The neocons are rapidly exiting tragedy and entering the realm of farce:
Following up on the alleged incident in the Strait of Hormuz with those five Iranian speedboats, remember that radioed threat supposedly coming from the Iranian side? Now they’re blaming it on – are you ready for this? – “the Filipino Monkey,” some crazy guy (or guys) whose obscene remarks have come crackling over ship radios in the area for years. Notice how quickly the official story is changing. First the transmission was a threat coming from the Iranians: now they’re “unsure.” This is contrary to the President’s characterization of what occurred, and the Pentagon’s video presentation of a threat emanating from the speedboats: the allegedly “aggressive” actions of the Iranians are underscored by an audio overlay in which a voice interpolates “I am coming to you, you will explode in a few minutes.”
The Iranians are calling the US video a fabrication, and it sure does look like that.
I think it’s glaringly apparent that the neocons badly need some better strategists and storytellers on their side. They’re desperately casting around for some excuse, any excuse, that will get the American people fired up again for war that doesn’t require the ritual sacrifice of a large American city. But it simply won’t work. In fact, even a dirty-bombed city or two might not get them the war they’re looking for since an increasing number of people are growing ever more skeptical about the Official Story, and rightly so considering how it is reliably wide of the margin when it comes to verifiable facts. The neocons are well past the point of diminishing marginal returns; hardly anyone even paid attention to George Bush’s half-hearted sabre-rattling this time.
This is quite tenses! Ah see OJ!