The Pentagon is angrily denying reports that they’ve been sizing up Iran’s * nuke facilities for possible military action. I hope they’re bluffing. Isn’t that exactly what we need contingency plans for? Sy Hersh’s report says that
the United States has been conducting secret reconnaissance missions inside Iran to help identify potential nuclear, chemical and missile targets… The secret missions have been going on at least since last summer with the goal of identifying target information for three dozen or more suspected sites. Bush has already ‘signed a series of top-secret findings and executive orders authorizing secret commando groups and other Special Forces units to conduct covert operations against suspected terrorist targets in as many as 10 nations in the Middle East and South Asia.’
All of this is good news, it seems to me, exactly the kind of thing the government should be doing to protect us from the designs and aspirations of the mullahs in Iran. Whether we will ever be able militarily to disarm Iran is another matter. But if we can hobble them in any way, then we should be preparing to do so. Due diligence. If diplomacy fails. And, of course, it helps diplomacy work as well. (*I originally wrote “Iraq’s”. Brain fart. Sorry.)
“AN ACCOUNTABILITY MOMENT”: This quote might help clear up some misunderstandings about president Bush. It certainly helped me see the world as he sees it. For Bush, accountability in government is a total, once-every-four-years thing. Individual mis-steps or mistakes are not subject to accountability – whether in war-planning or fiscal matters or anything else. When someone fucks up, the most important thing is to extend loyalty, not reprimand. There’s only one moment of accountability for a president and that’s the election, which encompasses everything the president and anyone in his administration have done. So re-election logically means that the public waives its right to hold any individual in government accountable for anything for the next four years:
Well, we had an accountability moment, and that’s called the 2004 election. And the American people listened to different assessments made about what was taking place in Iraq, and they looked at the two candidates, and chose me, for which I’m grateful.
So our job as people not in the administration is now to sit back and hope for the best. We had our chance. We lost. As Mel Brooks almost observed, it’s good to be the president.
RE-THINKING GONZALES: This Washington Post editorial is a must-read.
The Dish 