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Is Bush Stopped in His Tracks on Iran?
The release of the National Intelligence Estimate concerning Iran's nuclear status marks the latest in a series of assaults by the Pentagon and the intelligence community against the war posturing of the Bush administration.
President Bush, seven years after assuming power, may finally be halted in his tracks - not by a resurgent Democratic opposition, sagging opinion polls, or an organized antiwar movement, but by the entrenched power structure in Washington he set out to emasculate. The tug-of-war between those within the administration who advocate as many as 1,000 air strikes on suspected Iranian nuclear facilities and those who oppose an attack will be the most dramatic battle of the final Bush years.
Director of Central Intelligence Gen. Michael V. Hayden and Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates have turned out to be formidable foes to the Bush agenda of preemptive war in the Middle East. Gates, along with Adm. William Fallon, commander of U.S. Central Command, and Gen. George Casey, the Army's new chief of staff, are openly opposed to a war with Iran. And they will not, unlike their predecessors, permit the Bush White House to use cooked and fabricated intelligence to whip the country into war frenzy.
The effort by the vice president's office to change or suppress the NIE report, which was ready during the summer and stated that Iran had halted its attempt to develop nuclear weapons four years ago, has consumed the internal mechanisms of government for the last few weeks. The existence of the report did nothing to prevent either Bush or Vice President Cheney from asserting before it was made public that Iran was working to develop a nuclear weapon and could trigger, in the president's words, "World War III."
Bush called on Iran on Tuesday to explain why it had a secretive nuclear-weapons program, and he warned that "for the sake of world peace," no such efforts should be allowed to flourish.
"Iran is dangerous," Bush said after an Oval Office meeting with Italian President Giorgio Napolitano. "We believe Iran had a secret military-weapons program, and Iran must explain to the world why they had such a program."
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is also determined to prevent Iran from developing facilities that could produce a nuclear weapon. And Olmert insists Bush is on board, even if top U.S. generals and intelligence officials are not.
Repeatedly during Bush's presidency, the Israeli government, with strong backing from the White House, has turned to force rather than diplomacy to further Israeli interests in the Middle East. Israel unleashed a disastrous bombing campaign against Lebanon last year. This Sept. 6 it carried out air strikes against a Syrian facility that it said was meant to develop nuclear material. Israel has quarantined the 1.4 million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and imposed draconian cuts in electricity and fuel. During the Bush years, the effort to negotiate a solution to the Palestinian conflict has never gone beyond the photo opportunities that characterized the charade in Annapolis, Md. Israel, like Washington, prefers to speak to its adversaries in the language of violence. A strike on Iran fits neatly into this pattern.
"At the beginning of the month, as you know, the National Intelligence Council of the United States published its updated estimation of Iran's intentions and capabilities in the nuclear field," Olmert told the Israeli Institute for National Security Studies on Tuesday. "I attribute great importance to the declaration by the president of the United States, George Bush, that nothing has changed; Iran was and remains dangerous, and we must continue the international pressure with full force to dissuade Iran from its nuclear tendencies. I trust and am confident that the United States will continue to lead the international campaign to stop the development of a nuclear Iran."
White House lawyers conceivably could use the 2001 congressional authorization to use military force against Afghanistan and the 2002 authorization to use force against Iraq to justify an attack on Iran without going back to Congress for approval. The 2001 resolution gave the president the right to use force against the perpetrators of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and anyone who "harbored such organizations or persons." The 2002 resolution handed the president the power to defend the country against "the continuing threat posed by Iraq."
The allegations that Iran is involved in supporting and arming insurgents in Iraq, along with the designation of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist organization, could be twisted by White House lawyers to legitimize air strikes against Iran.
"This unexpected bump in the road has, in my opinion, stimulated the Bush administration to develop its own new rationale to justify what will in effect be a full-speed-ahead continuation of past and present policy toward Iran, almost as if the NIE issue had never intervened," said Ray Close, a retired Middle East specialist for the CIA.
The Bush White House has tried to use the report to assert that Iran remains intent on acquiring nuclear weapons and is a threat.
"Convinced that they have been viciously sabotaged by a partisan anti-Bush intelligence community, and desperate to justify the basic philosophy and doctrine that underlies their specific policies, these people are painfully wounded and thus in a dangerous frame of mind," Close said. "With hopes for a strengthened international sanctions regime fading, and no reasonable excuse available for launching an early preventive military attack, but with their pride deeply injured and their nerves sandpapered raw, I would not be surprised at all to see a heightened level of provocative and threatening rhetoric emanating from the White House in the months ahead."
The covert operations taking place in Iran, if they are stepped up, could provoke retaliatory acts by Iran against U.S. personnel or facilities in Iraq or the Gulf. Any action by Iran deemed by the Bush White House to be hostile to the United States or Israel could, Close argues, be instantly seized upon by the president to carry out air strikes against Iran. This could ignite a deadly chain reaction.
"I think the publication of this NIE, rather than cooling the atmosphere, as many analysts predict," Close warned, "is actually going to lead to a more dangerous and unstable situation in the region in the months and years ahead."
Chris Hedges, who graduated from Harvard Divinity School and was for nearly two decades a foreign correspondent for The New York Times, is the author of "American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America."
© Copyright 2007 Philly Online, LLC.
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93 Comments so far
Show AllYou might want to remember that even before the NIE report was made public, many of the Democrats helped Bush along his road to war with Iran by passing a resolution declaring some in the Iranian government a terrorist organization. And this was after everyone fell for Bush's lies about Iraq. This can be seen by Bush as giving him autorization to attack Iran.
Fool me once? Fool me twice and I'm complicit!
My opinion is to take whatever action Sen Joe Lieberman suggests. His advice will be well thought out, and fair and balanced. He is a great asset to the Democrats and the Nation. His support of Sen McCain for president shows his exceptional judgement in foreigh affairs.
If only Lieberman would take off those kneepads and stand up in front of Bush and wipe that stain off his lapel!
With a President like FDR making speeches like the one quoted above there it became necessary to trick the country into instituting term limits through a Constitutional Amendment so that would never happen again.
As Mr. Dulles once said about the American public after the Warren Commission report, Americans don't read. So the problem is not just with the NIE and the Cheney-Bush response. It's also with the popular media and the spin going on.
Freedom's Watch--
the organization that recently aired all the commercials urging Americans to give the surge a chance, and to condemn MoveOn for that "BetrayUs" ad--
has set a new goal of something in the neighborhood of 10 million dollars for an ad campaign supporting the administration's suspicions and concerns about Iran developing nukes.
Just imagine how easy it would be to raise 10 million for advertising if you were a fund-raiser for Freedom's Watch: Make a few phone calls to Blackwater, Haliburton, KBR, TITAN, CACI, Lockheed-Martin, etc. Give it to them straight:
You invest 1 million in our campaign, and you'll get back many times that in future profits from contracts. And Freedom's Watch will keep confidential its contributor list.
You fail to invest, then maybe the will of the people will win out, wars end early with diplomacy, and that well of future profits dries up.
It's a no-brainer. MoneyMoneyMoney.
You don't have to convince a majority of Americans to fear Iran with nukes. There will always be some Americans who are so cynical they don't care, don't participate, don't see any hope. There will also be many who are not cynical, but don't care, don't read the news, etc. Many of these can be made to pay attention with some little (or large) incident.
Or less than that. You just have to convince a portion of those who are paying any attention at all, and who are likely to do anything with the information. Look how easy it was for the Bush camp to convince many in the US that Republican demonstrators were very upset and wanted the vote counting to stop in 2000.
So make 'em fear Iran with nukes. It shouldn't be that hard. Progressive intelligencia should not underestimate their ability to accomplish this minor task.
Lieberman is nothing but a democrat for Israel willing to sacrifice absolutely anything to protect Israel and the US/Isreali military industrial/security complex. Here's what Senator Kennedy said today about the utter criminal activities of the Amerikan government:
"The President has said that American lives will be sacrificed if Congress does not change FISA. But he has also said that he will veto any FISA bill that does not grant retro-active immunity. No immunity, no FISA bill. So if we take the President at his word, he's willing to let Americans die to protect the phone companies". May I also include Israel?
And here's the real GOOD NEWS from afterdowningstreet.org: Gotta love those Italians.
"The people of the northern Italian city of Vicenza, with help from activists around Italy, the rest of Europe, and even in the United States, are continuing to block the proposed construction of a new U.S. military base on their soil."
The Bush regime is DEAD.
So was the Pheonix. ___ Watch out.
I think Iran looks to be off the table-for now, but not for the reasons people think (of course, it could be just a diversion).
We may have reached a deal with Russia and China over Iran that averted the WW III Bush kept on talking about. After the NIE report, China and Russia both announced deals with Iran over oil and nuclear. It's curious, that right after the NIE report, MSM seemed to switch the channel to Global Warming and Bali, a favorite theme for the left .
This carbon tax thing got me thinking. Our real leaders have long talked about a New World Order and the need for a global currency. A fiat currency like we have is obviously a disaster (check out solutions2 link). Going to a gold standard for a global currency makes no sense as there is not enough gold. What about a carbon standard based currency?. Could this be what Iran and Iraq, not to mention Afghanistan and the Balkans/Kosovo/Bosnia were all about. Securing access to the oil and gas and it's transportation routes to safeguard the vault? A carbon dollar can be redeemed for a given quantity of carbon based oil/gas, and the World Bank isses the currency and the tax paid to the UN.
What was the deal with China and Russia ? Who knows, maybe their position and status in the NWO, currency exchange rates (eg. rubles to carbon dollars).
Of course, before the critters go along with the idea, we still need to have a global depression or war to convince them, so what a convenience that the sub-prime crisis just happened to burst a bubble that could trigger a global meltdown. The Coincidence Theorists will insist on their coincidences of course.
The wild card is that the Zio/neo-cons may not be too happy about losing their seat at the helm of the ship headed towards the NWO.
A clash between the elite and a course correction could be 9/11 ugly. Hope the good guys win.
answer;NO .... his bottomless lust for ever more money and power must have been stroked and stoked,probably made george an offer he couldnt refuse......
answer:NO ...his bottomless lusts must have been stroked.must be an offer on somebody's table,that george just couldnt refuse...........
willybill,wow another human being that actually does his homework ! congrats....the only true words ever spoken by a bush "people think of my grandmother as a kindly little ole lady,but she is really 'ATILLA THE HUN !"it is entirely possible that by now,even the rothschild's call barbara,"BOSS"
The Mossad will probably do a little strike on Israel and then blame Iran and nuke it, and Bushy Wooshy (I can call him that -- he calls Putin "Pooty Poot") will jump in and help protect "poor little (nuclear armed) Israel" from the big, bad Iranians and just like that Bushy will have World War 3 and Iranian oil which he lusts for.
SERAPHICMOM -- You may already know that "BOSS" Barbara's maiden is Pierce, as in both 'Merill-Lynch Pierce Fener Smith' and ~ great^4 grandpop Franklin Pierce, the fourteenth President of the United States (1853-1857).
NSPIRE-you may already know that mildred pierce was a known and documented consort of allistar crowley and returned to the united states,(after consorting with crowley,pregnant with barbara........it is much more likely that barbara is the illegitimate daughter of alistar crowley-CHECK OUT THE PICTURES OF CROWLEY AND BARBARA AND SEE THE STARTLING RESEMBLANCE FOR YOURSELF...............
MIMI CcS, You say the Bali and Global warming problems are a favorite theme for the left.
I don't know whom it is that you surmise the "left" are, but if I beleve global warming is a far more serious problem than any other humanity faces, then I fit that catagory of being one of the 'LEFT'.
I also believe if Bush attacks Iran is a major problem and our coming depression is a major problem and our entire goverment is a major problem. I also believe our failing ifastructures, our broken economy and military are major problems. But the most serious problem ALL of humnanity faces, is the death of our ocean life.
The ONLY reason we are even able to breath, is because of a microscopic ocean plant life named phytoplankton, and we are destroying that life. If we don't stop it now, we won't be here to argue, or to discuss Bush and Iran or anything else. We have a few years at the most to correct the problem, perhaps a little as five years, and therefore Global warming and the acidity of our oceans should be a favorite subject for every human on this planet, left, right, or in between.
Here is a very brief link that explains it. http://whyplankton.com/
Who really gives a shit who Barbara's parent are?
I give a shit about my kids and theirs choking to death in the next five to ten years. Why don't you guys and gals get educated on the most serious problem facing humanity, and don't come out with that crap that all life on this planet was killed off before and Earth will survive even if we are all dead and gone.___ It don't have to happen again if we can prevent it and we can prevent it. It don't matter if Barbara's daddy was a baboon.
SERAPHICMOM — Wow, this is hideously dire and possibly despicably dissolute news.
Did the Barbarian "accidentally loose" any of the shrub's siblings (as Aleister is reputed of having sacrificed two of his own on the alter of evil)?
Perhaps the ultimate irony here is that the evilvolutionists made use of survival of the fittest paradigm, and Geo the shrubiest was the best that they could make for the beginnings of the new master race?
yes, nspire...quite dire indeed !!kem patrick doesnt 'get' it ,does he ?it somehow sheds a whole lotta light on the whole big shabang !i dont know,but geo. and barb's eldest(a daughter)did die.....
KEM -- The ocean's have given life several times back onto the abandoned shores of Earth, and will continue to do so.
Yes, I also deeply understand the eco-balance of the phytoplankton and the Earth's supply of Oxygen, and the possible fracture in symbiosis (if irreparably harmed) that would signal commencement of a massive die-off of much of that life we are familiar with. The potential severity of this crisis may yet also be found to be less than initially advertised.
I know a bit about supercomputer simulations and modeling, and fully appreciate that any tentative results must be peer reviewed and re-simulated with adaptable and enhanced models and data. These problems are so immensely complex and complicated, that even honestly motivated scientists still have vastly divergent thoughts and concerns (of where the weakest link is - besides the $hrubette - of which all agree that he's got that award solid as a brick).
With propaganda and critter mind control as the most paramount subject of our oligarchic gov't (even topping profits, that wouldn't exist, if the leash slipped), I retain a modest level of skepticism that we are yet again being played.
Peace Bro, the spirit will be undiminished regardless.
Perhaps bu$h_I has hidden plans to arrange bu$h_II's visit to the "highest" alter, for his just rewards?
I believe that male sacrifices (using their own sons, as Aleister did for his hideously wicked reasons) are considered vastly superior to "mere" female children.
I once purchased an extensive 4" thick Illuminati volume, that scared the crap out of me, such that I really should have burned it (but didn't out of a weird desire to pass 'knowledge' along to others). That book was my intro to Aleister, and although I had never even heard of him before that, and the book was distinctly positive in its slant of him - nonetheless I knew the EVIL of it that I had dangerously made inquiry of.
If I were in bu$h_I's jackboots, I'd go with anointing Arnold and planting the $hrub at Arlington (does he qualify?).
Would that be a net benefit for humankind? That's hardly likely.
I heard on either Air America or NovaM, that Barbara's dad is actually the guy on the box of "Quaker Oats". The resemblanc is uncanny! Check it out.
You just don't get it. The clues are obvious, it does not require a computer analysis to easily observe the obvious. The potential severity of our ocean'slife dying off is a FACT, ___ not a MAY-be.
I can blithly dream and 'imagine' the humanity who MAY have populated Mars may have posted on a website, that their oceans have given life back several times and will continue to do so. __ If so, they were wrong.
SARAPHICMOM
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/12/17/5867/?jal_edit_comments#comment-159393
SARAPHICMOM --
Haven't read you comments on other relevant (nazi) threads this day on CD, see these:
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/12/17/5862/?jal_edit_comments#comment-159305
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/12/17/5862/?jal_edit_comments#comment-159234
KEM -- I do "get" it, and hardly deny the possibility of calamity.
There are always ten thousand ways the Earth may perish, the question for you to consider is 'how likely this is compared to others?'
For example, Were you aware that ~ 98% of all of the Earth's TOTAL biomass weight is buried in the mud of our continental shelves, as microscopic wigglers?
MIKE -- bland boring cereal meets
blond goosestepping serial mass murderer.
The break-my-back-fast of chumpians
And what on earth, or the worms in the continental shelves mud, have to do with our future generations being able to breathe? That problem is not speculation.
You write. "The question I must consider is, how likely this is compared to others" ?
Could you please explain that comment so it is understandable? ( What do you mean by this, and others?)
What we all must consider is, "are we going to allow our ocean's life to die off"? For at the present time, they are dying off. That should be the MOST important subject and issue, for any who can think or reason. The future of a microscopic plant life, which is the most important life on this plantet for the existance of ALL other life are disappearing. I fear you didn't bother to read that link I offered. __ Oh well.
Edit please.___ Okay, thank you.
> ten thousand other ways that the Earth's life may perish from, besides death by lack of oxygen from too many dead blue-green plankton.
I did read some of that link, but it didn't convince me that I'm likely to die from that
Some of it? It's only two short paragraphs, it takes me exactly 31 seconds to read the entire paper.
http://www.whyplankton.com/ ___ Try again.
All 'anyone' needs to know, to realize that if the phytoplankton die off another 25%, everyone on Earth will suffocate, and you are not convinced! __ You need a break.
What happened to you? have you been waterboarded?
Yeah, being wrung and tossed out like trash after a 3 decade career kind of feels like torture to me. The break I need now is a new career, where I can learn to safely keep to the sidelines and respect those in authority - crap that's 0 for 3.
… and I did read those 2 paragraphs; didn't watch vids or click on links …
This is a good time to take a break nspire.Nothing happens between now and the New Year,except that Putin listened to all the pleas about not sending ANYTHING to Iran and then he did..
regroup....and crank the old motor up again.But don't look for safety,or an authority you can respect.It does not exist.
Stick to what your good at.Stick to what you enjoy.A winning combo!Make THAT happen!
and loose the word TRASH.It was the trash who did the tossing.
If you're trash, we have a new dictionary word that means very good.
P/S The two paragraphs were enough to convince me to study it further. The 90% figure is debateable, Jacques Costeau said 70%.
Thank you GRAYPANTHER and KEM -- I feel as though I was the worthy target of a terrorist attack on my colleagues' morale, and continually need to remind myself that being free of the stinking mess is best for all.
I do appreciate the heart felt responses, as it aids my cleansing off and clearing of a self-imposed veil of shame. I've sidled my recovery and healing from this traumatic shock alongside our collective ones, growing and weaving together my new narrative through connection with this remarkable community.
"We cannot live for ourselves alone. Our lives are connected by a thousand invisible threads, and along these sympathetic fibers, our actions run as causes and return to us as results"
- Herman Melville
I personally don't think Bush has the resources to attack Iran. He has squandered most of them in Iraq. He might not be smart enough to figure out he has painted himself in a corner. But, I am certain his handlers have. He only has weapons of war left to hit Iran with. He has pretty well decimated the Army and it's ability to fight. He has managed to do the same thing Hitler did spread himself to thin. The minute he hits Iran they will pour across the border into Iraq and he really will have a mess going. I personally don't think we have heard the last from the Sunni's and Shiite's there either. Iraq will explode again when evil forces has been unleashed like Bush managed to in 2003 they aren't going to give up the fight that easily and just go home. We are just seeing a respite before the storm breaks out again.
there's only one thing that will stop this asshole. a patriot on a grassy nole.
..and then we have Good Ole Dick(Remember Tricky Dick?)and after him the lady I call Loretta Young(for those of you who are too young to remember this classy,but stagey actress,she always made her appearance on her (early TV)show with a flourish of her swinging skirt and a big toothy grin)Nancy Pelosi.ARRRRRGH.The way to STOP The Smirking Chimp is to IMPEACH!NANCY AND HER GROUP DON'T HAVE THE BALLS.We don't have the troups to send back into Afganistan!!!..much less into Iran.Iraq is in the middle of their very own,up-front-and-personal civil war.Best bet????
Retire to the borders of that messy county to keep out the 'helpers' from Syria and Iran,and let em at it!!!
Inspire:
If you are distressed by anything external,
the pain is not due to the thing itself but to
your own estimate of it;and this you have
the power to revoke at any moment.
Marcus Aurelius
The way the world is today we all have to figure on at least three different shifts in our' careers'.
I am now on the 3rd.
Take heart and go for it!
"Be patient and achieve all things
Be impatient and achieve all things faster"
David M.Bader
Happy Holidays!
PS:You too Kim
GRAYPANTHER -- I shall proudly wear my "red badge of courage" and stare down the smarmy vicious incompetent blacklisting backstabbing wanna be dictators - and forgive them - realizing their own self-built prison of thought has worse impact of itself than anything I could image against them.
The ID_ten_Ts still think that hell is something that comes after life (substitute numeric "10" for ten).
Seasons Salutations Namaste
Yipes nspire....LOL....how fitting for both Bush and Cheney.