Irresponsible Journalism!

This was posted by UPI on July 20, 2008 from Jerusalem...

JERUSALEM, July 20 (UPI) -- An unnamed Israeli security official claims U.S. President George Bush will attack Iran late this year if talks on the Mideast nation's nuclear program falter.
The Israeli Web site DEBKAfile.com, quoting Israel National Radio, reported Sunday that a "highly placed security-political" official said Bush would order the attack between Nov. 4, the date of the U.S. presidential election, and his last day in office in January 2009 should Iran not agree to abandon its efforts to enrich uranium.
DEBKAfile.com said the official made the statement shortly after Saturday's talks between Western powers and Iran in Geneva ended in a deadlock.

© 2008 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

http://www.upi.com/Top_News/2008/07/20/Source_Bush_will_attack_Iran/UPI-69331216581538/

Who is irresponsible?
1. UPI for publishing an incendiary remark from a "highly placed security-political" official. Who is that?
2. UPI for not giving context to the comment. Who is Debkafile.com?

http://www.debka.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debkafile

2. UPI for not making clear what the interests of the "highly placed security-political" official is. What purpose is this person serving by telling us what he thinks or knows?
3. I think its irresponsible for an Israeli 'security-political' official to make any comments about what our government will or won't do. Isn't Israel supposed to be our ally? I know, I know - good cop, bad cop. But, its irresponsible to play negotiating games with people's lives.

Would George Bush do it? On one hand I believe he could. I've been fooled by him before, so I don't trust my desire to trust him just because it seems unimaginable. On the other hand, it really does seem unimaginable.
a. I think he could start the war using the Navy and Air Force (as I hear, they're underutilized in the Iraq and Afghan wars), but you can't win a war without ground forces. And we don't have enough available ground forces.
b. I think the country would be outraged by another war. I think we can agree, life would be easier if Ahmadinejad were not the President of Iran, but Americans will not want a new front in the war.
c. I can't imagine (again, the unimaginable) an outgoing president would voluntarily start something so soon to the end of his term. Especially when a new President has been elected. Talk about a legacy...that wouldn't be a good one.
I'd hate to find out that Ahmadinejad wants to go to war with the US so much that he'd provoke something while Bush is still in office - he knows how to push Bush's buttons. If he did, I'd rather have Barack Obama be our next president than John McCain.

I expect (hope) I've already given this statement more energy than it deserves. But, I really blame UPI for posting it without more information and background. I came across it on the front page of Google today. In the time its taken me to write this post, it went from 1 comment to 6 comments. And the comments began degenerated; a battle between the left and right, war and no war. Ugh!