Crying "Wolf"

The credibility of the Bush White House has all but tanked. After its Iraq scam, details of which are continuing to emerge almost five years later, the Bush administration isn't getting the benefit of the doubt on its intelligence claims about Iran.

The problem is that, having lied so outrageously to so many in the run up to the conquest of Iraq, the Bushies are now relying on circumstantial evidence to support assumptions that allow it to allege that senior Iranian officials are providing weapons to groups in Iraq to use against American soldiers. It's like saying, "here's a grenade, it was made in Iran, so we want you to assume that it was sent to Iraq by the president Ahmadinejad in order that it could be tossed at American soldiers."

If they have nothing else going for them, Bush/Cheney have a completely shameless audacity. On Iraq they produced intelligence - twisted, stretched, manipulated, sometimes even fabricated, but intelligence - while for Iran they're not even claiming they've got intelligence, they just want people to rely on thin assumptions instead. Even their top general won't back them up on this one.

The worrisome part is that this chicanery suggests that Bush is intent on attacking Iran no matter what. He has to come up with some justification but he can't so he's willing to manufacture some. This is what we get as the "Leader of the Free World?"