The thread title ends with a question mark because, at present, this is based solely on a blog quoting an unnamed inside source. Mods, move this to the Pit or MPSIMS or IMHO if you think it belongs there for that reason; otherwise, it’s pure GD material:
It also occurs to me that they might mean to whip up war hysteria without actually intending any military action, just to distract public attention from this Admin’s various scandals and Congressional investigations into same. I hope that’s all there is to it.
A fourth-hand report? Or is it fifth-hand? You read an anonymous blog by someone who claims to have an anonymous friend who has anonymous friend at an anonymous leading neoconservative institution.
Second-hand: The insider claims to have heard these “instructions” with his own ears.
I posted it for the same reasons the blogger did (see final paragraph in quote box). We’ll know its bullshit if 9/11/07 comes and goes without any of the named “usual suspects” calling for military action against Iran. No harm, no foul. If they do, at least we’re forewarned. In either case, it’s a matter worth debating.
I’ve been touting my willingness to bet on the whole US attacking Iran thing, but I’d love to make a miniwager on this, too.
There’s no way in hell that there’s going to be any effort to whip up support for war with Iran just days before the big report on the surge in Iraq comes out. No. Way. In. Hell.
Bush just said that the other day. In fact, hardly a day goes by without someone in the administration mentioning the prospect of “military action” against Iran. So no, that won’t prove anything.
But it will prove something if “the American Enterprise Institute, the Wall Street Journal,the Weekly Standard, Commentary, Fox, and the usual suspects” all get on board and start beating the war-drums at the same time, more loudly than they have been up to now.
The insider claims to have heard these instructions. That’s second hand.
The insider told his friend. That’s third hand.
The friend told a blogger. That’s fourth hand.
You read the blogger and told us. That’s fifth hand.
Now, I’m cutting off a hand (the fifth hand), because your reputation here is such that if you post a report that you saw something on the internet, I don’t have to check that such a thing on the internet is actually there on the internet, or that a particular news report actually said what you claimed it said, I’m confident that you report things accurately. And besides, I could always go to the link you provided and read it myself, but I don’t have to because I trust you on things like that.
Oh, I get it. It’s a CONSPIRACY THEORY. Sorry, I had taken my tinfoil hat off. I put it back on, and now I see exactly what you’re saying.
Seriously, though, since “beating the war-drums” is going to be whatever you define it to be, this will be a self-fulfilling prophecy. In fact, we could claim that they’re doing that already.
Sounds like another ‘OMG! Bush is going to disband the Constitution and halt elections this year (circa 2004), blah blah blah’.
However, for the sake of argument, lets pretend this absurd claim is true. Bush et al are going to roll out the big guns like Fox and the WSJ to start hammering the air waves and work us all into a froth about invading Iran. Fine. Could happen I suppose. Pigs COULD fly. Snowballs COULD actually survive a journey to hell.
But so what? Do you think that, given the current mood of the country, it would actually WORK? That goes beyond credulity IMHO and is back to the realm of Bush halting the elections and declaring himself king (didn’t you have a thread on this a few years ago?).
It will be intersting to see the media blitz for a new war with Iran rolling out of the ‘usual suspects’ like Fox however…assuming it actually happens. :dubious:
The worst of it all is that Bush and Ahminawhosis are dancing a tango, each reinforcing the other and each contributing to the other’s insane thesis. Each knows that the best way to create* faux * solidarity is to whip up a frenzy of fear for The Enemy. Oldest trick in the book.
So long as both these deluded morons stop short of actual conflict, it matters not. But one misstep, one mistake, one misunderstood order…and its Guns of August all over again.
Work? Well, it might just possibly get them that “something like 35-40 percent support.” Not enough to get Congress to authorize or fund an invasion, but maybe enough to ensure W will not immediately be impeached if he, on his sole authority as CinC, orders a targeted bombing campaign.
If I worked in the White House, and my orders were to come up with a way to get the substance of the report off the front page, my suggestion would be to have the President fly onto an aircraft carrier in order to receive the Petraeus report. I’m betting that might work for a day or two.
But let’s get real: short of Condi Rice being caught in some kind of bathroom-related scandal, there is no way for the PTB to manufacture a news story that’ll knock the surge off the front page.
You haven’t been keeping up with current events, have you? The last polls I saw show the support for the Iraqi mis-adventure pretty much in free fall. And you think that by some magic handwaving on Fox and the WSJ this is going to turn things around to such an extent that they could get even 35% approval (not that this would mean squat, mind you…its the Congress and Senate where you’d need support) for ANOTHER invasion?
Well that sounds very scientific, BG!! But it’s still just bullshit. Your subjective opinion of how much “propaganda” is out there is meaningless.
Look, I’ve said all along that it wouldn’t surprise me if Bush dropped a few bombs on Iran at some point. But your blogger buddy is talking “war”. That’s doesn’t even pass the laugh test.
God, I hope you’re right, XT. Tonkin Bay? Battleship Maine? Ring any knells? I wish I was ever as sure of anything as you are sure of this.
Lets set a date, a year from now, and nothing like this horror has happened, you post a thread in the Pit, snickering and sneering at poor, delusional 'Luci. and I’ll eat the shit with a spoon, gobble it all down with an “MMMMM-Good! Please sir, can I have some more?”
That’s how happy I will be to be wrong. But I’m a pessimist, XT, and I’m not wrong very often. Not often enough.
Oh, is that all? Well, heck, why worry? Surely the Iranians are a level-headed and reasonable bunch, bound to calmly assess the situation and shrug it off. And the rest of the Islamic world, no way they’re going to see this as anything other than a minor kerfluffle. Good thing there’s no crazy people involved in any of this, otherwise it could get ugly. But cooler heads will prevail, we have your assurance on that.
But, if bombs are dropped on Iran’s nuclear facilities, we will very likely have a full-scale war whether Bush wants one or not. See the second article linked (but not quoted) in the OP.
At least I’m relieved that nobody in this thread (so far) is arguing that bombing Iran’s nuke plants would be a good idea.
