Iran

I logged on to Common Dreams a few minutes ago and there I found three articles among today's postings about the seeming inevitability of the US attacking Iran. One is called "Iran Clock is Ticking" and another is "Bush 'Spoiling for a Fight' with Iran". The one I want to quote is from the Guardian and is entitled "Europeans Fear US Attack on Iran as Nuclear Row Intensifies":

Senior European policy-makers are increasingly worried that the US administration will resort to air strikes against Iran to try to destroy its suspect nuclear programme.

As transatlantic friction over how to deal with the Iranian impasse intensifies, there are fears in European capitals that the nuclear crisis could come to a head this year because of US frustration with Russian stalling tactics at the UN security council. "The clock is ticking," said one European official. "Military action has come back on to the table more seriously than before. The language in the US has changed."

As the Americans continue their biggest naval build-up in the Gulf since the start of the Iraq war four years ago, a transatlantic rift is opening up on several important aspects of the Iran dispute.
...
The Americans and Europeans have sought to maintain a common front on the nuclear issue for the past 30 months, with the European troika of Britain, France and Germany running failed negotiations with the Iranians and the Americans tacitly supporting them.

But diplomats in Brussels and those dealing with the dispute in Vienna say a fissure has opened up between the US and western Europe on three crucial aspects - the military option; how and how quickly to hit Iran with economic sanctions already decreed by the UN security council; and how to deal with Russian opposition to action against Iran through the security council.

"There's anxiety everywhere you turn," said a diplomat familiar with the work of the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna.

And here's a very disturbing report:

A US navy battle group of seven vessels was steaming towards the Gulf yesterday from the Red Sea, part of a deployment of 50 US ships, including two aircraft carriers, expected in the area in weeks.

The most worrying part, of course, is the likelihood that Bush will decided to use nuclear weapons against Iran. He has hinted very pointedly that he wants to do so. Heaven help the world if that monster is unleashed once again.