Bush May End Term With Iran Issue Unsettled

Let's hope so




http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/21/washington/21diplo.html?em&ex=1214193600&en=02d143b09821ea66&ei=5087%0A


WASHINGTON — For more than five years now, President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney have made clear that they did not want to leave office with Iran any closer to possessing nuclear weapons than when they took office.

Skip to next paragraph
Enlarge This Image

Dmitry Kostyukov/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Russia’s foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, said the United States had not proved that Iran was pursuing nuclear weapons.

Related
U.S. Says Israeli Exercise Seemed Directed at Iran (June 20, 2008)
Times Topics: Iran's Nuclear Program “The nations of the world must not permit the Iranian regime to gain nuclear weapons,” Mr. Bush said in February 2006. The United States is prepared to use its naval power “to prevent Iran from gaining nuclear weapons and dominating this region,” Mr. Cheney said in 2007 from a Navy carrier in the Persian Gulf.

But with seven months left in this administration, Iran appears ascendant, its political and economic influence growing, its historic foes in Iraq and Afghanistan weakened, and its nuclear program continuing to move forward. So the question now is: Are Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney resigned to leaving Iran more powerful than they found it when they came to office?

The evidence is mixed. For all the talk to the contrary, Bush administration officials appear to have concluded that diplomatic efforts to rein in Iran’s nuclear ambitions will not yield any breakthroughs this year.

they would purchase the technology, if not the actual weapons, from the black market. That was the exact area of Valerie Plame's expertise. She was shut down by Bush and Cheney. In so doing, Bush and Cheney have done their best to guarantee that Iran could buy weapons on the black market.

By the way, Iran does have submarines capable of launching intermediate range missiles. Further, they have missiles that can reach Israel and Europe.

Anything BushCheney can do to either pass the baton to McSame or fuck things up for Obama will be done.

The curious thing about Israel in this whole shell-game is that in 1980, when they attacked Osirak, they did so with total secrecy. It's always been the way that country's military complex operated...strike first and deal with the consequences later. Olmert has been playing chicken with Iran for his own internal politics as much as making a threat. Israel's military is powerful, but it's biggest weapon has always been the element of surprise. All this sabre rattling seems more directed at the Likudniks.

Also, I'm still convinced this regime will strike at Iran...it's not if, just when. If they see it as politically helpful to Gramps, it'll be airstrikes this September and October...then whipping up the corporate media flag wavers. If not, it'll be after the election to shut down Iran's oil infrastructure...putting more oil out of the marketplace and letting the prices and speculation go wild. That'll teach us for not electing Gramps.

It seems the biggest roadblock to this regime's delusions of Iran has been the military. The generals are still a little busy these days trying to fight two losing wars and a disintegrating moral. The forces are stretched thin and any strike will be difficult to sustain...just enough to destroy Iran's oil producing capacity and divert attention from the last minute fleecing of the treasury. This is the fog these crooks hope will allow them to slip away...let the next guy sort out the mess.

I forget the details, but it's considerably more serious than getting a BJ in his office. Here's the scary part.... Netanyahu stands a pretty good chance of taking over.

That man is a fucking lunatic. Worst case scenario: Netanyahu in charge of Israel and McLoon in charge of the US. Outcome = Armegeddon. :scared: