Modok Crossed the Line Last Week

I doubt that anybody noticed, because it wasn't the context in which his comments were presented hereabouts, but in addition to his forward looking remarks about overpopulation, CIA Director Michael Hayden also said Wednesday that Iranian policy, at the highest government level, is to help kill Americans in Iraq, the boldest pronouncement of Iranian involvement by a U.S. official to date.

Hayden made the statement in response to a student question while delivering the Landon Lecture at Kansas State University.

"It is my opinion, it is the policy of the Iranian government, approved to highest level of that government, to facilitate the killing of Americans in Iraq," Hayden said. "Just make sure there's clarity on that."

My friend Rembom dropped a stellar Pepe Escobar joint in the comments y'day providing a fairly detailed current state assessment of the heat-up towards Iran;

It's like old times in the Persian Gulf. As of this week, a second aircraft carrier battle task force is being sent in -- not long after Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Adm. Michael Mullen highlighted planning for "potential military courses of action" against Iran[...]On the dispatching of that second aircraft carrier, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates offered the following comment: "I don't see it as an escalation. I think it could be seen, though, as a reminder."

uh huh..., by the benchmarks established by the Bush administration, this is an overwhelming justification for war. Indeed, in the carefully constructed reality of the GWOT, Modok's accusation essentially compels war: what nation would accept the killing of its own people without striking back?