Bush Intentionally Destabalized Iran?

Gawd I wish more people would step forward as Lawrence Wilkerson and now Flynt Leverett have.

The George W Bush administration failed to enter into negotiations with Iran on its nuclear program in May 2003 because neo-conservatives who advocated destabilization and regime change were able to block any serious diplomatic engagement with Tehran, according to former administration officials.

The same neo-conservative veto power also prevented the administration from adopting any official policy statement on Iran, those same officials said.

Lawrence Wilkerson, then chief of staff to secretary of state Colin Powell, said the failure to adopt a formal Iran policy in 2002-03 was the result of obstruction by a "secret cabal" of neo-conservatives in the administration, led by Vice President Dick Cheney.

Not only has he disclosed administration stupidity, deadly stupidity, but he gives great weight to the belief that Cheney has really been running things.

The Iranian negotiating offer, transmitted to the State Department in early May 2003 by the Swiss ambassador in Tehran, acknowledged that Iran would have to address US concerns about its nuclear program, although it made no specific concession in advance of the talks, according to Flynt Leverett, then the National Security Council's senior director for Middle East Affairs.

Iran's offer also raised the possibility of cutting off Iran's support for Hamas and Islamic Jihad and converting Hezbollah into a purely socio-political organization, according to Leverett. That was an explicit response to Powell's demand in late March that Iran "end its support for terrorism".

In return, Leverett recalls, the Iranians wanted the US to address security questions, the lifting of economic sanctions and normalization of relations, including support for Iran's integration into the global economic order.

Leverett also recalls that the Iranian offer was drafted with the blessing of all the major political players in the Iranian regime, including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khomeini.

The article, which has tons of info, ends with this.

But the damage had been done. With no direct diplomatic contact between Iran and the US, the neo-conservatives had a clear path to raising tensions and building political support for regarding Iran as the primary enemy of the United States.

So just how do those of you who say Bush isn't mad defend your position? He is mad and secretive in all his decisions. No one outside his bubble knows what he has in mind and what he is really trying to do or even if he is making the decisions. He's set himself up as a dictator in this country and is running head-on into a completely volatile middle east while acting as a puppet for the neocons.

Damn this tinfoil had fits too well.

I have a question for wingers and Americans in general, how much more do you need before you demand this idiot and, at least, Cheney be removed from office. Are you waiting until the first missle hits?

As I've asked before, isn't it fun playing with Armageddon?

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