They’ve been prepping to attack Iran for more than a year. We need to stop this insanity. Now.

The Bush Administration, while publicly advocating diplomacy in order to stop Iran from pursuing a nuclear weapon, has increased clandestine activities inside Iran and intensified planning for a possible major air attack. Current and former American military and intelligence officials said that Air Force planning groups are drawing up lists of targets, and teams of American combat troops have been ordered into Iran, under cover, to collect targeting data and to establish contact with anti-government ethnic-minority groups. The officials say that President Bush is determined to deny the Iranian regime the opportunity to begin a pilot program, planned for this spring, to enrich uranium.
…
Some operations, apparently aimed in part at intimidating Iran, are already under way. American Naval tactical aircraft, operating from carriers in the Arabian Sea, have been flying simulated nuclear-weapons delivery missions—rapid ascending maneuvers known as “over the shoulder” bombing—since last summer, the former official said, within range of Iranian coastal radars.

I’m out of words on this one. Attacking Iran will be a disaster on so many levels that the wisdom in keeping it from happening should be self-evident.

Washington State Has Introduced Impeachment Resolution

Washington State is one of several states racing to see which will be first to send the U.S. House of Representatives a petition to impeach Bush and Cheney.

State Senator Eric Oemig, on February 14, 2007, introduced a resolution (PDF) calling on the Washington State Legislature to petition the U.S. House. Please thank him: oemig.eric@leg.wa.gov

(NM and VT are also in on the action)

Impeachment is more than warranted, it’s a necessity if our nation is to survive.

Stop this insane, bloodthirsty authoritarian administration before they kill again.

Some view the spiraling attacks as a strand in a worrisome pattern. At least one former White House official contends that some Bush advisers secretly want an excuse to attack Iran. “They intend to be as provocative as possible and make the Iranians do something [America] would be forced to retaliate for,” says Hillary Mann, the administration’s former National Security Council director for Iran and Persian Gulf Affairs. U.S. officials insist they have no intention of provoking or otherwise starting a war with Iran, and they were also quick to deny any link to Sharafi’s kidnapping. But the fact remains that the longstanding war of words between Washington and Tehran is edging toward something more dangerous. A second Navy carrier group is steaming toward the Persian Gulf, and NEWSWEEK has learned that a third carrier will likely follow. Iran shot off a few missiles in those same tense waters last week, in a highly publicized test. With Americans and Iranians jousting on the chaotic battleground of Iraq, the chances of a small incident’s spiraling into a crisis are higher than they’ve been in years.

Yeah, we’re totally not attacking Iran. Totally. And we’re definitely not going to do a massive airstrike on ginned up excuses, using nuclear “bunker buster” bombs.

Rumor is, the General is in.

Which is a good thing, since Clark is, until he is officially out of the race, the officially endorsed candidate of this here site. Go check him out and when you find yourself nodding in agreement and saying “hell yeah, Wes!” then come on back here and… well, OK. You don’t have to come back here. But remember Clark and get ready for primary season.

You want electable? How about a brilliant southern general who did not lose a single soldier in a shooting campaign? How about an aggressive liberal/moderate who believes in the social good, rational international relations, and logical economic policy? A guy who is already experienced in diplomacy and highly regarded internationally.

Let’s go, General. Your country needs you. Again.

Update: from dK re: the imminent Clark candidacy.

General Clark’s speech.

For nearly four years, I have borne witness to dozens of General Clark’s speeches – and watched videos of dozens more.

The General is generally reluctant to extol personal accomplishments.

Not so yesterday before hundreds of SUPER-DELEGATES from across America — who had come to the nation’s capital to listen to those in search of their support.

Here is some of what Clark said:

“I helped end a war in Bosnia, and commanded the forces that won a war in Europe to stop ethnic cleansing by the Serbs. And we won it without losing a single American life in combat.”

“I’ve done coalition-building, peacekeeping and postwar reconstruction.”

“I helped train the Army for battle.”

“I helped create the national security strategy for the United States.”

And then this, “I’m the ONLY PERSON (my emphasis added) today, who has actually done the things necessary to succeed.”

Where have we heard this before?

The Bush administration has postponed plans to offer public details of its charges of Iranian meddling inside Iraq amid internal divisions over the strength of the evidence, U.S. officials said.

Am I dreaming or does no one else in the media remember 2002? Jebus on a stick, we’re stuck in an endless loop of idiocy and evil perpetuated by the administration and abetted by the media and spineless Dems.

For the Dem examples, two of the announced 2008 presidential candidates - both of whom voted in favor of the Iraq resolution - apparently learned nothing from the worst foreign policy blunder in our nation’s history, the administration’s mendacity, or the 2006 election results. To whit: both Clinton and Edwards have come out and essentially said that war is a viable option with regards to Iran.

War is an option now.
War is an option now when every shred of evidence indicates that Iran is ten years or more away from being able to produce a nuclear weapon.
War is an option now despite what is going on in front of our very eyes in Iraq.

Here’s Clinton:

“U.S. policy must be clear and unequivocal: We cannot, we should not, we must not permit Iran to build or acquire nuclear weapons,” the Democrat told a crowd of Israel supporters. “In dealing with this threat … no option can be taken off the table.”

Here’s Edwards:

Iran must know that the world won’t back down. The recent UN resolution ordering Iran to halt the enrichment of uranium was not enough. We need meaningful political and economic sanctions. We have muddled along for far too long. To ensure that Iran never gets nuclear weapons, we need to keep ALL options on the table, Let me reiterate – ALL options must remain on the table.

Make no mistake, we all know exactly what they mean by no option: a preventive strike on Iran by US forces. That’s the stated presidential philosophy, that’s what our options are: do nothing or attack.

Here’s my message to both of you: you’re not getting my support now, let alone my vote. Attacking Iran is a mistake of monumental proportions. In addition to the illegality of it. In addition to the inhumanity, immorality, and cowardice of an attack, it will result in the death of thousands of our troops in Iraq and in the Gulf and make us a pariah state on the scale of a late-80s South Africa or an anytime Israel.

If we let this happen, we have all failed, but none so much as those with a voice and the power to derail this train who instead add coal to the furnace.