Muhammad Cohen writes in the Asia Times on May 28, " Bush Plans Air Strike By August ", more fuel for those of us convinced that Bush and Cheney are saving the best for last, hoping to tilt the election by framing it in National Security terms : either protecting Israel from some future nuclear attack from Iran, or protecting occupying U.S. troops in Iraq, or both. Really, either pretext will do, and Bush and Cheney know that they will never be held accountable by the so-called opposition party, the spineless Democrats.

"New York -  The George W. Bush administration plans to launch an air strike against Iran within the next two months, an informed source tells Asia Times Online, echoing other reports that have surfaced in the media in the United States recently.

...Targets could include Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps garrisons in southern and and southwestern Iran, near the border with Iraq, US officials have repeatedly claimed Iran is aiding Iraqi insurgents. In January 2007, US forces raided  the Iranian consulate general in Erbil, Iraq, arresting five staff members, including two Iranian diplomats it held till November. Last September, the US Senate approved a resolution by a vote of 76-22 urging President George W. Bush to declare the IRCG a terrorist organization. Following this non-binding " sense of the Senate " resolution, the White House declared sanctions against the QUDS Force as a terrorist group in October. The Bush Administration has also accused Iran of pursuing a nuclear weapons program, though most inteligence analysts say the program has been abandoned.

... Details provided by the administration raised alarm bells on Capitol Hill, the source said. After receiving secret briefings on the planned air strike, Senator Dianne Feinstein, Democrat of California, and Senator Richard Lugar, Republican of Indiana, said they would write a New York times op-ed piece " within days ", the source said last week, to express their opposition. Feinstein is a memeber of the Senate Intelligence Committee and Lugar is the ranking Republican on the Foreign Relations Committee.

... An air strike on Iran would have a seismic impact on the presidential race at home, but it is difficult to determine where the pieces would fall.

... At first glance, a military attack against Iran would seem to favor McCain. The Arizona senator says the US is locked in a battle across the globe with radical Islamic extremists, and he believes Iran is one of the biggest instigators and supporters of the extremist tide. A strike on Iran could rally American voters to back the war effort and vote for McCain. "



Sen. John McCain is a bellicose, angry faced warmonger with one foot in the grave, who enjoys recasting the Beach Boys song ' Barbara Ann ' as " Bomb, Bomb, Bomb, Iran ".


Insufferable old bastard.