In case there was any doubt out there, the U.S. will be bombing Iran in the near future under the pretext of eliminating its possibly nonexistent nuclear weapons program. So said Jim Quinn, Pittsburgh (and XM Radio) “conservative” talk show host, this morning.

Quinn may be trying to exaggerate his own influence a bit with this story, but it seems believable enough, so here goes. A couple weeks ago the Bush administration labeled Iran’s Revolutionary Guard a terrorist organization. Quinn, being sharp as a tack, analyzed this as preparing the legal groundwork for military action on Iran and, after checking around to make sure he wouldn’t be cluing in the Iranians to this if he announced it on his show (because the Iranians are obviously dumb as posts and wouldn’t be able to figure this out on their own), said as much on the air.

This ignited a firestorm of indignation among the big-name talkers, who had been invited to the White House to meet with the president and had been told of the impending strikes on Iran but asked to keep it under wraps until the administration gave them the green light. How dare the administration let some pipsqueak in Pittsburgh break this story! The administration was apparently unfazed by this and was even, in fact, a bit happy that the strikes had first been reported in a smaller market as a sort of trial balloon.Quinn further noted at the time that the acquiescience of British Prime Minister Brown and French President Sarkozy in the proposed military action indicated that the strikes were imminent. The only thing left, he said, was a media (i.e., propaganda) campaign designed to make Iran look really bad (i.e., as the next Third Reich). That has already begun in earnest with Sarkozy’s announcement that bombing Iran to stop its nuclear program is entirely appropriate.

Needless to say, Quinn is happy with both his newfound influence and the administration’s plans to attack another country that has done us no harm. V.D. Hanson isn’t the only alleged conservative who literally loves war.