Turkey Refuses U.S. Request To Allow Attack On Iran From Turkish Base

Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul said Sunday that his country refused a request from the United States to attack Iran from its Air Force base in Incirlik, despite the U.S. offer of a nuclear reactor, according to a report in Al Biyan.

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Iran and America's Dangerous Brinkmanship

Last night, I sat next to a former foreign minister of a major nation at a small dinner and discussion which focused heavily on Iran and Middle East issues. This foreign minister stated that Iran's Supreme Religious Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei believed that western democracies would not tolerate $140 a barrel for oil -- and that would be the probable price level if Iran was attacked. This belief combined with Iran's perception of American weakness right now is driving much of Iran's brinkmanship.

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Fuzzy Strategy on Iran: America's Threat Credentials Doubted

The toxic mix is that Iran believes that America is weak right now and will wilt when oil prices shoot higher, while on the other hand, George Bush intends to make sure that Iran and other nations don't underestimate American strength and resolve, tilting towards force when he can afford it to demonstrate power. This mess is looking increasingly like 1914 -- when nations fell into war because of ego, attitude, poorly thought strategies regarding basic strategic interests, and miscalculation. I will write more on this later, but what is clear is that America has a "teeth problem" in its tough diplomacy with Iran. It is using the hype and puffery of potential military action and the new moves in the UN Security Council to help transmit "resolve", but it's not enough. As the prominent foreign minister I sat next to Sunday night said, the economic sanctions path is quite risky because it's unlikely given our track record with sanctions that we can make them work, particularly against a nation of 70 million people in addition to China and Russia opposing sanctions and high levels of direct investment in Iran from other major economies like Europe and Japan.

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Juan Cole is pissed. This is a must read:

Hitchens the Hacker; And, Hitchens the Orientalist
And, "We don't Want Your Stinking War!

Here is a footnote to this insanity. Our fearful administration outed Valerie Plame who was apparently working on Iran and it's nuclear weapons program.

MSNBC confirms: Outed CIA agent was working on Iran

On Chris Matthews' Hardball Monday evening, just moments ago, MSNBC correspondent David Shuster confirmed what RAW STORY first reported in February: that outed CIA officer Valerie Plame Wilson was working on Iran at the time she was outed (Watch the video of Shuster's report here). RAW STORY's Larisa Alexandrovna broke the story earlier this year, which went unnoticed by the mainstream media According to current and former intelligence officials, Plame Wilson, who worked on the clandestine side of the CIA in the Directorate of Operations as a non-official cover (NOC) officer, was part of an operation tracking distribution and acquisition of weapons of mass destruction technology to and from Iran.

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