Mini US Military Coup Slows Rush to Attack Iran

On February 13, 2007, the US experienced a mini military coup.

On February 11, 2007, the White House engineered a press briefing in Baghdad to announce that Iran was supplying sophisticated armor piercing explosives being used against US soldiers in Iraq.

On the 13th, Joint Chiefs Chairman Peter Pace under cut the White House's now-famous Baghdad briefing. Pace effectively said, yes, weapons made in Iran are entering Iraq. But he said that he was unaware of any evidence that the Iranian government leaders made decisions to provide those weapons. This military statement contradicted the civilian White House message in Baghdad, and thus was a mini military coup.

Since then, the Pentagon has muddied the waters on this subject to give General Pace plausible deniablity in staging a mini coup. Pace's statement had its desired effect, and the coup was successful. The media started saying the White House was "back tracking", and the White House had to move into damage control mode, spinning the briefing to say that the anonymous military briefers had overstated the case. That spin is not credible, because the White House had crafted the briefing, going as far as to delay it:

The briefing was being carefully monitored by the White House -- which had postponed it twice previously. National security adviser Stephen Hadley told reporters on February 2: "The truth is, quite frankly, we thought the briefing overstated. And we sent it back to get it narrowed and focused on the facts."

In short, the military has learned it cannot trust the White House. It's a frightening time when the stability of the United States depends on military coups because the civilian leaders are out of control.
~