Worry

Washington hands nervous on Bush Iran/Syria war signals;
Olbermann: ``Simply, it is madness''


Brzezinski on the Thursday PBS News Hour

President Jimmy Carter's national security adviser fears that the White House and Pentagon are setting Iran and Syria up to take the blame for America's failure in Iraq.

ZBIGNIEW BRZEZINSKI: And this is what really worries me. There are hints in the president's speech and in Rice's testimony today about the possibility of escalation, not necessarily in the number of troops, but in the range of the military operations, namely perhaps against Syria or Iran.

And the incident with the Iranian consulate, the rhetoric about Iran, the increasing temptation to blame our failure on the Iranians and the Syrians could push us in that direction. And there are a lot of people still around here, particularly the neocons, who would like us to have a crack at Iran.

The Washington Note has much more, taking off on the president's promise that ``we will seek out and destroy the networks providing advanced weaponry and training to our enemies in Iraq'':

Washington intelligence, military and foreign policy circles are abuzz today with speculation that the President, yesterday or in recent days, sent a secret Executive Order to the Secretary of Defense and to the Director of the CIA to launch military operations against Syria and Iran....

Some are suggesting that the Consulate raid may have been designed to try and prompt a military response from Iran -- to generate a casus belli for further American action.

If this is the case, the debate about adding four brigades to Iraq is pathetic. The situation will get even hotter than it now is, worsening the American position and exposing the fact that to fight Iran both within the borders of Iraq and into Iranian territory, there are not enough troops in the theatre.

Bush may really have pushed the escalation pedal more than any of us realize.

This Bush has a way of turning everything crazy, making a pit in the stomach that won't go away.