Dick's Deep in Iraq, but Does He Want to Dig into Iran Too?

"Mr. Cheney wanted me to focus on the briefing, primarily about Iraq, and what our policy was toward Iraq, what our military analysis was, security analysis was, of Saddam Hussein at that time, and not to give a so-called around the world briefing, which is standard operating procedure for incoming presidents"

-Sec. of Defense William Cohen on Cheney's specific demands for briefing President Bush

Dick Cheney is a very particular person. He prefers his room to be exactly 68 degrees and the TV must be showing Fox News. Oh, and he likes to control what the President thinks and does. So when Bush was sworn into office in 2001, Cheney wanted the outgoing Secretary of Defense to tell him about one thing, and one thing only: Iraq. Apparently, Cheney was tailoring Bush to become obsessed with Iraq in the first few days of his presidency. Much like Mugatu took advantage of the intellectually-challenged Derek Zoolander, Dick Cheney encouraged Bush to invade Iraq from day one. By December of 2001, Bush was already planning to go to war. By January of 2003, the invasion date was penciled in. Diplomacy and UN resolutions? They were insurance in case the invasion didn't go as planned. When Bush said war was his "last choice, last option", he was lying.

The idea to invade Iraq came about in the late 90s, with the creation of the Project for a New American Century, of which Cheney is a founding member. PNAC had called for a preemptive US military attack on Iraq beginning in 1997. But it wasn't until 9 months after Bush's inauguration, with Cheney in control of the White House, PNAC hawks like Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz in control of the Pentagon, and the events of 9/11 that made the dream became a reality. Even though Saddam had nothing to do with that day, two-thirds of Americans were convinced otherwise. Bush didn't even need to use the old "paint a plane blue, write UN on it, and let Saddam shoot it down" trick; most Americans supported a preemptive attack.

So what are the lessons we can learn from this? Why should we be concerned about how we got into Iraq? Iran is currently ignoring UN demands to halt enrichment of uranium, just test-fired a missile that can take out a US warship, and is basically pointing its middle-finger directly at the United States. To say that Dick Cheney isn't considering an attack on Iran would be naive. Seymour Hersh of the New Yorker believes a war has already begun. But besides the occasional threat, the administration and the pro-war media and think-tanks are relatively quiet on Iran. Surely, neocons like Cheney must be scrambling to come up with a plan of attack. Afterall, they only have so much time before Iran goes officially nuclear, or Bush's term runs out in 2008. Will Cheney attempt to strike Iran's underground bunkers spread across its vast terrain? In June, the Pentagon is testing a 700-ton bunker-buster bomb somewhere in Nevada. I imagine that will be pretty loud. Until then, the silence is deafening.