Game. Set. Match.
My jaw dropped to the floor when reading an article yesterday from Reuters News Service, after which, I shouted with celebratory glee, knowing that the neocons have been foiled in their lust to invade Iran!
In what may turn out to be perhaps one of the most important statements made by anyone this year, 2005 Nobel Peace Prize winner, Mohamed ElBaradei, director of the U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency, speaking at the Monterey Institute of International Studies, in Monterey, California, completely pulled the rug out from under Bush and the neocons in their rush to attack Iran.
More after the fold:
ElBaradei, speaking from the pulpit of the highly regarded Monterey Institute (where coincidentally, there were several military officers who spoke out against the Iraq invasion,
before it happened), put the brakes on Bush's rush to war with Iran. In part, he had this to say:
"Iran does not pose an immediate nuclear threat and the world must act cautiously to avoid repeating mistakes made with Iraq and North Korea."
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Got that neocons? Did you hear what the man said John Bolton, PNAC, AIPAC, JINSA, AEI, et al? Do you get it you war mongering bastards?
ElBaradei wasn't finished though, and went on to say:
"(T)he world shouldn't jump the gun, with erroneous information as the U.S.-led coalition did in Iraq in 2003, nor should it push the country into retaliation as international sanctions did in North Korea."
"Our assessment is that there is no immediate threat. You look around in the Middle East right now and it's a total mess. You can not add oil to that fire."
"The recent violent history in Iraq bears an important lesson for diplomacy with neighboring Iran. We should not jump the gun. We should be very careful about assessing the information available to us. We still have lots of time to investigate."
(emphasis all mine)
If, after this statement from ElBaradei, Bush and his neocons continue their head-long rush to attack Iran, they will be viewed as the international war criminals they are, by the entire world.
I especially love the fact that this completely slaps down John Bolton, and makes all of his recent efforts to embroil the U.N. in the neocon's invasion plans, totally moot.
As far as I am concerned, this is cause for celebration. It should mean that we won't be sending anymore of our kids over to fight for the oil companies, and Israel. It also removed the "war cudgel" from the Republicans' 06' tool chest.
My only concern, is that ElBaradei's speech was not widely covered in the neocon owned/controlled/managed parts of the media (which, unfortunately, comprises the larger part of it these days). We must get the word out about this article, especially to those so-called "centrist" Democrats who have been kneeling in fealty at the military-industrial-complex/oil company/AIPAC altar of greed, avarice, and war.
Perhaps now, the U.S., Israel, and all of the other intrested parties, can re-learn the word d-i-p-l-o-m-a-c-y, and start talking to each other, in an effort to resolve their differences. And who knows, maybe Iran can be induced to dump its nutty/anti-Semitic president, if we promise to keep ours in a political cage?
It may be premature, but I think this is cause for celebration!! What do you think?