With the Iraq War in ruins, the Bush Administration is looking for someone to blame, and it appears that Vice President Cheney is urging President Bush to look eastward to Iran for the culprit. In recent months, the Administration has loudly proclaimed that Iran is behind everything that has gone wrong in Iraq, from the sectarian civil war to attacks on Iraqi's already-teetering infrastructure.
The fact that the evidence of Iranian involvement is thin at best and nonexistent at worst doesn't seem to bother the White House or the Pentagon at all. Earlier this year, the Pentagon offered several news briefings, featuring secret evidence (which could not be photographed or described other than in the sketchiest manner) supposedly implicating Iran in attacks on American soldiers. But no actual proof has ever been presented.
Meanwhile, our ineffective but increasingly independent puppet government in Baghdad has been making overtures to Iran and citing its "positive and constructive stance," much to Bush's displeasure. When asked about Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's Tehran trip, Bush could only whimper that "I don't think he, in his heart of hearts, thinks they're constructive, either."
With Bush increasingly befuddled and hiding in his own little world, it's no secret that Cheney and his allies have been prodding him to approve an attack on Iran. Of course, non-ideologues outside the Administration who know anything about Iran all warn that such an attack would backfire disastrously, but they are studiously ignored.
Where have we seen this pattern before? Oh yes, in the run-up to the Iraq War. Back then, Bush et al were hot for an attack on Baghdad no matter what, and we're now seeing the exact same thing all over again. Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has replaced Saddam Hussein as the Madman of the Middle East, Public Enemy Number One and there is no evil too black to be laid at his doorstep.
Are Bush and Cheney like Napoleon, the tyrannical pig of George Orwell's allegorical novella Animal Farm? Everywhere they look, they claim to find evidence of Iranian "meddling" in Iraq, with no more proof than that fictional porker:
The fact that the evidence of Iranian involvement is thin at best and nonexistent at worst doesn't seem to bother the White House or the Pentagon at all. Earlier this year, the Pentagon offered several news briefings, featuring secret evidence (which could not be photographed or described other than in the sketchiest manner) supposedly implicating Iran in attacks on American soldiers. But no actual proof has ever been presented.
Meanwhile, our ineffective but increasingly independent puppet government in Baghdad has been making overtures to Iran and citing its "positive and constructive stance," much to Bush's displeasure. When asked about Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's Tehran trip, Bush could only whimper that "I don't think he, in his heart of hearts, thinks they're constructive, either."
With Bush increasingly befuddled and hiding in his own little world, it's no secret that Cheney and his allies have been prodding him to approve an attack on Iran. Of course, non-ideologues outside the Administration who know anything about Iran all warn that such an attack would backfire disastrously, but they are studiously ignored.
Where have we seen this pattern before? Oh yes, in the run-up to the Iraq War. Back then, Bush et al were hot for an attack on Baghdad no matter what, and we're now seeing the exact same thing all over again. Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has replaced Saddam Hussein as the Madman of the Middle East, Public Enemy Number One and there is no evil too black to be laid at his doorstep.
Are Bush and Cheney like Napoleon, the tyrannical pig of George Orwell's allegorical novella Animal Farm? Everywhere they look, they claim to find evidence of Iranian "meddling" in Iraq, with no more proof than that fictional porker:
At every few steps Napoleon stopped and snuffed the ground for traces of Snowball's footsteps, which, he said, he could detect by the smell. He snuffed in every corner, in the barn, in the cow-shed, in the henhouses, in the vegetable garden, and found traces of Snowball almost everywhere. He would put his snout to the ground, give several deep sniffs, and exclaim in a terrible voice, "Snowball! He has been here! I can smell him distinctly!" and at the word "Snowball" all the dogs let out blood-curdling growls and showed their side teeth. The animals were thoroughly frightened. It seemed to them as though Snowball were some kind of invisible influence, pervading the air about them and menacing them with all kinds of dangers.Of course, no mention is made of the hundreds of Saudi citizens caught fighting with the Sunni insurgents in Iraq, nor of the astounding revelation that a full third of the weapons provided by the Pentagon to the Iraqi military - that's almost two hundred thousand guns - have disappeared without a trace. That, you see, isn't in the script.
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