fear fear fear fear fear fear....ooh a cookie.....fear fear fear fear fear

[tjwash]

Iran / Iraq White-House fear-mongering parallels:

Bush / Cheney hammered the airwaves and the mass media on a 7 X 24 basis for months, saying that Saddam Hussein was pursuing a nuclear weapons program. Bush / Cheney is using the same approach to hammer it in that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is pursuing a nuclear weapons program.

Bush used a report by the U.N.A.E.A. as evidence of Iraq’s nuclear rearmament program, only later to acknowledge that the report drew no such conclusion and that the photograph had been misinterpreted. John Bolton at the U.N. says it is clear that Iran is accelerating its nuclear program, and says that “he hoped the Security Council would act as soon as possible.”

Bush and Cheney said Saddam Hussein was “dealing with” Al Qaeda, and immediately after the WTC bombings, and before the invasion of Afghanistan, placed Iraq in their “Axis of Evil,” even though Iraq had absolutely no ties to Al-Qaeda, and no links to the 9-11 hijackings. Despite the genuine outpouring of support from the Iranian people, and offers of any help we needed from former President Mohammad Khatami following the destruction of the WTC, and despite no ties to Al-Qaeda or the 9-11 hijackings, Bush and Cheney rejected all of this goodwill, and proceeded to vilify and place Iran into the “Axis of Evil” as well.

Now they are trying the same sick twisted Bush/Cheney version of "diplomacy" that they used in Iraq, to fast track yet another illegal invasion, with a thoroughly depleted and shell-shocked army, no exit strategy, no clear cut purpose, and the opposition of the rest of the world weighing in against us (well, let's not forget Poland), so that the neo-cons can expand their military presence,and fill their obscenely bulging coffers, even more at the expense of middle America's sons and daughters.

Just some random thoughts…

[sui generis]

1. well it's clear to me that - lookie a shiny thing!

I'm so scared! fff-ff-ffffff-fu fuh fuh



seriously though, you know we're AT WAR, or somesuch as we are constantly reminded by the evil empire. The Axis of Feeble is just itching to pitch a "surgical strike" deterrant nuclear bomb at Tehran; no invasion planned, under the mistaken belief that it will make other "unapproved" countries abandon their enrichment programs.

[Philosoraptor]

2. 3 Arab nations in 3 years! I see a trend developing.

Cue the Wagner music.

[Ripley]

4. You are the best addition to DU in a long time.

Thanks for the laughs! :7

[Bucky]

15. Iran isn't an Arab nation. They're Muslim & on top of oil, but Persian

Ethnically they're closer to Britons than to Arabs. They're Indoeuropeans, not Semites. Just thought you'd wanna know.

[Bitter Cup]

8. So many people forget that throughout the cold war

there was a segment of the power elite who rabidly lobbied for us to attack the USSR....without warning hit them hard because we were kinda sorta pretty sure that maybe we'd survive.

These same evil fools now believe that we're going to lose our status as the worlds SUPER POWER (BATMAN!) if we don't drop a nuke on someone soon to prove that we can and will do it "SEE WE ARE BADASS!"

This is what happens when people fall in love with power for the sake of power...they eventually want to excercise it in order to prove that they still have it.

And we, the foolish sheeple of this country, have lost the ability to distinguish between the sane and insane when it comes election time so we have rewarded exactly these kinds of players with power beyond their wildest dreams. And now we should not be suprised that they wish to prove that they have it.

[tridim]

3. Your post title made me laugh for some reason..

Not to undermine the seriousness of your post.

[Roland99]

13. I think it's one of the best thread titles ever!

:D

[jazzjunkysue]

16. What does it mean that I got it without opening it?

a. Too much of the same GOP tactics for 5 years leaves us all programmed like pavlovian dogs to immediately expect a 1st grade explanation for anything the B*** admin can't handle?
b. We're all reading too much DU.
c. We're all really the same 10 people using hundreds of aliases.
d. Vulcan mind meld.
e. Our mothers all dropped us on the same sides of our heads when we were infants?

[Roland99]

17. Stop, citizen. You are trying to think. Come now, drink this.

You'll be glad you did.

[jazzjunkysue]

18. Ok. Thanks. Sorry!!!!! Pass the remote. Is American Idle on?

[Kikosexy2]

5. War, war...

war!....fiddle-de-de...If I hear the word war again I'll scream!

But Scarlett think about Tara....or is it terra, terra, terra??

[RagAss]

6. Only this time we'll wake up one morning with Chinese Mushrooms

across the American landscape....wake up America...we are running out of good will in this world...and nobody has our fucking back !!!!!!!!!!!

[sweetheart]

7. 2 more years to start a war or be impeached

Or just indicted and censured immediately for violations of constitution.

[kimpossible]

9. There should be a cartoon to go with that title

Could be a perfect caption.
:rofl:

[bigtree]

10. good analysis

fear politics

[gratuitous]

11. They've already declared negotiations will be a sham

Basically going through talks just so they can "check off the box" that they tried diplomacy, but those unreasonable Iranians wouldn't agree to becoming the 52nd state (after Iraq).

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/01/world/middleeast/01iran.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

For Bush, Talks With Iran Were a Last Resort

By DAVID E. SANGER
Published: June 1, 2006

WASHINGTON, May 31 — After 27 years in which the United States has refused substantive talks with Iran, President Bush reversed course on Wednesday because it was made clear to him — by his allies, by the Russians, by the Chinese, and eventually by some of his advisers — that he no longer had a choice.

* * *

There was strong opposition from the White House, particularly from Vice President Dick Cheney, according to several former officials.

"Cheney was dead set against it," said one former official who sat in many of those meetings. "At its heart, this was an argument about whether you could isolate the Iranians enough to force some kind of regime change." But three officials who were involved in the most recent iteration of that debate said Mr. Cheney and others stepped aside — perhaps because they read Mr. Bush's body language, or perhaps because they believed Iran would scuttle the effort by insisting that the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty gives it the right to develop nuclear fuel. The United States insists that Iran gave up that right by deceiving inspectors for 18 years.

In the end, said one former official who has kept close tabs on the debate, "it came down to convincing Cheney and others that if we are going to confront Iran, we first have to check off the box" of trying talks.

_____________________

Isn't that nice? They're already announcing that the negotiations will be fruitless. But who will have ears to hear, especially once the war drums start pounding on Fox, and CNN, and ABC, and NBC, and CBS, and all the cable shows?

[happydreams]

12. "There is nothing to fear but fear itself." FDR

[Bucky]

14. One thing to remember whenever you hear the sabre rattling. It *all* bluff

We can't hit Iran. We lack the ground troops. We can't bomb Iran. Their nuclear program is too spread out. Plus, to hit them, we'd also have to take out their anti-air defenses and their missile batteries all along the Persian Gulf coast. We simply lack the air power to do that before they sank every boat in the Gulf, with the Kuwaiti supertankers going first.

The only thing a strike on Iran could possible accomplish is to kill a lot of civilians and make us a paraiah nation. No one would back us up on this. Not Blair, not Hamid Karzai, not even Poland, not anybody. And Rumsfeld knows this. This is so obvious, even Bush knows this. The negotiations are the result of the Bushkies' desperation to have something to show for all their bluff by November. Right now, the only news being made is Iran's little pipsqueak president thumbing his nose at us. Because like Rumsfeld, he knows all we got is bluff, too. It's sad that as a last ditch effort, we're wliling to try talking with our geopolitical opponents. But that's really all we're down to.

The Bush administration gives us a lot to worry about every day of the year. But war with Iran is one thing we can safely not worry about. It just ain't gonna happen.