They're gonna start this war after all...

[AndrewJ]

First the President complains of the Iranian nuclear program.

Now that that's thoroughly debunked he's apparently moved on to a more tried-and-true path to war.

[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/v/eNL6DyH_IfA[/YOUTUBE]

And now this tidbit from Stephen Hadley, Bush's national security adviser:

"This was a very provocative act by the Iranians and ... came very close to resulting in an altercation between our forces and their forces,"
"They've got to be very careful about this because if it happens again they are going to bear the consequences,"

worse yet are the many "news" articles portraying this as some kind of legitimate confrontation.
In particular, Time magazine has this to say of the incident, "On Sunday, five armed naval units from Iran's Revolutionary Guards aggressively challenged three U.S. Navy ships passing into the Gulf through the Strait of Hormuz."

"Armed naval units"?! I guess they meant those 5 ski boats.
"Aggressively challenged"?! I don't have any idea what that's supposed to mean.

I know, I know, USS Cole right? Little inflatable dinghy laden with explosives kills 17 injures 39. But those are are lone terrorists we're talking about, Iran is a sovereign country. We've tolerated massively more confrontational encounters with the USSR without this level of national "freak out."

I've been saying for the last few years that this administration will provoke a war with Iran, and I truly hope that I'm wrong about that. But every time I think that they don't have the political capital or credibility to do it, they come up with another way to make it happen.

[AndrewJ]

So far the only good thing to come out of this situation is this lovely piece of satire from the Wonkette.

[cfg83]

AndrewJ -

Yeah, I was thinking "Gulf of Tonkin" all the way when I heard about this on the radio. If Iraq had gone as (un)planned instead of becoming a quagmire, then I think we would be in Iran today.

Remember the Maine!!!!!

CarloSW2

[SVOboy]

Remember the maine, , is that a real or a butch cassidy and the sundance kid reference?

I spose it'll be time for me to start attending the peace rallies again,

[trebuchet03]

So there's other reports out there that this happens all the time (weekly) - and has been happening for a long time....

That aside... Given the rhetoric in the executive branch... It sounds like we're waiting for the "excuse" trigger. Great... And the sad part is - I'll bet most American's think they're Arab (not like the media is going to help there)...

Sigh....

[cfg83]

Originally Posted by SVOboy

Remember the maine, , is that a real or a butch cassidy and the sundance kid reference?

I spose it'll be time for me to start attending the peace rallies again,

I'm not sure if you know what I mean (darn Internet lack of intonation!!!!!), so I'll expand like a fish :

USS Maine (ACR-1)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Maine_(ACR-1)

The sinking of the Maine on February 15, 1898 precipitated the Spanish-American War and also popularized the phrase Remember the Maine! In subsequent years, the sinking of the Maine has been an area of great speculation. The cause of the explosion that sank the ship is still a mystery that remains unsolved to this day.

Hrmmmmm, maybe we should follow the train of events and see what happens on February 15th, 2008.

CarloSW2