Already There

Yesterday on CNN, retired U.S. Air Force General Sam Gardiner announced that "We are conducting military operations inside Iran right now. The evidence is overwhelming."

Gardiner's evidence is gathered from public sources available to anyone -- no secrets here. He cites the House Committee on Emerging Threats recent request for State and Defense Department officials to show up and testify about whether U.S. forces were in Iran. The officials didn’t show up for the hearing.

Gardiner also refers to the latest issue of Time Magazine, which reveals that "some U.S. naval forces have been alerted for deployment. That is a major step," he said.

So, does all this have anything to do with the upcoming midterm Congressional elections? D'ya think?

Tristero, the other main-page writer at Digby's Hullaballoo, has put together a list of probable and possible Rovian strategems for keeping the House (and Senate) in order. At the top of the list, of course, is gas prices.

"Now," says Tristero, "Digby observed that Bush must have told Them - the Oil "Them" - to open the spigot. And indeed, gas prices have fallen. But in truth, it's a leap of faith to suggest that the lower oil prices this election seas...sorry, I meant, this fall, had anything to do with the fact that there are 2 oilmen running the United States and their political ass is on the line. I wouldn't presume to suggest, say, that Bush, Cheney, and Rice begged the cartels and companies to temporarily ease off on the pricegoug... sorry, the utterly fair profit margin they're taking."

He goes on to compile a comprehensive list of October surprise rabbits the administration might pull out of numerous hats, from killing or capturing Osama bin Laden to the revelation of some kind of major sexual or financial misbehavior by some major Democrats.

But number three on Tristero's list is the scariest of all: "A nuclear strike, either on Iran or somewhere else like NoKo, unilateral, pre-emptive, and announced as a fait accompli. Bush has, after all, started military ops against Iran, according to Sam Gardiner..."

The general added that prior to the Iraq invasion, there "was a campaign to begin the war before the war began." Drawing a parallel with the White House's anti-Iranian rhetoric he remarked, "You know, I would suggest the evidence (of an impending war against Iran) is there."

Even now I try to convince myself that they'd never do that, that it's just too far beyond the pale. But I know better, and so do you.