Professor Juan Cole quotes Ray Close, a retired CIA analyst of Arab affairs:
"Despite vehement official assertions to the contrary, indications are increasing every day that the Bush Administration has already decided that conventional diplomacy will fail as a way to manage its confrontation with Iran, and that military action against the Teheran regime has therefore already reached the point of final countdown.
This bombastic and posturing style of “diplomacy” is going to lead inescapably to one or the other of the following results: 1. War with Iran (with negative consequences beyond anyone's ability to imagine); or 2. Another humiliating demonstration of impotence."I'm hoping for option 2, but fear Bush will go with 1.
