Too Much Attention on Iran

Oooops. Perhaps someone said too much. In what otherwise was an anticlimactic, by-the-book exercise in frustration, the Prez laced his address to the nation the other night with vague threats about Iran and Syria. Perhaps it was because he didn't offer much that everybody wasn't already expecting, but commentators not only noticed the odd statements about those other countries, they latched onto them and, in some cases, talked about nothing else. Dan Froomkin focused in on the problem:

After more than a month of frenzied anticipation, President Bush's speech last night was such a limp letdown -- with the notable exception of provocative, bellicose words aimed at Iran and Syria -- that it raises the question: What is he really up to?

Could his secret goal be to run out the clock, and leave Iraq to his successor? Might he be setting the stage for an exit on his terms -- giving the Iraqis one last chance, and if they blow it, then he withdraws? Is it even possible that he is beginning the process of shifting the attention of the military -- and the American public -- from Iraq to Iran?

Those theories may sound a bit conspiratorial, but Bush's new proposal is so internally contradictory, so incremental, so problematically dependent on Iraqi good behavior, and so unlikely to galvanize public support that it seems to me that it's open season on alternate explanations of his motivation.

We talked about the Iranian threats a couple of times, but I was far from the only one. Enough people noticed Steve Clemons's speculation about a secret presidential order authorizing military operations against Iran that Condi addressed it today before heading out to the Middle East. She specified that the order was focused against Iranians inside Iraq, but even that much strengthened speculation that the administration focus was shifting from Iraq to Iran. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and chairman of the Joint Chiefs, General Peter Pace, were on Capitol Hill trying to defuse that kind of talk. Gates told the Senate Armed Services Committee:

We believe that we can interrupt these networks that are providing support through actions inside the territory of Iraq, that there is no need to attack targets in Iran itself.

At this point I don't trust the word of anyone in this administration, but at least if there are any plans for an incursion into Iran, they're no longer covert.