Iran must die! (so I can be president)

Democratic leaders in Congress allowed themselves to be stampeded into war not, as they would have us believe, because they were misled by faulty intelligence -- if we, and by we I mean everybody out here in the hinterlands, average readers of the New York Times 3000 miles from the Beltway, if we knew the WMDs and the ties to Al Qaeda were bogus, certainly the senators knew.

Note that among the solons who voted no on the war authorization -- and here's an honor roll for you: Akaka (D-HI), Bingaman (D-NM), Boxer (D-CA), Byrd (D-WV), Chafee (R-RI), Conrad (D-ND), Dayton (D-MN), Durbin (D-IL), Feingold (D-WI), Graham (D-FL), Inouye (D-HI), Jeffords (I-VT), Kennedy (D-MA), Leahy (D-VT), Levin (D-MI), Mikulski (D-MD), Murray (D-WA), Reed (D-RI), Sarbanes (D-MD), Stabenow (D-MI), Wellstone (D-MN), Wyden (D-OR) -- not one was burdened by the illusion that s/he was destined to be president.

The votes of Kerry, Edwards, Clinton, Biden, Dodd, et al, were not stupid or ignorant: they were cowardly, the defensive actions of ambitious politicians who were determined not to be on the wrong side of the question, Who lost Iraq?

Now the Bush administration is back with its next war, trumpeting as fact questionable evidence of NWMDs -- nuclear weapons of mass destruction -- in the hands of the mullahs -- in English, an ugly sounding word, but try substituting "priest" or "minister" -- in Tehran.

The build-up is happening on multiple fronts. The new head of CENTCOM, the military's Central Command responsible for U.S. security interests in 25 nations that stretch from the Horn of Africa through the Arabian Gulf into Central Asia, is not, as common sense might suggest, a counterinsurgency specialist, but the commander of U.S. forces in the Pacific, Adm. "Fox" Fallon, who, aside from being a dependable water-carrier for Bush, presumably knows a thing or two about co-ordinating air strikes and deploying naval blockades. In the Gulf, the carrier group Stennis is being sent to back up the Eisenhower. Minesweepers are being deployed in the Strait of Hormuz. American fighter-bombers have returned to Incirlik in Turkey. Upgraded Patriot missiles are being moved to Kuwait and Qatar.

Quite a lot of firepower to bring to a fight for hearts and minds.

Bush's anti-Iran rhetoric is ratcheting up as well. When he announced his surge, the commander-in-chief took time out to note that Iran "is providing material support for attacks on American troops....we will seek out and destroy the networks providing advanced weaponry and training to our enemies in Iraq," just as he took time out during the post-911 assault on Afghanistan to soften us up for his planned attack on Iraq. This latest threat to launch an illegal preemptive military operation was followed by shoot-to-kill orders to U.S. troops encountering Iranians aiding the insurgency. And, in text-book perfect provocation, Iranian officials and Iraqis returning from Iran are being seized in Iraq and interrogated by U.S. troops.

Presidentially inclined Democrats do not plan to be on the wrong side of the Who lost Iran? question, either.

In January, at the Herzliya Conference on Israeli national policy, John Edwards said that keeping Iran from possessing nuclear weapons "is the greatest challenge of our generation." Tom Brokaw's Greatest Generation got Hitler; we get Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Sounding like Bush-lite, Edwards said, "To ensure that Iran never gets nuclear weapons, we need to keep all options on the table. Let me reiterate -- all options." In the run-up to the 2012 election, will Edwards be demonstrating his integrity by confessing he was wrong on Iran?

Not to be out-cojonesed, at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, self-described as "America's Pro-Israel Lobby," Hillary Clinton, trumping Edwards, said, "In dealing with this threat, no option can be taken off the table. We need to use every tool at our disposal including the threat and use of military force." Threat and use. (Apparently not buying the romantic notion that we can have him back as Hillary's vice-president, Bill Clinton warned against a military strike on Iran, saying in a speech at Kansas State University that it was unclear whether "we could take out whatever incipient nuclear efforts they have," and that even if we could, it is "not clear it would be the most effective strategy." Note to Bill: call Hillary).

Barack Obama, before he became Eirana to Hillary's Ares -- don't you just love these sexual reversals?, when he was still merely a U.S. Senate candidate (not so long ago, don't forget), the freshman senator suggested that the United States might one day have to launch surgical missile strikes into Iran and Pakistan to keep extremists from getting control of nuclear bombs. One man's surgical strike is another man's unprovoked act of aggression, of course. And you have to wonder about a Democrat who feels it necessary to stay to the right of the hapless Alan Keyes.

Then there is former US vice president and once and future presidential wannabe Al Gore, the Candidate McDreamy of Democrats of a particularly soft-minded sort, who has lashed out at Iran’s government, denouncing it as a threat to “the future of the world." The Future of the World? Wow. That sounds a whole lot worse than the greatest challenge of our generation. In an address in Saudi Arabia to the Jeddah Economic Forum, "the think tank of the Middle East," Gore said “corrupt leadership,” combined with President Ahmadinejad’s anti-Israeli outbursts, should raise alarums all over the world.

So much for the likely Democratic nominees.

For the record, as recently as February 24 in an op-ed piece in the Washington Post, Bill Richardson called "for the United States to engage directly with the Iranians and to lead a global diplomatic offensive to prevent them from building nuclear weapons. We need tough, direct negotiations, not just with Iran but also with our allies, especially Russia, to get them to support us in presenting Iran with credible carrots and sticks."

But what does he know? He's not a "serious candidate." He's just running for vice-president. Or secretary of state.