Listen to the drums:
From the Times (London), Sept. 3: The Pentagon has drawn up plans for massive airstrikes against 1,200 targets in Iran, designed to annihilate the Iranians’ military capability in three days, according to a national security expert.
Alexis Debat, director of terrorism and national security at the Nixon Center, said last week that US military planners were not preparing for “pinprick strikes” against Iran’s nuclear facilities. “They’re about taking out the entire Iranian military,” he said.
Debat was speaking at a meeting organised by The National Interest, a conservative foreign policy journal. He told The Sunday Times that the US military had concluded: “Whether you go for pinprick strikes or all-out military action, the reaction from the Iranians will be the same.” It was, he added, a “very legitimate strategic calculus”.
President George Bush intensified the rhetoric against Iran last week, accusing Tehran of putting the Middle East “under the shadow of a nuclear holocaust”. He warned that the US and its allies would confront Iran “before it is too late”.
One Washington source said the “temperature was rising” inside the administration…
Before it’s too late, we have to stop this. Before it’s too late, the Democratic Presidential wannabes – ALL of them – have to start toning down their rhetoric, especially Senators Clinton and Obama. Knock it off, you two. You’re part of the reason that “the temperature is rising.” Stop trying to show everybody how “tough” you are. Real leadership in this case would involve finding a creative way to tamp this down and find a peaceful resolution. The kind that actually works and lasts. Rattling your cardboard sabers doesn’t help.
But, then again, my problem is that I can see this attack coming, as part of a Bush/Cheney plan to help get a Republican elected next year. More of the fear-mongering we’ve come to expect. War without end, as Keith Olbermann said tonight.
Or am I just being cynical?
(Marjorie Cohn at The Huffington Post writes more on this here.)
Filed under: News & commentary, Peace testimony, Politics
Dave,
Just a quick note to say welcome back and that I’ve returned you to Jr. Poobah status on my blogroll. I’ll be stopping in more regularly again.
COOL! Thanks, Pooh-dude!
[...] he’s finished the one he’s already got going. According to the Times in London (h/t to QuakerDave), the Pentagon has plans for “massive airstrikes against 1,200 targets in Iran, designed to [...]
Oh I love the followup to yesterday’s post. Did you plan it that way?
Obama and Hillary, I believe, are planning on another attack on American soil, are “positioning” themselves based on that, just like the Repubs. It’s pathetic.
It wasn’t planned, no. But the story just handed me the idea, so it’s kinda hard to say “no.”
I don’t know if these two are planning another 9-11. I would be more concerned with the Bushies doing something – or letting something happen like they did the last time – as an excuse to declare martial law and cancel the election, something Bush has already aligned his ducks to do.
Especially if Clinton/Obama or Edwards are leading in the polls. Which they will be.
I wish I could say I thought you were being overly cynical, QD. I can’t say that. At all. We are one terrorist attack away from the end of democracy, and we have just the leaders who would, obviously, it seems to me, be willing to do that.