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Published Thursday, February 2, 2007
This week saw the mercury rising in the climate of politics and in the politics of climate change. Iran's not altogether surprising emergence as a player in Iraq has heightened the Islamic Republic's already-fraught tensions with the US. For some, sabers rattled by the White House carried the eerie tonality of late-2002 Administration rhetoric, leading some to wonder whether this wasn't just a case of Middle East political déjà vu.
Washington's blood pressure also surged at the sight of the latest international global-warming study to hit a newly climate-conscious public. In Cuba, Fidel Castro, garbed in his now-signature tracksuit, emerged from his sick bed for a rare television appearance, sin cigar. No bother to tobacco companies, though, who continue to post record profits, while traditional vodka distillers are trying to protect theirs. Looks like our vices really are timeless — confirmed by archaeologists working at a site near Stonehenge, who unearthed evidence of a bacchanalia-bent Neolithic community.
Iran's continued diplomatic posturing in Iraq, plus purported involvement in a recent insurgency attack on US troops, raised hackles in Washington this week. The Administration warned Tehran against assisting Iraqi militants with weapons technology. Still, the US has sent a second aircraft carrier to the region as a security measure.
President Bush said the warnings were not a "threat to invade" the country, despite concern in the US Senate of a looming US-Iran conflict. The admonitions mark the latest phase in a growing power-play between the US and Iran over the direction of Middle East politics.
