This lovely article from the New Yorker is making the rounds:
There is a growing conviction among members of the United States military, and in the international community, that President Bush’s ultimate goal in the nuclear confrontation with Iran is regime change.[...]
A government consultant with close ties to the civilian leadership in the Pentagon said that Bush was “absolutely convinced that Iran is going to get the bomb” if it is not stopped. He said that the President believes that he must do “what no Democrat or Republican, if elected in the future, would have the courage to do,” and “that saving Iran is going to be his legacy.”
All things considered, the idea of a preemptive strike on Iran to keep them from getting the bomb is more palatable to me than a preemptive strike on Iraq based on the rumors of WMD’s.
However, if I’m not mistaken, the current administration has pretty much exhausted the country’s political capital and credibility on the world stage. True, that doesn’t matter much in the eyes of the administration or many Americans… but somehow I doubt that parts of the rest of the world would see it that way.
Perhaps we need to do a bit of executive housecleaning here before we start lobbing bombs….or maybe we can pass along information to some other nation that might have more moral credibility than the U.S. does currently.
Don’t the Russians owe us a favor?