US Neocons = toast

[Palladin]

This article http://news.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=68662006&format=print
from The Scotsman makes sense. We shouldn't be so pessimistic and concerned about these lunatics in power.
Consider: Libby - is under indictment; Feith - has been forced out of the government; Wolfowitz - has fled the scene, now plundering the World Bank; Perle, AEI, and AIPAC - are
under investigation for espionage and bribery; Bolton - is a castrated, ostracized barking dog; Krauthammer, Kristol, and the Chimp - are howling at the moon; and Darth Vader Cheney - is considering how to stay alive (in many different senses). Hallelujah!
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IAN MATHER DIPLOMATIC CORRESPONDENT AND ALEX MASSIE IN WASHINGTON

WESTERN governments face defeat in their attempts to stop Iran from pursuing its drive to become a nuclear power.

Officials in London and Washington now privately admit that they must face the painful fact that there is nothing they can do, despite deep suspicions that Tehran is seeking to develop nuclear weapons under cover of researching nuclear energy for peaceful purposes.


Yesterday a defiant Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said his country would not be deflected from its right to develop nuclear technology by referral to the UN Security Council for possible sanctions.

"If they want to destroy the Iranian nation's rights by that course, they will not succeed," he said, adding that Tehran did not need nuclear weapons because they are only used by nations who "want to solve everything through the use of force".

Publicly, the US and Britain, the two countries that have adopted the most hawkish stance, are pressing for international action to stop Iran. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said last week that it was time for the UN to confront Iran's "defiance" over its nuclear programme, while British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw insisted that sanctions were now "on the table".

But behind the scenes there is no stomach for a fight. The US is the only country that could take military action. But with the US military already seriously overstretched in Iraq and with the mid-term congressional elections approaching there is no impetus in the White House or in Congress for another military adventure.

"Iran would be a far tougher country to try to attack than Iraq. It is three times as big and has highly motivated armed forces," a Foreign Office diplomat said yesterday.

With military action off the agenda, several senior European officials expressed the view last week that there is widespread pessimism that diplomatic attempts to persuade Tehran to dismantle its nuclear programme stand any chance of success.

Sanctions, too, are being dismissed by government officials. "Sanctions hardly ever work anyway and can harm the people rather than the government," a source close to the Foreign Office said. "Anything else we do is highly unlikely to divert Tehran away from developing nuclear technology."

The crisis over Iran came to a head last week when Iranian nuclear officials broke 52 seals that had ensured for 14 months that three uranium enrichment research facilities could not be used while Tehran negotiated with the International Atomic Energy Authority under an agreement brokered with the EU.

It was a bitter failure by the EU, which had taken the lead over the Americans and put its faith in a policy of "constructive engagement". Led by Britain, France and Germany, the Europeans had offered Iran economic and political inducements if it would abandon its nuclear efforts.

But the policy of trying to steer Iran towards a more moderate course backfired in June when Iranians elected as president the hardline Ahmadinejad. Since then he has outraged international opinion by describing the Holocaust as a myth, calling for the state of Israel to be "wiped off the map", and declaring that Iran would not back down "one iota" from the nuclear path.

The UN is unlikely to fare any better than the EU. The organisation has no armed forces and its structure lends itself to interminable delays.

Though Britain will host a meeting of senior officials from Russia, China, the US, France and Germany tomorrow to try to build a consensus, a board meeting of the IAEA, the UN's nuclear watchdog, will not take place until early next month, even though it is billed as an "emergency" meeting.

EU officials say in public they hope the IAEA will report Iran to the Security Council to impose sanctions.............

[Greeby]

1. The smart ones have gone

Leaving only the senile (Rummy), the subservienent (Condi) and the downright stupid (Bush)

They scare me now, way more than they did in the first term :scared:

[daveskilt]

2. are you assuming they will be voted out of power? on diebold machines??