Attacking Iran: Are they nuts? By Joe Conason

[kpete]

Attacking Iran: Are they nuts?
If the U.S. attacked Iran, the consequences would be catastrophic -- including a possible American retreat under fire in Iraq.

By Joe Conason
April 21, 2006

As George W. Bush contemplates the prospect of attacking Iran and the regional conflagration that would result, he may be awaiting a heavenly signal that would confirm the doomsday predictions of his allies on the religious right. Here on earth, however, many of the same themes that promoted war on Iraq are beginning to appear again.

While the president arraigned Iran as a rogue state in the "axis of evil" alongside Iraq and North Korea years ago, the rhetoric portraying Tehran as the world's most evil and dangerous regime is increasing in volume and pitch. The story line is simple and scary: Iran is a dictatorial terrorist state on the brink of acquiring a nuclear arsenal, and it is led by a madman who resembles Hitler and threatens neighboring states, especially Israel.

Now that litany, melding truth with exaggeration, must sound familiar to anyone who remembers the arguments for invading Iraq and ousting Saddam Hussein. Like Saddam, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is an ostentatious villain who sounds all too eager for confrontation, even though his government officially prefers a negotiated solution.

Soon we will hear that Tehran is allied not only with the Palestinian group Hamas but with al-Qaida (although the latter are Sunnis and the former are Shiites). As with Iraq, suspicion that Iran helped to engineer the 9/11 attacks will be encouraged if not stated explicitly. Indeed, that inflammatory accusation has been floated already in certain precincts on the right and, if the Bush administration decides to wage war, will quickly surface in the mainstream media.

more at:
http://www.salon.com/opinion/conason/2006/04/21/iran/index.html

[EFerrari]

1. He has to ask?!

:shrug:

[stellanoir]

3. Bingo

too funny but heart wrenchingly sad at the same time.

[gordianot]

2. Maybe not.

This could be a ruse for oil market manipulation allow higher profit taking by investors. One day this all goes away and Bush buddies pocket the spoils.

[RaleighNCDUer]

4. Only if Iran does a complete, public turn-around

a la Libya. Otherwise the administration would not be able to claim victory, and anything less than the perception of total victory is an anathma to this bunch, because it implies they were wrong to begin with and they are never wrong.

[Spinzonner]

5. Easy mistake to make

Bush thought he was looking at a picture when he was really looking in a mirror