Think Bush won't try a "Gulf of Tonkin" with Iran? He considered it with IRAQ back in 2003

[Ignacio Upton]

http://www.thewashingtonnote.com/archives/001238.php

he Los Angeles Times' John Daniszewski writes this about Sands' book:

It was the end of January 2003. Secretary of State Colin L. Powell was five days away from giving a critical speech at the U.N. Security Council, laying out the case that Iraq was hiding weapons of mass destruction and posed a danger to world peace.

But huddled with aides at the White House, President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair were not sure there was enough evidence to convince the Security Council. Without the council's explicit authorization, their plans for an invasion to depose Saddam Hussein could be difficult to defend under international law.

Bush proposed an alternative: paint a U.S. spy plane in United Nations colors and see if that didn't tempt Hussein's forces to shoot at it. In any case, he said, the war was "penciled in" for March 10 and the United States would go ahead with or without a second U.N. resolution.

Now, part of me feels that perhaps Bush is just saber-rattling this time, realizing that he can't be a "War President" without $100-$200 per barrel oil as a consequence. However, considering the fact that Bush wanted a Gulf of Tonkin incident in Iraq, I wouldn't put it past time to provoke one in the Persian Gulf with the Iranians.

[Jackpine Radical]

1. Remember he doesn't have any more elections to win.

That $200/bbl oil would make a lot of his buddies rich. If he's planning to leave peacefully at the end of his term (who knows?), the war would be a handy part of the "exit strategy" for leaving office. If he's not planning to leave, the war may also serve his interests by providing an excuse for suspending elections. "Sorry, folks. We gots a nookyoolar war goin down here. Gots ta stay the course an all."

[louis-t]

2. What scares me is the neocons remaking of the constitution..

They aren't installing cronies in every facet of government and grabbing more power for their "unitary executive" just to give it up in 2009. They are not that short-sighted. Something's up.

[blues90]

4. I tend to agree here

It does not make sense for these freaks to plan a failed war or even a hopeful win in Iraq and keep staying the course if this were their only goal . PNAC planned to go all the way and there seems to be no way to secure Iraq and the oil if Iran is still in the picture whether they pose a threat or not to the US .

Bush or cheney could care less about elections , they are holding onto their power without reserve or giving up now . They know all they have to do is attack Iran and the rest of us can suffer the effects .

If they don't care about new orleans or the economy then why would they care what happens to the many others who will suffer , they certainly have made it obvious they don;t care about the troops .

[Jackpine Radical]

5. Their whole criminal enterprise is evidence they don't plan to leave.

You don't commit a lot of murders in the basement & leave body parts strewn around when you know the house is about to be foreclosed on.

[Chiyo-chichi]

3. I cannot fathom why the story of Bush's plan to paint a US spy plane in UN colors

didn't get more traction. It outraged me as much as anything they have ever done. It is supplemental proof (as if we needed any more) that they lied us into this war and that there is no low to which they would not stoop.

[Jackpine Radical]

6. I dunno...

Maybe not everyone reads the Washington Note. Maybe it didn't make it onto Fox.

[RaleighNCDUer]

8. Because the incident didn't happen.

Had it actually happened, the discussion would be about Iraq shooting down the UN plane blah blah blah, with those who suggest the plane was a false flag operation being dismissed as conspiracy theorists.

The probable reason it was never carried through was that some bright boy there remembered that *'s base wouldn't give a flying fuck about a UN plane being shot down - most of them would be happy to do it themselves. Makes for a bad justification for war with the base.

[patrice]

7. Wouldn't that pretty much solve all of his problems? We'd NEVER leave

after something like that. And when he leaves office, he can just move to the compound the Bushes are probably going to build in Paraguay.

And isn't something like that in the offing now, with this recent evidence that the Iraqi group that is being supplied by Iran is the Bush ally Sciri http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x191985

[Leopolds Ghost]

9. I Thought Bush WANTED $100-200 oil.

Remember, the Texas gangster capitalists are a different breed than the
ones found on Wall Street. They don't care about the overall health of
the economy so long as they get their wealth in this lifetime.

To quote Bush, "when history writes about me, we'll all be dead."