Fear Itself

I'm finally shaking off the lingering effects of a cold, but throughout there's been something troubling me. I meant to write about it at the beginning of the week, but it's still quite relevant.

John McCain's chief foreign policy guy Charlie Black took quite some heat for saying a terror attack on US soil would be "a big advantage" for his man. Since then, a number of pundits have written pieces saying, essentially, that Charlie Black was right. Let's follow that logic for a second, and suppose there is no way the US could actually control the timing of such an attack. What would be the next best thing, something the US, that is the Bush Administration, could control?

Well, how about a military strike against another country? That the administration could control. And, if the New Yorker's Seymour Hersh is to be believed, there are already plans on the drawing board. Against whom, you ask? Iran, of course!

According to Hersh, who's writing on the subject has always been first rate, there's already been about $400 million dollars allocated for a covert destabilization program against the country's religious leadership. He further writes that despite misgivings on the part of America's top military leadership, the Bush people seem fixated on regime change in Iran, by military force if necessary.

If it were to come prior to the November election, how would the candidates respond? Keep in mind there would likely be some event used as a catalyst for such an action. Could Barack Obama oppose a military strike against Iran against a wave of patriotic fervor? Or would the American people create a backlash against such a strike that would doom anyone who supported it (like McCain)?

Just thinking.