Don’t Bomb Iran

Condi Rice is dropping her opposition to Cheney’s plans for attacking Iran, several stories report. UK’s Sunday Telegraph story “Bush setting America up for war with Iran” relates how a “carefully calibrated program of escalation that could lead to a military” attack is envisaged, starting with raids on camps in Iran that are allegedly training Iraqi insurgents. Citing senior officials, the article says that until now “accusations that Mr Bush was set on war with Iran have come almost entirely from his critics” and that two plans exist .. to hit Iran’s nuclear facilities, and much wider strikes on up to 2000 targets. Also today, the French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner warned raised the temperature, warning the world “to prepare for the worst.. and the worst is war” if diplomacy failed to halt Iran’s nuclear programme, presumably referring to its uranium enrichment.

full story at :Daily Telegraph 16/09/2007
Bush setting America up for war with Iran
By Philip Sherwell in New York and Tim Shipman in Washington

Senior American intelligence and defence officials believe that President George W Bush and his inner circle are taking steps to place America on the path to war with Iran, The Sunday Telegraph has learnt.

Pentagon planners have developed a list of up to 2,000 bombing targets in Iran, amid growing fears among serving officers that diplomatic efforts to slow Iran’s nuclear weapons programme are doomed to fail. Pentagon and CIA officers say they believe that the White House has begun a carefully calibrated programme of escalation that could lead to a military showdown with Iran.

Now it has emerged that Condoleezza Rice, the secretary of state, who has been pushing for a diplomatic solution, is prepared to settle her differences with Vice-President Dick Cheney and sanction military action.