I'm really starting to wonder: does Bush want to start Armageddon?
UPDATE: I like this variation on the theme from John Laesch, a "fighting Dem" challenging Dennis Hastert's Illinois seat, and former Intelligence Analyst in the Middle East:
If you think that we've got problems with the world's Muslim community now, just try dropping A-bombs on Iran and see what happens--it will make the war in Iraq look like a high school wrestling match without a coach.
And for what? As Richard Clarke and Steven Simon note:
So how would bombing Iran serve American interests? In over a decade of looking at the question, no one has ever been able to provide a persuasive answer.
Clarke and Simon go on to call for Congress to "ask the hard questions" it did not ask about Iraq: "It must not permit the administration to launch another war whose outcome cannot be known, or worse, known all too well". Billmon throws some cold water on the suggestion:
The problem, which I'm sure Clarke and Simon fully understand, is that there isn't going to be a congressional resolution this time – in fact I'd be very surprised if the administration gives the leadership of either party more than 24 hours notice before the bombing begins. No marketing campaigns, no debates, no arms twisted in the Oval Office. Just a fait accompli. (That's French for: "Choke on it, suckers."
It's already obvious: This one's going to be a unitary executive special – right down the line. The administration's vanished political capital leaves it no other way. When you've got nothing, you've got nothing to lose.
So what, exactly, is there for Congress to ask the "hard questions" about? And what answers would it get, other than: "That's classified," or "That's a privileged executive branch communication"? And how is a rubber stamp Congress supposed to stop a war that officially isn't on the drawing boards? Particularly when the Republican majority hopes – or at least understands – it could be the magic bullet, so to speak, that saves their sorry asses this November?
To ask these questions is to answer them.
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