Monday, April 10, 2006
Nuke 'Em Til We Win
I can't add much to what other bloggers are saying about the New Yorker article that appeared over the weekend, in which journalist Seymour Hersh reported that He Who Shall Not Be Named and his administration are planning an attack on Iran, which will reportely include nuclear weapons. Hersh claims that senior military officials think the whole thing is crazy. There's a story out this morning, "U.S. Tries to Dampen Talk of Iran Strike," that represents an attempt to subvert the Hersh story, but don't buy it. The administration and its fluffers can claim all they want that an attack is still at the "if" stage, but based on the evidence of past experience, it clearly isn't. The only question left regarding an attack on Iran is a "when," and the answer is so simple that even an idiot like me can see it: The attack will be timed in such a way as to maximize the Republicans' chances in the November election. If Bush was willing to prosecute a war in Iraq to get reelected in 2004, there's no doubt he'll be perfectly happy to kill tens of thousands of Iranians (and as many American soldiers and pilots as required) to keep from getting impeached in 2007.
A thread at Think Progress, in response to Hersh's appearance on CNN this morning, is debating how military officers might respond to orders in such an attack. It's interesting to contemplate the spectacle of the senior generals who would give the initial orders telling Bush, "We won't do this." Presumably, such insubordination would require Bush to sack them publicly, thus opening the curtain on some mighty entertaining political theater. But as a mechanism for stopping the attacks, it wouldn't work--just as Nixon found somebody who would fire the Watergate prosecutor in 1973, Bush would find somebody further down the chain of command to execute his orders, no matter how bugfuck insane they might be. And so I say again: If the decision to attack Iran has been made, then Iran will be attacked, and it will be timed in such a way as to maximize the Republicans' chances in the November election. I'd bet my house on it.
I can't add much to what other bloggers are saying about the New Yorker article that appeared over the weekend, in which journalist Seymour Hersh reported that He Who Shall Not Be Named and his administration are planning an attack on Iran, which will reportely include nuclear weapons. Hersh claims that senior military officials think the whole thing is crazy. There's a story out this morning, "U.S. Tries to Dampen Talk of Iran Strike," that represents an attempt to subvert the Hersh story, but don't buy it. The administration and its fluffers can claim all they want that an attack is still at the "if" stage, but based on the evidence of past experience, it clearly isn't. The only question left regarding an attack on Iran is a "when," and the answer is so simple that even an idiot like me can see it: The attack will be timed in such a way as to maximize the Republicans' chances in the November election. If Bush was willing to prosecute a war in Iraq to get reelected in 2004, there's no doubt he'll be perfectly happy to kill tens of thousands of Iranians (and as many American soldiers and pilots as required) to keep from getting impeached in 2007.
A thread at Think Progress, in response to Hersh's appearance on CNN this morning, is debating how military officers might respond to orders in such an attack. It's interesting to contemplate the spectacle of the senior generals who would give the initial orders telling Bush, "We won't do this." Presumably, such insubordination would require Bush to sack them publicly, thus opening the curtain on some mighty entertaining political theater. But as a mechanism for stopping the attacks, it wouldn't work--just as Nixon found somebody who would fire the Watergate prosecutor in 1973, Bush would find somebody further down the chain of command to execute his orders, no matter how bugfuck insane they might be. And so I say again: If the decision to attack Iran has been made, then Iran will be attacked, and it will be timed in such a way as to maximize the Republicans' chances in the November election. I'd bet my house on it.
