* meanwhile jeff huber at larisa's:
"It seems highly unusual for a navy admiral to take charge of CENTCOM until you consider two interrelated things. First is that Bush needs a senior four-star in the CENTCOM job who hasn't gone on record as opposing additional troops in Iraq. Second is that Fallon's CENTCOM area of responsibility will include Iran.* meanwhile, TimesUK via Chris:
A conflict with Iran would be a naval and air operation. Fallon is a naval flight officer...
If anybody knows how to run a maritime and air operation against Iran, it's "Fox" Fallon.
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The only chance of checking whatever aggressive ambitions Bush may have on Iran would be a passive coup by the senior members of the administration's civilian and military security team through a group resignation, and hoping for that is, well, hopeless. After the latest round of musical deck chairs is complete, everybody still on board will have signed on to the program in blood (somebody else's, of course).
What's even more frightening is that the escalation strategy--that includes more troops in Iraq, an expansion of the military and use of armed force against Iran--comes from the core neoconservative cabal headed by Bill Kristol and supported by Dick Cheney that got us into our Middle East miasma in the first place."
"ISRAEL has drawn up secret plans to destroy Iran’s uranium enrichment facilities with tactical nuclear weapons.
Two Israeli air force squadrons are training to blow up an Iranian facility using low-yield nuclear “bunker-busters”, according to several Israeli military sources.
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“As soon as the green light is given, it will be one mission, one strike and the Iranian nuclear project will be demolished,” said one of the sources.
The plans, disclosed to The Sunday Times last week, have been prompted in part by the Israeli intelligence service Mossad’s assessment that Iran is on the verge of producing enough enriched uranium to make nuclear weapons within two years.
Israeli military commanders believe conventional strikes may no longer be enough to annihilate increasingly well-defended enrichment facilities. Several have been built beneath at least 70ft of concrete and rock. However, the nuclear-tipped bunker-busters would be used only if a conventional attack was ruled out and if the United States declined to intervene, senior sources said.
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Israeli pilots have flown to Gibraltar in recent weeks to train for the 2,000-mile round trip to the Iranian targets. Three possible routes have been mapped out, including one over Turkey."
* kleiman:
"...But the notion of signing a secret memo with the Secret Service, during the course of a lawsuit about White House visitor logs, to make the logs "White House records" instead of "Secret Service records" is truly Nixonian: a comically incompetent attempt to cover up wrongdoing.
No doubt the Republicans on the Hill will explain that the visitor logs ought to be hidden from public view. But of course they didn't think so when they were getting Clinton's.
So what do you think is in those records that Mr. Bush is so eager to hide? We already know Jack Abramoff virtually had a commuter pass, so it must be something even more damning than that."
* cannon:
"The analogy between Hitler's Germany and modern Israel is not overdrawn; it is exact. Anyone with any sense knows that the rightist faction in Israel wants nothing less than physical removal and annihilation of the rightful inhabitants of that land. Because Israel has copied the crimes of Nazis -- has become the stereotypical abused child who evolves into an abuser -- that nation will one day suffer the same fate as the Third Reich. Such are the wages of genocide."* larisa:
"The nomination McConnell is very dangerous. One need only to check out this guy's history with domestic surveillance issues to fully grasp the implications. Of course, not to mention that for the first time in US history, a DIA - DOD (that is military) officer will be heading up a domestic intelligence program. "* digby has some horrifying atlasvloggs. don't watch it unless you like train wrecks.
* atrios tries to define blogging:
"The best comparison I could come up with is that it's as if, day to day, I'm trying to follow along with 75 simultaneous conversations and make sense of them all in realtime."
1 comment:
The discussion here about a coming war with Iran does not mean anything to the people where I work, and so too, I believe, with most people in the country.
They do not read deeply enough of the papers or on the internet or books to hear that we have been preparing for this war, that people are talking about it because, it seems, the people in power are bound and determined to do it.
I think people have their noses buried in their work. They are concerned about television dramas and the stories about movie stars.
Where I am, there is a deep skepticism that any news of the outside world is true or has any credibility if it's about anything but what has happened before.
One argument I could try to make is that the war that we might be having real soon will have definite effects on them. There's a good chance the economy will be shaken. maybe the price of gas will go up. Maybe there will be an increase in interest rates. Maybe there will be a draft that will get them or their kids and they won't be able to escape to Canada.
People may not even care if we invade Iran and kill hundreds of thousands because it does not effect them personally.
This seems consistent with the impression I have that most people don't care about the education system if unless it's the school their kids are in at the moment. Nor, do they care about the health system unless its the Dr. who doesn't listen to their specific complaints, or a bill thet's too big for their pocketbook.
Given the solipsism of the American, what should the people who care be doing to keep the ship from hitting the oncoming icebergs?
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