Never in all my life did I ever expect to see the writing of a person to whom the term “peacemonger” was intended as an insult. What is WRONG with you people?

Let me make a few predictions, not that there seems any evidence that anyone is reading this thread:

1) Bush is indeed going to attack Iran, some time before the November elections, and most likely in September or October. How he will do so is unclear, but I’d be willing to bet that he wants - WANTS!!! - to be the first US president since Harry Truman to use nuclear weapons against another country.

2) He is going to do one of two things to justify it: either the broadly-worded original AUMF against Iraq, or NOTHING - he will simply assert that as C in C, he has the legal right to do it just on his say-so.

3) When January 2009 rolls around, or perhaps even November 2008, he will either suspend the presidential election or if the election goes ahead, refuse to relinquish power and try to stay in office.

Outlandish predictions, eh? Outrageous? Impossible in America? Well, I am so certain that some of these things, and perhaps all of them, are going to come to pass, that I hereby give my email address for anyone who reads this to write to me directly and tell me what a complete left-wing loony I am. But you have to wait till after the time frame has passed, to see whether I’m right or not. Just saying my predictions are nuts is not good enough until you see if it happens as I predict. Here’s the address: radicalleftie at aol dot com.

The gauntlet is thrown. If I’m wrong, there is no one in the world who will be happier to be so. If I’m right - well, it’s pretty obvious what it means if I’m right, isn’t it?

What if Bush does what he says he’ll do with all this sabre-rattling? What if he does bomb or otherwise invade or attack Iran, thereby setting in motion the consequences that you term “self-defeating”, and that we on the “reality-based” side of the aisle believe will likely lead to something not unlike a world war?

Would that finally be enough for you? Would you at long last have to admit that, yeah, Bush really is as much a madman as we on the left think he is?

Or would you, as so many of your fellows do, find a way to justify even this piece of insanity somehow?

We (and I use the collective advisedly) reached that point - where we could no longer think Bush was merely opposed to us, but genuinely deranged - a long time ago. So I’m just curious - how mad does he have to be before people who think like you finally can’t deny it any longer?

And in reply to one of your commenters, nukes over Ft. Worth? Does it occur to you what would have to happen before that would even be possible? It would require a total breakdown of every single defense system this country has. And while Bush is trying to get there (total breakdown of our nation in so very many ways), he hasn’t yet. I sincerely hope he’s stopped before he does.

Now Hersh and the left are saying we should take this threat seriously, thereby strengthening Bush’s hand with the Iranians.

Meanwhile, the rightwing nuthouse and other erstwhile Bush allies are reassuring the world that Bush isn’t really serious about this, and that it’s all a bluff. Sounds to me like an unpatriotric betrayal of the interests of the U.S. that will weaken the President’s position in these dangerous times.

With friends like these…

Having said that, I part company with my fellow libs about this issue

I’m in agreement with Rick’s overall view, that any US military strike on Iran will be self-defeating, and there will be absolutely NO nuclear strike against Iran

First off, there’s more anxiety on the part of the Iranian Mullahs now than at any time since the Shah’s overthrow, as the majority of Iranians weren’t even born at the time Khomeini came back to Iran in 1978. The citizens are growing increasingly restless with their theological overlords, and present a REAL opportunity for change from the current regime’s day-to-day operations

More & more, the Iranians are standing up to, and challenging, the Mullah’s tightfisted grip on power

A US Military strike would have the disastrous effect in that it would rally enough of the citizenry to their leaders to be able to marginalize those still speaking out for more freedoms in Iran

Let’s look at this with some logic

The first target Iran would retaliate against if it was hit, would be the US troops in Iraq-they’re already battling a Sunni insurgency, Shiite militias/death squads and foreign terrorists going into Iraq for real-world terrorist training. I’d say, and I’m thinking most of the politicains on Capitol Hill would say, that the US Troops in Iraq already have more than enough to worry about without adding Iran to the mix

But there’s two other reasons why any military strike is just rhetoric

Russia & China

Russia’s got Iran on board as a major business partner, and the nuclear might to dissuade the US from launching any military strike, let alone a nuclear one

China would present even more of a problem, as not only do they have nuclear missiles, but a devastating nonmilitary weapon as well

China is one of the largest holders of US debt currently (only Japan holds more US debt), and all they would have to do is tell the Administration that it would be such a shame if they weren’t able to buy up US notes anymore when auctioned off by the US Treasury Dept.

And since I post like you do Rick-taking hard shots at the other side while doing more analysis than emotion for a particular post, and rather numerous profanities-I say don’t change your style at all

If your post is well-written, people will still process it no matter how many other shots-hard, cheap or otherwise-you take at your opposition

So, while I’ll disagree with much of your asides in this particular post, I completely agree with your overall point about there being, logically, NO military or nuclear strikes against Iran

And I thank you for making the soapbox available-via Comments-to all interested enough to share their views, as there can never be enough free speech

Then you want us to believe that Sy Hersh is a wack-job making this stuff up, or is unwittingly being used. When Hersh reports every major news outlet in the world covers the story. We’re not talking about Jason Blair here. Of course everyone knows that Rightwing Nuthouse is the place to get the straight story.

And you call us moonbats…

–Rick Taylor