This is typical of the rightwing reaction to what's happening in Iran — Bill Kristol: This isn’t September 1939. But the developments in Tehran are a potentially big moment, signaling the possible transformation or at least reformation of the Iranian regime. American principles and American interests argue for support of the Iranian people in this crisis. And where is the … Read More
Iranian Election Tragedy
It's all a little hard to digest, so I don't have much to say. One really hoped for a non-fraudulent election there, with the popular pro-reform candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi emerging victorious, but it really looks like something odd and unsavory occurred. (For example, Mousavi was leading Ahmadinejad by 2 to 1 in Tehran in a poll last week, but … Read More
Not Funny
John McCain once again "jokes" about his desire to kill Iranians. And he’s not talking about the Iranian military or anything — he’s joking about killing Iranians. I guess that’s good red meat for the conservative masses, but the targets of McCain’s blood lust "joke" are ordinary Iranian civilians. I know it’s easy to think of Iran has some sandy … Read More
Fallon Out; War With Iran In?
In a recent article in Esquire, CENTCOM Commander Adm. William "Fox" Fallon openly criticized the idea of a possible war with Iran, which Fallon called an "ill-advised action". Fallon implied that he would resign rather than go to war against Iran. (Fallon is not alone on this; most military leaders are opposed to war with Iran). Breaking news out of … Read More
Lying Or Incompetent?
Joe Biden, on the President’s line that he wasn’t briefed on the new Iran NIE until last week: “Are you telling me a president who is briefed every single morning, who is fixated on Iran, is not told back in August that the tentative conclusion of 16 intelligence agencies in the United States government said they had abandoned their effort … Read More
Omnibus Post Because Frankly My Plate Is Full
Ugh. So much to discuss: (1) White House egg-on-the-face: After months of beating the war drums to invade Iraq, it turns out that Iran doesn’t have a nuclear bomb program after all. As Matt says: "Meanwhile, how outrageous is it that the best twelve months of alarmism from Bush & Cheney have come in the context of an environment where … Read More
Moving To The Iran Desk
Sy Hersh in the New Yorker about the administration’s Iran plans: I was repeatedly cautioned, in interviews, that the President has yet to issue the “execute order” that would be required for a military operation inside Iran, and such an order may never be issued. But there has been a significant increase in the tempo of attack planning. In mid-August, … Read More
Nuke Iran?
The story about how the Air Force "lost" five nuclear warheads (for a while) has an interesting and unnerving twist: Why the hubbub over a B-52 taking off from a B-52 base in Minot, North Dakota and subsequently landing at a B-52 base in Barksdale, Louisiana? That’s like getting excited if you see a postal worker in uniform walking out … Read More
Just Call Them Terrorists…
This can’t be good: Iranian Unit to Be Labeled ‘Terrorist’ U.S. Moving Against Revolutionary Guard By Robin Wright Washington Post Staff Writer Wednesday, August 15, 2007; A01 The United States has decided to designate Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps, the country’s 125,000-strong elite military branch, as a "specially designated global terrorist," according to U.S. officials, a move that allows Washington to … Read More
Let Me See If I Get This Straight
Let’s get a timeline: In 1995, Clinton cuts off all trade and investment with Iran. U.S. companies were no longer able to do business with Iran. After that announcement, Halliburton decided that business with Iran, then conducted through at least five companies, would all be done through a subsidiary incorporated in the Cayman Islands. This way, Halliburton could skirt around … Read More
The Iran Debate
I second Publius’ well-thought-out critique of the "credible threat" tactic we are imposing on Iran. Publius’ point, in a nutshell, is that by publicly insisting that we are keeping all our options open with respect to Iran — particular the invasion option — we are encouraging Iran to seek deterrent weapons (i.e., nuclear weapons), not discouraging them. The impetus to … Read More
Is The Whole “Surge” Plan A Set-Up?
Andrew Sullivan wonders: This paragraph, buried by the NYT, leapt out at me this morning: A Shiite political leader who has worked closely with the Americans in the past said the Bush benchmarks appeared to have been drawn up in the expectation that Mr. Maliki would not meet them. "He cannot deliver the disarming of the militias," the politician said, … Read More
The Truth Shall [Redacted] Set You Free
This is astounding. The White House censored an New York Times editorial, telling the Times to redact certain portions. The censored portions do not contain classified information. The White House, it seemed, just didn’t like it. (The redacted version of the op-ed is here.) It should be noted that the CIA normally does these type of things, not the White … Read More
Iran: The New Fake Boogeyman
Here we go again. Last month, the GOP-run House Intelligence Committee released a report on Iran. The report was not voted on by the full committee. Its message? "Ooooooh, they’re about to bomb us with a nuke!" It got a LOT of play in the press. Surprise! It’s a fraud! U.N. inspectors investigating Iran’s nuclear program angrily complained to the … Read More
Still Alive
We were all supposed to die yesterday. Did you know that? Here’s a list of gloom-and-doom articles from the right-wing press, foretelling that August 22 was the day in which Iran would wreak nuclear kick-ass on all us Westerners (or, at least, Israelis). Wall Street Journal: August 22 World News Daily: Iran Cataclysm Forecast Aug. 22 FrontPageMag: Iran’s Day of … Read More