Michael Jackson TalkRadio Content

ho would you rather have making the foreign policy decisions for the current administration, President Bush or Vice President Dick Cheney? On Monday of this week Mr. Bush warned that the US military in Iraq "will respond firmly" should Iran threaten either Iraqi or American forces. He's already sent a second naval carrier group to the region, sped up the delivery of more Patriot antimissile batteries to the region and lined up a meeting of Arab states to express concern about Iran's influence in the region. Mr. President, after using inaccurate information and intelligence to invade Iraq, might we not hope for and expect irrefutable intelligence about Iran's intentions if you hope to have any public backing for an invasion or warfare with a much more powerful adversary than we have in Iraq. Subsequent to 9/11 this country's strategy has been to "take the war to the enemy". I wonder how Mr. Bush would respond to the question, "You've put more Navy ships in the Gulf, you've ordered a search for Iranian agents in Iraq and taken action against Iran's banks. What's the endgame? Or, how far is the President willing to apply unilateral aggressive actions against Iran, short of war? In a leading Christian Science Monitor editorial, headlined "Avoiding another U.S. war in the mideast", they write "...on the other hand, this creeping confrontation with Iran, which may be related to the surge of US troops in Iraq, could simply be a ploy by the White House, for three reasons"....and they go on to innumerate them.: 1) Iran faces a late February deadline set by the UN to suspend all its nuclear activities. US actions may force it to comply.
2) As pressure builds in Congress to draw down troops in Iraq, Bush may simply be trying to level the playing field with Iran in order to open talks about stabilizing Iraq and allowing a US withdrawal.
3) And paraphrasing, they say that there's every possibility that a power struggle appears to be underway in Iran, brought on by the reported illness of the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
The Islamic theocracy in Tehran is unstable and getting closer and ever closer to a battle with this country. It should not be done without major support from Congress and key allies around the world. Do you believe we could afford another confrontation with, this time, Iran? Is it Cheney or Bush who got us where we are? It would appear that two people took us to war and the consensus of this country is that they have failed; they were wrong. Did you watch the interview/confrontation between CNN's Wolf Blitzer and the Vice President? He said "the bottom line is that we have had enormous successes and we will continue to have enormous successes." That is a most puzzling assessment.