Iran: the New Iraq

It is now clear the administration is gearing up to bomb Iran. See this piece at the Huffington Post. Seymour Hersch was the first to report that this far right administration was planning to bomb the ancient Persian country.

Lately, it seems Cheney with the help of the far right democrat, Joe (I wish I were Republican) Lieberman is leaning on President Bush to go forward with an attack. As recently as this week the administration sought to label the Iran Revolutionary Guard, a terrorist organization. This is the same (should I say Shame) propaganda that led us to where we are today.

Cheney is now advocating to strike Iran if "hard evidence" comes to light that Iran is aiding Iraq in killing Americans. This "hard evidence" will include a truck with soldiers heading over the border, something of that nature or weapons, whatever, if you will. Cheney recently proposed such a strike, but as of now Condoleeza Rice and Secretary Gates are opposing him.

The story goes on to say the strikes in Iran will have only one purpose, to provoke Iran into retaliation that will make it virtually impossible to refute and a full-fledged air strike on Iran will take place with the political obstacles that currently exist out of the way. This is part of the Iran policy, to provoke them.

This is all part of a military strategy (and political one) to tie Iran to Iraq and show Iran's complicity. Lieberman recently appeared on Face the Nation and said: "I think we've got to be prepared to take aggressive military action against the Iranians to stop them from killing Americans in Iraq. And to me that would include a strike over the border into Iran, where we have good evidence that they have a base at which they are training these people coming back into Iraq to kill our soldiers."

If you have not figured it out these people work on Talking Points and Lieberman, now in the camp after winning reelection on Rove/Bush dollars is part of the team and the message.

Then on July 2, the new spokesman for the U.S. command in Baghdad, Brig. Gen. Kevin Bergner, presented a briefing for the press that dovetailed perfectly with Cheney's strategy. One of his main themes was the suggestion of an Iranian role in planning a January Shiite militia attack in Karbala in which five Americans were killed. The other major point that Bergner pushed was that Iran was using what he called "Special Groups" of "rogue" Shiite militiamen to destabilize Iraq, in part by training them in camps in Iran.

Here is an analysis by Gareth Porter that says the U.S. tags Iran for its own casualties. There is nothing new in any attacks in Iraq, but the way they are spun is new and should worry us. After the briefing by the Commander, Lieberman was waiting with a press release urging the U.S. to confront Iran. These are not accidents and it seems Cheney is certainly pushing for an attack on Iran (thus my vote for Cheney as the Most Scary). One wonders, however has this become official U.S. policy and is the writing on the wall and the attack is imminent or can we stop it?

Time will certainly tell.