In 2002 and 2003, in making the case for a war with Iraq, the president and his team would frequently tell Americans that we couldn’t wait for actual proof to justify an invasion, because the “smoking gun could be a mushroom cloud.”
In 2007, in describing a possible confrontation with Iran, Bush has decided to be even less subtle.
The United States demanded Tuesday that Iran end any support for extremists in Iraq “at once” and raised the specter of a “nuclear holocaust” in the Middle East if Tehran gets atomic weapons.
US President George W. Bush branded the Islamic Republic “the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism,” citing its backing of Hamas, Hezbollah, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Shiite fighters killing US troops in Iraq.
“And Iran’s active pursuit of technology that could lead to nuclear weapons threatens to put a region already known for instability and violence under the shadow of a nuclear holocaust,” he told the American Legion veterans group.
“Iran’s actions threaten the security of nations everywhere, and the United States is rallying friends and allies to isolate Iran’s regime, to impose economic sanctions. We will confront this danger before it is too late,” he said.
Shortly before the president’s speech, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said the U.S. is “prisoners of your own quagmire. You have no choice but to accept the rights of the Iraqi people.” He added, “I can tell you there will be a power vacuum in the region. We are ready with other regional countries, such as Saudi Arabia, and the people of Iraq to fill this vacuum.”
It’s almost as if Ahmadinejad is taunting Bush. Given the circumstances, that seems like a very bad idea for all concerned.
Post Script: By the way, in his speech to the American Legion conference, Bush added:
“I appreciate your efforts to honor the American flag. There are those who say the flag is just a piece of cloth. That’s not the view of those who bled for it and saw it drape the caskets of some of our finest men and women. It was the American flag that we planted proudly on Iwo Jima, that first graced the silver surface of the moon. The country is careful to protect many things because of what they symbolize. Surely we can find a way to show equal respect for the symbol that our soldiers and sailors and airmen and Marines and Coast Guard’s men and women have risked their lives for — the flag of our nation. So today I join the Legion in calling on the United States Congress to make protection of the flag the law of our land.”
Really? Just 15 months left in office and the president is suddenly going to start taking a flag amendment seriously?