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Born at the Crest of the Empire

Sunday, August 13, 2006

The US was "closely involved" in Israel's offensive

From Sy Hersh, just out in The New Yorker
The Bush Administration, however, was closely involved in the planning of Israel’s retaliatory attacks. President Bush and Vice-President Dick Cheney were convinced, current and former intelligence and diplomatic officials told me, that a successful Israeli Air Force bombing campaign against Hezbollah’s heavily fortified underground-missile and command-and-control complexes in Lebanon could ease Israel’s security concerns and also serve as a prelude to a potential American preëmptive attack to destroy Iran’s nuclear installations, some of which are also buried deep underground.

I floated this possibility as a crazy theory back in July.

Maybe it's time to bring back the "Date the Iran bombing" contest. Feel free to revise and update your guess.

posted by mikevotes at 12:49 PM

11 Comments:

  • I'm still liking mine.

    I don't remember it being so close to yours... when did you pick that date?

    By Blogger Praguetwin, at 1:02 PM  

  • Early on. I haven't moved it. I had a whole thought process for that day, but I don't remember what it was.

    Mike

    By Blogger mikevotes, at 1:30 PM  

  • I dunno, guys, I still think Halloween is a perfect date for Rove - close enough to the November midterms to rally people to the flag and too close for anybody to seriously challenge the policy without being tarred as traitors.

    By Blogger Reality-Based Educator, at 1:34 PM  

  • I don't dispute that. Mine's just a guess. And, I think that the failure of the Israeli operation does change the framework on the whole thing.

    Plus, I think well either get a "provocation" or ramped up language. The current approved UN deadline for Iran is Aug 31, but, that resolution was written so that military action would be a second step through another resolution. (assuming they play by the rules.)

    So, I dunno.

    Mike

    By Blogger mikevotes, at 1:45 PM  

  • Mr. Hersh was the one who broke the story about the administration having plans to use nukes against Iran.

    I'll keep my guess (weekend of the elections)but I have less faith in it now.

    By Blogger Unknown, at 1:58 PM  

  • It's all just guesses at this point.

    Mike

    By Blogger mikevotes, at 6:41 PM  

  • Well, certainly not before the election, that's for sure. And it all depends on whether the Republicans hold Congress or whether the anti-war crowd makes significant gains.

    If the Republicans stay, I'll stick to my original date.
    However if the anti-war candidates win, I'll take, uh, November 22, as they'll need to get it started before the new Congress is in session. Also, it's Thanksgiving weekend, so in between all the football, you'll be able to flip over to the news channels and watch 'em blow up Teheran.
    But first I expect a terrible terrorist act, right before the election.

    By Blogger Lew Scannon, at 9:03 PM  

  • Cool. I'll update and put you down for both.

    Mike

    By Blogger mikevotes, at 9:12 PM  

  • Hmm, I guess I didn't look before I chose. I remember my logic: before the fall elections but not so close as to be completely obvious (right). My date should be 6 weeks before the election.

    I'll be you had similar reasoning.

    By Blogger Praguetwin, at 10:34 AM  

  • Yeah. Almost exactly. I also added in post sept 11 to build the nuclear bogeyman.

    Mike

    By Blogger mikevotes, at 3:29 PM  

  • Nice. I probably touched on that as well. Can't be too close to either 9/11 or the election.

    I'll bet Rove has a date.

    By Blogger Praguetwin, at 5:29 PM  

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