Iran ‘Crisis’ Shapes Up as Our October Surprise

The moment I read your Sept. 23 headline, “Powell Denies U.S. Plans to Attack Iran,” I called my broker and said, “Buy Halliburton!”

Jon K. Williams

Santa Barbara

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For months I have been joking about what “October surprises” we might expect from the Bush team. One of my own favorites was that we would suddenly find it necessary to protect ourselves from the growing threat that Iran might be trying to build nuclear weapons. Right before the election President Bush would order a preemptive strike on some building said to house the labs. By the time we found out it was a fertilizer plant (as Clinton bombed in Sudan), the election would be won by Bush’s decisive action.

Now that bombing Iran has been denied by a man who gave away any remaining believability with his highly inaccurate U.N. speech on the reasons Iraq was an immediate threat, it seems assured that is exactly what we are planning.

I urge all voters, news media and reporters to view anything that the administration does in the next few weeks with the utmost cynicism.

Charles Mark-Walker

North Hills