President Bush has gotten himself into a bind. His wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are going badly, his poll numbers are down; and if the Republicans lose control of Congress in November, he will probably be impeached. Under these circumstances, there is only one thing Bush can do to save his legacy. He has to start another war. Maybe number three will be his lucky number.
If you’ve been keeping up with the news, it will come as no surprise that Iran is the Bush Administration’s next victim. There is no legitimate reason to attack Iran, but they’ve never let that stop them before.
If you look past the Bush Administration, the neoconservatives, and their media stooges, you will find that most people don’t think America starting another war is a good idea—especially against Iran.
• “Analysts fear a military strike would ‘rally the Iranian public around an otherwise unpopular regime, inflame anti-American anger around the Muslim world, and jeopardize the already fragile U.S. position in Iraq.’” --The Progress Report, April 10, 2006
In February, the Oxford Research Group’s released a prediction:
• “A US military attack on Iranian nuclear infrastructure would be the start of a protracted military confrontation that would probably involve Iraq, Israel and Lebanon as well as the United States and Iran, with the possibility of western Gulf States being involved as well.”
Their report concludes: “A military response to the current crisis is a particularly dangerous option and should not be considered further. Alternative approaches must be sought, however difficult these may be.” (Prior to the Iraq War, they predicted that Saddam’s regime would be easily beaten, but Iraq would become a “hotbed of insurgency”.)
• “…[A] repeat of any "Shock and Awe" tactics is not advisable given that Iran has installed sophisticated anti-ship missiles on the Island of Abu Musa, and therefore controls the critical Strait of Hormuz. In the case of a U.S. attack, a shut down of the Strait of Hormuz – where all of the Persian Gulf bound oil tankers must pass – could easily trigger a market panic with oil prices skyrocketing to $100 per barrel or more.” --William Clark , author of Petrodollar Warfare - Oil, Iraq and the Future of the Dollar, Media Monitors Network, 8/3/05
• “After [running numerous high-level war-gaming sessions], I am left with two simple sentences for policymakers: You have no military solution for the issues of Iran. And you have to make diplomacy work.” --Sam Gardiner, a retired Air Force colonel who has run war games at the National War College for the past two decades, quoted in the Atlantic Monthly, December 2004.
• “… the president of the United States does not have a military option. He can say he has a military option; he does not have a military option.” --Rep. John Murtha (D-PA), MSNBC, 3/19/06
No one seriously believes that Bush can order an invasion of Iran because he has already squandered too much of his military resources on his twin quagmires in Iraq and Afghanistan. Instead, the plan is to bomb some 450 sites across Iran. Then, according to the same masterminds who started the Iraq War, the Iranian people will see the error of their ways, overthrow their Islamic government, and become a bastion of American-style democracy—just like in Iraq.
Just in case bombing Iran doesn’t sound crazy enough for you; how about “nuking” Iran?
• “The Pentagon, acting under instructions from Vice President Dick Cheney’s office, has tasked the United States Strategic Command (STRATCOM) with drawing up a contingency plan to be employed in response to another 9/11-type terrorist attack on the United States. The plan includes a large-scale air assault on Iran employing both conventional and tactical nuclear weapons.” --former CIA Officer Philip Giraldi, a, The American Conservative, 8/1/05
The beauty of the Cheney plan is that Iran doesn’t even have to be involved in the terrorist attack. If the Bush Administration can’t come up with any better excuse, they can use their new expanded definition of terrorism to attack Iran if someone sneaks into a Bush rally wearing a “NO WAR FOR OIL” tee-shirt.
• According to Giraldi: “Several senior Air Force officers involved in the planning are reportedly appalled at the implications of what they are doing—that Iran is being set up for an unprovoked nuclear attack—but no one is prepared to damage his career by posing any objections”
• “[A military strike] would accelerate, not delay, the Iranian nuclear program. Hard-liners in Tehran would be proven right in their claim that the only thing that can deter the United States is a nuclear bomb. Iranian leaders could respond with a crash nuclear program that could produce a bomb in a few years.” --Joseph Cirincione, nonproliferation expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, quoted in Foreign Policy, 3/27/06
Mick Youther is an American citizen, an independent voter, a veteran, a parent, a Christian, a scientist, a writer, and all-around nice guy who has been aroused from a comfortable apathy by the high crimes and misdemeanors of the Bush Administration.
House passes the Iran Freedom Suppport ACT ( see Justine Raimondo above) and ... no Dems were there.
My fellow- Americans, the countdown had begun. We are all dead. Look in the mirror for the last time and go buy your place in the cemetery. Your representatives had killed you.
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Mark Sashine (46 articles, 19 quicklinks, 234 diaries, 3348 comments)
on Friday, April 28, 2006 at 1:48:15 PM
May I venture to suggest that the American military's time would be much better spent if they nuked the White House with the present incumbent and his entire entourage in situ.
In the hope that said military will see the light and do the decent thing, it is reasonably certain that the rest of the world is already breaking out the flags to welcome America back into the fold of sane and responsible nations, from which we trust it has strayed on only a temporary basis.
And since the Congress and Senate are clearly beyond redemption, you had better call a couple of plenary sessions and nuke them while you are about it.
Then the world can get back to normal . . . The Middle East, you ask? Yes, right, you can vaporize that problem too, just to teach them not to be so silly.
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amazin (31 articles, 0 quicklinks, 10 diaries, 377 comments)
on Sunday, April 30, 2006 at 1:37:14 PM
