The world’s press is choc-a-bloc with “if” questions about Iran and war. Will Israel attack? Is Obama, coerced by domestic politics in an election year, being dragged into war by the Israel lobby? Will he lunch the bombers? Is the strategy to force Iran into a corner, methodically demolishing its economy by embargoes and sanctions... Read More

First, a simple rule: utter absurdity in allegations leveled by the US government is no bar to a deferential hearing in our nation’s major conduits of official opinion. Suppose the CIA leaks a secret national security review concluding that the moon is actually made of cheese, and the Chinese are planning to send up a... Read More

Late last week the New Yorker released a 6,000 word story by Seymour Hersh under the vague title, “Preparing the Battlefield”. The lead paragraph ran as follows: Beyond the assertion in the second paragraph that secret ops against Iran by US military and CIA are being “significantly expanded”, that was about it so far as... Read More

The one thing a president cannot afford to be is ridiculous. This week George Bush lurched into that fatal category and into the true twilight of his presidency, festooned with all the traditional discomfitures. Senior aides and close advisors parley with literary agents and find compelling reason to quit the White House and spend more... Read More

"They're about taking out the entire Iranian military." This particular spine-chiller comes from Alexis Debat, excitingly identified as "director of terrorism and national security" at the Nixon Center. According to Debat, the big takeout is what the U.S. Air Force has in store, as opposed to mere "pinprick strikes" against the infamous nuclear facilities. Predicting... Read More

President Nixon, a very good poker player, once defined the art of brinkmanship as persuading your opponent that you are insane and, unless appeased by pledges of surrender, quite capable of blowing up the planet. By these robust standards George Bush is doing a moderately competent job in suggesting that if balked by Iran on... Read More

Senator John McCain is on track for another rhetorical bombing run. In Munich, he's been squaring up to Iran, gravely telling the allies that the military option can't be ruled out if diplomatic efforts fail to stop Iran developing a nuclear bomb: "Immediate UN Security Council action is required to impose multilateral sanctions, including a... Read More

Concerning my weekend diary item about the possibility of nuclear warheads from a B-52 that crashed on February 3, 1991,ending up in Iran, John Vickers, a former B-52 flier and CounterPunch reader, offers some pretty persuasive criticisms on at least one part of the story. My weekend diary item, based on a conversation with someone... Read More

Iran may have the weapons-grade uranium out of three nuclear warheads dumped out of a B-52 back in 1991. Or so at least the US government might have some reason to believe, according to a seemingly well-informed person talking to CounterPunch last week. On February 3, 1991, this particular B-52G had been deployed to circle... Read More

An Iranian MP said Thursday that US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice holds a grudge against Iran "because until today she hasn't gotten over her Iranian boyfriend dumping her when she was a university student." The MP, Shakrallah Atar, claimed the faithless lad was from Kazwin , some eighty miles west of Teherean. Atar said... Read More