I have heard that Iran doesn't even produce 81MM shells, much less have the markings in English. I hope Pace has finally come to the realization that he can either go down with Smirk, or he can be a real hero. We shall see if he backs off his previous comments or sticks to them.

What's up with the HUGE FONT? It's terrible.

When's Pace getting fired? I say Thursday. I hope Shinseki has room.

Theres another group that "doesn't know how democracy works", and that is the Bush administration. They are certainly doing their best to undermine our democracy at every possible juncture.

Given Pace's refusal to agree to the latest talking point, I have to wonder when he'll be forced to resign for failing to support the CIC. I'll bet the level of damage control going on inside the WH right now over Pace's statement is on par with the Cheney efforts to get Ambassador Wilson when he disturbed their best-laid Iraq plans with some "unfortunate truth", and we can't have any of that running lose, can we.

Pace is actually standing up for the troops in the best way possible, by not allowing another smokescreen of deliberate lies and propaganda to be used to railroad the US into another illegal war.

Whoops, this ain't your normal comments section. Anyhoo...

"Gen. Pace does not want to be the Colin-Powell-with-his-slideshow-at-the-U.N. of the Iran War -- who would? -- and he is thus making it a point to repudiate the highly precarious (if not entirely baseless) accusations being peddled by Bush officials regarding Iran."

Yes, but I suspect that it's more, and less, than that: I suspect that Pace simply doesn't want the United States to go to war with Iran: no military man would. For a while now I've expected the Times and other papers to start anonymously quoting Pentagon officials who know that going to war with Iran would be a disaster. It's one of the reasons that I think Bush might--might--think twice before launching an attack on Iran: he'd face a revolt from within the military.

Glem, I hope you're enjoying your new home.

Peace.

What's up with the HUGE FONT? It's terrible.

What "HUGE FONT" would that be?

The bold section that starts with the quote "which are part of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards..." is not properly closed. That might be affecting the font on the earlier poster's browser.

Welcome to Salon, Glenn.

This brings up something I've always had trouble understanding with the way the press presents a story (especially the sensational conservative ), particularly with generalizations in the headline and in an article.

When I heard confiscated weapons in Iraq came from "Iranians", I wondered what that meant: private Iranian citizens or the government? Finally, it's elaborated saying it came from the "highest levels" though too little too late.

You have to wonder whether the adminstration was dumb enough to suggest the word "Iranian" could be passed on assuming it would be understood unanimously to imply the Iranian government. Or even scarier, they assumed the American people wouldn't know and/or don't care about the differences.

Drudge Report is notorious for broad headlines, especially when it comes to foreign "news".

Today:

"Terrorists in Iraq Caught Using Rifles -- from Austria..."

What does that mean? "Terrorists" as in "Insurgents" or "Al-Qaida" or "Shiites" or "Sunnis"? "Austria" meaning from "higher ups" or its citizens or its gun manufacturers?

Click on the link and its a Telegraph article. It cites that the Austrian guns were shipped by the MANUFACTURER to Iranian POLICE for use against DRUG SMUGGLERS. But Drudge's headline was so broad, it sounded as if the Austrian HIGHER UPS were helping TERRORISTS directly.

Any illiterate who skims the news is going to think the Austrians are helping the terrorists.

And forget about it when it comes to the Chinese.

"Chinese are making it rain!"

"Chinese killing all dogs!"

"Chinese flood kills thousands!"

This falsely gives the impression that a country bigger and more populous than the United States are one giant immoral, tragic contingent. Is there no way to cite individuals or provinces in the headline when it comes to foreigners?

Here's a way to toy with headlines.

John Wayne Gacey: "Irish American Dresses up as clown, kills children!"?

Jeffrey Dahmer: "Irish American Homsexual Murders Boys and Eats Them!"

On Ted Bundy: "Irish American Commits Rapes, Murders Across the Country"

Huh, you'd say, those Irish Americans are a screwed up lot!

Glenn has repeatedly said over on Unclaimed Territory that he edits an item after he posts it. So if there are obvious typos and the timestamp is only a few minutes old, cut him some slack :-)

I have to say, I've been waiting for this to happen. I figured, surely not everyone in the Executive Branch has been drinking Cheney's and Feith's and Shrub's Kook-Aide. Looks like maybe I was right..

Sounds like Pace is going to do what he can, within his power, to prevent a war with Iraq. Good for him! He has more balls than most Dem congresspeople do, so far..

Diffy's right. It's appears to be fixed now.

It would appear that there may be some of our high-ranking officers who understand what the term "honor" in the phrase, "Duty, Honor, and Country" really means.

Pace's comments really are striking. The comparisons to Shinseki are dead on, in the old days this kind of departure from the party line would get him fired tout suite.

But this time the people Pace works for are also playing both sides of the game- personally distancing themselves from the war rhetoric while at the same time ramping up the hate on Iran via anonymous allegations.

Maybe they're not setting up military action, but rather trying to distract delay and share blame for Iraq. Hence the exclusive reliance on anonymous sources. None of these Big Manly Men can come out and say "Iranians are killing our troops" unless they're ready to kill Iranians in return. Do do less would be unmanly.

Perhaps the stupifying weakness of the roll out against Iran is based on them not actually wanting to be taken too seriously. That, in effect, is what Bush and Snow are saying.