Taylor Marsh – TaylorMarsh.com – News, Opinion and Weblog on Progressive Politics

M.A.D.: It's Déjà Vu All Over Again

Extended presence of U.S. in Iraq looms large The swimming pool at Balad air base, as seen through the window of a Black Hawk helicopter, 44 miles north of Baghdad, Iraq, on Aug. 25, 2005.

The Pentagon is bypassing official US intelligence
channels and turning to a dangerous and unruly cast of characters in order
to create strife in Iran in preparation for any possible attack, former and
current intelligence officials say.

One of the operational assets being used by the Defense
Department is a right-wing terrorist organization known as Mujahedeen-e Khalq
(MEK), which is being “run” in two southern regional areas of
Iran, both bordering Pakistan. They are Balucistan, a Sunni stronghold, and
Khuzestan, a Shia region where a series of recent attacks has left many dead
and hundreds injured in the last three months.

(snip)

According to all three intelligence sources, military
and intelligence officials alike were alarmed that instead of securing a known
terrorist organization, which has been responsible for acts of terror against
Iranian targets and individuals all over the world – including US civilian
and military casualties – Rumsfeld under instructions from Cheney, began
using the group on special ops missions into Iran to pave the way for a potential
Iran strike.

“They are doing whatever they want, no oversight
at all,” one intelligence source said. … …

On
Cheney, Rumsfeld order, US outsourcing special ops to Iraq terror group

Diplomacy, schliplomacy, we're already fighting in Iran. Bye-bye,
bi-lateral talks. Hello kaboom. Besides, no
one trusts Bush on Iran so he might as well let 'er rip, right? Let's face it, he's got no credibility whatsoever on the diplomacy side, so everyone is jumping to the bottom line.

The above story is thinly sourced, but there have been rumors
that we are using the MEK for a long time. They are a right-wing group that
hates the mullahs and harasses them at every turn. Think enemy of my enemy strategy
here.

The challenge is how to turn this around and fast. We need to
stop Bush, Rummy and Deadeye in their tracks.

Bill
Sher has a post up that is worth a look on the subject.

The bases
are an issue I've raised for weeks. But we're not going to dismantle them because
they've been in construction for years as part of a long-term foreign policy
strategy of the Bush administration to have a ground base deeper inside the
Middle East. That truly will take regime change, over here, not over there.

Iran's nuclear ambitions, in my humble opinion, are less about
keeping the neighbors in line and more about national pride. Iran is fueled
by nationalism, which is getting amped up because of President Bush and Dick
Cheney's saber rattling. The dialogue over here is making Ahmadinejad into something
he isn't. They also know that Iran is years away from a nuclear bomb. Again,
that's not the point for the president and his people.

All parties do want to negotiate. All parties except President
Bush and the administration. What they want is regime change. One more time
to Seymour Hersh.

The new mission for the combat troops
is a product of Defense Secretary Rumsfeld’s long-standing interest
in expanding the role of the military in covert operations, which was made
official policy in the Pentagon’s Quadrennial Defense Review, published
in February. Such activities, if conducted by C.I.A. operatives, would need
a Presidential Finding and would have to be reported to key members of Congress.

“‘Force protection’ is the
new buzzword,” the former senior intelligence official told me. He was
referring to the Pentagon’s position that clandestine activities that
can be broadly classified as preparing the battlefield or protecting troops
are military, not intelligence, operations, and are therefore not subject
to congressional oversight. “The guys in the Joint Chiefs of
Staff say there are a lot of uncertainties in Iran,” he said. “We
need to have more than what we had in Iraq. Now we have the green light to
do everything we want.” (source)

Bush, Rummy and Deadeye think they have a date with destiny. They're crafting
their planning around more and more autonomy and less oversight. Their 9/11
“war on terrorism” strategy has worked and now they just have to keep
pressing forward. It's an election year again, which has always worked for them.
They're consummate campaigners, just horrific leaders who are incompetent at
every level of federal management.

Frankly, they also think no one in either party has the spine to challenge
them on Iran.

Time is on our side, but it also aids the neocons for regime change, because
they know Iran can't touch of a nuke yet, so they're seeing this as a window
of mass destruction opportunity. They've already got ops in action in Iran,
most of which are under the radar. Remember, in the end, these guys don't care
what is moral. They truly believe might is always right.

Iran wants to talk, but how long will that last?

Ahmadinejad is speading out the Revolutionary Guards throughout the Iranian
government, sowing up his power slowly but surely, as Hersh
points out. The Iranian president is weak, so is Bush, thus their dueling bluster.

In the end, the only thing stopping bi-lateral negotiations, which is the only
answer to this problem, is the Bush-Rummy-Deadeye trio. We'll know their hand
if they break down and send Condi.

But make no mistake, the Iranians want to talk.

It's either bi-lateral negotiations or the 21st century version of mutually assured destruction and déjà vu all over again.