Our good friend Michael Gordon at the New York Times, writing buddy with Judy Miller in selling the the WMD threat from Saddam Hussein to a frightened American public back in 2003, has a new gig: helping the Pentagon promote a possible new war against Iran. Today’s report under his byline suggests that an attack against Iran may be inevitable because Israel is very, very serious about stopping Iran’s nuclear program and gosh, there’s very little we can do to rein them in:

WASHINGTON — Israel carried out a major military exercise earlier this month that American officials say appeared to be a rehearsal for a potential bombing attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities.

Several American officials said the Israeli exercise appeared to be an effort to develop the military’s capacity to carry out long-range strikes and to demonstrate the seriousness with which Israel views Iran’s nuclear program.

More than 100 Israeli F-16 and F-15 fighters participated in the maneuvers, which were carried out over the eastern Mediterranean and over Greece during the first week of June, American officials said. […]

One Israeli goal, the Pentagon official said, was to practice flight tactics, aerial refueling and all other details of a possible strike against Iran’s nuclear installations and its long-range conventional missiles.

A second, the official said, was to send a clear message to the United States and other countries that Israel was prepared to act militarily if diplomatic efforts to stop Iran from producing bomb-grade uranium continued to falter.

“They wanted us to know, they wanted the Europeans to know, and they wanted the Iranians to know,” the Pentagon official said. “There’s a lot of signaling going on at different levels.”

This is all so farcical. Israel cannot attack Iran without US assistance and permission. And we already know that Cheney, Bush and Mike McConnell, the Director of National Intelligence have all met with the Israelis in the past few months. One can only assume that Israel and the Bush administration are coordinating their efforts to 1) rattle Iran’s cage, 2) push Russia, China and the EU to support whatever sanctions the US and Israel want imposed against Iran and 3) prepare the American people for military strikes against Iran if its government refuses to stop their nuclear enrichment program before Bush leaves office. To suggest that Israel hadn’t already informed the Bush government of its plans to conduct these exercises is ludicrous.

And despite the Times own protocols against using anonymous sources without explaining the necessity for doing so, Gordon’s article is filled with unnamed “American” and “Israeli” “officials,” military and (presumably) non-military alike, without any explanation given for why these sources couldn’t have been identified. This is standard operating procedure for the Bushies over the last eight years, and the New York Times, with Judy Miller in the past and Michael Gordon both past and present, have been among their favorite stenographers.

See for yourself. Gordon’s article is riddled with references to the danger posed by Iran, with nothing presented regarding the consequences an attack on Iran by the US or Israel would entail:

(cont.)

. . . American officials were also told that Israel had prepared plans for striking nuclear targets in Iran and could carry them out if needed. […]

Any Israeli attack against Iran’s nuclear facilities would confront a number of challenges. . . .

But waiting also entails risks for the Israelis. Israeli officials have repeatedly expressed fears that Iran will soon master the technology it needs to produce substantial quantities of highly enriched uranium for nuclear weapons. […]

Mike McConnell, the director of national intelligence, said in February that Iran was close to acquiring Russian-produced SA-20 surface-to-air missiles. American military officials said that the deployment of such systems would hamper Israel’s attack planning, putting pressure on Israel to act before the missiles are fielded.

In all this, there is no discussion from anyone other than Israeli, Pentagon, or Bush administration sources regarding the danger Iran poses. In fact, the odds of Iran acquiring nuclear weapons in the near future are low, yet the article accepts at face value that time is not on Israel’s side, that the danger is imminent and that war is the only option Israel can use to protect itself from this looming existential danger. And, of course, there’s the literal last words in Gordon’s report from the mouth of an unnamed American, which if you haven’t guessed what they are by now, you should put on a dunce cap and go stand in a corner:

“They rehearse it, rehearse it and rehearse it, so if they actually have to do it, they’re ready,” the Pentagon official said. “They’re not taking any options off the table.”

Indeed, it seems the only option ever discussed regarding Iran is the military one. I wonder why?