Echoes of Iraq Invasion Arguments: White House Turns Up Heat On Iran

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Echoes of Iraq Invasion Arguments: White House Turns Up Heat On Iran
by Tim Harper


WASHINGTON-The screws are tightening, the warnings becoming more stark.1105 06

The autumn of 2007 in the U.S. capital is beginning to take on some unnerving parallels to the autumn of 2002, when the foundation was being laid for the invasion of Iraq.

Now it is Iran thumbing its nose at a Bush administration that is running out of patience and time.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is the new Saddam Hussein and the U.S. Congress is wary of again being used in a march to war.

U.S. Vice-President Dick Cheney is warning Tehran of unspecified “serious consequences” if it continues its pursuit of its nuclear-enrichment program, President George W. Bush is tossing out references to World War III and U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is complaining about foot-dragging at the United Nations Security Council.

A majority of Americans tell pollsters Iran is the biggest danger to international stability, but they don’t know enough to know what to do. Throw this into the mix of a U.S. presidential campaign less than two months from crunch time and Iran and its nuclear threat are fast surpassing Iraq as the dominant foreign policy question in both the Democrat and Republican races.

The White House is adamant that it is seeking a diplomatic solution to any confrontation with Ahmadinejad but it has slapped some of its toughest sanctions ever on Iran’s military and banking sectors and is getting way ahead of its allies in its determination to slow the Iranian nuclear pursuit.

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http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/11/05/5027/