Race is on --Can Bush Start War w/Iran Before Congress Can Defund Effort?

Bush is counting on Iran responding to a provocation and the US using that to start war operations against Iran and Syria BEFORE Congress gets its act together and defunds the effort.

In one possible scenario, Bush will use the expanded war to justify granting pardons all around for everyone subject to criminal prosecution for acts over the last 6 years on the grounds that these are distractions which hurt our war efforts. If anyone knows what kind of 'dirt' the Congressional Investigations will expose it is Bush.

Anyone who thinks Cheney is going to allow himself to be placed under oath and testify in the Libby trial is delusional. My best guess is that Cheney will resign as VEEP 'for health problems.' THis will allow Bush to pardon Cheney, something he could not do with Cheney as a sitting VEEP.

No one in the Pentagon believes this 'surge' in Iraq is a good idea for ending violence in Iraq. No one in Congress, and no other country(even Israel) is on the record supporting this 'surge' for the stated reason.

However, if you were going to provoke Iran and start an expansion of the war into Iran and Syria, militarily you would want more assets and more men in the region(ala more aircraft carriers, strike forces, and men).

Will Congress act quickly enough to head off this coming disaster? Who knows.

Will an insider come forward and reveal the real plans, sparking such outrage that Congress has to force a constitutional crisis to stop Bush? Who knows.

Will Bush ignore everyone's opinion and move forward with 'his destiny." Easy -- Most definitely.

IT is a race with Bush against the clock, and Congress is behind. Stay tuned to events that will largely determine the future of our country for the next decade, if not longer.

the ones that are there now. and impossible to defund as you will not be supporting those in Iraq

to testify against themselves and others involved in conspiracies. A prosecutor and judge could lock up anyone who refuses to testify, even after that person was pardoned. Further, the pardon only covers crimes committed prior to the pardon, not subsequent offenses.

The point of all this is that Cheney shouldn't expect to get away with what he's done. Bush is the deadest of dead ducks - he can't commit the US to a major war just because he decides to - Congress and the Joint Chiefs oppose an aggressive, illegal attack on Iran. Without their agreement, this is just smoke and mirrors. Quite counter-productive to force the issue at this point, I believe we're seeing a coalescence of elites in Washington that agree that Bush must go, by any means necessary.

Bush-Cheney won't be around on 01/20/2009.

.... yes he can be required to give testimony AFTER the pardon is granted. However, if everyone involved in the the 'conspiracy' is pardoned, then the prosecutor has no one to go against, and there is no forum in which to subpoena Cheney to testify. Go back and look at Iran/Contra, that is exactly what happened in that case.

THe kicker is that if Cheney is required to testify and he lies in any way that can be proven, then he has committed a new crime of perjury and can be prosecuted for that. And of course the pardon is limited to the circumstances which it states that it covers, and cannot apply to any future crimes.

Many believe they can pull Cheney into testifying in a civil suit, but there is a rub there as well. Cheney can raise the defense that he was acting as VP, and as such had governmental immunity. IT would be up to the party calling him to show that he acted outside his scope and course of duties.

I doubt Cheney will ever be put under oath. But if he does and testifies truthfully, he will never be punished for what the pardon covers --no matter how egregious.