Total Commitment

This post from Sullivan, in which neocon Bill Kristol airs the idea that the Bush administration may launch a strike at Iran if it looks like Obama is going to win the election, reminds me of General Ripper's rationale for launching an unauthorized nuclear attack against the Soviets in Dr. Strangelove:

...a decision is being made by the President and the Joint Chiefs in the War Room at the Pentagon. And when they realize there is no possibility of recalling the Wing, there will be only one course of action open. Total commitment. (Hat tip: filmsite.org)

I doubt even the Bush administration would do something like this. Right now they have so little credibility that, short of an actual attack of some kind on the US, there is nothing they can say or do that can convince people that Iran needs to be bombed--and for Bush to take such an action without popular support would be a political disaster of the highest order. So I think this one will likely be thrown onto that heap of hare-brained historical what-ifs, along with MacArthur's invasion of China and Goldwater's nuking of Vietnam.

But on the other hand, you never know with this wily bunch. Maybe they've reached a point where they can no longer sit back and allow the radical Muslims to sap and impurify their precious bodily fluids....