Onto Tehran

This is old but still striking-- Michael Ledeen from August 2004:

The war in the Middle East — for it is a regional war, not merely a battle for Iraq — cannot be analyzed at the level of the individual terrorist groups, because the terrorists are part of a larger context. The organizing center is, as Spanish Magistrate Balthazar Garzon publicly put it, a "directorate" located in Iran, that works closely with Iranian intelligence organizations, including the Revolutinary Guards. Those organizations, in turn, work with their counterparts in other friendly countries.

Isn't that some beautiful propaganda?

I have said for a while that I don't think Bush would attack or even invade Iran-- I have tended to think the threats were all bluster.

But sadly, stupidly, I thought similarly while Bush was building up troops in Kuwait prior to the Iraq invasion. One reason, ironically I thought Bush wouldn't go into Iraq, is because politically he was afraid of the casualties. Why did I think this? Because he failed to send enough troops to go after and capture bin Laden in Afghanistan!

This was in 2003-- a LONG time ago in terms of my political maturation and awakening.

Nonetheless I have tended to down-play the idea that the US would attack Iran-- in the absence of a new terror attack. A purely pre-emptive attack on Iran would be too radical, too disruptive to the world. Too crazy even for Bush. But this Robert Parry piece in Consortium News is very grim, and suggests war-plans for Iran are in the making. And sadly, I think Brzezinski's outline for war with Iran, is all too prescient.

But the worst part of all this, is absent some truly radical mass movement that is unlikely to form, there really is nothing WE can do about it.