This isn’t me and my personal opinion talking, it’s a former Bush administration official who worked at the National Security Council (via NEWSWEEK Magazine):
At least one former White House official contends that some Bush advisers secretly want an excuse to attack Iran. “They intend to be as provocative as possible and make the Iranians do something [America] would be forced to retaliate for,” says Hillary Mann, the administration’s former National Security Council director for Iran and Persian Gulf Affairs.
When Bush’s own people start ratting he and Cheney out, it’s time for Congress to stand up and take action before it is too late. This wasn’t some low level functionary, but the NSC director for Iran and the Persian Gulf for chrissakes! And the news only gets worse:
A second Navy carrier group is steaming toward the Persian Gulf, and NEWSWEEK has learned that a third carrier will likely follow. Iran shot off a few missiles in those same tense waters last week, in a highly publicized test. With Americans and Iranians jousting on the chaotic battleground of Iraq, the chances of a small incident’s spiraling into a crisis are higher than they’ve been in years.
Three US carriers. Mounting tensions in Iraq. Criss-crossing accusations of alleged kidnapping of Iranian officials in Iraq (alleged by Iran) and the killing of US troops by “terrorists” supplied with Iranian armaments (alleged by the US). This is spiraling out of control, while the Senate can’t even muster a vote on a non-binding resolution against Bush’s Iraq escalation. And then there’s this chilling sentence near the end of the Newsweek article:
Sunni insurgents in Iraq need only kill some Americans and plant Iranian IDs nearby to start a full-scale war.
What’s left unsaid is that if Sunni insurgents could do that, what’s to stop elements of the CIA or US Special Forces from doing the same thing, under the direct orders of our government (i.e., the Office of the Vice President)? Absolutely nothing.
