What the Pentagon can and is now doing in secret...

[whistle]

<snip>
THE COMING WARS
by SEYMOUR M. HERSH
What the Pentagon can now do in secret.
Issue of 2005-01-24 and 31
Posted 2005-01-17

George W. Bush’s reëlection was not his only victory last fall. The President and his national-security advisers have consolidated control over the military and intelligence communities’ strategic analyses and covert operations to a degree unmatched since the rise of the post-Second World War national-security state. Bush has an aggressive and ambitious agenda for using that control—against the mullahs in Iran and against targets in the ongoing war on terrorism—during his second term. The C.I.A. will continue to be downgraded, and the agency will increasingly serve, as one government consultant with close ties to the Pentagon put it, as “facilitators” of policy emanating from President Bush and Vice-President Dick Cheney. This process is well under way.

Despite the deteriorating security situation in Iraq, the Bush Administration has not reconsidered its basic long-range policy goal in the Middle East: the establishment of democracy throughout the region. Bush’s reëlection is regarded within the Administration as evidence of America’s support for his decision to go to war. It has reaffirmed the position of the neoconservatives in the Pentagon’s civilian leadership who advocated the invasion, including Paul Wolfowitz, the Deputy Secretary of Defense, and Douglas Feith, the Under-secretary for Policy. According to a former high-level intelligence official, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld met with the Joint Chiefs of Staff shortly after the election and told them, in essence, that the naysayers had been heard and the American people did not accept their message. Rumsfeld added that America was committed to staying in Iraq and that there would be no second-guessing.

“This is a war against terrorism, and Iraq is just one campaign. The Bush Administration is looking at this as a huge war zone,” the former high-level intelligence official told me. “Next, we’re going to have the Iranian campaign. We’ve declared war and the bad guys, wherever they are, are the enemy. This is the last hurrah—we’ve got four years, and want to come out of this saying we won the war on terrorism.”
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<link> http://www.newyorker.com/printable/?fact/050124fa_fact

[Oversea Visitor]

1. No big deal

Keep dying, no need to ask them to bring it on they do that for a 100 years if they need too.

[GetTheRightVote]

2. No.no, the soldiers need to do more * stated, I wish he were at front line

:kick:

[Tigress DEM]

3. What if being a DEM becomes a terrorist activity?

There is a thread in the General Political discussion that is very disturbing.

GOP introduces bill to suspend ALL laws

It looks like it is loose enough stated to bring in martial law.

I'd like to see this thread kicked and if anyone can tell me if there are loopholes or if I'm reading it wrong, please.

I'm ready to look for work and making living arrangements in Canada.

[sarcasmo]

4. I have said for two years now Martial Law will keep Chimpy King.

It is only four years away and we are headed toward Martial Law. All kneel before King Chimpy. Will all of us here at DU enter concentration camps?

[Rhiannon12866]

5. This is an excellent and must-read article for everyone

Seymour Hersh is just the best and does his homework. If he says that the neocons have Iran on their agenda, I believe him. And he's been making the rounds, so I have heard what he has had to say, on the subject, and it makes my blood run cold. This makes no sense, since we are losing in Iraq, which is only a third of the size of Iran, and our troops are already stretched too thin. But they will do whatever they want to do, according to Hersh.

A couple of years ago, there was an article in this forum titled "Why War With Iran Would Be Suicidal." It gained a lot of attention and I, among others, kept it kicked. I feel like posting it again, since nothing has changed, except we are much less equipped to take on another war, on a third front, and we KNOW that Iran has WMDs. These guys have to be stopped. Congress has to step in, this time, and not be duped. This is a situation that bears close watching. Fortunately, Seymour Hersh has given us a heads-up, this time, so we're prepared. Get ready to e-mail your representatives and take to the streets, if you have to. War with Iran would make this horrific Iraq war look like a Sunday School picnic.
:scared::nuke::scared::nuke::scared::nuke::scared: