Batfink's Beep -- 1-27-06

What's that rustling sound?

January 27, 2006

I had the most intriguing conversation the other day with a guy I know, and he gave me some very interesting food for thought. In a few words, he suggested that perhaps we were already at war with Iran.

No, he didn't mean were they already at war with us. That theme has been taken up already. We all know by now what Mr. Ahmadinajad has said about getting rid of both Israel and the USA. We have to assume he is already working on that, which is for all intents and purposes a declaration of war. That ship has sailed. What he meant was, have we already started in our efforts, to militarily bring down those who would have nukes to use against us.

I know what you're thinking: "What??" That's what I said. Let me back up a bit:

It started with his claim that Bush could not easily go after Iran in the open, to stop them from getting the nukes they covet, for political as well as practical reasons that are reasonably obvious. He also said that, with Sharon down as well as for other reasons, Israel couldn't, either. I wasn't sure I'd necessarily concede that, but I agreed to go along with the premise, arguendo.

"Supposing, then," he now said, "that you're Bush, and one morning, as you're looking down and saying 'howdy' to some White House porcelain, you notice you got a nice, big pair down there. What do you do?"

I can honestly say that no obvious answer suggested itself to me. And at first, I still didn't get it when he said, "What if we've already started doing it?"

"I really don't think that, if Bush were bombing Iran's nuke sites, we wouldn't have heard," I said. And here's where my jaw hit the floor: "Not with bombs," he replied, "...quietly. With Special Forces, hunting for scalps like in Afghanistan."

So I picked up my jaw, and thought about it for a minute. There had been news recently, come to think of it, that I hadn't bothered to really think about because it seemed like the sort of thing that might easily lead to false hope -- news that Iran's fearless leader had had to cancel some speech or something, on account of being tipped off that there was an assassination threat. The story seemed to be insinuating that there might be elements in Iran that are nearly as concerned about their crackpot new president as we are, and might be trying to take care of the problem themselves. And it seemed plausible enough; ALL Iranians can't be as thrilled about the prospect of the whole world united against them as the former kidnapper they elected president seems to be. They'd had a hard enough time with Iraq, after all, and look what we'd done with them in just a few weeks. Twice. But wanting to get him didn't mean it was likely that they could get him, so at the time I just said, "Oh, sure, look..." and let it go at that.

But what if it's OUR boys out there, going to ground and looking for a chance to put a pill in that terrorist kook? One thing's for sure -- next time there's a suggestion that Ahmadinajad is looking out for assassins, I won't be quite so sure that it's clear-sighted Iranians tailing him.

Especially if it works.

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