Iran off the Table: A Higher Power Hath Spoken

Well it seems the NeoCon wet dream of invading/attacking Iran has been called out of order by a higher power: the Trilateral Commission.

The Strangelovians are being brought to heel, victims of their own overreaching. The military is in near mutiny and domestic politics is in disarray, with AG AG in the cross-hairs.

The lack of posts here reflects this period of overt calm. The agenda is stalled, though clearly enormous infighting has been going on behind the scenes.

Finally, apparently, the grown-ups are back in charge, for now. This may well be the effective end of the Bush cabal; everything from here on in will be a rearguard action, trying to slink out of office without the Hague staring them in the face.

NY Times: Mourning in Amerika

Yet another long NY Times editorial eulogy for the Bill of Rights.

This past Sunday's plangent laundry list of rising fascism offers so many major bullet-pointed assaults on the Constitution that revising the "Patriot" Act and closing Gitmo appear at the end as an afterthought.

To wit:

Restore Habeas Corpus
Ban Torture, Really
Close the C.I.A. Prisons
Account for ‘Ghost Prisoners’
Ban Extraordinary Rendition
Tighten the Definition of Combatant
Screen Prisoners Fairly and Effectively
Ban Tainted Evidence
Ban Secret Evidence
Better Define ‘Classified’ Evidence
Respect the Right to Counsel

Land of the free. Yeah, right. Tell me another.

Putin's Had Enough:This Is Not Your Mother's Cold War

Three weeks ago at the Munich Security Conference, before the assembled heads of state of Western Europe and the US Secretary of Defense, Vladimir Putin let it all hang out. He's had more than enough and told the world in no uncertain terms that US aggression and military adventurism in the Caucaucus basin and the Middle East is provoking a new Cold War.

Sec'y Gates and other administration mouthpieces laughed off Putin's remarks, but it is simply extraordinary that this highly intelligent, ex-KGB head would give such a blunt warning in such a prominent setting. Putin knows something, and the US has pushed his hand.

So what's going on? What gave Putin the confidence to send such a major shot across the bow of the USS Cheney? Essentially, Russia's on the rise and the US is going down. Russia is now the world's number one producer of oil, and after nearly being dismantled with the fall of the Berlin Wall, the country under Putin has quietly rebuilt and consolidated its power.

At the same time the US is spiraling out of control. Staggering debt and staggering balance of payments deficits are sinking the American economy. The unenviable pillars of our supposed prosperity are debt, debt & more debt; a rapidly deflating housing bubble; and an inflated stock market that is about to collapse. And our sources of oil are not secure. The US wars in the Middle East are an act of desperation, an oil grab--the US is securing for itself Iraq's oil and Afghanistan to build pipelines that would allow the US to bring the oil from the Caucaucus basin to Pakistan and the Arabian Sea. The US is also trying to dislodge the former Soviet republics--the crescent of unpronouncible -stans ringing Russia's southeastern borders--from Russian influence, eager to base missiles there pointed at Russia and to lock in their oil reserves as well.

Putin is speaking up now because of Iran. He's drawing a line in the sand. And he's in a surprisingly solid position on the global chessboard.

And here's why: the SS-N-25 Super Sunburn, a missile so potent the US Navy tried to purchase its predecessor from the Russians. A few vital stats: it flies at Mach 2.5+ with a cruising altitude of 45 feet and a range of over 150 miles.

Okay, Putin's got a cool missile; what's the big deal? This missile flies so low and so fast that it is undetectable by radar, and has such an impact velocity that, even mounted with a conventional warhead, it could easily sink a Nimitz-class aircraft carrier. Putin has quietly offered them to Iran and Syria. Not only are the US carrier groups in Persian Gulf at grave risk from the Sunburn, but Israel's major population centers as well.

This is obviously known to the Pentagon, witness the current strife between the career military and the administration over Iran, with even Joint Chiefs Chairman General Pace undercutting White House disinformation about Iran's supposedly supplying advanced IEDs to Iraqi insurgents.

Simply put, the Pentagon knows it will pay a staggering and unacceptable price for unleashing an attack on Iran. Those huge carriers are now obsolete, at least against Russia and its allies.

Global chess. Watch out, the Russians are the Grandmasters.

Walter Reed: Karmic Payback

I hesitated to comment on the Walter Reed Veteran's Hospital scandal, as it is so obvious what this is all about.

The Cheney administration and Commander Codpiece couldn't give the time of day to the wounded and broken soldiers coming back from the Iraq/Afghanistan killing fields and are only interested in sending more to be killed and maimed in their insane global chess game.

Walter Reed Hospital, once a leading government facility, was privatized by the neocons and the contractors bled it for profit instead of carrying out even the most basic maintenance. The hospital is now, according to the WaPo, a "dank structure besieged by mold, leaks and rot."

There's a low-level war going on right now between the White House and the Pentagon, and I believe there's no coincidence that this story surfaced right now, in the run-up to the Iran war. This is sabotage, and I think the military was willing to take the hit on this one because they know the ultimate responsibility rests with the administration and they'd get tarred with the blame. Apparently there are still a lot of real patriots in our armed forces and they're making their stand now.

As for Cheney and his Cheerleader and the neocon court, they can fire all the Army Secretaries and scapegoat colonels they want, but that will not redeem their utter disregard for the most basic responsibility of government to care for sick and wounded soldiers--most barely beyond adolescence--that it has sent to fight and die for it.

The karmic payback: veterans groups are rightly outraged, weakening one of the few remaining pillars of popular support for the Bush regime.

Unconscionable.

Paging Dr. Freud...

From Dan Froomkin in today's WaPo:

Sometimes it's the softball questions that can get the most telling responses

Here's the transcript of Cheney's interview on Friday with Greg Sheridan of the Australian.

"Q What's the highlight for you personally of being Vice President, your time in office?

"THE VICE PRESIDENT: What's the highlight? I'm going to have to think about that when I get out of office and I have time to do it. Clearly, our administration has been dominated by the events of 9/11 and the aftermath. That has clearly become front and center in terms of our concerns and we spend our time, how we spend our resources. And I think in terms of accomplishments, the fact that we've defeated all attempts to strike the United States again for the last five years doesn't mean we won't be hit tomorrow. They're still out there trying hard, but it has been over five years now."

Ask Cheney for a highlight of his six-plus years as vice president, and the only thing that comes to mind is 9/11.

Well, what a surprise that Cheney finds 9/11 his biggest accomplishment. About as big a surprise as W saying it was that fish he caught on his dude ranch.

For once neither of them lied.

P.S. Froomkin's post is entitled "The Ominous Omnipotent Omnipresent Cheney" and sits below this headline, which made me laugh out loud:

However, I am filled with foreboding at Cheney's sudden, global ubiquity. It is deeply disturbing that, as the administration once again ramps up the war propaganda, he has popped out of his bunker like it's Groundhog Day.

Iran: They'd Rather Walk

From Sunday's Times of London, a report that an order to strike Iran could lead to the mass resignation of senior military commanders. The Times' reporters have identified at least four to five generals and admirals who would resign their commissions rather than carry out such orders.

The money quote:

A British defence source confirmed that there were deep misgivings inside the Pentagon about a military strike. “All the generals are perfectly clear that they don’t have the military capacity to take Iran on in any meaningful fashion. Nobody wants to do it and it would be a matter of conscience for them."

And the military's discontent goes all the way to the top:

General Peter Pace, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, said recently there was “zero chance” of a war with Iran. He played down claims by US intelligence that the Iranian government was responsible for supplying insurgents in Iraq, forcing Bush on the defensive...

Hillary Mann, the National Security Council’s main Iran expert until 2004, said Pace’s repudiation of the administration’s claims was a sign of grave discontent at the top.

“He is a very serious and a very loyal soldier,” she said. “It is extraordinary for him to have made these comments publicly, and it suggests there are serious problems between the White House, the National Security Council and the Pentagon.

The Cheney administration is destroying and dividing the US military. The generals are not about to walk the plank with these madmen. Apparently Duty, Honor, Country is still alive in our armed forces, and for this we must all be deeply thankful.

To think it has come to this.

Just For Laughs

The lede of an article entitled "Is Cheney Next?" at ABC News:

Could a guilty verdict for a former aide bring further criminal scrutiny of Vice President Dick Cheney?

The "further" is what gets me ROTFL.

Dept. of It Takes One to Know One

Via today's White House Briefing by Dan Froomkin at the Washington Post, and CNN's Situation Room, via Crooks & Liars, the BBC reports:

Iran offered the US a package of concessions in 2003, but it was rejected, a senior former US official has told the BBC's Newsnight programme.

Tehran proposed ending support for Lebanese and Palestinian militant groups and helping to stabilise Iraq following the US-led invasion. "Offers, including making its nuclear programme more transparent, were conditional on the US ending hostility.

But Vice-President Dick Cheney's office rejected the plan, the official said. . . .

"We thought it was a very propitious moment to do that," Lawrence Wilkerson told Newsnight.

"But as soon as it got to the White House, and as soon as it got to the Vice-President's office, the old mantra of 'We don't talk to evil' . . . reasserted itself.

You'd almost think President Vader wants confrontation with Iran, wouldn't you?