Originally published on the CGS blog on September 3, 2007.
Over at Informed Comment Global Affairs (as well as Daily Kos ), Barnett R. Rubin has spent the last several days discussing a “Post Labor Day Product Rollout” with major ramifications for the global community. What’s the new product you ask? The next “Segway Personal Transporter“? Or maybe the iCar ? Nope…it’s a plan for war with iRan!
In his initial Wednesday post, Rubin wrote:
On September 7, 2002, the New York Times reported an explanation how the Bush administration would sell the invasion of Iraq. “The administration may be replicating this strategy for Iran.”
Today I received a message from a friend whose information from his Washington connections has often been prescient. As in 2002, he claimed, the rollout will start after Labor Day, with a kickoff on September 11. Someone in one of the leading neo-conservative institutions reported:
They [the source’s institution] have “instructions” (yes, that was the word used) from the Office of the Vice-President to roll out a campaign for war with Iran in the week after Labor Day; it will be coordinated with the American Enterprise Institute, the Wall Street Journal, the Weekly Standard, Commentary, Fox, and the usual suspects. It will be heavy sustained assault on the airwaves, designed to knock public sentiment into a position from which a war can be maintained. Evidently they don’t think they’ll ever get majority support for this–they want something like 35-40 percent support, which in their book is “plenty.”
As if that’s not enough to throw a bucket of proverbial cold water on your Labor Day BBQ, Rubin followed that up yesterday with a reference to a Washington-reported Sunday Times of London article about the Pentagon’s “three-day blitz” plan that calls for massive airstrikes against 1,200 targets in Iran. Spoiler warning — here’s how the story ends:
Bush noted that the number of attacks on US bases and troops by Iranian-supplied munitions had increased in recent months “despite pledges by Iran to help stabilise the security situation in Iraq”.
It explains, in part, his lack of faith in diplomacy with the Iranians. But Debat believes the Pentagon’s plans for military action involve the use of so much force that they are unlikely to be used and would seriously stretch resources in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Saying President Bush (or President Cheney) has a lack of faith in diplomacy, regardless of the specific circumstances, is like saying antitheist Christopher Hitchens has a lack of faith in organized religion. Faith is an allegiance, a duty. The Bush Adminstration treats diplomacy more like a check box on a war plan than a key tool of statecraft for creating a peaceful and secure world.
As for the military-action-involving-the-use-of-so-much-force argument against the plan, I’ve got three simple words — shock and awe.
And I think we all know that seriously stretching/overextending/overusing U.S. military resources (especially the Army ) hasn’t been so much as a speed bump for the current administration on the road to pre-emptive war fighting.
So enjoy your potato salad and savor those delicious hamburgers on this Labor Day, because tomorrow begins post-Labor Day and possibly another rollout to another disastrous war of choice.
