Here We Go Again

Condi banging the drum on Iran.

There are almost too many scary quotes in this article to pick any one, but here's a particularly ominous one-two punch:

"The message that we are giving to Iran: We do have diplomatic means at our disposal, we are doing this bilaterally as well as multilaterally, and I believe that a diplomatic solution is in our grasp, if we can have unity of purpose, unity of message with the Iranians and if the Iranians understand that the international community is quite serious about it living up to its obligations."

The IAEA has the authority to refer Iran to the Security Council, but the group's board of governors has refrained from doing so in seven meetings on the topic in the past two years.

So, let me get this straight: We claim to have diplomatic means at our disposal, but those means have largely proven ineffective in the past few months (I'm sure that has nothing to do with the diplomatic capital we've squandered since 9-11, and the Europeans concomitant refusal to play ball (although can you blame them when last time they tried to play we picked up the ball and went home?)). And of course one word no one could use with any credibility to describe Bush 43's foreign policy is "patient." Moreover, she adds, "the next steps are in the offing . . . And I think everybody understands what the 'next steps' mean."

Bring it on, right? Isn't that what the man once said?

Sorry if the combination of these things, especially when so blatantly lumped together by the toothless CNN, sounds so alarmingly like the run-up to Iraq I don't even know where to begin, except, perhaps, at Arlington National Cemetary, which could end up a whole lot fuller if someone (Congress? Hello?) or something (a sudden infusion of common sense in the Bush administration?) doesn't derail this runaway train soon.