Robert Baer, a former CIA officer: Prelude to an Attack on Iran

[RedEarth]

Reports that the Bush Administration will put Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps on the terrorism list can be read in one of two ways: it's either more bluster or, ominously, a wind-up for a strike on Iran. Officials I talk to in Washington vote for a hit on the IRGC, maybe within the next six months. And they think that as long as we have bombers and missiles in the air, we will hit Iran's nuclear facilities. An awe and shock campaign, lite, if you will. But frankly they're guessing; after Iraq the White House trusts no one, especially the bureaucracy.
..........

Strengthening the Administration's case for a strike on Iran, there's a belief among neo-cons that the IRGC is the one obstacle to democratic and a friendly Iran. They believe that if we were to get rid of the IRGC, the clerics would fall, and our thirty-years war with Iran over. It's another neo-con delusion, but still it informs White House thinking.

And what do we do if just the opposite happens — a strike on Iran unifies Iranians behind the regime? An Administration official told me it's not even a consideration. "IRGC IED's are a casus belli for this administration. There will be an attack on Iran."

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1654188,00.html?xid=rss-world

[davidwparker]

1. K&R

[leftchick]

2. aw fuck

:scared:

[emilyg]

3. I echo your sentiment

[Kagemusha]

4. Um, even if the neocons are right, and getting rid of the Guards would end the clerics...

That has nothing to do with the fact that getting rid of the Revolutionary Guards is LITERALLY IMPOSSIBLE to do from the air short of a wide-scale strategic nuclear strike (which would, incidentally, also annihilate the masses yearning for democracy). Yeah, you can hurt them, you can annoy them, you can take a stick and beat around their hive, and then the wasps come out and sting you. The idea of the Guards falling in the middle of general conventional air attacks is just stupid.

[InternalDialogue]

5. What's with all the rose-colored myopia in the neocon lounge area?

...there's a belief among neo-cons that the IRGC is the one obstacle to democratic and a friendly Iran. They believe that if we were to get rid of the IRGC, the clerics would fall, and our thirty-years war with Iran over.

"All we need to do is this one little warlike thing, and peace will break out."

:eyes: