am catching up on over 500 newsfire rss feeds, and saw an item - rumour from the UK is that war with Iran is guaranteed, already planned, and we'll be in it within the year. (This from the same people who were saying that the war with Iraq was planned when the Bush administration was still saying "no, no, it's a last resort.")
Talking with J - and it hits me (yeah, I'm slow)
We went to war in Iraq so we'd have a place to attack Iran from.
I'm sure most of you are going DUH!
We've got flyover rights from Turkey, Azerbaijan, & Turkmenistan; we now have bases & troops in Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, and some "staging" in Turkmenistan; Pakistan is our "ally" (altho I'm not sure how stable) - but we needed something close by on their west flank that wasn't just friendly, but was ours. With Iraq, that's it. Iran is surrounded.
Shall we start a betting pool? I'll guess we'll be at war with Iran by early 2007. Place your bet!
mostly pointless meanderings
Tuesday, July 25, 2006
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2 comments:
I really don't think China is going to let us get away with invading Iran, and I don't think that Congress is going to go along with any more adventures given the popularity of the last one.
And I also think that the purpose of invading Iraq was to show all o' them there A-rabs that we could invade and hold one of their countries so that they wouldn't scew around with us.
Obviously it hasn't gone as planned.
Yeah, but have you heard all the "islamofascist" comments? That word started popping up everywhere at the same time... almost like it had been handed out in the talking points! And when you get right down to the definition of islamofascist, Iran is the closest match. I think they were surprised when people started pushing for a definition (rather than just letting them spout) because it forced them to mention Iran's name before they'd beat enough drums.
And as for Congress going along - do you think Bush cares if they go along? I mean, he's already got the UN poised to enact sanctions on Iran; they won't behave and Bush will point to that, he will point to their involvement with Hezbollah, he MIGHT even point to their involvement with 9/11, altho you'd think that was a dead horse. He's in charge until 2008, and even with the recent Supreme Court ruling he doesn't seem to be fazed. With the "War On Terror" does he really need to ask the congress for anything? The only thing the congress can do to stop him at this point is to cut off the funding - and what congress is going to cut its own throat with cutting off funding to the 'fighting troops in the field'? I can see the rhetoric already.
OH OH OH! Speaking of China, I heard the most amazing thing the other day. I was listening to the BBC news at an obscenely early hour and a nice british lady was interviewing a chinese diplomat, and she asked about China's military build-up, and HE WENT OFF. He said (and I quote) The United States needs to SHUT UP! (I was amazed. He continued in this vein:) Look at China's population! Look at our land mass! And we're what, 2nd, 3rd in terms of military? We're not doing anything to anybody, and look what the US is out there doing! China just wants to protect itself! The US needs to shut up!
I couldn't help it, I cracked up laughing. I've never heard an oriental diplomat get that riled - not recently, anyway.
Hey, did you see the Tony Bourdain in Lebanon show?
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