Esquire: US Squelched Negotiations with Iran so that war can proceed

A nice long article from Esquire (I couldn't find the name of a particular author) that reviews the history of the Bush Cheney pursuit of war with Iran. It also contains some new tidbits as to how they managed to shut down Powell's efforts and others. There's also the powerful description of a meeting with the Saudi monarch.

The article also conveys how Bush and Cheney have intimidated former high level officials to keep them from revealing even more.

Another tidbit: Even Kissinger understood (does he still?) that war with Iran is total madness. Another clue as to the real intentions of the White House.

No gang, Bush's wars are not for oil. You'd think that $100/barrel would be a sufficient clue.And they are only partly for Israel. Their purpose is simply war and the destruction of civilization and they make use of Israel's similar interest in perpetual war to make extending the war first to Iraq and now Iran possible.

Ronald

http://www.esquire.com/features/iranbriefing1107

Esquire -- November 2007


The Secret History of the Impending War with Iran That

the White House Doesn't Want You to Know


Two former high-ranking policy experts from the Bush

Adminstration say the U.S. has been gearing up for a

war with Iran for years, despite claiming otherwise.

It'll be Iraq all over again.

In the years after 9/11, Flynt Leverett and Hillary

Mann worked at the highest levels of the Bush

administration as Middle East policy experts for the

National Security Council. Mann conducted secret

negotiations with Iran. Leverett traveled with Colin

Powell and advised Condoleezza Rice. They each played

crucial roles in formulating policy for the region

leading up to the war in Iraq. But when they left the

White House, they left with a growing sense of alarm --

not only was the Bush administration headed straight

for war with Iran, it had been set on this course for

years. That was what people didn't realize. It was just

like Iraq, when the White House was so eager for war it

couldn't wait for the UN inspectors to leave. The steps

have been many and steady and all in the same

direction. And now things are getting much worse. We

are getting closer and closer to the tripline, they

say.

"The hard-liners are upping the pressure on the State

Department," says Leverett. "They're basically saying,

'You've been trying to engage Iran for more than a year

now and what do you have to show for it? They keep

building more centrifuges, they're sending this IED

stuff over into Iraq that's killing American soldiers,

the human-rights internal political situation has

gotten more repressive -- what the hell do you have to

show for this engagement strategy?' "

But the engagement strategy was never serious and was

designed to fail, they say. Over the last year, Rice

has begun saying she would talk to "anybody, anywhere,

anytime," but not to the Iranians unless they stopped

enriching uranium first. That's not a serious approach

to diplomacy, Mann says. Diplomacy is about talking to

your enemies. That's how wars are averted. You work up

to the big things. And when U.S. ambassador to Iraq

Ryan Crocker had his much-publicized meeting with his

Iranian counterpart in Baghdad this spring, he didn't

even have permission from the White House to schedule a

second meeting.

The most ominous new development is the Bush

administration's push to name the Iranian Revolutionary

Guards a terrorist organization.

Read more:

http://www.esquire.com/features/iranbriefing1107