When will people understand that stopping a nuclear war with Iran will prevent nuclear winter and thus halt global warming....

I am not sure Gates is entirely against attacking Iran - All I have heard is rhetoric supporting the Bush regime.

At least the people in the Military have some spine left. Some of them anyway - and that is more than you can say for Colin Powell, who is a West Indian by Birth(Jamaica or Trinidad? I forget).

Shame on him.

is bush stopped in his tracks? hardly. he has a hardon for Iran and his administration wants its pound of flesh.

Bush is not stopped in his tracks. Israel, as a proxy, will do the U.S.'s job of bombing Iran.

Don't be lulled in by hints such as this. The Neocons will be in there fighting for what they think is all theirs. And they will be in there fighting and chipping for as long as we let them. We must be vigilant and try to stop them wherever and whenever!!!!!!

If the CIA, via Hayden and the military via Gates are against the war, who is carrying out these "covert ops" in Iran....Blackwater...Cheney...Barbara bush...Osama bin Laden...Delta whatever...anybody know? Actually, does anyone know who is really pulling the strings? It couldn't be bush...he doesn't even know what and where the strings are. Maybe his "HANDLERS" know...let's ask them!! Nothing like transparency and accountability in those higher echelons. Maybe the Rothchilds are in Iran trying to buy the entire country...making them an offer they can't refuse.

There are 400 days 'til Jan. 20, 2009…

Chris, I admire your resolve to withhold paying taxes if US invades Iran. But that's a rough road for many of us, even though great numbers of us would love to depleat the tresury. Another route may be more effective and less hazardous. How about people make a "mistake" on their tax calculations, pay treasury lesss, force treasury to spend huge amounts of man hours trying to unscrable millions of tax returns, use up IRS funds, short the treasury millions of dollars for war funding, maybe get Fed to offer a loan, force Congress to extend current loan cap . . . ah, so many good things might happen. I mean, Bush govt already believes, with some credence, that Americans are stupid, so why not reinforce their mantra and use it as our defense and achieve a rebellion against the govt using the govt's long arm of theft and oppression as the means. Have a reverse withholding tax.

Oh, golly,gee, yeah looks like I made a mistake. So sorry, the checks in the mail along with notices to others like me and the media (some media are checking to see if they still have cajones and might be suportive or even, show support for the movement before the govt takes over their operations) and make tax mistakes, too. Oh, gee, I did send out several email. I didn't know that was against any law to speak freely.

You know, Americans are dumb enough to make silly mistakes. Ah, but to challenge authority directly would be to play "their" game, and the odds are on their side, and martyrs, like messengers, are witnessed but seldome supported. Oh, my, wasn't he a brave combatant, and such a struggle he put up,so, will they use panthers in the next venue?

You are doing great work, Chris. Thank you.

Holyb moleyholy27@yahoo.com

Time for Fallon, Casey, and Powell to launch a coup aimed at arresting the traitors currently holding our country hostage to their insanity. Should be easy pickins - it's not like anyone is going to stand in defense of the Cheneybush dictatorship.

Better yet - storm the f**king ranch for Christmas and perp walk the Loonitary Decider to an undisclosed location before he kills again. Just the present American needs...

Bush and Cheney do not need a rational excuse for invading another country. Why are we in Iraq? Again, why are we in Iraq? More pertinent is: Will Halliburton and other private contractors make big money by invading Iran. Will invading Iran give the oil companies more control over Iranian oil or shipping routes? It's that simple. Blood for oil and money. Congress cannot stop Bush. No more than Hitler could have been stopped. The neo-cons and Israel (with its own little concentration camp of 1.4 million) are out of control. Ironic isn't it?

Cheney and Bush are undoubtedly SULKING over their latest slap-down on the Iran issue.

It's always funny, because so true, reading experts who say that Bush can be expected to act like a baby now. This is our government: two great apes with machine guns boo-booing anything anybody says that they don't like...bouncing up and down on their haunches, shaking their fists: "We want blood! We want blood! Murder! Murder! In Jesus' name! In America's name! Whatever! We want Blood!" God help the United States as its "leaders" gorge themselves on the flesh of its citizens and the citizens of other nations. God help us all.

We have the ability to live in peace.

It would be naive, nay, foolish, to believe that the Bush/Cheney cabal give two shits about the NIE. They are on track.

"Bush called on Iran on Tuesday to explain why it had a secretive nuclear-weapons program."

"Bush also asked Iran how long they had been beating their wives for..."

PORCUPINE, we are in Iraq because Osama bin Ladin was in Afganastan or Pakastan.

I believe Chris Hedges has a good bunch of points and he is very well informed and knowledgable. Bush may be snookered, but we all know his brain, ~Cheney and the White House speech writers~, will maintain the elaborate bullshit.

Then too, there could be another planned Gulf Of Tonkin Incident to set it off. I doubt Isreal would initiate any attack against Iran again. If they do there is going to be a war in the Mid-East that will rival the beginning of WW-2 and they know it. They may be crazy, but they aren't stupid.

Yes, I think we stopped him, The Intelligence of the USA which includes Generals.

If an unpopular Lame duck orders a war that the military already says aint gonna happen, the lame duck wins... Right? I don't think so.

In just one more year the Decider will be the Hider without the Troops to hide behind.

the Emperor with out any clothes will be a naked ex Emperor.

So now the fearful will say the decider will cancel the elections... OK but that will not get the generals to love him anymore will it ?.... That will just be the signal that the 2nd Revolutionary War is a go! The armed one.

There are many ways to live a life without funding nuclear weapons and war by paying taxes to the Federal Government of the United States. Farming can usually be done without showing much of a profit, for example.

The Rev. Sloan Coffin often said, "There are two ways to be wealthy in this world. One is to have a lot of money and the other is to have few needs."

The second way is more dependable.

Impeachment is the safest way to prevent the war in Iran from taking place. We need different leadership in the Democratic Party in Congress. Who chose these accomplices of the Bush/Cheney criminals anyway?

Pelosi and Reid have to go. They are firmly in the grip of whatever black forces rule through the so called "intelligence" community. It is truly sad that Reid is choosing to advance the bill on telecom immunity passed by the "Intelligence" committee instead of the one from Judiciary which did not contain the retroactive immunity language.

I am surprised Wall Street and others don't see the threat to them being able to do business the compromising of the U.S. communications networks represents. Business secrets will be going out the back door with corrupt officials and some will have access to everyone else's business secrets - at a price.

Strange days are here indeed when we look to a "Seven Days in May" scenario to save our country.

The Ohio Secretary of State, a newly elected Democrat, has just released the findings of a $1.9 million study that shows incontrovertibly that John Kerry actually won in Ohio in 2004. That the Ohio election, and therefore, the U.S. Presidency, was stolen through illegal activity in 2004.

Impeach Now!

I just hope to God there are men of strength of character, and have the courage to stop these petulant madmen from ordering an Iran attack.

Gen. Michael V. Hayden, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates and Adm. William Fallon, we are calling on you to save America.

And when you have stared them down, and said NO, you WILL NOT use our military to carry out your BLOOD FOR OIL agenda; make sure you arrest these murderous criminals, and hand them over to the Hague.

Thank you,

The American's

Of course I recall that General MacArthur told Truman that China would never get involved in the Korean Police Action. Mac was a very smart cookie. He wasn't always right though.

Wars have been started over very simple things and stupid mistakes. Look how close we were to an atomic war with Russia during the Cuban Missile Crisis. That came within ten minutes of Doomsday. We had 80 B-52s near Russia's borders, ready to eradicate them and another 420 B-52s on full ready alert, all could be airborne in 15 minutes, the refueling calls coming in over Spain that fateful day were mind boggling.

Bush is capable of anything, and he honestly believes, he is taking the word of HIS God, and it's his destiny to save all of mankind. ~Wow~, scary. But I think Chris here is correct. ___ let us hope so.

Although I strongly hope, of course, that he does NOT attack Iran, perhaps if he does the world will finally step in and seek to extradite him for war crimes. He already richly deserves that fate.

I think I see Cheney's next move. He will declare that Iran must be attacked because, by not immediately surrendering and subjecting itself to US control and plunder, it is driving the US bankrupt by provoking people like him to constantly increase the US military budget to meet the Iranian threat that he cannot keep himself from exaggerating. And only by going to war and removing the reasons for the overhyped threat can we finally cut our defense expenditures and balance our budget. Or something like that.

Actually, it is kind of difficult to predict the vicious lunatic ravings of a diseased mind like Dick's.

Frank 1569 and Jim Glover -

Be careful what you wish for.

If the current prevailing faction of the black ops boys can draft, circulate, and threaten to publicly release a revised NIE in order to prevent an outbreak of war today, then next year's spooks and Pentagon big shots can conspire to use the same partisan techniques to start a war in Iran or somewhere else tomorrow. Once that camel sticks its nose into the tent political decisionmaking, it will come in all the way and be really tough to put back out.

Kem Patrick -

The best now declassified account of the Tonkin Gulf fiasco that I've seen holds that our Navy guys while conducting clandestine ops in North Vietnamese waters mistook sonar blips for a torpedo attack and reacted back accordingly. LBJ and others in Washington accepted at face value that Hanoi had actually attacked US naval forces, and there was a bipartisan stampede of politicians to support the use of force resolution as a response to this nonexistent provocation.

I say remember the Maine. With so many hi tech forces prepositioned in the Persian Gulf, surrounded by so many different armed factions each with so many different axes to grind, all it takes is a major accident, or some trigger happy guys near the bottom of the command heirarchy to get jumpy, and the situation can escalate fast, beyond control, to take on a life of its own.

And as to Hedges -

I certainly hope he's right about Hayden, Gates, Fallon and Casey standing tall to save the nation from Armageddon. But that's still a slender reed to lean upon in such chaotic and highly perilous times.

Moreover, as an institutional matter the fate of the republic is bleak if we must rely upon truth telling spooks or pacifist sympathizers within the Pentagon to keep the nation out of war.

It's only a matter of time. For every Hayden, there's been a Bill Casey, Allen Dulles, or James Woolsey, and for every Fallon, several more Curtis LeMays. It is simply the nature of the military-industrial-national security complex beast that it attracts the best and brightest and baddest of the warrior wannabes, and that giant bureaucracy will tilt even more heavily to the jingoistic right now that the Bush regime has had eight years to purge its middle ranks of nonbelievers.

Time to take the toys away from the boys.

Bill from Saginaw

Stopped? Hardly. The CIA (and by implication, all intelligence agencies) have been knackered by the CIA-tapegate scandal.

On the one hand, I agree with Chris Hedges that the Bush agenda for Iran was not stopped by the NIE report. On the other hand, I do not think that it was the intention of Bush & Co to attack Iran--at least in the near future.

First, there are too many negatives to attacking Iran. Earlier this year, 5 top generals and admirals threatened to resign if such an attack took place. Not so long ago, Richard Holbrooke echoed similar sentiments saying that there is just too much opposition from the military to such an attack (http://www.counterpunch.org/berg11272007.html). Much of the concern felt by Pentagon officials deals with our military already being spread too thin. In addition, along with the NIE report, Bush has lost much of the capital he gained just for being the President during 9-11. In addition, there is the Biden threat of impeachment proceedings if the President does press on with attacking Iran.

Second, there are positives to Bush's saber rattling. Just by getting people to think about the possibility of an attack helps increase oil prices, distracts Americans from the threat posed to our democracy by Bush and corporations, and helps people lean toward selecting an authoritarian for the next President. Both Huckabee and Clinton, the two leading contenders, are authoritarian type leaders though I must say that for a Republican, Huchabee is authoritarian-lite.

With what they are getting in return already, why risk calamity?

Bill from Saginaw December 17th, 2007 2:41 pm -- "I certainly hope he's right about Hayden, Gates, Fallon and Casey standing tall to save the nation from Armageddon. But that's still a slender reed to lean upon in such chaotic and highly perilous times."

Sad but true. Unfortunately, it appears that slender reeds and faint hopes are the only ones left to cling to -- unless someone can come up with a way to revive the founding fathers and their revolutionary brand of patriotism, that is. I don't see much likelihood of any similar spirit arising amongst today's apathetic consumer generation of 'loyal' Americans. Instead, there seems to be a very broad consensus for 'working within' a totally corrupt system and that any real resistance would be futile -- not to mention inconvenient.

It never stops, just changes what it looks like.

Who is legal to arrest the pres?
Can a DC cop arrest the president?
Obviously these guys are going to do whatever they cant get away with.
And congress won't do anything about them.
And they won't quit on their own accord.
so
How do we enforce the law?
Who would do the arresting?

Why is it not that simple?

WE NEED TO FIND A WAY TO SUPPORT THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL AND HELP THEIR SECURITY WITHOUT ENCOURAGING BUSH-LIKE ELEMENTS IN THEIR GOVERNMENT. I HAVE NO IDEA HOW TO DO THIS. BASHING ISRAEL AND ENCOURAGING ISRAELIS AND JEWS TO CIRCLE THEIR WAGONS (BELIEVE ME, I SEE MY LIBERAL JEWISH FRIENDS DOING THIS) IS NOT THE ANSWER.

THE GOVERNMENT OF ISRAEL IS NOT THE PEOPLE JUST LIKE GEORGE BUSH DOES NOT REPRESENT ME. WE NEED TO REACH OUT TO BOTH JEWS AND PALESTINIANS. AND IRANIANS AND IRAQIS AND US SOLDIERS FOR THAT MATTER. ESPECIALLY WOUNDED SOLDIERS WHO NEED HELP.

IT'S A CLASS WAR. BUT THEY MAKE US THINK IT'S NOT.

Bush was moving on to North Korea last I saw ---

What Cheney and PNAC are doing is probably the question?

And, I agree . . .

QUOTE:
Claudius: Bush is not stopped in his tracks. Israel, as a proxy, will do the U.S.'s job of bombing Iran.UNQUOTE

We have been using right-wing religious fanatics in Israel since Nixon armed them.

It seems to me that Bush is as crazy as Hitler was in his late 1944 days. I see not where this calamity will end. Read Mein Kampf. No joke.

FLEURON, indeed it's no joke,

Preston Bush, George's grandfather, supported Hitler with tons of money, before and during the Second World War. Preston Bush, Kellog and some other high rollers, attempted an armed overthrow of the Rossevelt administration. Those once secret documents are now available for study.

President Bush is following the script written by Hitler to the letter, except he is attempting to avoid the mistakes Hitler made. If Bush declares martial law, look out!

To BILL FROM SAGINSW. The last best information I heard about the Gulf Of Tonkin Incident, was the Captain of the US destroyer involved, who stated that the entire incident was a put up farce, a lie and it never happened. He was on a program televised by the History channel not too long ago.

Meanwhile,back at the dusty farm called Afganistan,those young bearded killers are riding again..high,wide and handsome only to each other.

Fueled by our lack of a REAL mop-up operation(not the bloody,hopeless skirmish's our valiant but unaided soldiers by any back-up on our part)...the beleaguered citizens are yelling,"THE'RE BACK"...and indeed they are.Up to the murderous tricks of yore..and we are not listening...or even looking in their direction.

This is NOT a trumped up machination on the part of Puppet George or Puppetmaster Dick.
This situation in Afganistan MUST get our highest priorities...Will it?
With enough written pressure(wake up media people and start a ruckus)MAYBE.

Let BLACKWATER earn it's millions.Send THEM to Afganistan.They have the equipment and temperment to do the job,while we get our soldiers OUT OF THERE.

We won't really know until Jan 09. I never thought they would actually invade Iraq. I believed it was just posturing, and maybe some of the democrats who voted to authorize the invasion also believed that.

I have been breathing easier since the NIE was released, but never say never as long as these anti-intellectual ideologues are running the show.

Either way the world will go on, but we have to start acting on global warming.

The most salient point made in the article by Chris Hedges resides in the last sentence:

"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."
[Ray Close, a retired Middle East specialist for the CIA]

In fact we are now into the most dangerous period since the WTC was likely taken down by demolition charges, as part of some sort of inside job:

"Around 75 top professors and leading scientists believe the attacks were puppeteered by war mongers in the White House to justify the invasion and the occupation of oil-rich Arab countries."
-from The Daily Mail, December 17/07

If you connect the dots up to Bush requesting, and getting, permission from Congress to declare martial law in the U.S. whenever he feels it is justified, I think logic compels you to contemplate "9/11... They're Back". Part II.

This time it will be multiple hits, at least one of them "spectacular", and of course if its a dirty-bomb container ship in Portland Oregon or somesuch, chemical suited federal agents will come up with Parsi texts and traceble Iranian material on what is left of the ship... probably within hours. Then its martial law for the U.S., massive bombing runs on Iran, and the lights go out on America.

The NIE, the dismal voter poll results, world opinion, a reality based assessment of what an attack on Iran will DO to the world economy and Middle East... all this does not matter a damn to a cabal of criminals who might--just might--face war crime charges over Iraq if they do not launch this last crazed Strangelovian scenario.

There are likely shadowy figures behind Bush and Cheney you've never even heard of--behind Olmert as well--and a dedicated cabal of black ops people in both countries coordinating the "sound and light show" for America before the curtain drops with martial law. They did it for 9/11 in New York and the gutting of the U.S. Constitution since then has gone swimmingly. There is no threatening anti-war movement, the people are apathetic, and a good jolt of fear in the "homeland" will see passing "glitches" like the NIE pass into the shredders in the Ministry of Truth.

We will seal our borders up here in Canada, as was secretly agreed in Montebello Quebec, you Americans will get the draft, a huge list of "anti-patriots" will go into KBR holding pens already constructed, and its all going to be far worse than Orwell's prophetic "1984". Canada will be grabbed for its oil and water within a few years.

God help us all. Only a US military putsch can stop the rat-bastards if that is the plan.

DR, __ very well put. __ BBR-001, also very well said.

I have to agree with Claudius on this one. If the Israeli government cannot get The U S to shill for them, there is nothing stopping them from attacking Iran. International law and public opinion has never been of any concern to that terrorist government. That is the second most dangerous government in the world after the U S government. Most of the neocons have demonstrated that their primary allegiance is to Israel and only secondarily to the U S A.

Considering all the damage that the US and Israel have accomplished in their reign of global terror and human suffering, I'm wondering why in the hell any reasonable person would even consider joining the military to support these failed governments and their policies?

Amerika under Bush is not worth dying for. Bring 'em on!

What if this has nothing to do at all about nuclear weapons....
Check out Web of Debt article:

http://www.webofdebt.com/articles/war-with-iran.php
It's an amazing 'wider lens' to this whole issue. Nuclear weapons and war is where they want you to look so you don't notice what's really happening.

I think they are just using this issue to set us up for a military coup. They are playing good-cop, bad-cop and you guys are falling for it.

George Wanker Bush, being The Supreme Punk that he is, must be enraged by the publication of this NIE. Nobody tell me where to head in, is his motto. He will now probably redouble his efforts to attack Iran.

The answer to that question is simple. Not as long as the CAPITULATING Democrats and Republicans are in control. Bush would have never gotten even a moment at Iraq were it not for the corrupt Congress that has existed for the past 27 years since RAYGUN !

If anyone thinks that a silly NIE will make this administration change its plans, then he/she is living in a fantasy world. Oh, the consequences of such a misadventure might come home to roost sooner rather than later, but no one will ever be held accountable, or be punished for starting Bush's next war.

So if RAYGUN's legacy is STARWARS,

What's bu$Hit'$ legacy going to be?

Putin has changed the game. This morning, after this article was published, Putin announced that Russia has shipped enriched uranium to Iran. The Russians are building Iran's nuclear reactor and offer security guarrantees and to monitor the uranium as well as promise complete openess to UN inspections.

Putin has placed Russia's feet in Iran and counters Bush by saying Russia will ensure compliance and security issues. A check but not checkmate to Bush. However, this is also a line in the sand and Putin has taken sides, not surprisingly as Iran is literally in his backyard.

Putin has both forced the issue and offered a counter proposal to Bush's scenario. Bush responded by saying Iran does not need to enrich then with Russian enriched uranium.

Will Bush and Olmert accept Putin's assurances and security and will that be sufficient to defuse the issue in light of Iran's previous insistence that they will build enrichment facilities of their own?

What is noticeable though is Putin places Bush's chess (WW3) move in check but it is not checkmate. The world seems to be seeing Bush as a rogue and attempts to avert armaggedon.

Let us hope that sanity prevails in this... I mean ... if you are interested in preventing WW3. It seems people here and everywhere see the Bush (USA) much differently than ever before.

To say Bush has influence is less true than saying Bush has a lot of nukes. Is that all we have left is the big one? But otherwise we are not directing events with diplomacy and influence? That is Bush.

But there is Putin now too.

If you are interested.

He's stopped if the Dem's have balls?

Only one piece of evidence was found today amidst the wreckage and bodies in the Green Zone: a small burnt metallic tag with the words, "Made in Iran".

oh hubcap, the people of israel are very much the government of israel, the people of israel were so in favor of the destruction of lebanon last summer! how can you possibly say there is a difference betw them and their government. the only reason they are unhappy with olmert is because he wasn't able to destroy lebanon sufficiently.
just like most americans have turned against the neocon's iraq war bec that has turned out badly.

no more excuses either for the israelis or americans.

On the one hand we have idiot president who has become accustomed to getting anything that he may desire. He is also surrounded and protected by powerful people lacking any moral capabilities, a talent required for most appointments, I might add.
On the other hand we have a Congress of two parties that just happens to deliver the goods. I have nothing to say about the supreme court.

Any questions?

By the way, quite recently he finally got to attack Iraq from the north, through Turkey. Mission accomplishes again and again and again!

Very interesting observations Bugs BBunny.