Shall many die for a another country’s whim? From today’s Washington Post: Pushing Bush to Attack Iran

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is expected to use his White House visit today to push President Bush to take a more aggressive approach toward Iran — and there are some signs that he’ll have a receptive audience.

Both Olmert and Bush are badly wounded and looking for salvation. Olmert is facing corruption allegations that could drive him from office. Bush is wildly unpopular, desperate to salvage his legacy and fighting irrelevance as the general election begins in earnest — with even the Republican candidate trying to keep him at a distance.

It’s in this environment that the Jewish Telegraph Agency reports: “Ehud Olmert will urge President Bush to prepare an attack on Iran, an Israeli newspaper reported.

“Citing sources close to the Israeli prime minister, Yediot Achronot reported on its front page Wednesday that Olmert, who is due to hold closed-door talks with Bush in Washington, will say that ‘time is running out’ on diplomatic efforts to curb Iran’s nuclear program.

“The United States should therefore prepare to attack Iran, Olmert will tell Bush, according to Yediot.”

Olmert certainly telegraphed as much in public last night. Matti Friedman writes for the Associated Press that “the Israeli prime minister told thousands of Israel supporters at the annual convention of the pro-Israel American Israel Public Affairs Committee on Tuesday that the Iranian threat ‘must be stopped by all possible means…’

I have a better solution. The truth. Iran is no threat beyond its own borders, and cannot even control several regions within its borders. It may be a thorn in Israel’s side, but that is their regional conflict, not ours.

Haven’t enough U.S. Service people died? Haven’t enough innocent bystanders died? Those (un)fortunate enough to have survived with horrific injuries will bear witness for decades. Do we want to add nuclear holocaust to our list of recent errors by nuking Iran (as administration officials are advocating, also see articles here and here)?

Those who will not learn from their mistakes, or who never acknowledge making a mistake, are doomed to repeat the mistake.

From the Australian: Former aide Scott McClellan attacks George W. Bush in book

At one point, Mr McClellan also discusses rumours of Mr Bush’s possible cocaine use in his younger days — a charge that dogged him on the campaign trail for the presidency in 1999. Despite public denials, Mr McClellan says Mr Bush told him privately he “could not remember” if he used it.

“I remember thinking to myself, how can that be?” Mr McClellan writes. “How can someone simply not remember whether or not they used an illegal substance like cocaine? It didn’t make a lot of sense.”

Mr Bush, he said, “isn’t the kind of person to flat-out lie.

“So I think he meant what he said in that conversation about cocaine. It’s the first time when I felt I was witnessing Bush convincing himself to believe something that probably was not true, and that, deep down, he knew was not true,” he writes.

“And his reason for doing so is fairly obvious – political convenience.”

He described this “penchant for self-deception” would have devastating consequences in the US’s foreign policy — saying Mr Bush was too “stubborn to change and grow” in the White House…

At least Ca’iaphas didn’t advocate wipping out an entire country…

First they led him to Annas; for he was the father-in-law of Ca’iaphas, who was high priest that year.
It was Ca’iaphas who had given counsel to the Jews that it was expedient that one man should die for the people.