‘Bush intends to attack Iran before the end of his term’
This story from the Jerusalem Post probably represents the view of Elliot Abrams (I would bet the unnamed official in the story). True or not, it is hard to say, but it does look like a cat and mouse game between parts of the Bush Administration and parts of the Israeli right-wing and military. And then, there’s the cat and mouse with Iran. Is it a game of who bombs first? Or a game of let’s keep them [the Iranians] rattled. Or let’s win this for John McCain? Complicated!
Short news story here:
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1210668683139&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
This from the Sunday Times op-ed page is part of the story in a somewhat indirect way. Jeffrey Goldberg, “Israel’s American Problem.”
Or maybe not:
White House denounces war with Iran story
http://video1.washingtontimes.com/potusnotes/2008/05/white_house_denounces_war_with.html
But a lot of Americans are very or somewhat concerned that war with Iran might happen; that’s what comes from saber-rattling.
I can’t believe that Bush will attack Iran — but I’m usually wrong in foretelling the future and with That Man in the White House (as angry Republicans used to characterize FDR) anything is possible.
One corrective to Jeffrey Goldberg’s article, when he writes: “John J. Mearsheimer and Stephen M. Walt, in their polemical work “The Israel Lobby,” have it wrong: They argue, unpersuasively, that American support for Israel hurts America. It doesn’t. But unthinking American support does hurt Israel.”
I haven’t read the Lobby but I read the original British-published article, and heard Walt speak a few months ago at Middlebury College. And I certainly came away with the impression that he thinks that “unthinking American support” does indeed hurt Israel, whatever one may believe about its effects on the US.
If it happens, Cheney’s Puppet will certainly leave a legacy for the history books!