Like Schoolyard Bullies, the WH is Goading Iran

The New York Times reports this morning that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said President Bush decided “several months ago” to go after Iranians in Iraq. Using the passive voice so admired by the Bush administration, Rice said, “There has been a decision to go after these networks.” What that means is that the decision was not made by our confused and unstable president, but that after the people who make Bush’s decisions decided to make war on Iran, the president was told he had authorized the raids. And last Wednesday, the president’s speechwriters dutifully gave the Prez a warning to issue to Iran : Bush solemnly intoned, “Iran is providing material support for attacks on American troops. We will disrupt the attacks on our forces. We will interrupt the flow of support from Iran and Syria. And we will seek out and destroy the networks providing advanced weaponry and training to our enemies in Iraq.” After the Bush administration deployed an aircraft carrier off Iran’s coast and Patriot antimissile defense systems in Persian Gulf countries on Iran’s borders, Tony Snow had the balls to tell reporters that they should pay no attention to “an urban legend that’s going around” that Mr. Bush was “trying to prepare the way for war” with Iran or Syria. Right. And Nixon said he was not a crook. And Poppy Bush said George W. is not a liar. But technically, it probably is true that Bush is not preparing the way to make war on Iran and Syria, because the Prez isn’t capable of preparing his own way from the Rose Garden to the Oval office. But the Bush administration is definitely on the war path with Iran. And the Bush administration has definitely decided to provoke Iran into a confrontation. This bullying sneaky style of aggressing on nations in the Middle East while claiming it is not aggressing on nations in the Middle East is starting to bite the simpering, insolent, self-satisfied Bush administration in the ass. But the White House in particular and the GOP in general is what it is. It cannot change its nature. And the nature of the Republicans who lied us into the war in Iraq is to try to outsmart the world, to try to appear clever, to look for loopholes like a bunch of defense lawyers for the Mafia, and to grin and smirk about finding ways to say one thing and do another. It is the nature of the Bush administration and the GOP to stay in their cozy club and congratulate each other on smart rhetoric and to feel superior about putting another one over on the ignorant masses. And it’s the nature of the Bush administration and the GOP to be so awed at their own brilliance that they have neglected to notice they aren’t running the show anymore.