Senior American intelligence and defence officials believe that President George W Bush and his inner circle are taking steps to place America on the path to war with Iran, The Sunday Telegraph has learnt.The mind boggles.
Pentagon planners have developed a list of up to 2,000 bombing targets in Iran, amid growing fears among serving officers that diplomatic efforts to slow Iran's nuclear weapons programme are doomed to fail.
Pentagon and CIA officers say they believe that the White House has begun a carefully calibrated programme of escalation that could lead to a military showdown with Iran.
Now it has emerged that Condoleezza Rice, the secretary of state, who has been pushing for a diplomatic solution, is prepared to settle her differences with Vice-President Dick Cheney and sanction military action.
This isn't the first time this week this news has bounced around, and all it does is reaffirm that this administration is bound and determined to leave this nation as a smoking ruin of our former self; at least figuratively.
It's also clear that the administration has no intention whatsoever of consulting Congress, and even if they did, there's not a whole lot that the Congress could do to stop this insanity.
The president thinks we're running out of options in dealing with Iran. I sure hope we're not running out of options in dealing with this president, short of something that violates federal law and draws the attention of the Secret Service. It's time to put impeachment back on the table, or at least the 25th Amendment.
