Is it possible the Busheviks are goading Iran?

[Walt Starr]

Could it be this talk of military in Iran already and the talk of a pre-emptive strike on their nuclear capability could be an attempt to goad the mullahs into attacking across the Iran-Iraq border? It seems likely to me for several reasons:

1) It starts a conflict with Iran while the U.S. doesn't have to fire the first shot.

2) It makes the United States the victim.

3) And this one is the biggie, it gives a perfect excuse for reinstating the draft.

Hell, even if the mullahs aren't this stupid, making it even LOOK like the Iranians attacked across the border is good enough, and gives the administration a perfect excuse for forcing all the young men and women into military service for empire. It gives limitless resources for adventures in the Mideast and reinstatement of the draft under those conditions would probably even win overwhelming popular support, just like the Iraq war had in the propaganda lead up to invasion!

[Eurobabe]

1. I can't even read this stuff today

The whole thing is just utterly depressing. If I didn't want to leave this shithole country before, I sure do now.

[franksumatra]

2. quite plausible

that's how they think, they just act, they dont' think things out.

[Minstrel Boy]

3. I think so. They did the same to Saddam with provocations

in the unilaterally-declared "no fly" zone.

Take yer best shot - c'mon!

And if Iran does, then they act in "self defense."

[ComerPerro]

4. Seems likely

[tyedyeto]

5. Not only possible, but probably that is exactly what they are doing

[JanMichael]

6. I don't think this administration is capable of thinking like that

Predicting outcomes doesn't seem to be their "thing."

I think the US is going to declare that Iran has WMD and full out attack Iran within the next 24 months.

Sad, and stupid. "Our" dream of a Great Society is dead right now.

Stephanie

[Last Lemming]

24 months!

Oh, no--more like 2 to 4 weeks

[Last Lemming]

7. The Draft will only

come with tremendous cost, so name that cost. Iranian nuclear terrorists in Westchester County? Sears tower implosion? Al Qaaida caught snooping around the water supply of YOUR town?

What kind of violence against the American people will they use to justify a draft?

[Ironpost]

8. This talk scares the shit out of me.

I have flashbacks to the Cuban missile crises when I read this. With the track record this bunch have, lying, conniving, scheming, this is very likely. Someone help us.

[Last Lemming]

9. I have

never been more frightened
and I was shelled in Gulu, Uganda by the Lords Resistance Army--bombed by Serbs in Zenica, Bosnia

[radwriter0555]

10. ya THINK???? no WAY! The bush regime would NEVER provoke an entire

COUNTRY (who's real estate they intensely desire for geo-political reasons) into some sort of ill-received response so that they can run around in circles waving their arms shrieking "the muslims are coming! the muslims are coming! KILL THEM! ATTACK! ATTACK!"

That would NEVER happen! And they wouldn't steal 2 elections and hire the thugs who attacked the WTC on 911 either.

Say it's not SO!

[punpirate]

11. This is always a possibility...

... but, I still think the excuse will end up being pre-emptive in nature--the Bushies will push the line that Iran presented a global and/or regional threat to its neighbors, and the US (and possibly Israel) just had to nip that threat in the bud.

I don't think the US wants a ground war. The odds in that aren't good, given the number of Iranian troops. The likely scenario would be an extensive air war--lots of bombing of facilities and military equipment--that lasts a short while. That leaves the hope that Iran would not retaliate on the ground or in the Persian Gulf (as Iraq did not when its reactor facilities were bombed by Israel in 1981).

That said, I don't think the US would have to lure Iran into a war. They have already been setting the stage for an excuse, over the last year, by implying that Iran is supplying insurgents to disrupt the emergence of a democratic Iraq. They could pick any big car-bombing at random and say the Iranians were responsible and then attack.