The March of War

[c.f. here and here]

It would appear that there is a dead-ender gang in the Pentagon and in the basement crypt of the White House that is continuing to push for military confrontation with Iran.

I hear you now: "'military confrontation?' what kind of tosser magazines are you readin'... just call it war!" But that's just the thing, though. These people don't really want war, they want War™ not actually war but an incredible simulation...

Okay, enough of the dispassionate sarcasm. But in the last few weeks, it would seem like the anti-Iran rhetoric has been ratcheting up; reports of secret Iranian death squads planting bombs in Iraq, Joint Chiefs openly talking about how they are going to bomb Tehran back to the stone age, Bob Gates still out pimping the "Iran is hell bent on getting nuclear weapons" rap, although it seems like fewer and fewer people are buying...

Now a merchant vessel "under contract" to the U.S. Navy are getting involved in confrontations in the Persian Gulf. I have always had my questions about the "chaos build-out" theory popular with s9. To my mind, incompetence is still a better explanation for the way things turned out.

Yet, that does not make what s9 says untrue. In this context it would not surprise me that the Bush Administration would be willing to start some shit with Iran and dare the next President and Congress to have to deal with it. They are just realizing their idiotic comic plans for world domination will take longer than the standard 48 minute Tee-Vee drama format, more like a 112 minute made for Tee-Vee movie of the week...

My government sucks like sucking right now.

mojo sends

Okay... Now I'm Starting To Be Concerned...

Bruce Schneier is watching the news unfold that a fifth undersea telecom cable in the Middle East has been cut. Reports are going around that Iran is completely offline. I can't confirm or deny that, but traceroutes to Iranian IPv4 addresses aren't getting past the default-free zone for me. That doesn't mean Iran is offline— the Islamic Republic runs a national firewall, and it might block incoming traceroutes.

"WTF is going on?" Indeed.