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Iran... so far away...
Author: BobR    Date: 06/11/2008 12:13:05

Where have we heard this before? Tough talk, then sanctions, then...?

Bush has been in Europe, banging the drum for war with Iran. After dragging our allies into Iraq with false intelligence, you'd think they'd bounce his ass out the door. No, instead they're trying to be responsible, sort of an intervention, and push for sanctions instead:
German Chancellor Angela Merkel told President George W. Bush on Saturday she would be willing to support a third round of U.N. sanctions against Iran if Tehran continues to resist demands to halt sensitive nuclear work.

Merkel, in a visit to Bush's ranch in Crawford, also said she would consider possible cuts in her country's brisk trade flows with Iran should other efforts fail to secure Tehran's cooperation over its nuclear program.

Bush agreed with Merkel that diplomacy was the best way to resolve the standoff with Iran.

"We were at one in saying that the threat posed through the nuclear program of Iran is indeed a serious one," Merkel said at a joint news conference with Bush.

"We both share this view, but we also were of the opinion that we think that this issue can be solved through diplomatic means; that the next step, then, obviously, would be a resolution," she said through a translator.

What?? Dimplomatic means?? - That's appeasement talk!

We had sanctions against Iraq too, and it was the voilation of rules set down by those sanctions that Bush used as a justification to use military force. That may be his plan again, despite the best intentions of several groups:
An unusual coalition of interest groups from left and right is launching a drive today to head off an American military attack on Iran by pushing America into high-level negotiations with Tehran.

The Campaign for a New American Policy on Iran, which bills itself as "transpartisan," consists of more than three dozen organizations, most of them left-leaning, such as the American Friends Service Committee, the Institute for Policy Studies, and the Open Society Policy Center, which is backed by George Soros.

However, the campaign also has the backing of a smattering of right-of-center groups, including the American Conservative Defense Alliance, the Libertarian Party, and the American Cause, which is headed by Patrick Buchanan.

"The current rumor here in Washington is that Bush will attack after the November elections so it won't hurt the Republican nominee politically. Many around him say he feels he has to do something before he leaves office," a campaign organizer, Carah Ong of the Center for Arms Control and Nonproliferation, said. "Part of this is to raise the fact that a military attack is likely and it needs to be prevented."

(He's worried about hurting McCain? When you have Tom DeLay saying that the GOP is losing, and Ron Paul planning a parallel convention, you can't get much worse...)

So once again Bush is pushing for war instead of diplomacy, for no better reason than his legacy, and despite evidence that it's not even close to necessary. Remember the NIE late last year?:
A new National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) released today concludes with “high confidence” that “in fall 2003, Tehran halted its nuclear weapons program.” From the report’s findings:

We assess with moderate confidence Tehran had not restarted its nuclear weapons program as of mid-2007, but we do not know whether it currently intends to develop nuclear weapons.

We continue to assess with moderate-to-high confidence that Iran does not currently have a nuclear weapon.

Tehran’s decision to halt its nuclear weapons program suggests it is less determined to develop nuclear weapons than we have been judging since 2005.

He knows they're not an immediate threat (which is absolutely the only reason to go to war pre-emptively), and yet he still wants to do it. The military leaders have to know this is criminal. I've read that if Bush were under impeachment proceedings, it would be very easy for them to refuse to obey his orders to strike. Last night Kucinich presented 35 articles of impeachment to the House. Constitutional scholar Jonathon Turley agrees it's way past time to do it. If nothing else, in the interests of preventing the unnecessary deaths of innocents in Iran, deaths of Americans in the assured response, and more billions of dollars wasted, Bush MUST be stopped. With impeachment, we get two for the price of one.

Time to make those phone calls...

UPDATE: More evidence Bush is heading down the same road as Iraq. He says "All options are on the table". You'd think he'd be smart enough to use a different phrase, but no...

 

165 comments (Latest Comment: 06/12/2008 12:20:41 by clintster)
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