Brit soldiers remain in Iran - uh-oh

This is a total disgrace - Iranians parading British soldiers before the cameras. The video is tough to look at for many reasons, but what's really the story here is that a viewer of this doesn't see - is a gun just off camera? Did Iranians threaten to kill the other hostages if this soldier didn't go before the cameras?

This situation is quite serious and bears watching.

It's being widely reported in Russia that the U.S. already has a date that the war with Iran will start - April 6. I don't know that I'm putting too much stock in that, but the fact that it cannot and is not dismissed out of hand by many is a sure indication of how far the Bush administration's credibility has suffered with many (most?) Americans.

I'll say this - if the Democrats had not taken control of Congress last November, we'd probably already be at war with Iran by now. You think that's a stretch? Take a quick read on a few snippets of Bush speeches from this year alone about Iran...

"Succeeding in Iraq also requires defending its territorial integrity and stabilizing the region in the face of extremist challenges," said Bush on January 10 during a televised address about the troop surge. He was referring to Iran, which, he reasoned, "is providing material support for attacks on American troops."

(Later his comment was clarified - he was referring to some advanced IED devices - improvised explosive devices - given to some anti-American death squads.)

Bush then put a shot across Iran's bow:
"We will disrupt the attacks on our forces... And we will seek out and destroy the networks providing advanced weaponry and training to our enemies in Iraq."

In an interview for NPR on January 29, Bush ratcheted up the rhetoric a bit higher, saying, "If Iran escalates its military action in Iraq to the detriment of our troops and/or innocent Iraqi people, we will respond firmly ... It makes common sense for the commander-in-chief to say to our troops and the Iraqi people -- and the Iraqi government -- that we will help you defend yourself from people that want to sow discord and harm."

In his January address, Dubya also used the tried-and-true tactic for leading us to war - playing the nuclear weapon card. When asked to respond to the possibility of Iran's getting a nuclear weapon, Bush responded, "We're also taking other steps to bolster the security of Iraq and protect American interests in the Middle East."

During a Valentine's Day press conference, the president confidently declared that there are weapons in Iraq that are linked back to the Iranian government. Just days before this press conference, some military commanders in Iraq stated privately that some elements of the Iranian military - specifically, the Quds Force of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards - were supplying IED devices to Shiite militias in Iraq, and that government officials high in the Iranian government knew about it. Other U.S. officials, including some in the House and Senate, expressed skepticism about the reliability of the evidence and the related intelligence. Does this sound familiar?!? However, none of this stopped Bush from plowing ahead:

"What we do know is that the Quds force was instrumental in providing these deadly IEDs to networks inside of Iraq. We know that. And we also know that the Quds force is a part of the Iranian government. That's a known."

(Skepticism be damned)

What needs to be explored, he continued at the press conference, is exactly how high in the Iranian government was the go-ahead given leading to the IEDs delivery to the Shia militias in Iraq.

But, that's inconsequential, eh confidently asserted. "What matters is, is that they're there... [W]e know they're there, and we're going to protect our troops." As Commander-in-Chief, he insisted, he would "do what is necessary to protect our soldiers in harm's way."

I can just about guarantee you that we'd be at war if it weren't for a Democratic Congress. The whole script of "preventing [insert enemy of the United States Here] from obtaining a nuclear weapon" is the Dubya and Karl Rovian script for war.

And Bush might yet find a way to get us into a war with Iran. If it happens, I fearlessly predict that there will be a draft. Otherwise, I have no idea how our military would get the bodies to have a third war.

We watch, and wait. I hope those British troops are home safe and sound, very soon.

Some information for this post is from AlterNet. Click Here for the whole story, which is a good read.