WH is cornered : what will be next ? Syria, Iran, N.Korea ?

[tocqueville]

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/GK17Ak05.html

As Brean explains all this to the White House staff in the film, American presidents have often sought to distract attention from their political woes at home by heating up a war or crisis somewhere else. Now that the current occupant of the White House is facing roiling political scandals of his own, it stands to reason that he, too, or his embattled adviser, Karl Rove, (not to speak of his besieged Vice President, Dick Cheney) may be thinking along such lines.

Could Rove - today's real-life version of Conrad Brean - already be cooking up a "wag the dog" scenario? Only those with access to the innermost sanctum of President George W Bush's White House can know for sure, but it is hardly an improbable thought, given that they have done so in the past.

It bears repeating that this administration - more than any other in recent times - has employed deception and innuendo to mold public opinion and advance its political agenda. Indeed, the very scandal now enveloping the White House - the apparent conspiracy to punish whistle-blower Joseph Wilson by revealing the covert Central Intelligence Agency identity of his wife, Valerie Plame - is rooted in the president's drive to mobilize support for the invasion of Iraq by willfully distorting Iraqi weapons capabilities. Why then would he and his handlers shrink from exaggerating or distorting new intelligence about other hostile powers, and then using such distortions to ignite an international crisis?

Add to this the fact that a rising level of belligerence is already detectable in the statements of top administration officials regarding potential adversaries in the Middle East and Asia. Most striking perhaps was Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's truculent appearance before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on October 19.

[kywildcat]

1. Iran...they've been gearing up for this

one for a while. I think Bush is taking his 'I'll give you NK for Iran' with China pitch now. The wild card is going to be if China plays nicey nicey, or if China wants that Iranian oil more than we do. Most of Irans oil goes there now, and with no new sources or large finds, it's gonna be a hard sell for China to give in so easily on Iran.

[Erika]

2. W hasn't the guts to order our troops into another ME country

He's like the little boy who cried wolf once too often. Nor do we have the troops and no one would accept a draft.

[MuseRider]

3. I think this is the corner

we have been worried about. Something is going to happen but I don't know what. I just heard John King on CNN say that Bush** is in trouble and beginning to lose his base and the best way to fire up the base is to start a big fight with the Democrats. Let's hope that is all he does because we don't have the troops or the money to do another war and quite frankly I don't think the world will respond very well to that either. This is when things get really dicey and I am feeling a bit uncomfortable about what their plans are but then after the Michael Moore remark tonight I am also quite giddy.

[tocqueville]

5. delete

[no_hypocrisy]

6. I missed it. What did Michael Moore say tonight please?

[MuseRider]

7. Here is the White House

statement about Murtha
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x5388487

[tridim]

4. Another attack on America - MIHOP II

They are all batshit insane.

[spindrifter]

9. That is the only feasible thing for the

idiocans to do...no available troops--no permissible budget without an emergency--but we could also just wait till next summer--with a little help from Nature, the WH may get just what the doctor ordered for lame duckitis.

[barb162]

8. No more invasions because no troops are available

Unless Monkeyboy wants to do a draft. And I think the GOP people up for election in 2006 don't want to see that issue

[NNadir]

10. This is definitely the case.

The Bushies cannot afford yet another military defeat.

The cake walk crowd is pretty much powerless now.

[tocqueville]

12. troops no, missiles yes

There are many who claim that Bush could not possibly contemplate military action against Iran, Syria or any other hostile power at present. American forces, they argue, are stretched to the limit in Iraq and so lack the capacity to undertake a significant campaign in another country. At the very least, these analysts overlook the massive American air and naval capabilities hardly engaged in Iraq, and certainly available for use elsewhere.

.........................

It is easy to see how this could lead to something closer to the outbreak of full-scale military hostilities with Syria or, more likely, escalating air and missile attacks. Indeed, military analyst William Arkin of the Washington Post reports that the Pentagon has already commenced full-scale planning for such contingencies.

"US intelligence agencies and military planners received instructions to prepare up-to-date target lists for Syria and to increase their preparations for potential military operations against Damascus," he observed recently. Such operations could include "cross-border operations to ... destroy safe havens supporting the Iraqi insurgency" as well as "attacks on the regime of Syria's President Bashar Assad". Attacks of this type could be mounted at any time, and should be considered highly likely if Damascus rebuffs UN efforts to compel testimony by its senior officials or if conditions worsen in Iraq (as is likely).

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/GK17Ak05.html

[leesa]

11. My guess is we will be hit next....just like they hit us before on 9-11