Guardian: "Cheney pushes Bush to act on Iran"

By: Lowell
Published On: 7/16/2007 10:51:03 AM

According to the British newspaper The Guardian,"[t]he balance in the internal White House debate over Iran has shifted back in favour of military action before President George Bush leaves office in 18 months."

The shift follows an internal review involving the White House, the Pentagon and the state department over the last month. Although the Bush administration is in deep trouble over Iraq, it remains focused on Iran. A well-placed source in Washington said: "Bush is not going to leave office with Iran still in limbo."

In other words, it sounds pretty much like BushCheney have decided to take military action against Iran's nuclear program before they leave office.  Hell, why not?  It's not like Bush's and Cheney's popularity can go any lower, after all.

What kind of firepower can the United States bring to bear against Iran?  According to the Guardian report:

Almost half of the US's 277 warships are stationed close to Iran, including two aircraft carrier groups. The aircraft carrier USS Enterprise left Virginia last week for the Gulf. A Pentagon spokesman said it was to replace the USS Nimitz and there would be no overlap that would mean three carriers in Gulf at the same time.

That's a lot of firepower, no doubt, and the Iranians would be almost helpless to stop it in any conventional way (terrorism's a different story, after the fact). 

Despite all the ominious talk, the Guardian reports that "No decision on military action is expected until next year" and that, in the meantime, diplomacy - such as it is - will continue.  However, the bottom line in the Gurdian report is that "Mr Bush and Mr Cheney [do] not trust any potential successors in the White House, Republican or Democratic, to deal with Iran decisively," and are likely to take some sort of action before they leave office.

Get ready for $200 per barrel oil and $9 per gallon gasoline! (great news for BushCheney's best friends, ExxonMobil and Saudi Arabia, by the way)

Comments



It's ok, though, just "Feel Good!" (Lowell - 7/16/2007 11:03:52 AM)


Sneaking in a quasi-resolution (KathyinBlacksburg - 7/16/2007 12:37:45 PM)
As Senator James Webb clarified, the language and trickery endemic in this administration and its supporters has led to yet another deception of Americans.  Republicans slipped into the language of the resolution instructing General Petraeus a "whereas" to include that we are "in a proxy war with Iran."

Here we go again.  Now Bush has conned us into a pretend war resolution against Iran.  Personally, I don't accept this as a real war resolution.  And I trust that our side of the aisle will refuse to go along with it the fraud in lieu of a real resolution.  If not, we are collectively up the creek.

The CIA has claimed that "Al Qaeda in Iraq" is the fifth (ie last) on a list of five causes of the violence in Iraq.  In other words, the importance and the numbers do not rise to the level of a "proxy war."

As Webb suggested, the administration is making things worse there.  And yet it says we have made progress.

PS Webb was outstanding on Meet the Press.  However, Russert gave Graham the most face/camera time.



Now that would be stupid (J.R. - 7/16/2007 2:08:04 PM)
If there is any truth to this rumor at all, you guy's might be onto something with this whole impeachment thing.


You might want to read this - (Bubby - 7/16/2007 2:16:28 PM)
By Paul Roberts, Reagan's asst. sec. of Treasury.
Unless Congress immediately impeaches Bush and Cheney, a year from now the US could be a dictatorial police state at war with Iran...


I see a real pattern here in Kentucky and other states (Nick Stump - 7/16/2007 5:36:44 PM)
I'm trying to keep my nose to the ground here in Kentucky.  Both of the aspiring Democratic candidates for the 08 race have asked me, "how do I get in touch with Jim Webb."  I think everyone running in 2008 wants to be like Jim.  He's delivered a whole reality-based, tough, born fighting type leadership nearly everyone wants to emulate in any manner they can.  Bottom line is Jim Webb threw himself on a hand grenade and if most aspiring politicians want to "be like Jim", they better start talking about economic fairness, incarceration and a ton of those poor people issues Webb is so familiar with.  It's not going to be enough to put a blue ribbon on your car.


Something wicked this way comes (Rebecca - 7/16/2007 5:39:31 PM)
Yes,

I've heard that the only thing which has kept Bush from bombing Iran thus far is the fact that Laura was staying in a local hotel and Bush was hanging out with Condi. Condi is against the bombing. Now I have read that Laura is back and so Condi is back in the shadows.

I have heard that insiders know Cheney is trying to do an end run around Bush on this, but now that Condi is back in her office it may be easier to get Bush on board. All the pieces are in place for a bombing of Iran as well as a declaration of martial law. If you think about it the only way they could probably get away with bombing Iran would be to declare martial law because you can imagine the protests which would occur if this did happen.

Are we prepared for what may be necessary if this happens? Do we have the courage, guts, or other necessary organs to prevent the completion of the coup d'etat?