Thursday, February 01, 2007

Keith Olbermann on George Bush on Iraq/Iran [does this classify as Deja Vu "all over again"?]


Countdown with Keith Olbermann highlights the similarities between language used by George Bush about Iraq in 2002 and about Iran now:


Update: Just to clarify, despite all the stories in the press about the "impending" attack on Iran (but see the post below for a reminder of how those are nothing new), I still do not personally believe that the U.S. is either going to invade Iran nor launch some kind of massive bombing attack. Because what would they do the next day, with a country they can't possibly occupy, even if they didn't have 150,000 troops in Iraq? Their goal is regime change in Iran, just as in Cuba, North Korea, Venezuela, Syria, and just as it has been in Haiti, Iraq, Afghanistan, Yugoslavia, and many others where they have succeeded. It's true that a sustained bombing campaign did bring about regime change in Yugoslavia, but Iran is in a far stronger position both to fight back and to retaliate in ways that Yugoslavia wasn't.

No, what this is all about is pressure, pressure designed to convince the "moderates" in Iran that they should go the Qaddafi route of accommodation with the West rather than confrontation, subservience rather than independence. I try not to make predictions, but this is one I'm sticking by. Were I a religious person, I'd pray that I'm right. Instead I'll just hope. And continue demonstrating, blogging, writing letters, talking to people, and otherwise agitating against the possibility of it happening, increasing the pressure on the American government to stop its bullying behavior.