News to be Used

Report says nuclear work ongoing in Iran: "Iran has expanded its uranium enrichment program instead of complying with a U.N. Security Council ultimatum to freeze it, the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency said Thursday in a finding that clears the way for harsher sanctions against Tehran. … The conclusion—while widely expected—was important because it could serve as the trigger for the council to start deliberating on new sanctions meant to punish Tehran for its intransigence over its nuclear program." All well and good. "Before the report was issued, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the U.S. and its allies would use the Security Council and other 'available channels' to bring Tehran back to negotiations over its nuclear program." Ugh. Stomach churning.

But not to worry: "British Prime Minister Tony Blair said 'the only sensible way' to solve the crisis was to pursue political solutions, but that he could not 'absolutely predict every set of circumstances.' Still, 'I know of nobody in Washington that is planning military action on Iran,' Blair told BBC radio." He also added: "There is, as far as I know, no planning going on to make an attack on Iran and people are pursuing a diplomatic and political solution."

Sorry, isn't that basically the same lie used before the Iraq War, which was later exposed and undermined by the Downing Street Memos? Ugh squared.

Meanwhile, U.S. troops find chemicals in Iraq raid. They're just "propane tanks and ordinary chemicals," but cue the screeching nonetheless about WMDs having been found. Which is, in one sense, true, because of the way the chemicals are being used: "[A tip] led U.S. troops to a five separate buildings near Fallujah, where they found the munitions containing chemicals, three vehicle bombs being assembled, including a truck bomb, about 65 propane tanks and 'all kinds of ordinary chemicals,' [Maj. Gen. William Caldwell] said. He added that he believed the insurgents were going to try to mix the chemicals with explosives. The pickup truck carrying chlorine gas cylinders was blown up Wednesday, killing at least five people and sending more than 55 to hospitals gasping for breath and rubbing stinging eyes."

But, in another sense, it's not true, because those propane tanks and ordinary chemicals wouldn't have been used for this purpose if we hadn't invaded, and they most certainly aren't, by any stretch of the imagination, the sort of WMDs that could have endangered America and warranted a preemptive war.

Just fuck.