Intelligent, thoughtful people with foreign policy experience are still concerned that one of the reasons Cheney is visiting the Middle East at this time is to secure assent to an attack on Iran. Which may explain this statement by former U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan yesterday:
“We cannot, I’m sure, take on another military action in Iran, and I hope no one is contemplating it,” Annan said at a briefing with U.N. correspondents in New York.
“It will be a real disaster,” he said.
I don’t think he’d be making these statements if he didn’t have a very good reason to suspect an attack on Iran is in the works. And by that I mean contacts within the diplomatic community, and within the Middle East especially, who are telling him that Bush and Cheney are still intent on attacking Iran before their term in office is over. The firing of Admiral Fallon was one sign. The continuing conflation of Iran with Al Qaeda by McCain and bombastic assertions by President Bush that Iran wants nukes in order to “destroy” other nations, is another. The “impressive buildup” of US Naval forces in the region is perhaps the most alarming.
Let’s hope Kofi Annan’s and my concerns are misplaced.