Bush seems to be making headway in crafting a casus belli for war on Iran based on Iranian "attacks" on US troops in Iraq. Compared to the difficulty of faking thousands of tons of Saddam's WMD, setting up Iran would be child's play. Here is all that is needed:
- Weapons of Iranian manufacture. These can be otained on the international black market or from guerrilla and/or special forces raids inside Iran. Only a few dozen items would be needed for show-and-tell to Michelle Malkin.
- Counterfeiting of Iranian identity papers to be placed on dead "Iranian" agents slain inside Iraq. Dead "insurgents" tell no tales.
- A "confession" from an "Iranian" agent captured inside Iraq. We never torture people, so Americans would be confident that this is reliable information.
Add Fox News coverage and Hey, Presto! We have a pretext for bombing Iran. I originally thought Bush would try to arrange a confrontation among air or naval units in the Persian Gulf, but the "Iran killing US troops in Iraq" scheme is much more efficient. It explains why the US is losing ground in Iraq while opening the way to a whole new war.