Even though the limited intelligence being used by the Bush Administration to con Americans into supporting an attack on Iran is "thin," ( click here ) to say the least, Iran's recent launch of a powerful rocket into space and thumbing its nose at U.N. demands concerning its nuclear program are like waving a red flag in a bull's face and don't help relieve the tension between Iran and the U.S. All it will take is one miscalculation in Tehran or Washington and the region will be drowned in blood.
In short, all hell is about to break loose on the military front in the greater Middle East/South Asia region, with the U.S. being right in the middle of it. The Pentagon leaders know it and want no part of it, apparently from Secretary Gates on down through the Joint Chiefs of Staff. It was reported over the weekend that at least five generals and several admirals will resign ( http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/iraq/article1434540.ece) if Bush decides to bomb Iran. Our allies know the reality of what's happening and warn against U.S. policy; Tony Blair, for instance, has expressed his serious reservations about the U.S. desire to attack Iran.
U.S. SUPPORTING JIHADIST GROUPS!
And, to top it all off, and take us back to that thin line between reality and satire: U.S. policy, according to Sy Hersh's new must-read article in The New Yorker ( http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/articles/070305fa_fact_hersh ), is being redirected to support Al Qaida-linked Sunni terrorist groups as a buffer against the rising power of Shiite Iran. I couldn't make this stuff up!
Here are some quotes from Hersh: He says the U.S. has been "pumping money, a great deal of money, without congressional authority, without any congressional oversight" for covert operations in the Middle East where it wants to "stop the Shiite spread or the Shiite influence." Hersh says these funds have ended up in the hands of "three Sunni jihadist groups" who are "connected to al Qaeda" but "want to take on Hezbollah. ... We are simply in a situation where this president is really taking his notion of executive privilege to the absolute limit here, running covert operations, using money that was not authorized by Congress, supporting groups indirectly that are involved with the same people that did 9/11."
We American citizens must keep saying it, and saying it even more loudly: CheneyBush policy in Iraq and Iran is absolute madness and must be stopped in its tracks.
We voters thought we were sending a clear, decisive message to CheneyBush in the November midterm election -- to get our troops out of there and tamp down the imperial adventurism -- but they chose not to listen. So we have our work cut out for us, to be sure.
A mass-based popular intervention may be the only thing that will save our country. Let's roll up our oppositional sleeves and get to it.#
Bernard Weiner, Ph.D. in government & international relations, has taught at universities in California and Washington, worked as a writer/editor with the San Francisco Chronicle, and currently is co-editor of The Crisis Papers (www.crisispapers.org). To comment: crisispapers@comcast.net .
First published by The Crisis Papers 2/27/07. www.crisispapers.org/essays7w/bobing.htm
Bernard Weiner, Ph.D. in government & international relations, has taught at universities in California and Washington, worked for two decades as a writer-editor at the San Francisco Chronicle, and currently serves as co-editor of The Crisis Papers (www.crisispapers.org).
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