Dick Cheney, Iran, war

Barnett Rubin follows up his earlier post on the grim outlook for Cheney launching a war on Iraq in Saturday, Rollout to War with Iran: An Update Informed Comment Global Affairs blog 09/01/07.

One post he cites there is this one from reporter and Iraq War supporter George Packer, Test Marketing Interesting Times blog 08/31/07:

If there were a threat level on the possibility of war with Iran, it might have just gone up to orange. ...

It follows the pattern of the P.R. campaign that started around this time in 2002 and led to the Iraq war. The President’s rhetoric on Iran has been nothing short of bellicose lately, warning of “the shadow of a nuclear holocaust." ... When tensions are this high between two countries and powerful factions in both act as if hostilities are in their interest, war is likely to follow.

Packer picks his words carefully, apparently so that no one will think he's so wild-eyed liberal as to actually oppose the launching of another preventive war that is even more likely to be a disaster than the Iraq War he supports. But he does recognize that our "press corps" should be aggressively pursuing the real questions on this. They aren't doing it so far.


In his new post, Rubin points out an interesting little fact about one of the hard right's very favorite sayings, usually sourced (if at all) to Niccolò Macchiavelli:

"Let them hate us, so long as they fear us," comes not from Macchiavelli, but from the insane Roman Emperor Caligula.

On this topic, see also Do We Have the Courage to Stop War with Iran? by Ray McGovern, CommonDreams.org 09/02/07

Bush Puts Iran in Crosshairs by Ray McGovern, Antiwar.com 08/31/07.

Will President Bush bomb Iran? by Tim Shipman Daily Telegraph 02/09/2007.

For what it's worth, the Rupert Murdoch-owned Times of London, which regularly and wrongly reports that Israel is on the verge of attacking Iran, is also running this story, Pentagon 'three-day blitz' plan for Iran by Sarah Baxter 09/02/07.

Then there's this from AP, Iran reportedly bombs villages in northern Iraq MSNBC.com 09/01/07.

It is always possible that, despite their past record, that the Cheney-Bush administration is executed a finely-tuned high-wire balancing act combined military threats with diplomatic pressure to persuade Iran to cooperate with the administration's goal of no nuclear weapons production capability for Iran. For this administration to pull something like that off, there would have to be an explosion of competence unprecedented in the last seven years. But it's always theoretically possible.

Tags: cheney, dick cheney, iran war

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