The Gathering Storm
Despite denials to the contrary, the Bush administration is preparing for an assault on Iran.
At the current rate of military increase, the U.S. will be ready to attack the Islamic Republic by springtime, but more than likely will wait until next year.
Vice-president Dick Cheney, Josh Muravchik, a Middle-East specialist at the neoconservative think-tank American Enterprise Institute, and Meyrav Wurmser, director of the conservative Hudson Institute, are all urging the president to attack Iran as soon as possible. For these individuals, diplomacy is seen as futile, and direct military action is the only answer.
Muravchik is an advocate of using air strikes–including bunker-busting nuclear weapons–to settle the issue. “The Bush administration have said they would not allow Iran nuclear weapons,” he said. “That is either bullshit or they mean it as a clear code: we will do it if we have to. I would rather believe it is not hot air.”
Others, including Wurmser, favor support for Iranian opposition groups–even those that have been declared terrorist organizations, if necessary. “There is not enough political will for a strike. There seems to be various notions of what policy should be,” she commented.
Bush has ordered the carrier USS John Stennis, along with a second battle group, to the Gulf in support of the USS Eisenhower. His decision on Iran is not yet known.
The directors of American foreign policy are people who grew up and came to power during the Cold War. They have always had an enemy to grapple with. Despite the fact that it has been more than a quarter of a century since the Iranian hostage crisis, they cannot, and never will forgive that country for the outrage they felt then. Just as they cannot completely forgive the Russians. Peace is not in their nature. An enemy is always going to be needed, and one is always going to be found.
In defiance of Congress, and despite the desires of the American public, this war is going to happen. Better get used to it now.
