| by Marjorie Cohn Page 1 of 2 page(s) | | |   |
The Sunday Times of London is reporting that the Pentagon has plans for three days of massive air strikes against 1,200 targets in Iran. Last week, Alexis Debat, director of terrorism and national security at the Nixon Center, told a meeting of The National Interest, a conservative foreign policy journal, that the military did not intend to carry out "pinprick strikes" against Iranian nuclear facilities. He said, "They're about taking out the entire Iranian military."
Bush has already set the wheels in motion. With Rovian timing, Alberto Gonzales' resignation was sandwiched between two Bush screeds - one aimed at ensuring Congress scares up $50 billion more for the occupation of Iraq, the other designed to scare us into supporting war on Iran. As Gonzales rides off into the sunset, the significant questions are who will take his place and how that choice will facilitate Bush's occupation of Iraq and attack on Iran.
One name that's been floated for Bush's third attorney general is Joe Lieberman, the "independent" senator from Connecticut. Lieberman, who advocates the use of military force against Iran, was the only person Bush quoted in his August 28 speech to the American Legion. Bush called Iran "the world's leading state sponsor of terrorism" and pledged to "confront Tehran's murderous activities."
Gonzales greased the Bush/Cheney wheels for torturing in violation of the Geneva Conventions, illegally spying on Americans, and purging disloyal Bushies.
Similarly, Lieberman would ensure the Justice Department mounts a vigorous defense of a war of aggression against Iran. And Bush would get a two-fer: Connecticut's Republican governor would appoint a Republican to fill Lieberman's seat, returning control of the Senate to the GOP. A Republican-controlled Senate would direct the agenda, thereby furthering the Bush/Cheney plan.
Lieberman is closely affiliated with American Israeli Public Affairs Committee. "AIPAC leverages its power by an alliance with the Christian Right, which has adopted a bizarre ideology of 'Christian Zionism,'" according to University of Michigan professor Juan Cole. "It holds that the sooner the Palestinians are ethnically cleansed, the sooner Christ will come back. Without millions of these Christian Zionist allies," Cole added, "AIPAC would be much less influential and effective."
During the 2004 election, a 100% "AIPAC voting record" was Lieberman's litmus test for an acceptable presidential candidate. As the House of Representatives was on the verge of passing a resolution that would've required Bush to consult Congress before attacking Iran, the AIPAC lobby stopped it in its tracks.
Bush's WMD-hyping against Iran is déja vu in the run-up to Operation Iraqi Disaster, where he played loose and fast with the truth about Iraq's alleged WMDs. His statement that a nuclear Iran could put the region "under the shadow of a nuclear holocaust" conjures up his images of a "mushroom cloud" in the hype-up to Iraq.
How inconvenient for Bush that the UN International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) just found Iran's uranium enrichment program is operating well below capacity and is nowhere near producing significant amounts of nuclear fuel. The IAEA report says Iran "has been providing the agency with access to declared nuclear materials, and has provided the required nuclear material accountancy reports in connection with declared nuclear material and facilities."
Iran and IAEA agreed on a plan with a step-by-step timetable of cooperation to settle unresolved issues. The agreement said there were "no other remaining issues and ambiguities regarding Iran's past nuclear program and activities," and characterized the accord as "a significant step forward."
"This is the first time Iran is ready to discuss all the outstanding issues which triggered the crisis in confidence," said IAEA director general Mohamed ElBaradei. "I'm clear at this stage you need to give Iran a chance to prove its stated goodwill. Sanctions alone, I know for sure, are not going to lead to a durable solution"
In 2003, when Dr. ElBaradei reported there was no evidence that Iraq was reconstituting its nuclear program, the White House was not pleased. And as Saddam Hussein became more cooperative with the weapons inspector, Bush became "infuriated," according to Bob Woodward.
Bush's vow, "We will confront this danger before it is too late," is the Iran incarnation of his illegal preemptive war doctrine, which he inaugurated in Iraq. In a clear signal he is seeking regime change in Iran, Bush called for "an Iran whose government is accountable to its people, instead of leaders who promote terror and pursue the technology that could be used to develop nuclear weapons."
Barnett Rubin reported on Global Affairs blog that one of the leading neo-conservative institutions has "instructions" from Dick Cheney's office to "roll out a campaign for war with Iran in the week after Labor Day; it will be coordinated with the American Enterprise Institute, the Wall Street Journal, the Weekly Standard, Commentary, Fox, and the usual suspects. It will be heavy sustained assault on the airwaves, designed to knock public sentiment into a position from which a war can be maintained. Evidently they don't think they'll ever get majority support for this - they want something like 35-40 percent support, which in their book is 'plenty.'"
Bush/Cheney created the White House Iraq Group (WHIG) to lead a propaganda campaign to bolster public support for war with Iraq. The White House decided to wait until after Labor Day of 2002 to kick off WHIG's mission. Chief of staff Andrew Card explained, "From a marketing point of view, you don't introduce new products in August." Five years later, they're marketing a new and even more dangerous product - war with Iran. British military historian Corelli Barnett says "an attack on Iran would effectively launch World War III."
Our military spending has reached $1 billion every 2-1/2 days and we are borrowing $2-1/2 billion per day. Bush is mortgaging our children's future security and wealth. We have lost more than 3,700 soldiers in Iraq and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis have died.
1 | 2
http://www.marjoriecohn.com
Marjorie Cohn is a professor at Thomas Jefferson School of Law and President of the National Lawyers Guild. Her new book, Cowboy Republic: Six Ways the Bush Gang Has Defied the Law, was just published by PoliPointPress.
| 1 comments |
| Well, folks ... Here it is .. right in OpEd News, where the dreaded word, zionism, MUST be used to describe the context for the adminstration's wrongheaded and immoral policies in the Middle East. There can be no doubt in anyone's mind any longer how this strange strategy to dominate the Midlde East by an absolutely declining empire has come to be. What should also be becoming absolutely fundamentally clear is that this policy is totally self defeating for Isreal's and the US' governments as surely the global reaction will be one of horrified disbelief and a complete desire to see both countries obliterated. In mid August, Paul Craig Roberts posted this article, in case anyone missed i, arguinig that Isreali policy, decided by a few, is totally self defeating. He followed that up yesterday with this item. This should be making all our hairs stand on end. While the global powers that be may see this rapidly escalating war scenario as something to be pursued, any sane person taking a real look at what is going on simply must be sitting down writing those letters and doing whatever they possibly can to eliminate this threat to the world. It's not just a matter of it being wasteful and strategical incorrect, or whatever an academic or think tank wonk may find wrong .. really, a war on Iran is not *just* the end of the American empire, it puts the survival of the entire world at risk. The Rapture is not going to be the outcome. Reduction of the world's population to that "magic" number of 1/2 billion sustainable people (Henry Kissinger's USEFUL EATERS) is NOT going to be the byproduct either; everyone will be TOAST. No one on any side side is going to be using 'conventional' weapons, no one is going to be abiding by the Geneva Accords or fair fighting, no country (or mercercany army leading the battle, which is the CASE), can come up with a plan that encompasses all the possible factors in waging this kind of war!! Not one living person or group (no matter how much money, time or energy at their disposal) can even imagine what will be entailed in this coming war ...the cost will be a man-made Armageddon that becomes The Point of No Return. I have seen with my own two eyes, the plan that Dick Cheney has to justify this war - it was sent to me by some conspiracy theorists. It is marked by true MADNESS .. a plot even more diablolic than 9/11 -- to make it appear that nukes are being used against Americans. There is a plot to claim that their are suitcase nukes buried all over North America, as well as a staged air attack on the East Coast. They will stoop THAT LOW, bringing down the entire US Air Force to carry out this plan. It is no wonder that this article is probably the MOST READ article on the web this weekend, most commented on, as it expresses a latent hope that military personnel will blow the whistle on the takeover of the US military. One can only pray that, indeed, we are NOT going to be hitting Iran, Big or Little Time and that the US and UK military personnel will never allow this to happen. Anyone who wants an xray of current American thinking about this planned war scenario, should go have a read of the comments posted on this blog, Informed Comment Political Affairs. There is no unanimity about the situation as it is developing, but certainly some of the most valid points to be made are THERE. It's the stuff the MSM is NOT saying, it's too afraid to say them. As I type this, I find that puppetboy Bu$h has gone over to Iraq on a "surprise' visit. Nothing this corrupt global alliance does should be, or even is, surprising any more. The only good thing about this is that it is almost an insurance policy (and I am so paranoid, I wonder if it really is) that a nuclear holocaust is not about to explode until he leaves. This explains what we are up against as does This. [Be patient, they take some time to load ..] We are facing a situation where The Players are outside the conventional military "box" and have no restraints placed on their ability to do raw, HARD damage to any population that they face. The breakdown of the US military is nearly complete now. Blackwater and Greystone and Garda have become our tyrants ... The truly paranoid think that Iran's leadership is selling out to the greedy globalists, provoking and poking to get the US to bomb them; selling out their people to get the magic silver coins by being treasonous to their people, expecting some big reward in the end. I think this is really speculative and merely that. This thinking will leave observers thinking that Iran had it coming. No people in any country deserve to be wiped out and their energy and other resources dessimated unless these resources are to be used to fuel US and Isreali agression. What all this talk does is convince me that diplomatic efforts to avert this entire situation needed to be made at every critical junction since 9/11 and the war plans scrapped and stopped by CONgress. And we must be screaming LOUD and LONG to ensure that the very rusty State Department, long bloated by nonwork, gets on it right away. We must start SOMEWHERE. At least the State Department isn't politicians and they have no need at all to take AIPAC money and listen to all the ill-considered plans they come up with. If the US does not do this, then the rest of the world will be up both America's and Isreal's backsides, as it is clear enough to THEM that the US simply cannot fight Isreal's wars of agression any more. Personallly, I think the key to the puzzle is ensuring clean water for ALL in the Middle East before it is all contaminated by du .. in which case I think we are all toast, no matter what the CIA may be contending. The Lebanon invasion was really to take back a water plant; millions paid for this goal by being turned into refugees. Meanwhile, in Baghdad, a child is dieing about being denied access to clean water!! Right around the globe, water is being containerized so that it can be turned into a COMMODITY, as freestanding water cannot be "sold" .. this again is a fact going on under the radar. We do not need to rebuild The Temple; we need to ensure drinking water for everyone in the Middle East!! Please take a long, cool drink of your free water, and then sit down and write out your opposition to this coming war and send it to the media and to your 'elected' representatives TODAY. As progressives we simply must take back the lead to establishing a sane society based on our love of PEOPLE and not be complicit in any more war crimes. We have the power ... Virginia |
