Now On to Iran

Time tested formula...lose political support: start shooting. Or if your only tool is a hammer then treat all of your problems like nails. Any way it is seen, the US has taken the first step towards a round of hostilities with pre-nuclear Iran. And there is the obvious sarcasm that it must be done now before the window of opportunity to hammer a non-nuclear opponent disappears. So far the war/Republican election cycle has avoided nuclear opponents: Grenada, Panama, Iraq #1, Iraq#2. We have avoided Cuba, Somalia, Kenya, the Balkans and a host of others. So far the Democrats have not joined in...they seemed to have learned something from Vietnam.
For all of its success the war in Iraq has deteriorated into a civil war which cannot be disguised in the western press as anything resembling a military conflict. The US has armed one side intentionally but may have armed both over the years. Now i it is to be on the Iran there is a flimsy pretext that is more compelling than the WMD nonsense that preceded Iraq, we have put soldiers in the theater and now we must protect them. That will provide a surface plausibility until the decision to begin withdrawing by which time we could be fully and deeply engaged in Iran. The Public has lost confidence in the Bush Administration and this could be a test of the power of thew presidency of an historic proportion.