'Obliterat'*ing Iran

That’s what Darth Vader, er, Dick Cheney and Hillary Rodham Clinton would like to do.

But a couple of people says Iran’s alleged nuclear capability and intentions are not so clear cut. Why the hurry?

Because, in Cheney’s case, he wants to start something while the getting is good. How many months, weeks and days left in the Bush-Cheney era? Until the very last day they leave office, you cannot count them out from lobbing something nuclear at Iran.

Clinton is just posing, trying to show steel.

Sen. Barack Obama, my assumption is that some voters, Republicans and Hillary supporters think all he wants to do is have scented tea with the Iranians while the world (Israel) burns.

Col. Lang does not buy some of the more alarmist news reports.

The mainstream media, or MSM, cannot really be trusted to provide accurate on-the-ground reporting on the insurgency. Which is why Nir Rosen is so important because he reports from the Middle East from inside the insurgency. He wrote for the Washington Note blog that he also does not buy America’s sales job on a war with Iran. Here’s how he opened the piece:

In June of 2003, two months after the United States conquered Iraq, I sat in on a briefing given by US Army intelligence officers in that most Sunni of Iraq’s cities, Tikrit, to a couple of officers visiting from Baghdad. One of the American intelligence officers based in Saddam’s famous hometown explained that they were worried about “Shiite fingers” from Iran “creeping” up to Tikrit to establish an Iranian style government.

At a time when the mostly Sunni Iraqi resistance had already established itself and its ability was improving, I was astounded by how stupid the notion of an Iranian threat in Tikrit was. I have remained shocked, like many journalists and academics familiar with the region and its languages, that the Americans have shown no improvement in their understanding of the Muslim world with which they are so deeply engaged militarily and as an imperial power.

Even Congress is susceptible to the misinformation on Iran, even when they readily have the correct information at hand, said Rosen, who testified before Congress and gave then information that he hoped would help them frame better questions to Gen. David Petraeus during his recent dog and pony show before them. To no avail.

Petraeus came, did his tap dance and got a promotion. War with Iran is still on cause. Meanwhile, America’s sons and daughters continue to get killed and wounded in Iraq.


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  1. […] michael o. allen wrote an interesting post today on â

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