Vice President Dick Cheney had at one point considered asking Israel to launch limited missile strikes at an Iranian nuclear site to provoke a retaliation, Newsweek magazine reported on Sunday. The news comes amid reports that Israel launched an air strike against Syria this month over a suspected nuclear site. Citing two unidentified sources, Newsweek said former Cheney Middle East adviser David Wurmser told a small group several months ago that Cheney was considering asking Israel to strike the Iranian nuclear site at Natanz.
and here it is, buried in an article on the third page.
…There are still voices pushing for firmer action against Tehran, most notably within Vice President Dick Cheney’s office. But the steady departure of administration neocons over the past two years has also helped tilt the balance away from war. One official who pushed a particularly hawkish line on Iran was David Wurmser, who had served since 2003 as Cheney’s Middle East adviser. A spokeswoman at Cheney’s office confirmed to NEWSWEEK that Wurmser left his position last month to "spend more time with his family." A few months before he quit, according to two knowledgeable sources, Wurmser told a small group of people that Cheney had been mulling the idea of pushing for limited Israeli missile strikes against the Iranian nuclear site at Natanz—and perhaps other sites—in order to provoke Tehran into lashing out. The Iranian reaction would then give Washington a pretext to launch strikes against military and nuclear targets in Iran. (Wurmser’s remarks were first reported last week by Washington foreign-policy blogger Steven Clemons and corroborated by NEWSWEEK.) When NEWSWEEK attempted to reach Wurmser for comment, his wife, Meyrav, declined to put him on the phone and said the allegations were untrue. A spokeswoman at Cheney’s office said the vice president "supports the president’s policy on Iran."
It’s interesting to me that most of the speculation in the Press isn’t about Iran, or the dangers to America from Iran. The articles are about "What will Bush do?" In those articles, there’s a scenerio that has Cheney beating the drums for war with Iran, Condi speaking for the other side [diplomacy], and arguments about Bush’s reaction. Most of the discussions center on Bush’s personality. Frankly, I find this dialogue disgusting, even when I participate in it. I’m sure that there is some best case policy for dealing with the volitile Middle East – a policy with diplomatic and military contingencies, a policy with a wide variety of scenerios, a policy discussed with our allies West and East. I’m not sure what that policy is, but I know that it needs to be be built on more solid parameters than the mulling of a Paranoid Vice President or the impulses of an incompetent, self-important President. We’ve been reduced to fearing the personality quirks of our own leaders more than the global threats that require their urgent attention.
And speaking of Bush’s personality, don’t miss Sydney Blumenthal’s Bush’s Stairway to Paradise. [hat tip to Joyhollywood]…
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