Bullies, Threats, Lethal Weapon- -The Movie and Nukes

If you haven't read Sy Hersh's article in the New Yorker about possibly dropping an atomic bomb in Iran, do so now. I'll wait.

Did you notice the part where we already have troops in Iran?

If the order were to be given for an attack, the American combat troops now operating in Iran would be in position to mark the critical targets with laser beams, to insure bombing accuracy and to minimize civilian casualties. As of early winter, I was told by the government consultant with close ties to civilians in the Pentagon, the units were also working with minority groups in Iran, including the Azeris, in the north, the Baluchis, in the southeast, and the Kurds, in the northeast. The troops “are studying the terrain, and giving away walking-around money to ethnic tribes, and recruiting scouts from local tribes and shepherds,” the consultant said. One goal is to get “eyes on the ground”—quoting a line from “Othello,” he said, “Give me the ocular proof.” The broader aim, the consultant said, is to “encourage ethnic tensions” and undermine the regime.

I guess that isn't an act of war or anything. They are just tourists who are actively working to overthrow Iran's government. It's not the CIA doing this, it is "troops." Now what would WE call it if we found a bunch of Iranians in the US working to encourage ethnic tensions, studying the terrain, giving money minority groups who dislike the government and recruiting scouts." Spies, terrorists? Illegal immigrants? If an outside group was doing this in OUR country we consider it an act of war?


Bottom Line: We are already in Iran. The war with them has already started. Now it's just a measure of degree.

BULLIES
I read an interesting article about bullying recently, what were the characteristics of a bully. Bush is a serial bully. And the category of bully he most fits? Sociopath.

Threats
Remember all the men in the White House worrying about looking weak to the world? "We have to strike to show them we are SERIOUS. If we never follow through on our threats, then they know we were just bluffing." So guess what? We DID attack. We weren't bluffing. Hell, we didn't even care that they didn't have the WMDs we said was the reason for the attack. So now the world can know that we don't always bluff. So NOW is the time to work the diplomatic angle hard. We have the street cred now!

Bush is the crazy man in the room with an itchy trigger finger. "Come on! Hey Iran, you want a piece of me? I'll mess you up! I've got a gun and I'm not afraid to use it. Ask Iraq. Do NOT mess with me! I might just REALLY Freak out! I'm SERIOUS! Don't think I'm serious? Ask Saddamn. There are over 100,000 dead Iraqis who know I'm as serious as a GD heart attack! Now stop it with the enriching uranium."

Nukes
I was listening to Ronn Owens (hey radio advertisers, there is a guy who isn't nuts who you can advertise on his show instead of KSFO's Sussman's) and he was saying that of course the White House can't take the military options off the table. And I realized that there is fictional "on the table" and REALLY on the table. The closer the world thinks that a nuke is REALLY on the table the more powerful the diplomatic negotiation position of the Bush White House is.

They can say, "Hey, my boss is NUTS! He thinks GOD talks to him. He has NO problem nuking you Iran. Seriously, he's like Mel Gibson in the first Lethal Weapon film. He might jump off a roof or pre-empetively attack you. He might do it even if he just THINKS you are lying to him. I don't know if I can stop him. For the love of Allah people, PLEASE stop what you MIGHT be doing and open up the books about your current nuke program."

But what is freaking out the pundits is that the "Bush is crazy and might to ANYTHING," meme has worked on them too. This is okay. Kind of like when Veronica Mars didn't tell her dad what was really going on with Duncan and her so that his reaction was real when they kidnapped the baby.

It would be great if all the pundits believing this helps the diplomatic solutions team. We might as well get some good deals with the rest of the world after all the blood and treasure spilt in Iraq. "Dudes, you totally want to cut us some slack and work with us. If you don't, our President might just nuke your ass. Seriously, he's NUTS. He thinks these are "The End Times" nuts. You do NOT want to show up on his radar screen. I don't know WHAT he might do. He attacked a country that wasn't even a THREAT TO US!"

But of course the reason that the pundits are freaked out is they thought that he wasn't REALLY nuts before. They were hoping that Powell would have talked sense into him. Since he didn't, they think he will do it again. And that is their biggest fear, that the Bush admin doesn't get the fact that they now have the negotiating position that can lead to a serious diplomatic solution. That they will just REALLY do something crazy. The pundits have started to worry that Bush REALLY is CRAZY and not just CRAZY as in "Crazy Eddie has low, low prices," crazy. As in "he'll really drop the bomb" crazy, and not just "threaten to drop the bomb" crazy.

Finally, when you read Seymore's article how many of you got this images in your mind from the Dead Zone? I know I did!

CrazyMan #1
Cover: by Neal Adams
Indicia: Crazyman #1

Dead Zone photo of Bush found at www.Darrelplant.com