1 Boring Old Man

The Likely Trigger

By Josh Marshall

You may have noticed the Iran boomlet over the last few days, the pitter-patter of rumors and hints that either a major military action or an Iraq-style PR/agitprop roll-out is set to start this week. Spencer Ackerman is looking into this over at TPMmuckraker.com. And his reporting suggests that the ‘source’ of all this chatter is an order Dick Cheney has sent out to his proxies at the right-wing thinktanks to start laying the ground work for war with Iran. In the short run, the aim is to open up a new front in his struggle with Bob Gates and the Joint Chiefs (who think two wars are enough for now). In the medium term, the goal is getting the war started well ahead of the end of Bush’s term.

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Whatever else we decide about Iran, we would do ourselves a big favor by wiping away the cobwebs of lies, distortions and various ways of up being down. We’re running Iraq. We want it to model itself after us and suit our interests. The Iranians don’t want that and they’re trying to throw sand in our gears. And we’re going to threaten them to try to make them back down. And since they are a revisionist power we don’t want them to exist anyway so we may just attack them regardless. These are all terms and explanations that at least have some bare relation to the situation at hand. They might be too cynical about our national aspirations and ideals if it weren’t for the fact that the people controlling the US government today don’t believe in our national ideals. So it’s the same difference anyway.

Selling War with Iran

… on Monday, AEI will host two events that Rubin considers part of the drumbeat. First, that morning, former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich will give a speech [What If? An Alternative History of the War since 9/11]  contending that the war on terrorism needs to be viewed as "a world war that pits civilization against terrorists and their state sponsors who wish to impose a new dark age," according to AEI’s preview. That afternoon, AEI brings together a panel featuring former CIA Director Jim Woolsey, retired General Jack Keane, who helped design the surge in Iraq, and longtime Iran hawk Michael Ledeen to discuss Ledeen’s new book, The Iranian Time Bomb: The Mullah Zealots’ Quest for Destruction.

I still consider Newt Gingrich the most dangerous and irresponsible man on the Planet [when I’m not thinking it’s Dick Cheney]. Newt has waited 14+ years, lurking, hoping we will have forgotten what a snake he is, and he’s aiming for a comeback [his last chance]. He tried like hell to get someone to draft him to run for President. Failing at that ploy, he’s now vying to be the biggest con in the neocon line-up. Then again, Michael Ledeen is also a dark horse contender for Mr. Dangerous. Sliding out of culpability for Iran-Contra [which he brokered], he’s continued his love affair with Fascism and his constant war mongering about Iran. He is, indeed, the Dark Lord of A.E.I. So, on Monday, they’re coming out swinging with their biggest guns. Ackerman has some buzz that the Iran warpath is intended to bolster Cheney in his fight with Secretary of Defense Gates and the Brass at the Pentagon – the fight is over going to war with Iran. I presume the hypothesis is that the sooner he can get in, the more control he’ll have over his Iranian War. This is their last shot and they’ll take it if there’s any way possible to make it happen.

It goes without saying that Iran may well be provocative. Iran may even be dangerous. My argument is that neither George Bush, Dick Cheney, nor the neoconservatives at the American Enterprise Institute should be allowed to make any assessment of what needs to be done in relationship to Iran [and most of all, not Ledeen and Gingrich]. Their judgement on the subject is grossly impaired. They were incredibly wrong about Iraq, and they will be incredibly wrong about Iran. Dick Cheney wants to go to war with Iran. He’s always wanted to go to war with Iran. Michael Ledeen lives for us to go to war with Iran, and sounds like an Israeli War Minister when he talks about it. His book subtitle is The Mullah Zealots’ Quest for Destruction. I think it’s more like Michael Ledeen’s Quest for Destruction.