these stories about Americans being involved in there, and how do you react to that? And he said, oh, we know they are. We’ve captured people who are working with them, and they’ve confessed. So, another piece of evidence.
Let me give you a couple more. Seymour Hersh, in his New Yorker article, said that there are Americans in three locations operating inside Iran. Another point. We know that there is a group in Iraq, a Kurdish group called the Party for Free Life in Kurdistan, that crosses the border from Iraq into Iran, and they have taken credit for killing numbers of revolutionary guard military people. And the interesting part about that is, you know, we tell the Syrians, ‘Don’t let that happen. Don’t let people come across the border and stir things up in Iraq,’ but we don’t seem to be putting any brakes on on this unit. So, you know, the evidence is pretty strong that the pattern is being followed.
Now, the question that really follows from that is “Who authorized that?” See, there is no congressional authorization to conduct combat operations against Iran. There are a couple of possibilities. One of them is that it’s being justified under the terrorism authorization that occurred in 2001. The problem with that is that you would have to prove a connection to 9/11. I don’t think you can do that with Iran. The second possibility is that it’s being done under the War Powers Act. I don’t want to get too technical, but the War Powers Act would require the President to notify the Congress 60 days after the use of military force or invasion or putting military forces in a new country under that legislation, and the President hasn’t notified the Congress that American troops are operating inside Iran. So it’s a very serious question about the constitutional framework under which we are now conducting military operations in Iran.

Posted by: b real | Apr 17 2006 19:00 utc | 18