Rep. Jane Harman on Iran: “We have little clarity on Iran’s capability and intentions. This is not the time to talk of war.” Good for her.
Yesterday, Frank Foer semi-reported that “people who have talked this over with top administration officials say that the administration still dismisses the possibility of strikes against Iranian facilities–at least in the short term. These top administration officials, at least in private conversations, continue to profess faith in the Security Council sanctions.”
This seems a little naive to me. The option of attempting to negotiate a diplomatic settlement with Iran exists. It’s existed at least since the 2003 peace feelers, its existence has been reemphasized lately, and it’s an option that the administration keeps rejecting. At the same time, the administration has been at pains to emphasize publicly that military options remain “on the table,” and Dick Cheney and others have been describing the nature of the Iranian threat in the most hyped terms possible. Administration allies in the press have been beating the drums of war, and there’s no indication that the White House is trying to get them to stop. The President clearly isn’t prepared to start a war tomorrow but the logic of his policies leads to war, and he’s not doing any of the things that would disabuse me of that notion. This weekend is Memorial Day, the unofficial start of summer. As Andy Card would tell us, you don’t really need to start marketing the war until Labor Day to use it as a campaign issue.
