Condoleezza Rice was the first to object to the saber rattling against bombing Iran.  Now Cheney and his rabble of neo-convicts have a more formidable opponent in Robert Gates the Secretary of Defense.   It is reported that Mr. Gates is encouraging the army’s senior officers to speak frankly to Mr. Bush and Congress about how our military is stretched to the breaking point and is not in a position to fight another war. 

Secretary Gates is one of the few in Mr. Bush’s administration that earned his position by merit and isn’t just another yes man.  In urging his officers to be completely honest Admiral Fallon, given the job of making plans for military action against Iran said “that the constant drumbeat of war” was not helpful.  Also speaking with the House of Representatives armed services committee General George Casey warned that the Army is stretched so thin by the occupation of Iraq that it was in no shape to take on the consequences of another war. 

It is said that Secretary Gates along with Mike McConnell, the national director of intelligence, and Michael Hayden, the head of the CIA, are making sure that Mr. Bush is seeing more extensive studies of the probable negative effects of an attack on Iran than he saw before the war in Iraq, and that Cheney is not the dominate source of information and planning on Iran. 

Hopefully the voice of reason will have Mr. Bush’s ear now instead of the likes of Dick “Tator” Cheney & Norman Podhoretz’s neo-convicts.  It is always the Chicken-Hawks who rush into war. They were the ones who had other priorities than Military Service.  

Peace and Liberty through intelligence, strength, and integrity.