The Iranians need to be bombed. We need to hit their Army, Navy, Airforce and Nuclear facilities for a month or two, and wipe them out....

There are good points in your article. I would like to supplement them with some information:

I am a 2 tour Vietnam Veteran who recently retired after 36 years of working in the Defense Industrial Complex on many of the weapons systems being used by our forces as we speak.

If you are interested in a view of the inside of the Pentagon procurement process from Vietnam to Iraq please check the posting at my blog entitled, “Odyssey of Armaments”

http://www.rosecoveredglasses.blogspot.com

The Pentagon is a giant, incredibly complex establishment, budgeted in excess of $500B per year. The Rumsfelds, the Administrations and the Congressmen come and go but the real machinery of policy and procurement keeps grinding away, presenting the politicos who arrive with detail and alternatives slanted to perpetuate itself.

How can any newcomer, be he a President, a Congressman or even the new Sec. Def.Mr. Gates, understand such complexity, particularly if heretofore he has not had the clearance to get the full details?

Answer- he can’t. Therefore he accepts the alternatives provided by the career establishment that never goes away and he hopes he makes the right choices. Or he is influenced by a lobbyist or two representing companies in his district or special interest groups.

From a practical standpoint, policy and war decisions are made far below the levels of the talking heads who take the heat or the credit for the results.

This situation is unfortunate but it is absolute fact. Take it from one who has been to war and worked in the establishment.

This giant policy making and war machine will eventually come apart and have to be put back together to operate smaller, leaner and on less fuel. But that won’t happen until it hits a brick wall at high speed.

We will then have to run a Volkswagen instead of a Caddy and get along somehow. We better start practicing now and get off our high horse. Our golden aura in the world is beginning to dull from arrogance.

Sometimes the wheels of justice turn too slowly.

It’s somewhat reassuring to hear that Democrats plan to hold investigations into Bush Regime and Republican crimes for the last six years, but everyday that Bush retains power, he and the Rabid Right will commit new crimes against humanity. If the past is any indication, we can expect them to continue their assaults on the constitution and our civil rights on a daily basis.

Surely Bush and his un-indicted co-conspirators must be beginning to feel cornered, which might inspire them to commit even more heinous crimes. This gang of sociopaths has no qualms about employing torture or genocide for profit, so where do they draw the line? Might they nuke Iran in the hopes of provoking another attack on American soil. Such an attack would incite millions of Americans into a patriotic frenzy for revenge, the likes of which we have never seen.

The more threatened the Rabid Right becomes, the more desperate to escape justice they will become. Dire circumstances usually result in desperate measures. Democrats must be prepared to employ dire countermeasures to combat whatever crimes these madmen attempt.