There He Goes Again (Iran)

Looking for the source of the Ronald Reagan expression that inspired my title, I found another interesting Reagan quotation, from his "Star Wars" speech in 1983:

The defense policy of the United States is based on a simple premise: The United States does not start fights. We will never be an aggressor. We maintain our strength in order to deter and defend against aggression -- to preserve freedom and peace.

The New Yorker magazine has just posted a scary piece by Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist Seymour Hersh describing the Bush administration's war planning and covert activity against Iran.

The Bush Administration, while publicly advocating diplomacy in order to stop Iran from pursuing a nuclear weapon, has increased clandestine activities inside Iran and intensified planning for a possible major air attack. Current and former American military and intelligence officials said that Air Force planning groups are drawing up lists of targets, and teams of American combat troops have been ordered into Iran, under cover, to collect targeting data and to establish contact with anti-government ethnic-minority groups.
. . . .
There is a growing conviction among members of the United States military, and in the international community, that President Bush’s ultimate goal in the nuclear confrontation with Iran is regime change.

And this with Iraq still in turmoil.

A government consultant with close ties to the civilian leadership in the Pentagon said that Bush was “absolutely convinced that Iran is going to get the bomb” if it is not stopped. He said that the President believes that he must do “what no Democrat or Republican, if elected in the future, would have the courage to do,” and “that saving Iran is going to be his legacy.”

I thought saving Iraq was going to be his legacy. And our government is planning numerous first-strike attacks on Iran with nuclear weapons. According to a former high-level Defense Department official:

The attention given to the nuclear option has created serious misgivings inside the offices of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, ... and some officers have talked about resigning. Late this winter, the Joint Chiefs of Staff sought to remove the nuclear option from the evolving war plans for Iran—without success....

I think I see how our new "Messiah" plans to spend his last three years in office. Expect a new war to start before the November elections, unless the Bush administration decides to suspend our elections, as it discussed doing in 2004. Updating another famous political quotation, George Bush, you're no Ronald Reagan. Go read the rest of Hersh's report.

UPDATE: Charley Reese column: "Another War For Israel?"

UPDATE: Pat Buchanan: "Of imperial presidents and congressional cowards":

It is time for Congress to tell President Bush directly that he has no authority to go to war on Iran and to launch such a war would be an impeachable offense.

UPDATE: "US military, intelligence officials raise concern about possible preparations for Iran strike."

UPDATE: Seymour Hersh take 2, "LAST STAND: The military’s problem with the President’s Iran policy."

UPDATE: Rolling Stone: "Iran: The Next War" by the great James Bamford.