News - Provoking Iran

Once again I quote from the American Progress Report. They do some terrific research and writing over there and often uncover stories that aren't in the mainstream news.

"President Bush's tough new stance on Iran and his military buildup in the Persian Gulf recall some of the drumbeats that preceded the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003," the AP reports. "As then, the Bush administration is making allegations about Iran without providing proof. It is suggesting Iran is sending weapons to Iraq, yet offering no evidence the supplies can be traced to Tehran." Sen. John Rockefeller (D-WV), the new chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, has warned that Vice President Dick Cheney and other ideologues within the Bush administration are trying to provoke a military conflict with Iran. "I don't think that policy makers in this administration particularly understand Iran," said Rockefeller. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who came to power with an agenda to eradicate poverty and tackle unemployment, "is now facing increasingly fierce criticism for his failure to meet those promises." There has been talk of his impeachment in Iran. At the same time, he has aggressively pushed ahead Iran's nuclear program, shrugging off U.N. demands that the country halt uranium enrichment. As a result, the United Nations in December imposed sanctions on Iran. Rather than capitalize on Ahmadinejad's weak political circumstances, the Bush administration's bellicose rhetoric and repeated threats -- which Ahmadinejad is more than happy to reciprocate -- serve to perpetuate his grasp on power by providing him with Iranian popular support for his confrontation with the international community. Ali Ansari, director of the Institute of Iranian Studies at St. Andrews University in Scotland, writes, "The reality is that while Ahmadinejad has been his own worst enemy, the U.S. hawks are his best friends."