Without veering too far off into tinfoil hat territory, I think it’s increasingly obvious the troop escalation in Iraq isn’t designed to pacify the country – how on earth could 20,000 troops, creating approximately the same number that were there last summer, hope to do so – but instead to create the conditions for attacks on Iran.
Despite the proclamations in the president’s library address and his aggressive overtures during the State of the Union, there’s practically no evidence that Iran is providing insurgents with bombs and munitions to attack American forces in Iraq. Still, the AP reports “President Bush has authorized U.S. forces in Iraq to take whatever actions are necessary to counter Iranian agents deemed a threat to American troops or the public at large.” The policy professes to stop short of Iran’s borders, but all we need is one Bay of Pigs-type incident – easily done with a recently deployed carrier in the region– and we’re in.
Those of us whose lives are governed by logic may see a massive air strike on Iran as insane, an inflammatory move which will make the current chaos in the Middle East look tame and contained by comparison. But we are not dealing with sane men – we are in the sphere of truly psychotic people who profess to make their own reality. Witness this recent exchange between Bush and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi concerning the escalation:
“I asked him at the White House, ‘Mr. President, why do you think this time it’s going to work?’ And he said, ‘Because I told them it had to.’ “
This article appears in January 26 • 2007.