Right-wingers in Washington have begun preparing the ground for US action, perhaps even war, against Iran. Their mostly baseless allegations against Iraq--of developing nuclear weapons and backing Al Qaeda--worked so well in whipping up war fever that the inside-the-Beltway hawks are now recycling them. This time Teheran is the mark.

Neoconservative William Kristol, editor of The Weekly Standard, wrote that "the liberation of Iraq was the first great battle for the future of the Middle East." He added, "The next great battle--not, we hope, a military battle--will be for Iran." In an ironic reversal of the old domino theory, Kristol now argues that America must take down Iran to prevent it from intervening among Shiites in US-occupied Iraq. One intervention requires the next. But in fact, more Iraqis seem interested in radical Shiism than do Iranians.

Iran is charged with harboring Al Qaeda. But Al Qaeda and the Taliban waged a vicious campaign of assassination and pogroms against Shiites in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and came close to war with Shiite-dominated Iran. Iran's Sunni tribes or rogue elements in the Revolutionary Guards might give refuge to Al Qaeda. It is highly unlikely that the Iranian establishment would.

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