Has Bush Boxed Himself In?

As Americans anguish over how to
extricate this country from Iraq without a disaster
greater than what we now have, and without our friends
suffering the fate of our friends in Cambodia and
Vietnam, they had best brace themselves. This escalator
is going up.

George Bush and his generals are laying
out the case for a new war. And there has been no
resistance offered either by a vacationing Congress or
the major presidential candidates.

On CNN`s "Late Edition" Sunday,
Lt. Gen. Ray Odierno, No. 2 commander in Iraq, said,
"It is clear to me that (the Iranians) have been
stepping up their support" for enemy fighters in
Iraq.

"They do it from providing weapons,
ammunition, specifically mortars and explosively formed
projectiles. … They are conducting training within
Iran of Iraqi extremists to come back here and fight the
United States."[
Iran
increasing Iraq militant support: U.S. commander,
 Reuters,
August 26, 2007]

Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch said his troops
were following 50 members of the Iranian Revolutionary
Guard, who have been crossing the border and training
fighters in Iraq. The State Department is about to
declare the Revolutionary Guard a terrorist
organization.

Earlier in August, President Bush

directly charged Tehran with aiding Iraqi insurgents
who are killing U.S. soldiers:

"I asked Ambassador
Crocker to meet with Iranians inside Iraq … to send
the message that there will be consequences for …
people transporting, delivering EFPs, highly
sophisticated IEDs, that kill American troops."

The EFPs are roadside bombs that
penetrate Bradley Fighting Vehicles and Abrams tanks.
They have taken the lives of scores of U.S. soldiers.

Whether Bush has made the decision to
attack the al Quds training camps inside Iran, he has
painted himself into a corner.

If he does not strike the camps, he will
be mocked by the War Party as a weak commander in chief,
too timid to use U.S. power to protect soldiers he sent
into battle or to punish those killing them.

Thus, Bush must either announce that his
diplomacy has worked, and attacks out of Iran have
diminished or been halted, or he will have to explain
why the Top Gun of the carrier Lincoln was too
wimpish to do his duty by the soldiers he sent to fight.

Who is pushing for attacks on Iran?
Israel and its lobby. Vice President Cheney. Sen. Joe
Lieberman, who has been calling for air strikes on Al
Quds camps for months. And a War Party facing lasting
disgrace for having lied the country into an unnecessary
war, and for having assured the American people it would
be a "cakewalk."

The arguments for war on Iran are both
strategic and political.

Israel is terrified Iran will end its
nuclear monopoly in the Middle East and wants an all-out
U.S. war on Iran to prevent it. The War Party fears Iran
may acquire a nuclear weapon, which would inhibit U.S.
freedom of action in the Gulf and convince the Arab
states that the United States is yesterday and they must
appease Iran or go nuclear themselves.

As for Bush and Cheney, if they go home
without hitting Iran`s nuclear sites, and Iran acquires
a nuclear weapon, the Bush Doctrine will have been
defied by the Ayatollah as well as Kim Jong-il, and
their legacy will be a no-win war in Iraq.

The War Party is thus seeking an excuse
to launch air strikes on Iran, as that would trigger
Iranian counterstrikes on our forces. Then they will
have their long-sought casus belli for U.S. strikes on
Iran`s nuclear facilities.

First, the al Quds camps, then Natanz,
Isfahan and Bushewr.

Initially, Americans might cheer the
bombing of Iran, and Congress would head for the tall
grass. But as U.S. strikes would be an act of war,
rallying the Iranians behind the failing regime of
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and igniting a long war the end of
which we cannot see and the troops for which we do not
have, there are powerful arguments against a new war.

Iran and the United States would both
pay a hellish price, and Iran at least seems to
recognize it. Both the Iraqi and Afghan governments say
Iran is behaving as a good neighbor. There is evidence
Tehran`s nuclear program is faltering, or being curbed.
Iran is said to be making concessions to U.N.
inspectors.

Iran has released an American seized in
response to our seizure of five Iranian "diplomats"
in Iraq. Iran`s ambassador to the United Nations, in a

letter to the Washington Post, denies Iran is
aiding the Iraqi insurgency and calls on the U.S.
government to "proffer evidence" and "provide
the list of Iranian agents who it alleges are operating
in Iraq."

If there is a rush to war here, it is
not on the part of Iran.

As Bush is preparing for war on Iran, if
he has not already decided on war, where is Congress,
which alone has the constitutional power to authorize a
war?

Or has it given Bush and Cheney another
blank check?

COPYRIGHT

CREATORS SYNDICATE, INC.

Patrick J. Buchanan needs


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