HAS THE NEXT "DOWNING ST. MEMO" ALREADY GONE...DOWN?

Meaning, of course, when the fight that Bush is now trying to pick with Iran starts (with another OK for Bush to use force hitting Congress in Oct. '06, natch) in spring '07, will we be seeing a leak of a memo that was written I don't know--yesterday?

The reason I ask this is because we've seen a drip-drip-dripping of these types of stories on Internet portals and such: on the MSN home page, one of the headlines is "Al Qaida hiding in Iran?" and then when clicked on, the headline is "Al Qaida Finds Safe Haven In Iran." These hints are being drop-drop-dropped in the laps of the ever-credulous mainstream media and right now they're not front-page, blaring news--i.e., the other two headlines on the MSN homepage right now are "3 N.J. boys found dead" and "2nd case of mad cow in U.S." Not pleasant stuff, but the Iran tease is third in the list.

And then, the story is not about Al Qaida finding "safe haven" in Iran or setting up a camp there as the headlines would have you believe, it's about some complicated deal the Iranians supposedly worked out with the Saudis to detain some Al Qaida leaders. Or something. At any rate, the damage is done to Iran's reputation to the casual headline-glancer--if you don't read the story, you see the phrase "Al Qaida hiding in Iran" and maybe you see the question mark at the end, maybe you don't. Maybe you can't remember later if there was any punctuation, but that one phrase sticks in your mind "Al Qaida hiding in Iran." So when Foxbaugh Coulterannity starts to talk about how Iran is our enemy and they need to do what we say and they're a terror state with links to Al Qaida, the headline-glancer subconsciously remembers that phrase "Al Qaida hiding in Iran." The glancer thinks: I know Al Qaida was deemed responsible for 9/11 and...now...they're...in...Iran? Did they have some hostages or somethin'? Aren't they fuckin' crazy towelheads like the rest of 'em? Damn right Mr. Foxbaugh, let's go get 'em--I read somewhere that Al Qaida is hidin' in Iran! I'll glady send everybody else's sons and daughters to fight over something that has come to us on the word of a handful of anonymous sources--and let's make sure I get my $300 in tax "relief" while we spend another $300 billion we don't have! Because Al Qaida is hiding in Iran!"

So let's ask right now--does everybody know now, like people are saying "everybody knew" in summer '02, that we're going to invade Iran? Or is it in fact, an open question? Scott Ritter of course has made his prediction and Seymour Hersh has done his story on U.S. operations in Iran.

Let's look around and take note--are we being told that the president has already decided to go to war with Iran? Are we being told that right now? Is that what we should get from these little popcorn kernels of news?

I wish a White House reporter would ask every day, starting right now, if the President has already decided to go to war anywhere. And a different reporter should ask every day "Has President George Walker Bush [gotta be very specific so that no conservative asshole can come along in 2 or 3 years and say that the answer to this question was just some flunky's opinion] decided today or any time this week to go to war or commit troops to any other country in the world besides Iraq and Afghanistan?"

Ask that fucking question every day starting right now and then when Son of Downing Street is leaked, we'll know for sure whether "everybody knew" that the President has decided on war or not. But no, we're in such a tizzy about whether Korpulent Korporate-whore Karl insulted liberals and is the current Downing Street memo real or fake or new or old or whatever that talk of war with Iran is going to be floated ever so quietly, like brushes on a snare.

And then, after Labor Day '06, the new product line will be introduced, all Democratic veterans will have their pictures morphed into Saddam Hussein's in attack ads, all in the hope that Republicans will at least not lose any seats in Congress. Because if there was ever a time that they need to keep a majority, it's now. If they don't, in a variation of what the Thing might say "It's impeachin' time!"