Left Flank

«Investigative journalist Seymour Hersh believes that the United States may be closer to armed conflict with Iran than previously imagined. He writes about Congress' funding of covert military operations in the upcoming issue of The New Yorker.» Also, be sure to listen to Hersh discuss the article on NPR's Fresh Air.

One other alarming conjecture involves DPRK, and the recent destruction of an abandoned Yongbyon cooling tower and the subsequent release of its nuclear declaration on its plutonium program, all of which resulted in Washington's decision to de-list DPRK from the roster of states sponsoring terrorists. Brendan Keefe paraphrases:

Hersch sees Bush's recent easing up on North Korea as possibly part of the this plan, speculating that Bush will attempt to spin this as North Korea was reasonable, so we were able to come to an accommodation. Iran, on the other hand …

...did the Bush administration secure its right flank for the left hook into Iran?

I'm always astounded that there's money for these adventures. Alexander Cockburn, in a May 2, 2008 Counterpunch article, to which Hersh alludes in his New Yorker piece also brings up the issue of America's «financial weakness»:

Sometime in the next two weeks, fleet radar operator may notice a blip on their screens that represents something rather more profound: America's growing financial weakness. The blip will be former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin's plane commencing its descent into Abu Dhabi. Rubin's responsibility these days is to help keep Citigroup afloat despite a balance sheet still waterlogged, despite frantic bail out efforts by the Federal Reserve and others, by staggering losses in mortgage bonds. The Abu Dhabi Sovereign Wealth Fund injected $7.5 billion last November (albeit at a sub-prime interest rate of eleven percent,) but the bank's urgent need for fresh capital persists, and Abu Dhabi is where the money is.

Even if those radar operators pay no attention to Mr. Rubin's flight, and the ironic contrast it illustrates between American military power and financial weakness, others will, and not just in Tehran. There's not much a finding can do about that.

I've lately taken comfort from the hope, that the US can survive the Bush administration and reach the general elections and the next inauguration without another incident of its own misguided design. I never thought, as someone for whom President Nixon's resignation was the catalyst for my political consciousness, that I would ever see those depths again.

Please contact your congressional representatives at Congress.org, to voice your opposition.

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