Can Bush Be Stopped from Bombing Iran After the 2008 Elections?

Cleaning my office this week, I ran across two remarkable articles that I'd saved to ponder... articles that illustrate that the Bush administration long ago determined the U.S course in Iraq and likely Iran.

And that on Iraq, U.S. military leaders (including the "report" by General David Petraeus), Congress or even the American people would never change his stubbornly-set mind. Apparently even facts and events couldn't alter the President's fated, wrongheaded plans.

(See Iraq War Statistics and Results as of Oct 17, 2007 .)

Bush in 2006: We're not leaving Iraq
The first is the transcript of the presidential news conference on August 21, 2006 at which President Bush was agitated by reporters peppering him with questions about the Iraq War and Iran.

At the news conference Mr. Bush for the first time conceded that Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction. Pressured, the President angrily exclaimed in a rare moment of candor:

"We're not leaving, so long as I'm the President. That would be a huge mistake.

"It would send an unbelievably terrible signal to reformers across the region. It would say we've abandoned our desire to change the conditions that create terror. It would give the terrorists a safe haven from which to launch attacks. It would embolden Iran. It would embolden extremists. "

Bush to Bomb Iran Late in His Presidency?
The second is article dated May 16, 2007 in the Jerusalem Post:

" While arguing that economic sanctions against Teheran still have a chance of bearing fruit, a top strategic expert predicted on Tuesday that the Bush administration could conduct a military strike against Iran's nuclear facilities toward the end of its term in office...

"'I, for one, don't exclude the possibility that the US will act," Dr. Shai Feldman... told an editorial meeting of The Jerusalem Post... 'My feeling, though, is that if it will act, it will act in the last months of the administration...

" 'The paradox of this is that the closer you are to a position of being a lame-duck president, the more freedom of action you have," he said. "

The well-connected Dr. Shai Feldman is currently Senior Research Fellow at Harvard University's Center for Science and International Affairs and was previously Senior Research Associate at Tel Aviv University's Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies.

Will We Stop Bush from Bombing Iran?
We failed to stop the Bush administration's directionless, goalless, deadly Iraq War. And the Democratic-led Congress has thus far proven impotent to put even a small dent in Presdent Bush's long-held Iraq plans.

But we've learned a lot about George Bush since the 2002 vote by Congress to authorize his unprovoked attack and occupation of Iraq:

• We've learned that Mr. Bush often acts irrationally in the face of facts that conflict with his worldview.
• We've learned that Mr. Bush stubbornly clings to his ideas and plans, regardless of world or U.S. opinion.
• We've learned that Mr. Bush has a obvious lust for war and all things military.
• We've learned that Mr. Bush doesn't give a damn about casualties, costs, or the prices paid by people outside his circle of family and corporate cronies.

Knowing what we do now about President George W. Bush, it's easy to envision him bombing Iran after November 4, 2008, when his actions can no longer affect the presidential and Congressional elections.

And when, as Dr. Feldman pointed out, Mr. Bush will be the lamest of lame ducks, and he will feel even freer to do exactly what pleases only him.

The urgent question is: What will the Democratic-led Congress do, between November 5, 2008 and January 20, 2009, to stop George Bush from committing the utterly insane act of bombing Iran?

(Photo taken at Arlington National Cemetery on October 3, 2007: Alex Wong/Getty Images)

Recommended Reading
Iraq War Results & Statistics as of Oct 17, 2007
Timeline of U.S.-Iranian Relations (U.S. Foreign Policy)
Iran in the Headlines and on the Brink (U.S. Foreign Policy)
Iran and Terrorism (Terrorism)
Sanctions against Iran - Pros and Cons (Terrorism)
The New Yorker, April 17, 2006: The Iran Plans by Seymour M. Hersh