This White House official has stated to several Washington insiders that Cheney is planning to deploy an "end run strategy" around the President if he and his team lose the policy argument.
The thinking on Cheney's team is to collude with Israel, nudging Israel at some key moment in the ongoing standoff between Iran's nuclear activities and international frustration over this to mount a small-scale conventional strike against Natanz using cruise missiles (i.e., not ballistic missiles).
This strategy would sidestep controversies over bomber aircraft and overflight rights over other Middle East nations and could be expected to trigger a sufficient Iranian counter-strike against US forces in the Gulf -- which just became significantly larger -- as to compel Bush to forgo the diplomatic track that the administration realists are advocating and engage in another war.
According to this official, Cheney believes that Bush can not be counted on to make the "right decision" when it comes to dealing with Iran and thus Cheney believes that he must tie the President's hands.
So according to Steve Clemons' "official", if Cheney loses the debate over what approach our will take towards Iran, he'll goad the Iranians into war with us anyway. Color me unsurprised that Cheney believes he and his coterie of advisers can decide alone what's best for our nation. But reporting such as this is evidence of the willingness and the ability of the hawks in the administration to push us to war despite all the public resistance against it.
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