community--to continue to rally the community--to pressure the Iranian
regime to suspend its program," the president said. "Nothing's changed."
It's even worse than Captain Cota's lack of judgment. At least Cota was
in a literal fog. Bush's affliction appears to be mental. It's as if he
were telling Iran, "Yes, our best minds agree that you have no nuke
program, so come clean and show me where it's at or we're going to get
really nasty." Come to think of it, that's about what happened in Iraq.
With enough missiles in the Persian Gulf now to turn that region into a
moonscape, the danger of staying the course could hardly be clearer.
Full speed ahead? Five years ago our cap'n said that and 90 percent of
the crew and passengers saluted. Signs abound that it won't go so easy for
Bush this time around. Consider. Five years ago, not only mouthpiece media
like Fox News, but even so-called "liberal" media like the New York Times,
ABC News and CNN were allowing themselves to be used to report phony stories
about aluminum tubes, yellowcake uranium, aerial drones, anthrax, al-Qaeda
connections and more---stories that history has finally blown away for the
phony plants they were.
Spy bosses like George Tenet and others who produced the National
Intelligence Estimates of 2002 and 2003, though split on the facts,
publicly lined up behind the Bush / Cheney case for aerial bombardment,
invasion and occupation of Iraq. Former Secretary of State Colin Powell
unwittingly made a phony pro-war case to the United Nations---based in
part on lies from tortured men, according to Newsweek and others
(Google al-Libi+Colin Powell).
of Bush/Cheney rhetoric. We have the Times, CNN and ABC lining up to serve
this news to the public. We have Secretary of State Condi Rice trying to
broker peace. Incredibly, we have Sec. of Defense Gates telling the media
that Iran is behaving much better in Iraq. Meanwhile, Pat Buchanan and
other conservatives are talking publicly about how incredible---in other
words NOT CREDIBLE---it is that Bush claims he only found out about the
NIE's bombshell after he said THIS about Iranians three weeks ago:
"If you're interested in avoiding World War III, it seems like you ought
to be interested in preventing them from having the knowledge necessary
to make a nuclear weapon."
Still, these are sputters from a drowning sailor whose war schemes are
running out of oxygen---politically, economically, militarily, and now on
the intelligence front. As I said in a recent blog entry for www.Knoxvoice.com,
yes, it's maddening that more congressmen are not calling for impeachment or
at least congressional investigations as to how Bush could've been so wrong
about Iraq and Iran. Neither are Hillary Clinton and others who refused to take
the "nuclear option" off the table regarding Iran, absolved. Still, it would
be miserly and mean-spirited not to recognize this NIE report for the godsend it is.
With less than 14 months to go, assuming he leaves office gracefully, it appears
Bush is being forced by his own staff and former allies, into admitting something
akin to the truth.
When and if that happens, can we celebrate for five minutes?
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