The man who stands between US and new war

We're talking about a major war here, not a game of chicken, and this is what's going on?

The man who stands between US and new war

Last Updated: 10:42am BST 07/10/2007

Robert Gates, the US defence secretary, has taken charge of the forces in the American government opposed to a US military attack on Iran, writes Tim Shipman.

Pentagon and State Department officials say Mr Gates has set himself up as chief rival to Dick Cheney in a bid to thwart the vice president's desire to bomb the Islamic state.

Those familiar with internal battles in the Bush administration say Mr Gates has eclipsed Condoleezza Rice, the secretary of state, as the chief opponent of air strikes and is the main reason President George W.Bush has yet to resort to military action.

Pentagon sources say Mr Gates is waging a subtle campaign to undermine the Cheney camp by encouraging the army's senior officers to speak frankly about the overstretch of forces, and the difficulty of fighting another war.

Bruce Reidel, a former CIA Middle East officer, said: "Cheney's people know they can beat Condi. They have been doing it for six years. Bob Gates is a different kettle of fish. He doesn't owe the President anything. He is urging his officers to be completely honest, knowing what that means."

Officials say Mr Gates's strategy bore fruit when Admiral William Fallon, the head of US Central Command, charged with devising war plans for Iran, said last month that the "constant drumbeat of war" was not helpful.

more...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/10/07/wiran307.xml

Those other two have constantly rolled over for more power to spy on us. I'm not comforted in the least.

Also, notice how they say he's the only one standing in the way...did they omit congress, or are assuming a roll-over?

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No.

The SECDEF has been briefed that there is no way we can stop Iran from knocking offline nearly 50% of the worlds oil export market for years. And not being as much of an ideologue as Rummy has taken the implications of this to heart.

North Korea has Seoul as a hostage. Iran has the economy of the United States as a hostage.

Maybe it's time to talk.

If they knock Iran offline, the price of oil will skyrocket and the Oil cartel will make a killing.

I wonder if there would be all this clamor for attacking Iran if the pundit class knew that there is a real possibility of us going the way of the Mayans or Anasazi.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=389&topic_id=1910376#1912170

is it "13 days"? about the bay of pigs. le may is prattling on and on, and gets to the point where everyone has shot their nukes, etc, and jfk says "then what?" "hopefully then, cooler heads will prevail." yeah, let's let the cooler heads into the process now K?

Only the NYTimes doesn't print ! Iraq oilfields are seized (not the Saudi fields as original DoD plans) and now we're on to another fiasco.

We need to implement a crashcourse in Amory Lovin's http://www.oilendgame.com right now !

is partially accurate. It is true for the influences within the administration. If we think back to the Baker Group -- remember them? -- we saw the growing divide between the right-wing republicans (Baker et al) and the neo-insane republicans (Cheneyites). That is the context for this article.

probably over Cheney's protestations.