Getting it wrong again

By Michael J.W. Stickings

Intentionally or not -- and, given what's come before, one suspects that it's intentional, that somewhere along the line there's intentional political manipulation, an attempt to make the case without much of a basis for it -- it seems that the U.S. may once again be getting the intelligence wrong. It's not Iraq this time, however, it's Iran:

Much of the intelligence on Iran's nuclear facilities provided to UN inspectors by US spy agencies has turned out to be unfounded, diplomatic sources in Vienna said today...

At the heart of the debate are accusations -- spearheaded by the US -- that Iran is secretly trying to develop nuclear weapons.

However, most of the tip-offs about supposed secret weapons sites provided by the CIA and other US intelligence agencies have led to dead ends when investigated by IAEA inspectors, according to informed sources in Vienna.

"Most of it has turned out to be incorrect," a diplomat at the IAEA with detailed knowledge of the agency's
investigations said.

If Iran is not currently developing nuclear weapons, or even preparing to do so, it may very well shift its program to weapons development in the future.

But this isn't about the international community backing off and letting Iran build up its nuclear program freely -- supervision must continue. No, what this is about is the U.S. once again attempting to build a case for war by overstating the problem and perhaps even by manipulating the intelligence to make the problem seem much more serious and immediate than it really is. In other words, it's about the U.S. repeating what it did with Saddam's Iraq. And we know what happened and what is happening there.

And when I say the U.S., what I mean, of course, is the Bush Administration backed by various supporters of war with Iran -- many of the same who supported war with Iraq.

As we have written here, here, here, here, here, here, and here -- yes, we write about it frequently -- Bush seems to be cooking up a war with Iran (or finding a way to justify one) by stressing the imminent danger posed by Iran's nuclear program and the possibility that Iran is supplying weapons to Iraqi insurgents.

After what happened with Iraq, it would take a fool to buy his bullshit this time around. Unfortunately, fools abound. Complicit fools who would like nothing more than another war, or an expansion of the present one, in the Middle East.