Kristol thinks Bush may leave Obama with a crisis with Iran

June 22, 2008

As Bill Kristol sees it, if John McCain wins in November (or the White House believes McCain will win in November), Still-President Bush is content leaving a confrontation with Iran to the future. If Barack Obama wins, or appears poised to win, Bush may go ahead and force the issue.

“[I]f the president thought John McCain were going to be the next president, he would think it more appropriate to let the next president make that decision than do it on his way out,” Kristol said. “I do wonder with Senator Obama, if President Bush thinks Senator Obama’s going to win, does he somehow think that — does he worry that Obama won’t follow through on that policy.”

Kristol added that Saudi Arabia and Egypt may conclude, if Obama is elected, “Maybe we can use nuclear weapons,” too. (Neither Saudi Arabia nor Egypt have a nuclear weapons program.)

All of this is, of course, a friendly reminder that when it comes to sticking to the status quo, and offering more of the same on international relations, Bush is counting on John McCain delivering four more years just like the last eight.

It’s also a reminder why impeachment proceedings should begin now!

  • If I had invested in the futures market on the accuracy of Kristol’s prognostications, my return on investment would have long ago tanked.

  • A double-dactyl for John McCain:

    Weepily Creepily,
    Maverick Johnny Mac
    Flipped then he flopped then he
    Said the reverse.

    Septuagenarian
    Neoconservative —
    End of his chances and
    End of this verse.

  • It’s thrilling to speculate about all this stuff, but I find it hard to imagine that a lame duck president will start a war AFTER an election which the opposite party has won. I think the Cheney admin is capable of all sorts of evil, but whatever machinations they have in mind are probably not so obvious as this would be. And I’m one of those who don’t automatically rule out the possibility that the attack on the WTC was a Bushite version of Christallnacht…

  • what. a. putz.

    and Stephen1947? unfortunately, i’ve found it “hard to imagine” a lot of the stuff that’s gone on over the past 7.5 years, and too much of it has happened! pushing iran past the limit not seems exactly like something bush and cheney and the rest would do.

  • So now Kristol is saying “Elect McCain or Bush will do crazy stuff.”
    Weeeee.

  • CB’s conclusion, that McC is four more years of Bush, is right. What seems more shocking is Kristol’s understanding of the the man whose policy and actions he has endorsed — indeed, raved about incoherently but enthusiastically for seven years: Bush as (potentially) a deliberate saboteur of America’s democratically chosen future. Why this odd man is looked to for opinion on anything defies reason. Unless, that is, he’s a way for rational, reality-based people to learn about the latest lunatic neocon theories and strategies (like trying to terrorize us with the threat of nuclear WMD from states that do not have nuclear WMD)? That would explain the tolerance for his clownish manner — why, really, is this man always smiling and chortling? — and the fact that no one at his various punditry outlets factchecks him.

  • It’s thrilling to speculate about all this stuff, but I find it hard to imagine that a lame duck president will start a war AFTER an election which the opposite party has won.

    You mean like when Bush the Elder committed us to Somalia?

    You can’t think about this in terms of politics, logic, or national interest. These guys are all about breaking things. If they can break the Obama administration before it even takes office – which another war would certainly do – that’s a good thing in their eyes. Hell, if they do it right, Bush can declare martial law and there won’t even be an Obama administration.

    I really do wish I could just file such things away under ‘paranoia.”

  • Neocon Comedian Billy Kristol doesn’t have a thing to worry about:

    “The danger from Iran is grave, it is real, and my goal will be to eliminate this threat” –O-bomb-a

  • The image of Saddam with a noose around his neck keeps coming to mind, but the face—many faces, in fact—belong to Bush, his administration, and his grotesque gaggle of malicious misfits. If nothing else, the fear of such a legacy—being the first American president to be executed for war crimes—will prevent the waging of aggressive war against the Iranian Republic.

    Or could the Bush/McCain cartel be so egregiously idiotic as to believe that an Obama administration would not take office and make the immediate “bringing-to-justice” of these heinous horror-mongers its first and foremost priority?

  • Dear John McCain,

    Please have Bill Kristol advocate on your behalf as much as possible.

  • Of course, starting a war right before leaving office would put a pretty big spike into that non-existent legacy Bush is so worried about, but it seems just like the kind of cheap stunt a real a$$hole would pull.

    You have to imagine Bush’s strategic thinking on this – “What’s one more crisis? The list is pretty long already.”

  • Maybe all this “bomb Iran” talk is just to enrich the greedy corporate speculators investing in the unregulated electronic oil futures trading markets. War talk helps to jack up the price of oil. Search on “oil futures speculation” if you care to find out why you are paying over four dollars for a gallon of gasoline…

  • “Kristol added that Saudi Arabia and Egypt may conclude, if Obama is elected, “Maybe we can use nuclear weapons,” too. (Neither Saudi Arabia nor Egypt have a nuclear weapons program.)”

    This sort of reasoning always blows my mind. Iraq didn’t have nukes, but we invaded them anyway, on the pretense that they did. Bush’s legacy is, in part, that a lot of hostile countries have realized, “The U.S. wants to invade us no matter what. Given that, we might as well have nuclear weapons.”

  • I predict Mc Cain will be the next president, No Democrat will be allowed to win. The man to fear is the VP, as he will take over, as McCain will die in office soon after the Inaugaration. In 20 years America will be a dictatorship.

  • We (I am a U.S. citizen, sometimes much to my chagrin) have grave problems here in the U.S.: rupturing levees, destroyed crops, escalating gas prices (which translate into higher prices of EVERYTHING), a housing crisis of mammoth proportions, accelerating unemployement, wild fires in CA, and on and on. How can we even consider more expenditures on war/occupation? If my house were under water and my employer was closed and I was living in a shelter or, worse yet, relatives, I don’t think I would be thinking much about whether Iran has nuclear weapons or a program to develop them in some far distant future.

    When will the insanity of this government, and all of us, to be totally inclusive, be recognized and acknowledged by the likes of B. Kristol, the CSM(Corporate Subsidized Media) and even the “alternative media”? The TRUTH is: We are all ONE. There is no them and us. Every day that global disasters are allowed to be trumped by violence in a war against those of a different color, religion, ethnic background, gender, political affiliation, is another day closer to internal collapse. It is not too late, but we are fast approaching critical mass of imminent disaster. Millions and billions of dollars do not immunize anyone from the eventual encroachment of natural and societal pressures into their walled enclaves.

    Peace is the only answer, through Spiritual Awakening…becoming conscious that we are all of the same family and have nowhere to turn except to each other.

    I am committed to Oneness through Justice and Transformation
    peace,
    st john

  • Taking rash action regarding Iran because McCain ain’t gonna win lies in stark contrast to the way Clinton handed things off to Shrub in 2000.

    Remember after the USS Cole was hit, Clinton put together a briefing for Shrub idnetifying who did it, the threat they posed and what should happen to them. Clinton did not want to start something and possibly hand off a mess to the new guy coming in. But rather let the new guy take the initiative using his people and in the manner the new guy felt comfortable with.

    Of Course the new guy F’d it up.

  • It’s worth noting that the only member of the “Axis of Evil” that wasn’t invaded or threatened with military action was the one that credibly professed to have a nuclear weapon. Iran may not be working on a nuclear weapon now but, if Bush or our Israeli proxies attack they sure will be – as will every other nation with the means to do so. If they can’t build them then they’ll likely try to buy them – Bush has pretty much ignored the problem of loose nukes just as he’s pretty much ignored every other aspect of the world.

  • six days in the making
    and i thought i could rest
    biding my time
    judging damned from the blessed
    when all of my children
    get put through this test
    the poison’s been swallowed
    no antidote known
    now i’m so sorry
    now i’m alone

  • It’s thrilling to speculate about all this stuff, but I find it hard to imagine that a lame duck president will start a war AFTER an election which the opposite party has won.

    Since when does Bush play by rules?
    Since when does Bush care what you think?

    Let’s put one and one and one together shall we?

    1) Bush believes he is a self-made man who has got gut smarts beyond the merely academic sort of inteligence.
    2) Bush believes his world view is accurate.
    3) Bush could drop bombs anywhere anytime just as easily as he could order torture. It is all the same means to his ends.

    In sum:

    I find this to be the most credible thing to come out of Kristol’s windpipe in a long time.
    If fact… I suspect the planning for it is already in place.
    It is a done deal.

  • Does George Bush appear to have any interest in anything other than marking off the days untill he can go back to the ranch? He won’t start anything with Iran, he won’t do much of anything.

  • I predict Mc Cain will be the next president

    If Teh Johnneh McFool is the next president, then secession is in order.

    Sic Semper Tyrannis….

  • The good news: Kristol Meth can finally admit the man he’s been fellating for nearly eight years is batshit crazy enough give this country another war as a parting gift.

    The bad news: He thinks this is a good thing.

  • The only thing Bush cares about is his legacy. Obama could actually help save him here, though, because he will actually reduce terrorism by bombing terrorists rather than sovereign countries. At which point the neocons will claim that their plan worked perfectly.

  • I’m surprised no one stated the obvious: after years of being wrong, this may be the one time Kristol’s right. We know there will be an October surprise… can you think of a better one to handicap the winner for years to come?

  • Total Bullshit. Kristol is such a deceitful creep lying through his teeth. He knows that Bush knows that it is extremely likely that Obama will be the next president and that he is basing his actions on that premise and no other scenario. So if Kristol knows this then he is trying to give justification to Bush’s actions as understandable because he wants his policies to go forward when in fact Bush is just as likely to do anything that would make the next democratic president’ job as difficult as possible doing anything he could think of to make Obama look bad. Trying to leave a huge mess to blame on the next president which has nothing to do with his”policy” but more to do with trying to ensure a republican come back and a democratic failure.

    Remember, their goal is single party rule and always has been. And if they can get more of the dems to act like Hoyer, Pelosi, Reid, Rockefeller and the blue dogs then they are nearly there.

  • Bush is going to be leaving the next President several crises anyway; Iraq, the economy, immigration, non-functioning Government departments, so what’s another mess going to add except another burdon the the American taxpayer and the military and their families who stand to loose more loved ones. All Americans should prevent anything resembling another war happening, irrespective of their party affiliation.

  • It’s thrilling to speculate about all this stuff, but I find it hard to imagine that a lame duck president will start a war AFTER an election which the opposite party has won.
    The Bush administration has broken me of thinking “They wouldn’t dare…” It’s been my contention for months that Bushco will fight like a cornered wolverine to keep a Democrat from being elected president. They have much too much to hide.

  • All speculation aside, let’s consider one more motivation:

    What if this is an attempt to blatantly threaten voters? “Elect Obama and bush will (have to/choose to/need to/be a jerk and) go to war with Iran”?

  • Wonderful! I think leaving Osama Obama with an Iranian mess a huge blowout nuke deal would be great! I want to see an attorney deal with a war…an attorney that has to take an “ethics”exaim because they are so dishonest. attorneys know nothing about economics, war, government, this one inparticular! He never even had a real job! His wife majored in Black History and got a job in the hospital for over 250,000. Is that believable??!! Black History..what does that prepare you for?? Kwanza? These people these two people need to get a life and leave everyone alone. Go back to their socialist church and their angry lives. they are tricking all these college students that can’t find their asses with both hands, and feel osama obama is a “rock star” and that that is a perfectly resonable reason the vote for him…OMG!

  • Bristols quote “Maybe we can use nuclear weapons” (Saudi Arabia, Egypt)

    You response “Neither Saudi Arabia nor Egypt have a nuclear weapons program”

    Are you really that ignorant?

    Your implying that because they don’t have a nuclear weapons program that they wont buy and use nuclear weapons, or start their own nuclear weapons program after Iran is allowed to go forth with Barracks blessing. No that would never happen! OMG!

    I am so tired of garbage blogs like this one… Do the world a favor. Go back to college for culinary arts or something that has nothing to do with informing the public!

  • So, Bush would go to war with Iran if Obama wins. My first reaction was “Of course, he will. He’s done nothing in the last 7.5 years to indicate he possesses restraint or cognizance of any kind.”

    Then my second reaction was “Bush and whose army? How are we going to do anything like protect ourselves, much less attack a third front, with a depleted military?”

    Then I thought “Which is precisely why he’d do it! He’ll say preemption is necessary or they’ll amass an enormous network of cells to strike our homeland [probably through all those container ships we’ve been ignoring]. And he’ll have “evidence.”

    And then I remembered a commentary I heard on NPR, before 9/11, by an economist who said, “Bush’s tax cuts have many purposes, not the least of which is to strangle and kill a long list of social programs that the neo-cons want to get rid of or privatize.”

    Then I remembered hearing Kristol on Fresh Air talking about the American Enterprise Institute and the neo-con agenda developed in the mid 90s to attack Iraq, Iran, and/or Syria preemptively in order to secure oil for the US.

    Then I thought about that first thought again, how nothing short of Bush riding a goat on American Idol would surprise me at this point.

  • You response “Neither Saudi Arabia nor Egypt have a nuclear weapons program”

    Are you really that ignorant?

    Your implying that because they don’t have a nuclear weapons program that they wont buy and use nuclear weapons, or start their own nuclear weapons program after Iran is allowed to go forth with Barracks blessing. No that would never happen! OMG!

    Under the logic of the Bush administration (and Chris the troll), perhaps we should now invade Egypt and Saudi Arabia, or at least start bombing campaigns against them.. After all, they just might start their own nuclear weapons programs. Isn’t that the definition of pre-emptive war so beloved by Bill Kristol and Dick Cheney?

    Judging from his logic, I suspect Chris did attend culinary school.

  • Don’t forget to add the collusion expected from Pelosi and Reid and Stenny “the lemming” Hoyler. They’ll make it impossible for anyone to stop Bushit from bomb, bomb, bombing Iran under the guise of National security. Think about it for a minute. How many democrats actually read the available evidence for striking Iraq? Dem/GOP are both the same, interchangeable . Get used it it. Apparently ,now, Obama too. He should be ashamed for not saying this FISA compromise is anything but capitulation. Very disappointing…

  • The main thing I think Mr. Bush will do is hand out Xmas gifts in the form of pardons in the manner of Ford vs. Nixon, Reagan vs. Casper W.; except for Scott Mc

  • I would not put anything past Bush. The man has proven how totally incapable he is in running a country. He and his republican supporters have already created so many crisis’s in our country and world wide.
    It is really scarey that he will be in office for several more months as he is
    a bombshell waiting to explode.

  • It would not surprise me for Bush to start a war with Iran, but I don’t think that the main reason for doing it would be to stick his finger in Obama’s eye. Just like he went into Iraq for any and all of dozens of reasons, so he has already set the date for his attack on Iran for a bunch of reasons, some “known and unknown.” That has already been shown beyond a reasonable doubt by reports from the “Dept of War,” by the Israeli dry run that just concluded, and US military preparations now ongoing in Iraq and the Gulf.

  • You can’t think about this in terms of politics, logic, or national interest. These guys are all about breaking things. If they can break the Obama administration before it even takes office – which another war would certainly do – that’s a good thing in their eyes.

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