Bombing Iran - Podhoretz confirms Paul Craig Roberts' scenario

a quick refresher on the doomsday scenario painted by paul craig roberts in his counterpunch article that i posted on yesterday, about the neocons' and the bush administration's eagerness to bomb iran, and the serious consideration they're giving to doing it with nuclear weapons...

The Bush regime has concluded that a conventional attack on Iran would do no more than stir up a hornet's nest and release retaliatory actions that the US could not manage. The Bush regime is convinced that only nuclear weapons can bring the mullahs to heel.

[...]

A plan to attack Iran with nuclear weapons might also explain the otherwise inexplicable "National Security and Homeland Security Presidential Directive" (NSPD-51 AND HSPD-20) that Bush issued on May 9. Bush's directive allows him to declare a "national emergency" on his authority alone without ratification by Congress. Once Bush declares a national emergency, he can take over all functions of government at every level, as well as private organizations and businesses, and remain in total control until he declares the emergency to be over.

and, to make sure everything is in its proper context, back on may 30 i also posted on norman podhoretz' outrageous article in commentary magazine, republished in the wall street journal, entitled "The Case For Bombing Iran," where podhoretz says this...

[T]he plain and brutal truth is that if Iran is to be prevented from developing a nuclear arsenal, there is no alternative to the actual use of military force--any more than there was an alternative to force if Hitler was to be stopped in 1938.

[...]

[Bush] intends, within the next 21 months, to order air strikes against the Iranian nuclear facilities from the three U.S. aircraft carriers already sitting nearby...

now, podhoretz, in an interview, basically confirms roberts' grim predictions...



a few hair-raising highlights...

“Well, if we were to bomb the Iranians as I hope and pray we will,” Podhoretz says, “we’ll unleash a wave of anti-Americanism all over the world that will make the anti-Americanism we’ve experienced so far look like a lovefest.”

[...]

But even global anti-Americanism is worth it, he argues, to slow Iran’s nuclear program “for five or 10 years or more.”

and then, probably realizing what he's saying, tries to paper it over with this lie...

It’s “entirely possible,” he claimed, that “many countries, particularly in the Middle East” would “at least secretly applaud us.”

yeah, just like they're all secretly applauding our occupation of iraq...

i encourage you to take the time to watch at least a portion of the video... it's not that there's anything in there that adds much to the essence of what he's saying, but what i find exceptionally disturbing is the same thing i find with so many highly educated, influential people - he seems so THOUGHTFUL, so REASONABLE, so MATTER-OF-FACT, when in reality he is advocating the precise course of action that could take the united states down the last stretch of road toward full-tilt totalitarianism...

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