The looming Iran attack

United States is drawing up plans to strike on Iranian insurgency camp

The US military is drawing up plans for a "surgical strike" against an insurgent training camp inside Iran if Republican Guards continue with attempts to destabilise Iraq, western intelligence sources said last week. One source said the Americans were growing increasingly angry at the involvement of the Guards’ special-operations Quds force inside Iraq, training Shi’ite militias and smuggling weapons into the country.

Yup, they're THAT stupid:

Although American defence chiefs are firmly opposed to any attack on Iranian nuclear facilities, they believe a raid on one of the camps training Shi’ite militiamen would deliver a powerful message to Tehran.

A powerful message?  Well as they tell you in the screenwriting biz, if you want to send a message, use Western Union.

But no.  Bushco would rather bomb first, ask questions later.  "It's easier to apologize than to get permission" is another phrase you hear in our biz sometimes.

As usual, the Silly Americans are victims of their own masters' propaganda:

British officials believe the US military tends to overestimate the effect of the Iranian involvement in Iraq.

Yeah, like they "overestimated" the "threat" that Saddam Hussein posed.  That's not an overestimation, that's swallowing obvious bullshit.  

This quote wryly communicates the sheer stupidity of these people:

They acknowledged Iran was unlikely to cease involvement in Iraq and that, however limited a US attack might be, the fighting could escalate.

Gosh, do ya really think?  The idiots in charge think Iran is like Cambodia or something?  I.e. helpless and unable to fight back?

A second article makes the case for something much, much worse.  

Secret Bush "Finding" Widens War on Iran

Six weeks ago, President Bush signed a secret finding authorizing a covert offensive against the Iranian regime that, according to those familiar with its contents, "unprecedented in its scope."

Bush’s secret directive covers actions across a huge geographic area – from Lebanon to Afghanistan – but is also far more sweeping in the type of actions permitted under its guidelines – up to and including the assassination of targeted officials.  This widened scope clears the way, for example, for full support for the military arm of Mujahedin-e Khalq, the cultish Iranian opposition group, despite its enduring position on the State Department's list of terrorist groups.

And don't forget, the only real obstacle to attacking Iran recently left:

Until recently, the administration faced a serious obstacle to action against Iran in the form of Centcom commander Admiral William Fallon, who made no secret of his contempt for official determination to take us to war.  In a widely publicized incident last January, Iranian patrol boats approached a U.S. ship in what the Pentagon described as a "taunting" manner. According to Centcom staff officers, the American commander on the spot was about to open fire. At that point, the U.S. was close to war.   He desisted only when Fallon personally and explicitly ordered him not to shoot.  The White House, according to the staff officers, was "absolutely furious" with Fallon for defusing the incident.

Fallon has since departed.  His abrupt resignation in early March followed the publication of his unvarnished views on our policy of confrontation with Iran, something that is unlikely to happen to his replacement, George Bush's favorite general, David Petraeus.

I know, nobody here really gives much of a crap about this.  I realize that all that really matters in the world right now is Obama beating Hillary (wait a minute ... he already has, hasn't he?) and if Obama is president, all will be roses and skylarks and dancing children handing out daisies.  

There will be no October surprise, oh no, the Repubs would never think of attempting such a thing, not this time, no ....

Other diaries describing a veritable plethora of other warnings about our seemingly unstoppable drive to attack Iran are these:

A little help here! Trying to stop a war! Hello!

Is Petraeus trying to start war with Iran?

And BTW, four marines were just killed in the "pacified" Anbar province, and another one in Baghdad.  

The beat goes on .... The beat goes on ...