I see the Department of National Intelligence (which is an oxymoron) has now concluded that, in contradiction to its firm statement 2 years ago that "Iran was currently determined to have nuclear weapons", it has now discovered that Iran in fact shut down its nuclear weapons development program in - wait for it - 2003. In other words, at the time they assured everybody that Iran was actively developing nukes, it actually hadn't been working on them for 2 years.
Of course, the fact that Mahmoud Ahmedinajad has been jumping up and down for 5 years yelling (in effect, and in Farsi), "Nyaah, nyaah, we're gonna enrich uranium and you can't stop us!" does rather color the issue. He also says they only want the uranium for peaceful purposes; but of course, nobody believes that.
When I read this article, my initial reaction was, surely we can relax now. Surely, the wingnuts in the Executive Branch now have no conceivable grounds for bombing Iran. But I've reconsidered - at least in part because Dubya stood up this morning and basically said, this doesn't make any difference, they could restart the program any time. This is the argument of a man spoiling for a fight. It is also, I'm afraid, the argument of a man who spent too much time in childhood watching Davy Crockett - I keep getting the echo of the motto Disney gave their hero: "Decide what's right, then go ahead." Davy Crockett never reconsidered the fact that he might have been wrong in the first place, and neither does Dubya. Oliver Cromwell, where are you, now that we need you?
Considering the mess Dubya made in Iraq, I don't know why he thinks he could do a better job taking on Iran, but he does seem to think so, God help us all.
Furthermore, if you think about it, why should he - or we - assume that anything at all the Dept. of National Intelligence says is correct? These people can't get to the bottom of the stairs without a map. They still - the last time I heard - have no resources on the ground in Iran, and in fact few or no staff members who even speak Farsi. How in hell can they claim to know anything about what's going on there? Do we just assume that the French and the Brits are kindly feeding them information??
Honest, if we can get through Dubya's last term of office without starting another fershlugginah war, I may begin to believe in miracles, because I can't see anything else out there that could stop him.
I relaxed a little when I read it. The fact that the report was publicized gives me hope we won;t attack. I'm so worried about his I'll grasp at anything.
ReplyDeleteI'm troubled my the resent news from Iraq that things are getting better. from my perspective we've missed 3 or 4 opportunities to get out of there. I'm worried we'll miss this one too.
The thing that worries me, which I'm not sure all the "let's get out now" folks really grasp, is that even if and when we do pull out (and having made this mess, I'm afraid we do have some responsibility to avoid making it any worse than it already is), you can't logistically move 130,000 troops plus support units etc. overnight. It'll take months; and I heard one military type on a radio show point out that the U.S.D.A. (of all people) will insist that every piece of equipment, from the armored personnel carriers down to the boots, must be sterilized to keep alien critters out! His estimate was 12-18 months.
ReplyDeleteThat said, I'm with you entirely that I'll take any hopeful sign that says we won't repeat that appalling mistake again.
It's really distressing to have a mule-headed idiot as a president.
I disagree about Dubya, always have.
ReplyDeleteI don't think he's dumb, and I don't think he's confused.
I DO think he's a very evil man whose mother was a witch and whose father was a lying toadie.
He was a lazy, spineless rich boy who knew he didn't have to play by the rules, and he made sure he always had lots of fun wherever he was sent.
His first real job out of college was to canvas the West Texas hardscrabble country (very much like Larry McMurtry's lonesome prairie towns) trying to convince the locals to sign over their mineral rights to the oil companies, whose extractive paradigm is to consolidate and concentrate the depleted resources. He failed at that--couldn't budge those stubborn poh-white folks.
Then they made him a part owner of the Tex-Ass Rangers major league baseball team. During his tenure, which required that he put his feet up on the furniture and smirk a lot to the media, the team went nowhere, but he cashed out his initial investment of $600,000 for a cool 14 million--not a bad return for a silent partner.
The rest, as we say, is history. For lots more juicy bits on Dubya's rise to stardom, check out
http://www.realchange.org/bushjr.htm
which takes you on the chronological ride through his sparkling career and political fortunes.
Like Reagan--who at least had an actor's slick charm to go along with his compromised intelligence--Dubya quickly learned that the best way to get ahead was to shill for the big-time corporate interests his family had always worked with: I.e., big oil, and the military contractors.
That's all any serious Republican candidate has needed to get along--a handful of shrewd think-tank advisers like Cheney and the Wolf, Karl Rove pulling the strings.
But America elected him, proving once again that a blow-job (especially a secret one!) is a much greater evil than the trashing of a great nation, and the killing of hundreds of thousands of innocent human beings.
Red States--god love'em. I hope they don't put Giuliani or Romney in the White House. That'd be the living end.
I've read the resume; one of my colleagues at work had it posted on his cube. I certainly agree about the sleazy details of his business career. I always wondered why THAT record qualified him to lead the country.
ReplyDeleteWe'll just have to disagree about his intelligence; I have no argument about the evil.