VOICES IN THE WILDERNESS, AGAIN

Caption: At least these chickens don't think they're hawks.

The Bush administration has a pretty consistent record of disregarding the warning voices of experienced military and intelligence experts.

Here's hoping they don't do the same thing again.

According to the Associated Press, former high-ranking U.S. officials are urging for a diplomatic rather than military approach to U.S. tensions with Iran:

LONDON - Three former high-ranking U.S. military officers have called for Britain to help defuse the crisis over Iran's nuclear program, saying military action against Tehran would be a disaster for the region.

In a letter to the Sunday Times newspaper, the three former officers urged President Bush to open talks, "without preconditions," with the Iranian government in a bid to find a diplomatic solution.

The signatories were retired Lt. Gen. Robert G. Gard, a senior military fellow at the Center for Arms Control and Nonproliferation in Washington, D.C.; retired Marine Gen. Joseph P. Hoar, former head of U.S. Central Command; and Vice Adm. Jack Shanahan, former director of the Center for Defense Information.

So far, in the two way contest between sanity and administration policy, sanity comes in a distant third.

BONUS FEATURE. There is a great deal of evidence that social inequalities are hardening in the U.S. and that that social mobility now is actually greater in some European countries. For a breakdown, here's an op-ed by your humble goat herder in yesterday's Gazette-Mail.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED