Fresh from his embarrassment at the hands of Vanity Fair, the Prince of Darkness, known in polite circles as Richard Perle, is now screaming at the rafters for the decimation of Iran, an act long overdue, according to the perfidious neocons.

“Leading neocon Richard Perle, who led the intellectual charge for the ill-fated invasion of Iraq, believes two B-2 bombers, each with 16 independently targeted weapons systems, could punch out Iran’s nuclear lights,” writes Arnaud de Borchgrave, the former editor-in-chief of the Moonie-based Washington Times, currently editor-at-large for the United Press International.

“No Air Force expert we could find agreed. But the Pentagon’s Air Force generals believe it can be done—and successfully—with a much larger operation, including five nights of bombing, some 400 aim points, 75 requiring deep penetration ordnance. Time magazine estimates 1,500 such aim points, or ‘viable targets,’ related to Iran’s widely scattered nuclear development complex. The Navy, with its carrier task forces and ship-launched cruise missiles, does not share the same degree of certainty.”

Leading up Perle’s flank is none other than the avowed Machiavellian and universal fascist, Michael Ledeen, a darksome figure, even for a neocon, sullied with allegations of providing the phony yellowcake documents, apparently contrived by Italy’s neofascist SISMI intelligence agency, to his fellow travelers in the Bush administration, now a unitary decidership.

“No one has worked more assiduously for military action than Michael Ledeen, a neocon field marshal, who writes frequently about the ‘horrors’ of Iran’s mullahocracy,” explains de Borchgrave. “His National Review Online commentary Nov. 1 was headlined ‘Delay.’ Mr. Ledeen has grown impatient over Mr. Bush’s dangerous postponement of what he considers inevitable. ‘If the president knows Iran is waging war on us,’ wrote Mr. Ledeen, ‘he is obliged to respond; the only appropriate question is about the method, not the substance. If he does not know, then he should remove those officials who were obliged to tell him, and get some people who will tell the truth.’”

Of course, Iran is doing nothing of the sort, although, for your garden variety numbskull neocon and his blood and gore enshrouded beau ideals, exemplified by Ledeen and Perle, simply responding to innumerous threats is a rough equality demanding a sustained campaign of mass murder.

According to Ledeen, Bush lacks “the political capital to directly challenge the mullahs,” although in the past this did not put a crimp in the neocon plan to decimate the Arab and Muslim Middle East, as Congress critters were easily railroaded and cajoled into supporting, minus constitutional declaration of war, the invasion of both Afghanistan and Iraq.

No, according to de Borchgrave, the considerations are far more ponderous—Iran possesses “formidable” options, including the ability to mine “the Strait of Hormuz, the channel for two-fifths of the world’s oil traffic, which would send oil prices skyrocketing to $200 per barrel almost overnight.”

Moreover, as Prince Turki al-Faisal, Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the U.S. and former spook, warns, an attack against Iran would turn “the whole Persian Gulf into an inferno of exploding fuel tanks and shot-up facilities,” not that the neocons are concerned about such inevitabilities.

In fact, after reading a bit of Leo Strauss and the writings of his patron, the Nazi crown jurist Carl Schmitt, one can be reasonably assured the neocons welcome such cataclysmic events, as they would produce the sort of societal upheaval at home favored by them, presumably resulting in a warlike fascist culture required to go after prefigured adversaries. Neocon prose is viscid with such perfidy.

Iran has tested “dozens of missiles, including the long-range Shahab-3 (1,242 miles), Shahab-2 (cluster warhead of 1,400 bomblets), solid-fuel Zalzals, Zolfaghar73, Z-3, and SCUD-Bs,” all capable of making life miserable for warships in the Persian Gulf and, presumably, on the ground in neighboring Iraq.

In addition to activating Hezbollah, a wild card to say the least, de Borchgrave notes “Russia and China have made clear they will not be part of any tough sanction regime against Iran. They both have strong commercial ties to Iran. Tehran is paying Russia $700 million for 29 air defense missile systems. China signed a 10-year, $100 billion oil deal with Iran,” although, again, this is of niggling concern to the madcap neocons, determined to attack all comers, including a Russia and China bristling with nukes.

But never mind. As Ledeen deems it, “we are at war with Iran, and it is long past time to respond,” never mind the global consequences, both economically and biologically.

Michael Ledeen and the Prince of Darkness, as representative of the neocon wing of the neoliberal cabal, have ants in their pants and believe the time is well past nigh to deal with the Islamofascists—no matter the obvious dire consequences, long sought after exigencies they hanker to invoke as radical and demented Jacobins.

It is Arnaud de Borchgrave’s task to convince us there are more level heads at work within the Iraq Study Group, namely the Baker Boys, viz., the Bush crime family consigliere James A. Baker III and the nine eleven cover up artist, Lee H. Hamilton, who “wanted neocon idol Donald Rumsfeld replaced as defense secretary before going public with their findings.”

Of course, in Rummy’s stead is none other than the Iran-Contra criminal and former CIA Director Robert M. Gates, another Bush crime family notable.

Instead of bombing the daylights out of Iran, we are told, this camarilla of Bush insiders want to “explore a geopolitical deal with a country that has legitimate security interests.”

Back in 1953, Iran had “legitimate security interests,” although this did not stop the CIA from plotting to overthrow its democratically elected leader, Mohammad Mosaddeq. In fact, for Iran, the “28 Mordad” coup, a date remembered well by Iranians as a humiliating blow resulting in the reign of the Shah and his brutal SAVAK, is at the center of its relationship with the United States.

Most Americans are oblivious.

Finally, no doubt it is not lost on the Iranians that James Baker is hardly an even-handed broker, as he is a CFR member and senior counsel to the Carlyle Group.

Although Baker’s call for talks with Iran and Syria may put a damper on the neocon strategy to decimate the Arab and Muslim Middle East, it may also force their hand before Cheney—the neocon mole long burrowed inside the Bush political apparatus—is forced to exit stage right.