CT Blue

Those who were paying attention were aware quite early in 2002 that some in the Bush Administration were advocating war with Iraq. I remember reading about it early on. It took me a long time to fully comprehend that the people advocating war were in control, and that they would eventually get their way.

At the moment, I find it similarly hard to believe that these same people are serious about starting a war with Iran, and how their other slam dunk went. I’d like to think it will be a harder sell this time, but I’m not convinced of that. It’s hard to believe that there is anyone who thinks that Iraq has worked out well, but apparently Dick Cheney does, because he’s busy orchestrating a sequel in Iran, using the same modus operandi as he did in Iraq, including the obligatory disinformation campaign:

A media campaign portraying Iran as supplying arms to the Taliban guerrillas fighting U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, orchestrated by advocates of a more confrontational stance toward Iran in the George W. Bush administration, appears to have backfired last week when Defence Secretary Robert Gates and the commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan, Gen. Dan McNeil, issued unusually strong denials.

The allegation that Iran has reversed a decade-long policy and is now supporting the Taliban, conveyed in a series of press articles quoting “senior officials” in recent weeks, is related to a broader effort by officials aligned with Vice President Dick Cheney to portray Iran as supporting Sunni insurgents, including al Qaeda, to defeat the United States in both Iraq and Afghanistan.

An article in the Guardian published May 22 quoted an anonymous U.S. official as predicting an “Iranian-orchestrated summer offensive in Iraq, linking al Qaeda and Sunni insurgents to Tehran’s Shia militia allies” and as referring to the alleged “Iran-al Qaeda linkup” as “very sinister”.

That article and subsequent reports on CNN May 30, in the Washington Post Jun. 3 and on ABC news Jun. 6 all included an assertion by an unnamed U.S. official or a “senior coalition official” that Iran is following a deliberate policy of supplying the Taliban’s campaign against U.S., British and other NATO forces.

In the most dramatic version of the story, ABC reported “NATO officials” as saying they had “caught Iran red-handed, shipping heavy arms, C4 explosives and advanced roadside bombs to the Taliban for use against NATO forces.”

According to the article, Robert Gates is pushing back:

Far from showing that Iran had been “caught red-handed”, however, the report quoted from an analysis which cited only the interception in Afghanistan of a total of four vehicles coming from Iran with arms and munitions of Iranian origin. The report failed to refer to any evidence of Iranian government involvement.

Both Gates and McNeill denied flatly last week that there is any evidence linking Iranian authorities to those arms. Gates told a press conference on Jun. 4, “We do not have any information about whether the government of Iran is supporting this, is behind it, or whether it’s smuggling, or exactly what is behind it.” Gates said that “some” of the arms in question might be going to Afghan drug smugglers.

The commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan, Gen. McNeill, implied that the arms trafficking from Iran is being carried out by private interests. “[W]hen you say weapons being provided by Iran, that would suggest there is some more formal entity involved in getting these weapons here,” he told Jim Loney of Reuters June 5. “That’s not my view at all.”

It never made sense that Saddam was aiding Al Qaeda, nor does it make sense that Iran is helping the Taliban, who they have opposed from the beginning. The evidence appears to support the conclusion that the Taliban is buying small amounts of arms from criminals in Iran. Blaming Iran for the sales is somewhat akin to blaming the U.S. for the actions of the Mafia. But the truth didn’t stop the Bushies from lying us into Iraq, and it won’t stop them, including Joe Lieberman, from lying us into Iran. Here’s Joe recently:

“The Iranians are sponsoring terrorism and extremism across the Middle East today, actively supporting proxies who are working to destabilize the region. They are giving weapons and funding to Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Taliban in Afghanistan and Hamas in the Palestinian Territories – in addition to supporting both Shiite and Sunni insurgents in Iraq,” he said.

Now where to you suppose he got those talking points, and why did he happen to come out with that statement when he did?

The article says that Gates has quashed the marketing offensive, but I think that may be wishful thinking. Cheney never gives up, and he doesn’t care what anyone else thinks. Back in 2002 there were those who hoped that Colin Powell would step in and put an end to the nonsense. In all the world, probably only he and/or Tony Blair could have done it. For some reason, he preferred to sacrifice his reputation in service to Bush’s puppet masters. I wouldn’t count on Gates acting any differently. It certainly would be madness for the Democrats in Congress to assume that this will go nowhere.