Yet another re-run

The front page of tomorrow's (March 13) WaPo looks to be a re-run of mistakes made right about three years ago. Let's take quotes from the article and make snarky statements, shall we?

The internal administration debate that raged in the first term between those who advocated more engagement with Iran and those who preferred more confrontation appears in the second term to be largely settled in favor of the latter. Although administration officials do not use the term "regime change" in public, that in effect is the goal they outline as they aim to build resistance to the theocracy.

Translation: Now that Colin Powell's been tossed out on his ass, we'll kick whoever's ass we want, when we want. And wouldn't it be grand if the Bush administration was dedicated to building resistance to the theocracy of the Dobson's and Robertson's right here at home? Surely the WaPo staff writers had a little giggle when they penned that line. Right? Right?!?

"We may face no greater challenge from a single country than from Iran," Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said in Senate testimony last week. "We do not have a problem with the Iranian people. We want the Iranian people to be free. Our problem is with the Iranian regime."

Wow, substitute a few "q"s for "n"s, and these guys could've just copied an article from about 3 years ago.

But as the administration gears up, the struggle with Iran remains shadowed by Iraq. The botched intelligence on Saddam Hussein's weapons has left a credibility challenge in convincing the public and the world that the administration is right this time about Iran.

Oh! I've read this story to wee wobs! "The Little Boy Who Cried Wolf!"

The focus on Iran inside the administration lately has been striking. Bush, according to aides, has been spending more time on the issue, and advisers have invited 30 to 40 specialists for consultations in recent months.

The advice of these specialists will, of course, be promptly ignored when Bush tries to rescue his sagging poll numbers with yet another invasion.

In the past week, the State Department created an Iran desk. Last year, only two people in the department worked full time on Iran; now there will be 10. The department is launching more training in the Farsi language and is planning an Iranian career track.

So let me get this straight - Iran has been a member of the "Axis of Evil," our arch-enemy, for well over four years, and we just got around to creating an Iran desk at State just last week? There's only two possible interpretations of that little nugget: a) they needed a fig-leaf to try to pretend that diplomacy was going to be attempted before turning old Persia into so much glass or b) the fuckwads are extra, extra incompetent. Given what we know of Bushco, my money's on the latter.

"Every year that we wait, the risk increases," said former House speaker Newt Gingrich, a member of the Pentagon's Defense Policy Board. "I would hope that the administration would decide to do something decisive. . . . We have the military power in the region if we need it. It's a question of whether we have the will."

Wait a minute, who let this hypocritical douchebag back into the halls of power? Someone pull Gingrich's head out of his ass so we can kick it back to the curb. "We have the military power in the region if we need it???" Oh, you mean the forces that are bogged down desperately trying to extricate themselves from a civil war in a neighboring country? I'm sure our service men and women will be overjoyed to know that the road home from Baghdad goes through Tehran. What a fuckstick.

Well, I'm still feeling flu-ish, but venting all that bile certainly felt refreshing.