Jeff Goldstein corrects the record.

Regarding this post below, Jeff Goldstein writes:

Actually, I didn't add "The problem is that any solution we propose will be the wrong solution to the progressives." I believe that was a commenter in the thread.

Withdrawn. Thank you for the clarification. Putz didn't make that distinction.

And Iran declared war on us when the took hostages from our embassy in 1979. So they are indeed at war with us, for whatever that's worth to you.

That's a fairly loose definition of "at war" isn't it Jeff? The Sec. of Defense doesn't seem to think so.

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Friday that the United States is "not planning for a war with Iran."

Now I realize that Gates wasn't asked, "Is Iran at war with the United States?" but you think he would've made at least a passing mention of the fact that Iran is at war with us in his answer.

Also, the US Senate doesn't seem to think so, either.

Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton warned President Bush today that he cannot take military action against Iran without first receiving Congressional authorization, and said that the new Democratic majority in Congress would apply “lessons from the conflict in Iraq” to the unfolding confrontation with Iran over its weaponry and suspected support for Iraqi militias.

By the way, if Iran has been "at war" with the United States continuously since 1979, why did the Reagan administration sell them weapons? It doesn't seem like a good idea to sell a nation you're at war with, you know, actual weapons and stuff.

Also, you have to recognize how careful Pace, et al. are in parsing their words. This includes the President. As Michael Ledeen notes (and if it helps, pretend it's Matthew Yglesias pointing this out), "[President Bush] might have said, well, we arrested the operations chief of Qods in Irbil. He reports directly to Supreme Leader Khamenei. Would you just shrug your shoulders and say there's no evidence of regime involvement? Would you think I was fulfilling my obligations if I shrugged my shoulders? Can we get real here gentlemen and gentle ladies?"

Sorry, Jeff. Michael Ledeen has zero credibility on Iran, or anything else. He declared the Ayatollah dead last month. I actually don't think Pace is "parsing" anything. Bush was asked again today if there was any evidence that Iranian's government was officially involved at the highest levels and he demurred.

And by the way, the Bush Administration has zero credibility with which to bring charges against Iran, whatever the case may be.