Nothing To See Here, Move Along, Move Along...

In a move that would be noteworthy under any circumstances, but is chilling given the neocon's longtime desires for the region, the Bush administration moves another piece in their truly frightening game of Middle East chess.

Reuters: U.S. may soon label Iran Guard "terrorist"

The United States may soon designate Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps a foreign terrorist organization in a hard-line diplomatic move that will target the finances of the group, U.S. officials said on Wednesday.

The designation... would be the first time the United States has placed the armed forces of any sovereign government on its list of terrorist organizations.

Iran experts said ramping up the pressure by squeezing financing for the Guard also was aimed at pacifying those within and outside the Bush administration who wanted military action against Tehran because of its nuclear program and were frustrated that diplomatic pressure had so far not worked...

This move may be new, but the overarching rhetoric is old hat.

A passage from Glenn Greenwald's new book ('A Tragic Legacy: How a Good vs. Evil Mentality Destroyed the Bush Presidency'), which I am currently reading, came to mind as I read this article today. From Chapter 4-

Despite those prior assurances to Americans of the "unique" threat posed by Iraq, the president, throughout 2006, has been applying almost identical language, and identical reasoning, to prepare the country for a potential military confrontation with Iran. His choice to depict Saddam as a Nazi-like Evil threat led inexorably to the U.S. invasion of Iraq, and his similar depiction of Iran and its leaders portend the same outcome.

Thus, as the president sees and describes the world, Iran has now replaced Iraq as a "grave threat" and "state sponsor of terrorism" and the ruling Iranian mullahs and the elected Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad have replaced Saddam Hussein as the new "Hitler", the current incarnation of pure Evil. Just as Saddam was allegedly too power-crazed and Evil to be reasoned with, so, too, is the Iranian government. And just as Saddam Hussein's alleged development of nuclear weapons was such an intolerable threat to American security that the United States was compelled to stop Iraq by any means necessary, the president spent much of 2006 and early 2007 making the same arguments with respect to Iran.

This isn't, of course, to defend whatever wrongs Iran may be guilty of. It's noting the hungry warmongering of our administration and the tired script they are using for it. As Time's Joe Klein says, even if you believed Iran to be a problem, "the Bush Administration has zero credibility in the world and can't deal with it."

Klein, however, thinks those of us who remain concerned that the administration will not leave office without starting this new war are worried too much-

"I remain convinced that Bush won't bomb-bomb-bomb, bomb-bomb Iran--the military and much of his party in Congress would go nuts; senior Republicans have told me that bipartisan impeachment hearings would be inevitable--but that doesn't mean Bush won't continue to try to provoke the Iranians into some sort of military mistake."

To which I reply, "Yea, right." If Bush/Cheney choose the course of war, his party will go along, along with Sen. Lieberman and maybe one of the Democratic Nelsons. Most Democrats will be so shocked (!), they'll be ill-prepared to affect this. And those of us opposing it will be labeled weak pussies by cable news pundits and editorialists.

I'd really, really, please-jeebus-please, love to be proved wrong here.