On to Tehran

MANIFESTO

It's pretty clear where the US is headed when we see stories like this:

Sophisticated Iranian-built bombs smuggled into Iraq have killed at least 170 US and allied soldiers since June 2004, senior US defence officials have said, amid ongoing carnage ...

US defence officials presented their evidence at a background briefing in Baghdad's fortified Green Zone, after Washington stepped up criticism of Iran.

Apparently we're to forget that so much of the "evidence" regarding Iraq's danger was manufactured and accept this allegation with no hesitation. The Bushies just won't quit with this crap, and there's no reason to do so as long as the country's Congress is peopled by quislings.

As Digby says:

Today we are looking at a concerted PR campaign to implicate Iran in the Iraq war, a third carrier group is steaming to the Gulf and nobody believes a thing the US Government says.

And we watch as our democratic institutions seem to be incapable of hitting the brakes and I'm not sure I understand why. It was one thing after 9/11 for everyone to be caught up in the emotion of the moment. There is no such excuse now. The entire world knows now that the US is not only irrational but it is widely perceived as being incompetent. What could be more dangerous than having delusional megalomaniacs playing Risk at a time like this?

What, indeed?

UPDATE — Kevin Drum has more.