Richard Spencer

May 20, 2008

According to Army Radio, a White House apparatchik told an Israeli official, it’s on—and Gates and Rice are the only ones holding Bush and Cheney back: “The official reportedly went on to say that ‘the hesitancy of Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’ was preventing the administration from deciding to launch such an attack on the Islamic Republic for the time being.”

That Gates would try to put on the breaks doesn’t surprise me. I’ve never admired Condolezza Rice; however, if she actually scuttles the attack plans, I might start to warm up to her. The real question is: If Bush and Cheney are convinced that they’ll be proven right by History, are resigned to their unpopularity, and think the GOP will take a beating in the fall no matter what, then what do they really have to lose? In this regard, Bush’s Lame Duck status might actually free him up to take action. With some finagling, it’d also be very possible to attack a reactor within the context of “Iran’s supporting the insurgency,” that is, without getting congressional authorization (not to mention a declaration of war, which we haven’t used since WWII.) After the NIE last year, I thought any attack would be politically impossible; however, it’d be pretty easy for the White House to say, “to hell with the intel, it was wrong last time!”