Did Kit Bond just mention regime change in Iran on NBC Nightly News?

[partylessinOhio]

Did I hear correctly? What is going on in this country that a Senator would speak those frightful words again?

[Lerkfish]

1. OIE april fools or bullshit?

with Bond, its hard to say.

[partylessinOhio]

2. No, this wasn't a joke. It was a serious report on the Middle East.

[Lerkfish]

3. I believe you, my comment was on Bond being a Fool 365 days a year, making it hard to tell

[MADem]

4. Well, we just buzzed Iran at the same time they were showing that tape of the

"confess or else" tapes they had of the UK Sailors.

http://www.news24.com/News24/World/News/0,9294,2-10-1462_2092481,00.html

Fucking Khameinei had better watch how he plays this shit. Monkeyboy is just crazy enough to hop into this Brit Sailor deal, unbidden, that Iran is using to distract from THEIR shitty economy and infrastructure shortcomings, to distract from his own local woes.

If Blair doesn't expressly and PUBLICLY tell him to back away soon, I'd start getting concerned.

[TwilightGardener]

5. Tell who to back away--Chimpy?

[MADem]

6. Precisely. Someone from the UK has to call Monkey and tell him to stop helping.

That little buzz was enough.

If they closely coordinate this, they can end it. It will take a bit of playing along with the idiotic Iranian game of "I'm OFFENDED" and it will also take a bit of patience.

If they play it right it will be over by the sixth of April or soon enough thereafter, the date of that curious "news" report that was planted in the Russkie and Lebanese press. The date that the US is "planning" on attacking. So says some butthead who planted that story in two media outlets that are heavily used by Iran as useful sources.

I really do think we are watching a bit of the Theater of Local Persian Politics. Set a made-up, arbitrary date for a US attack, after observing a bunch of UK sailors doing the same cargo inspections at the same place week in, week out, day in, day out. Wait till the story hits the press, put it on the nightly news, get everyone talking about it, and then go grab that rubber ducky full of kids. Rattle the sabre. Act all pissed. Do the standard, hideous rhetoric for people who are bullshit because they can't afford to fill their gas tank--in fucking IRAN, where gas used to be five rials a litre under the Shah (that's pennies).

Then, after a load of drama, get some sort of apology and release the kids. Declare victory over the Great Shatan, the US, and the Minor Shatan, the UK. It just might keep the population pumped up for a little while, anyway.

Of course, they might not be factoring in local US politics, and that is why Khatemei is playing a more dangerous game than perhaps he realizes. BushCo might let a bomb loose just to tell them "Don't FUCK with me, punks." He's got a base, too--ever shrinking though it is. And you know damned well that he'd get a bump from fucking IDIOTS who like the idea of teaching those furriners a lesson or three.

[annabanana]

7. This is exactly what has me on edge... The nature of

political rhetoric is so different on this side of the divide than it is in the Muslim regimes. The possibiity of unexpected consequences is staggeringly high.

[Raven]

8. A "perfect storm" maybe?

All three of these players have trouble at home. We have a beefed up presence in the Persian Gulf, the Brits have had their soldiers snatched, none of the three of them have the sense they were born with...working these things out peacefully takes self control and tact and diplomacy...of the three mayby Tony B. has some of that but he may not get the chance to it. Very unnerving.

[MADem]

9. Certainly a possible powderkeg.

Who ever thought some asshole shooting an archduke would touch of DubyaDubya One?

I do think it could be resolved around the time of the "magic invasion date" because if it isn't, the people might not buy it.

[TwilightGardener]

10. Good analysis. I am drawing the same conclusion that Iran is doing

this detainee thing to pump up national pride and indignation. They're taking advantage of the fact that neither Britain nor the US really want a war with them, beyond Chimpy and the immediate neocon cabal--Gates and Rice certainly don't want to go there, either. But they are playing with fire--a "surgical" strike or two is very much a possibility, and the "buzz" is meant to remind them of that. We need some serious diplomacy now more than ever--this is what you get when you demonize a nation as part of the "axis of evil" and refuse to sit down with them.

[MADem]

11. Ah, but wait....there's more!!!!! This bit cracks me up.....

Iran sees UK shift that may help end sailor row: TV

http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=topNews&storyid=2007-04-02T134206Z_01_L31691933_RTRUKOC_0_US-IRAN-BRITAIN.xml&src=nl_ustopnewsearly

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iranian television said on Monday it had detected a shift in British policy that could help to resolve a crisis over 15 sailors and marines Iran is holding....Talk of a shift in Britain's approach, so far heavily criticized by Iran, marks a softening in Tehran's tone in a crisis that has heightened tensions surrounding Iran's nuclear standoff with the West and pushed up oil prices.

All I can think, quite cynically, is that, given that just yesterday Blair was calling the Iranians everything short of liars, bullshitters and unhelpful baaaastids (but in diplomatic language, of COURSE) that what "shifted" WAS that US plane buzzing the coast!

Who knows? Maybe Tony and our Very Own Nitwit are playing a Tag Team Wrestling Game--the old "Hold me back, hold me back, I'm a gonna KILLEM!!!!" by Monkeyboy, with Blair saying "I dunno how long I CAN hold 'im back, there, Ayatulllah!!!!"

We are so 'NOT' privy to so much that is happening in terms of the discussions. UK has diplomatic relations with Iran, so I imagine that there's a lot of in camera chitchat going on. It just seems funny that the Iranians are playing this 'We detect a shift' game when the shift could well be that UK has told Iran that the US isn't putting up with this shit and will attack them if they don't release the Sailors now.

After all, it ain't the first time in history the US has said an attack on UK is the 'same' as an attack on the US. And we all know that Monkeyboy is fucking DESPERATE to be regarded as a latter-day FDR. Hell, he's got the dog already--no, he's got TWO (only FDR never dropped his on its head). If Laura does a little leg breaking to put the cowboy on wheels, and he grows a brain, why, he'd be halfway there!