Petraeus promotion paves way for Cheney to attack Iran

[New Dawn]

Have you read this? http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/04/24/8492/

[seemslikeadream]

1. I have now

Petraeus revealed in his Congressional testimony Apr. 10 that he had already assumed some of the functions normally carried out by the CENTCOM commander in regard to relations with military leaders in the region. Petraeus said he had “actually gone to a couple of neighbouring countries in an effort… to get at the networks, the countries in which they operate, and the sources of some of these foreign fighters.”

In fact, the Associated Press reported, Petraeus had taken trips to five different Middle Eastern countries — Jordan, Kuwait, Bahrain, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates — since September 2007. That should have been Fallon’s job, but the White House had apparently made it clear they wanted Petraeus — not Fallon — to undertake missions.

It had become increasingly evident to Fallon that he was not really running things at CENTCOM, according to the source. Fallon’s frustration about Petraeus’ de facto power over Middle East policy was the main reason he was ready to step down.

But it was Fallon’s refusal to accept the that the option of a military strike against Iran was still effectively on the table that led to serious tensions with the White House, as reported in Esquire magazine in early March. Fallon had evidently angered Cheney by suggesting publicly on three occasions between September and late November that a military strike against Iran had been ruled out by Washington.

Fallon’s resignation announcement on Mar. 11 was followed less than a week later by a 10-day Cheney trip to the Middle East in which the vice president talked explicitly about the military option against Iran during visits to Turkey and Saudi Arabia. That suggested that Cheney felt freer to wield the military threat to Iran with Fallon neutralised.

[JohnnyRingo]

2. Thanx for the link

I hadn't yet considered the possibility that Cheney was ready to use this shake up to further his goal of making people bleed.

I must be getting either slow or numb, I shoulda seen it coming.

[riverdeep]

3. That was the first thing I thought of when I heard his promotion.

'They're actually going to do it. And probably get away with it.'

Scott Ritter has been warning about this for some time now, and predicted that April would be a milestone month for preparations.

"But there is an 80 percent chance of war with Iran, he told about 200 people Wednesday at Middlebury College as part of a series of talks facilitated by the Vermont Peace and Justice Center."

He gives a list of reasons why he thinks it's happening, including this gem:

"The appearance of the "miracle laptop," as Ritter called it, a thousand pages of technical documents supposedly from a stolen Iranian computer, which dubiously had just the sort of information the administration needed to support a hard-line stand on Iran."

http://www.rutlandherald.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080404/NEWS04/804040381/1002/NEWS01

[Old and In the Way]

4. This administration is willing to start another war to further their domestic political agenda.

Their #1 priority is maintaining control of the White House with McSame as proxy. He's onboard. Are the American people?

Too bad impeachment is off the table.