The Grass is much Greener.....
Iran's parliament speaker, Ali Larijani, warned other countries against moves that would "cost them heavily." In comments that appeared in the semi-official Mehr news agency Sunday, an Iranian general said his troops were digging more than 320,000 graves to bury troops from any invading force with "the respect they deserve."
"Under the law of war and armed conflict, necessary preparations must be made for the burial of soldiers of aggressor nations," said Maj. Gen. Mirfaisal Baqerzadeh, an Iranian officer in charge of identifying soldiers missing in action.
[Reference: retrieved from here -- July 29, 2008; PM for critical review only -- http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/06/29/us.iran/index.html?eref=rss_topstories]
White House, CIA and State Department officials declined comment on Hersh's report, which appears in this week's issue of The New Yorker.
Hersh told CNN's "Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer" that Congress has authorized up to $400 million to fund the secret campaign, which involves U.S. special operations troops and Iranian dissidents.
President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney have rejected findings from U.S. intelligence agencies that Iran has halted a clandestine effort to build a nuclear bomb and "do not want to leave Iran in place with a nuclear program," Hersh said.
"They believe that their mission is to make sure that before they get out of office next year, either Iran is attacked or it stops its weapons program," Hersh said.
The new article, "Preparing the Battlefield," is the latest in a series of articles accusing the Bush administration of preparing for war with Iran.
Report: U.S. 'preparing the battlefield' in Iran UPDATE --
War With Iran? David A. Andelman, 04.03.08, 1:50 PM ET
"Iran could produce a nuclear weapon within the years 2008 to 2010, if that is its objective. It remains for us to determine whether that is the case. It's here that we must ask ourselves what are the motivations and the intentions of Iran," Heisbourg says.
The key motive, he argues, is "respect." Iran isn't unique here. France, India and China all went nuclear for similar reasons. The "ummah," Iran's religious powers who follow their own Shiite agenda, dream of an "Islamic Bomb," that will restore Iran's leadership role in the Muslim world.Still, there were various points along the road to the brink of membership in the nuclear club when a different path might have been taken, Heisbourg seems to suggest--but none more significant than the moment with President Bush welcomed Iran into his own, quite exclusive club--the "Axis of Evil." Suddenly, on Jan. 29, 2002, the leadership in Teheran saw itself directly in the cross-hairs of the American military machine. [Reference: retrieved from here -- July 30, 2008; PM for critical review only -- HERE]
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