U.S. not planning for war with Iran, Gates says

[sabra]

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/WAT006904.htm


U.S. not planning for war with Iran, Gates says

WASHINGTON, Feb 2 (Reuters) - The United States is not planning for a war with Iran, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on Friday.

"The President has made clear, the Secretary of State has made clear, I've made clear ... we are not planning for a war with Iran," he told reporters.

[hobbit709]

1. That means

"The plans are made", they don't need to do any more planning

[MUAD_DIB]

6. And we know they don't need to declare war to bomb the fek out

of another country.

[gratuitous]

12. Got it in one!

Just like when Bush said there were no plans on his desk to invade Iraq. Of course not, they'd already been issued and the extra copy put in the file. See? Not on his desk anywhere!

Word-parsing assholes.

[Greeby]

2. Course you're not

You've already done the planning :eyes:

[Javaman]

3. Since when is anything "clear" from these fools*.

each one is a hack in their own right.

[Nite Owl]

4. Haven't we been here

already? Heard the same lines right before we invaded Iraq and they expect us to believe them now.

[AliceWonderland]

5. This is way it will be sold -- not as a "war" --

Oh no, that would never happen, the executive branch would never do such a thing. Rather, it will be mission creep, an expansion of the current conflict, something we were drawn into in Iraq to complete the project. (Whatever "the project" may be.)

[sutz12]

7. They didn't plan for the Iraq invasion either...nt

[lligrd]

23. Good Point - This Administration Is Not Known For "Planning"

But they sure the heck are going to attack Iran without a plan.

[madrchsod]

8. plans have been on the table since 1979

who do they think they are kidding

[Turbineguy]

9. Sounds like they have the same plan

they had for Iraq!

You can safely bet that in some Pentagon filing cabinet there's a plan for invading Lichtenstein.

[CrazyOrangeCat]

14. yep

Lucky for Lichtenstein, the neocons can't find it on a map.

(They are such crappy liars--crappy is their modus operandi. And, with the exception of a handful of brave souls, no one in Congress is gonna call them on it. As for Gates, can't everyone see that Rummy is still in the game? He's just got a different office in a different building!!!)

Off rant . . .

[no_hypocrisy]

10. Provocation of another nation to attack your military in the region

would lend itself to the concept of "self defense" would not require planning, just action.

Or coming the aid of another nation attacking Iran after that nation attacked and Iran retaliating (self defense). No planning, just action.

And since when has the military acted without plans of any type? They have rooms of files of plans that have never been executed.

[itsmesgd]

11. Does he mean that they are {no longer} planning for a war...

because the limited planning is over?

Does he really expect anyone to believe that there is not planning for an attack in Iran? We have enough ships around the Straits of Hormuz and the Persian Gulf so that one could walk from Saudi Arabia to Iran without getting your feet wet.

Other anonymous officials and those familiar with the theater of operations say that the attack could come as early as mid to late Februray through the end of April. If a war is coming, I wish that they would plan for a war instead of just saying "go and bomb them".

Plus we know he's lying. There are reports scheduled to come out regarding Intel Estimates about Iran. What does he have to say about the recent escalation in rheotirc towards Iran and the recent authorization for US troops in Iraq to capture or kill Iranians that they encounter in the field.

So, in all of their daily DoD meetings, no one has mentioned war planning against Iraq is a lie and an insult. Fortunately for them, the dems will only draft a non-binding resolution should we nuke Iran in the near future.

[Dover]

13. Yeah, yeah...."read my lips".... We've heard it all before.

Whatever they say, the inverse is always true. They don't even know how to walk a straight line let alone speak with any but a forked tongue. They ARE criminals, afterall.

[Dover]

15. A really good show re: the Casey public flogging too. Primetime meaningless gestures.

Congress flogs and chastises him for the cameras then turns around and gives him the job.

It's 'real t.v.' at its best, with highly paid actors and scripted outcome.

[Minstrel Boy]

16. Bush, May 2002: "no plans for war with Iraq."

http://www.uexpress.com/georgieannegeyer/index.html?uc_full_date=20020528

[roamer65]

17. Gates translatred: We're not planning a war with Iran...

unless we fake a "Gulf of Tonkin" type incident.

[Dover]

19. ...however we didn't say anything about Syria.

Not that a straight out lie is beyond them, re: Iran. But it's just possible that they'll go after Syria first to further put the squeeze on Iran (short of nuclear holocaust). Kind of 'surround sound' for the U.S. message. But I don't think the message is all the Bushies want to deliver, or would they be satisfied with regime change. They want to eliminate the threat of a powerful Iran in that region by destroying it...just like Iraq.

[More Than A Feeling]

18. "Of course, if we end up starting one 'accidentally'....

"we can't really do anything about that can we?"

Impeachment. Now. We no longer have the luxury of a leisurely accounting of Bush's crimes.

[Matariki]

20. Oh - THAT'S obvious from the recent non-stop chatter about Iran in the US news

[MGKrebs]

21. How the hell would he know?

He'll find out at the same time the rest of us do; when the missiles are in the air. Unfortunately for him, his "signature" will be on the paper trail anyway, just in case there are problems.
The life of a shill is hard and frought with danger.

[whosinpower]

22. semantics at work

The strike has already been planned. It is not in the "planning" stages. It is already done.

[MGKrebs]

24. But we're not talking to them either.

Meanwhile, things actually happen outside of George's control:

"The Iraqi government invited Iran and Syria yesterday to Baghdad for talks next month on regional security, amid growing tension and accusations by the Bush administration of foreign meddling in Iraqi affairs."

"Iraqi officials have not invited the United States to the meeting, which also could include other Iraqi neighbors, the United Nations and the Arab League."

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/nationworld/iraq/bal-te.summit02feb02,0,868424.story?coll=bal-iraq-headlines

But there must be more to the story...

"KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (Reuters) -- Malaysia vowed on Friday not to buckle to any pressure from its biggest trading partner, the United States, to break a deal with Iran or risk losing a free trade pact."

Hmmm. What could that be about?

"... the deal signed last month between Malaysia's SKS Group and state-owned National Iranian Oil Company to develop Iran's southern Golshan and Ferdos gas fields and build plants to produce liquefied natural gas."

http://edition.cnn.com/2007/BUSINESS/02/02/malaysia.us.reut/

Oh, we want that oil too? Seems like every time some other country lands an oil development contract in the ME we want to take it from them.

[frylock]

25. they're just gonna wing it, like in iraq

[damntexdem]

26. In a sense, he may be right:

whatever they call it, little that this Administration does is actual planning.

I suspect, rather, that they are scheming to invade Iran.

[knight_of_the_star]

27. So we should expect a draft then

Since last time they said, "We have no war plans on our desk," they left out the second part saying, "They're in our hands."

[SayWhatYo]

28. The US isn't, but the aliens are....