The US-Iran sound bite showdown

By Pepe Escobar
Asia Times

"Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad's latest comments on Israel have been variously translated in the Western media, the most ominous having it that Israel will not save itself from "death and destruction". This will inevitably be seized on by the George W Bush administration as more evidence that Tehran wants to "destroy" Israel, muscling up the case for a US attack. Maybe that is what Ahmadinejad intends.......

.....There is no evidence the celebrity sound bite showdown will abate any time soon. Bush appears to want war - to bolster his "legacy". Ahmadinejad, too, might want war to bolster his faltering administration. American and world public opinion can only hope the clock does not run out before a possibly upcoming changing of the guard in the White House.

Just as the rhetoric between Tehran and Washington was once again at red alert levels, former Democratic presidential candidate Senator John Edwards stepped into the ring to announce his endorsement of Democratic Senator Barack Obama in the US presidential race - sucking out the hate waves. "Walls" inside and outside the US may soon come tumbling down, as Edwards hinted in his speech. But the fact remains that the hardline faction in the Bush administration centered around Vice President Dick Cheney still has over five months to fulfill its agenda of regime change in Iran. And the danger is Ahmadinejad will do absolutely nothing to dissuade them. "