One way or another

“One way or another I'm gonna find yaI'm gonna getcha getcha getcha getcha”

-Blondie-

Whether or not the Warpresident will attack Iran within the next few months, it matters that much of the world and probably much of the Islamic world, believes it. Despite the indications that Bush is aware that regional and world stability is not disturbed with impunity, he continues to brandish his weapons. It matters that Bush seems to believe that threats are the better part of international relations and that you can effect positive long term change in the world by blowing things up and threatening to blow things up.  

Will Bush gamble that a “régime change” in Iran will make things easier in Iraq? Will destroying Iran’s infrastructure and its oil production capacity make for an America loving, western secular democracy that will stop sponsoring insurgents and guerilla warfare?  If you reply that nobody is that stupid, I will beg to take exception.

It’s been demonstrated that the US had the ability to project our power into Baghdad, neutralize its military and topple the government. It may still be possible for the US to use massive air power to make Iran into a smoking ruin, but it’s also been demonstrated that whatever the word victory means when Bush uses it, it does not result from anything Bush has done or seems to contemplate doing.

Whether the Buildup of naval power in the Persian Gulf is a bluff, a precaution or preparation for another attack; if it is only a paranoid fantasy in a frightened world, it serves to further the image of the United States as a nation run amok.  George has made it clear that his crusade does not depend on the will of the nation he is supposed to represent and by attacking Iran or provoking an attack on our navy by Iran he might perhaps feel he can make it more difficult for Congress to cut him off – and perhaps he can emulate Lyndon Johnson’s Gulf of Tonkin deception.  His actions make it more likely that we will suffer another attack on our soil and if such a thing happens we can be certain that he will use it to crush his adversaries at home as well as to make an adversary of the world.