My heart fell while reading the president’s interview in today’s Wall Street Journal. At a certain point he seems to preen himself, to brag that he’s wimping out on Iran:
There is a temptation for people to take my comments and
say, ‘Really what he wants to do is escalate the conflict.’ The answer
to that is that we can solve this peacefully and we’re going to need
other partners to help us solve it peacefully. Anyway, that’s where we
are.
Those are not the words of a Texan who understands the nature of the war we’re in, and have been in, for nearly three decades. Those are the words of a man who has been lobotomized by the dips and spooks who have never wanted to deal with the Iranian threat, the same sorts who rewarded Yasser Arafat’s murder of an American ambassador with the intel version of an insurance policy.
A fine mess you’ve made for us, Ollie.
I don’t quite get the Iran-Contra reference. Have you written anything that would clarify how North is responsible for the mess?
ML:
IT’s an old laurel and hardy line, nothing to do with washington dc. sorry, should have made that clearer, but i’ve used it before…
Sir,
I am not sure I would have many things to hazard about this news since, while enjoying the privilege of a better privacy, I guess we could possibly be in tune together within a handful of minutes on the developments and possible tactical developments of this affair from now on. Well, if ever I am right (and time only shall tell me that) then I don’t have to miss that much this hypothetic conversation, after all.
Best regards,
funny! I read the same article this morning and I got a different take on Bush’s comment on Iran. oh! well! maybe I am projecting my own hopes
“…in the bowels of the bureacracy.” Nice NRO piece, and a great phrase that captures our frustration with ‘regime change’ for the Iranian people.
At this time in the Clinton presidency we were long past having come to an understanding of the presidents psyche. It wasn’t pretty. But there it was. It was written about often and on graphically on display in case you didn’t feel like reading about it.
But Bush is still a mystery. Is he a phony? Is he so incredibly cagey that one day when we least expect it he is going to pay back the Iranians? Is he waiting for God to tell him what to do? He is clearly not stupid. And only those on the left who have clearly left their brains somewhere think that he is. What does he tell himself when he hears about Iranians killing his beloved military men and women? Because it is also clear that he does love them.
I don’t know where to go to get the answers to these and many more questions. But I believe this is why his disapproval rating goes up and down. He makes us hopeful and then he scares us to death. Truly a mystery politician. Hopefully someday it will all be clear.
ML:
I don’t think he’s mysterious any more; I think he’s a man whose moment came and went, and who now gives tough speeches but doesn’t follow through. His personnel office is the worst i’ve seen in thirty years in washington, and his loyalty to subordinates is as touching as it is foolish. Predictably, his subordinates have often been disloyal to him.
The President has had unresolved contradictions in his policy approach, both foreign and domestic, from Day One. Nevertheless, even this confusion is better than the outright wrongness of the people he defeated and of today’s Congressional leadership.
It seems that the rules of engagement have changed, and the weasels are doing their best to change them back to the earlier self-destructive ones.
There is a lot more going on than meets the eye – indeed globalsecurity.org says that Bush would not tip his hand if he were going to attack Iran. It may become more politicially viable to do so soon – depending on what Ahmadinejad does.
ML:
I hope you’re right, but I still haven’t been told that the rules of engagement have changed. Those are the ones that tell our soldiers on the ground when they can use lethal force. You are quite right that we have changed the rules governing our treatment of iranians in iraq, which is good news.
I agree that Bush would not want to tip his hand, but, again, I don’t see any sign that we are getting ready to attack.
Bush is certainly showing the usual equivocation and inability to make a real decision we have all become familiar with.
But, if Iran already has some deliverable nuclear weapons, and I’m in print about that, deception and cover plans would be an element of any planned American attack on Iran. Which this could easily be part of. As a matter of fact, any deception script would call for just this.
We won’t know until the second joint North Korean/Iranian nuclear test. Then the real countdown will start.
Saddam Hussein used to say all sorts of things that got the blood pressure up. He had the same attitude problems exhibited by the mullahs.
More recently he took part in a memorable video without his trusty shotgun and his big mouth. The bottom dropped out of his market.
Bush put him in that spot.
Something is happening. An Iranian nuclear scientist dies. Oil prices drop and their economy suffers. Carrier groups arrive. US jets head for (over?) the Iranian border. Troops surge. Numbers surge from 25 to 50 thousand. One hundred thousand anyone? Provocations become more outrageous.
President Reagan talked about the boy who wanted a pony. Years went by. Then came the day when we watched the Berlin Wall come down on the tube.
It took a relatively short time to deal with Saddam. And it is not over.
I don’t give the mullahs a pass regarding responsibility for 9/11. They have a history of destroying buildings with Americans in them.
I don’t need proof. And they need to wonder. Because on 9/11 President Bush and the rest of us who care watched men and women jump from those buildings and felt something that will never go away.
I don’t believe he has forgotten. Millions of little peons just like myself will never erase those images burned in our minds.
I know President Bush has not forgotten. I know he will not share what he knows with me or us. He is clearly capable of being deceptive with a New York newspaper. And there sure are a lot of Army, Navy and Marine personnel congregating near the Iranian horizon.
Maybe I’m naive. So what. I stand on the history of the United States. All of it.
hopefully it’s just some dis-information……
I think you will like this:
http://regimechangeiniran.com/2007/02/unresponsive/
It really depicts what’s going on in George W. Hamelt’s ( sorry Bush )and his administration’s minds.