Looks like 2 more strikes against the foaming at the mouth neoconservative warmongering lunatics who NEED to bomb Iran in order to show how Iraq was really just a warmup. I can see Cheney on the line now trying to formulate a new reason why Iraqn is the most dangerous threat ever™ and we must bomb them yesterday.
Even though the “evidence” about Iran’s meddling in weapons smuggling presented as a slam dunk back in January was smacked down immediately by just about everyone with half a brain, that didn’t deter the bomb bomb bomb bomb bomb Iran crowd. And it didn’t stop Bush from declaring Iran’s Revolutionary Guard force as a terrorist organization.
For those, if nothing else, you have to give them credit for trying, although it is the same old bad tricks from the same book as was used for Iraq, and the world, military brass and American public (by and large) is much wiser and less trusting. But even with all of this being trotted out and shot down, there were still two “aces in the hole” that were sitting out there as potential reasons (albeit crappy and very thin on credibility ones) to bomb Iran – its’ nuclear program and the “attacking of forces in Iraq” (of course, if Chavez invaded Mexico and it spilled over into the US border, we wouldn’t sit and watch).
That is, until today.
In a double whammy against the case for opening up a big old can of whoopass against Iran, there is news from US Maj. General James Simmons that Iran is sticking by its pledge to stem the flow of weapons into Iraq and help stabilize certain parts of the country. This follows comments made recently by Robert Gates that Iran made this pledge, and it seems like the pledge is being honored:
Simmons, a deputy commander of Multinational Corps-Iraq, told reporters that the number of roadside bombs either found or exploded nationwide had fallen from 3,239 in March to 1,560 last month.
—snip—
Simmons said the decline included all types of roadside bombs, including highly lethal “explosively formed penetrators” — the signature weapon of Shiite extremists — which can hurl a fist-sized chunk of molten copper through the heaviest armor on U.S. vehicles.
—snip—
“We believe that the commitments that the Iranians have made appear to be holding up,” Simmons said, adding that Iranian-made weaponry still found in Iraq appeared to have been smuggled in months ago.
After the news conference, Simmons told The Associated Press that the Iranian move followed “a significant amount of negotiations.” He would not give details, however, saying he was not privy to the discussions.
At a time when good news is pretty much lacking, this is good news for the troops, good news for Iraqis and good news for potential diplomacy (outside of the crazies that will never be open to diplomacy). But that only deals with the “killing our troops in Iraq” lie reason for bombing. What about the “we must not let Iran get nuclear weapons and will do whatever is necessary to stop them” rationale?
Sorry, Dick – another swing and a miss there as the IAEA has basically indicated that Iran has “basically been truthful about its nuclear program”. The one caveat in the report which will no doubt be twisted and exploited as much as possible is that Iran has not suspended its enrichment of uranium:
A report from the U.N nuclear watchdog agency on Thursday found Iran to be generally truthful about key aspects of its nuclear history, but it warned that its knowledge of Tehran’s present atomic work was shrinking.
—snip—
The IAEA report, released to its 35 board members, also confirmed that Tehran continued to defy the U.N. Security Council by ignoring its repeated demands to freeze uranium enrichment, a potential pathway to nuclear arms.
Now, this isn’t really a squeaky clean report, and the White House has already jumped all over this, indicating that it will seek a third round of sanctions against Iran. But it does show that once again (in addition to all of the reports on Iran being 3-5-10 years away from developing a weapon) the argument about Iran’s nuclear weapons being an imminent threat that must be stopped right now though bombs – and of course no thought of the repercussions against our troops in Iraq, the blockading of the Strait of Hormuz, the price of oil as well as the continued decline of our reputation in the world to a level even lower than we currently “enjoy” – is absolutely ludicrous.
So now we are back to breathing a temporary sigh of relief about Iran. Maybe cooler and saner heads will prevail as more and more out of the mainstream and radical excuses being used for out of the mainstream and radical actions against Iran are shot down. Poor Dick – now he needs to find a new excuse to peddle and feed to Hannity, Limbaugh and the other “freedom lovers”.
But for today, score two more points for sanity and reality.