Let's see. We have Afghanistan, Iraq, and now we are vying for Iran. Maybe we are looking to add new stars to the U.S. flag? It's been a really, really long time since a new star was added. Is this the fastest way to "grow" the nation and the economy.

"It's the economy, stupid!" Oops. That was a reference to the wrong bush, er, Bush.

Rice: Iran must halt nuclear program

Secretary of state says Iran could be referred to Security Council

Wednesday, February 9, 2005 Posted: 11:11 AM EST (1611 GMT)

Condoleezza Rice answers questions Wednesday after meeting with NATO and European officials.

BRUSSELS, Belgium (CNN) -- U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Wednesday that Iran must live up to its international obligations to halt its nuclear program or "the next steps are in the offing."

"And I think everybody understands what the 'next steps' mean," Rice told reporters after a meeting with NATO foreign ministers and European Union officials.

"It's obvious that if Iran cannot be brought to live up to its international obligations that, in fact, the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) statutes would suggest that Iran has to be referred to the U.N. Security Council," she said.

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It does seem to me that groundwork is being laid for a military intervention in Iran. I'm still half-disbelieving that even this crew of idiots would be foolish enough to think we extend our military that far and just waltz into Iran to fix things up. But it does seem they're going down that road.

and this less than a week since Rice said the administration had absolutely no plans for military intervention in Iran. Now, it's been pretty clear for some time that the groundwork was being laid so I obviously didn't believe her, but I thought she'd at least wait until her earlier statement faded from memory.

what am i saying, it was almost a week after all.

And I thought this was the "We really want to be friends with the EU -lets make nice again" trip for Condi. Basically its "We want you to be our allies only if you unquestioningly back us up in our ginat global game of Risk." :cry:

Well, when she said that it reminded me of the old trick for putting somebody down without appearing to: "I'm not going to say he's a no-good lousy good-for-nothing S.O.B., but..."

Sometimes the best way to cover something up is to state it right out in the open. Remember "Grosse Point Blank"? Martin Blank never concealed the fact that he was a hit man - it's just that nobody believed him when he said it.

"You get dental with that?"

Funny that I posted an article about the upcoming Iranian war three weeks ago(http://phillyblog.com/forum/viewtopi...highlight=iran), and only received one response. It was probably because it puts a lot of the blame on dempcrats, rather then republicans. I guess implicating democrats for being war mongerers isn't the "In" thing to do these days. Besides, it would seem hypocritical to say you're anti-war, and at the same time, support these people. :roll:

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I am Boutros Boutros-Gali, put down your guns and listen to Bob Marley.
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I think the title of your thread was both vague and misleading. That some Dems would support the president in invasion plans no matter how kooky they are is not really news. The actual Seymour Hersch article in the New Yorker was actually news to me. I would have led off with the factual investigation piece not the overly ideological hatchet piece.

And who did you vote for in the last presidential election?

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I am Boutros Boutros-Gali, put down your guns and listen to Bob Marley.
- Boutros Boutros-Gali

I posted links and quotes from the Hersh piece and got a number of responses.

And Ezra just posted something about US airplanes flying into Iran's airspace - hoping to get them to "paint" the intruders with their radar so that we can target it.

We may just be playing "bad cop." One hopes so. I have no idea what military force the Bush administration thinks it can use to invade Iran - a far more difficult endeavor than invading Iraq.

And, I suspect the world thinks we are just rattling sabres since we don't have the military force available to carry out an invasion of Iran.

So we just irritate people including our allies who are trying to negotiate this one. Somebody is nuts.

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Oh great BG thinks I am part of a disloyal Democrat "circular firing squad" and now I am a sell out to the independent left. No matter where you are at, you are someone's boring "middle of the road".