Second verse, same as the first
From ABC, via HuffPo:
Tucked inside the White House's $196 billion emergency funding request for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is an item that has some people wondering whether the administration is preparing for military action against Iran.
The item: $88 million to modify B-2 stealth bombers so they can carry a newly developed 30,000-pound bomb called the massive ordnance penetrator, or, in military-speak, the MOP.
The MOP is the the military's largest conventional bomb, a super "bunker-buster" capable of destroying hardened targets deep underground. The one-line explanation for the request said it is in response to "an urgent operational need from theater commanders."
[...]
So where would the military use a stealth bomber armed with a 30,000-pound bomb like this? Defense analysts say the most likely target for this bomb would be Iran's flagship nuclear facility in Natanz, which is both heavily fortified and deeply buried.
[...]
"It's kind of strange," [John Pike of GlobalSecurity.org] said. "It sends a signal that you are preparing to bomb Iran, and if you were actually going to bomb Iran I wouldn't think you would want to announce it like that."
I think Pike has it wrong. The Bush Administration announced in the summer of 2002 that they intended to invade Iraq; they spent the next nine months broadcasting that intent to the world and made no bones about it. There is no reason to think the neo-cons would approach Iran any differently; their military theology orbits around the assumption that US military might cannot be resisted or defeated, so in their minds, there is little to no risk of announcing their intentions beforehand.
It appears more and more likely that Bush intends to attack Iran before he leaves office, for no reason other than the fact that he can do so with impunity. Meanwhile, the spineless leadership in Congress refuses to rein in his lawlessness.
Can we please start the revolution now?