Michael Smith at it again

There's a suspect story in the Sunday London Times about five American generals threatening to resign their commissions should Bush order an attack on Iran.

One of the co-writers, Michael Smith, made himself famous with the Downing Street memos story. An exercise in killing the messenger? Not my intention, but I do believe we need to look at a writer's past history when judging the present. Back in 2005 MacRanger was discussing Micheal Smith's allegation that Bush and Blair used the no-fly zones to lure Saddam into shooting down an airplane so we'd have an instant casus belli and linked to this Scripps-Howard story:

In President Bill Clinton's two terms alone, there were three such major mobilizations.

Here's what Mac said today. Judge for yourself, but I believe I can hear a buzzer sound.

Smith today:

Robert Gates, the defence secretary, has repeatedly warned against striking Iran and is believed to represent the view of his senior commanders.

That might be news to Secretary Gates, who recently said,

"We believe that we can interrupt these networks that are providing support through actions inside the territory of Iraq, that there is no need to attack targets in Iran itself," Gates told the panel, adding that he continues to believe that "any kind of military action inside Iran itself, that would be a very last resort."

Gates made two points there--one, Iran is interfering in Iraq and two, the military option is not off the table. That's a tad different than Smith would have us beleive. Ironically, Peter Pace was quoted in the same Haaretz article as follows:

Pace said special operations forces are continually battling insurgents who are getting aid from Iran. "I think one of the reasons you keep hearing about Iran is because we keep finding their stuff in Iraq," Pace said.

Yet Smith quotes him from a recent interview, unequivocally interpreting it thusly:

But General Peter Pace, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, said recently there was “zero chance” of a war with Iran. He played down claims by US intelligence that the Iranian government was responsible for supplying insurgents in Iraq, forcing Bush on the defensive.

If Pace has flipped his mind from January to February then perhaps Smith is correct about serious troubles at the top. But reality shows us that two carrier battle groups in the Persian Gulf region and nobody has yet resigned. Something stinks here.