THINKING FOR OURSELVES

Without Restraint

By Shea Howell

Michigan Citizen, Oct. 7-13, 2007

The evidence is mounting that Bush will attack Iran. Many of us want to believe that the administration is not that foolish. We know that any attack would be unjustified and would result in unimaginable destruction. It would unleash waves of violence on a global scale that would plague the earth for generations.

Yet, it should be clear that Bush is unrestrained. He is head of one the most violent regimes on the globe. He has illegally invaded two nations. He is responsible for the deaths of a million Iraqi children, women and men. He is responsible for the displacement of more than two million people from their homes. His administration is responsible for a holocaust, done in our name.

It is also clear that public opinion does not stop Bush. There is no support for war against Iran. According to a March poll, 57% of people in the U.S. believe Iran can be contained with diplomacy. 20% don't see Iran as an imminent threat and only 15% support military action.

However, the administration is chipping away at this resistance.

First, it is establishing an intellectual argument for the attack. Right wing ideologues argue that we are locked in a global war where the actions of specific nations are only understood as part of a larger, collective struggle.

Norman Podhoretz, the longtime Commentary editor, recently said that “we'd be nuts not to immediately bomb Iran."

To the neoconservative forces Iran is just one more front in the war on terror. "Afghanistan and Iraq,” according to Podhoretz, ‘cannot be understood if they are regarded as self- contained wars in their own right. Instead, we have to see them as fronts or theaters that have been opened up in the early stages of a protracted global struggle. The same thing is true of Iran ...it is the main sponsor of the terrorism that is Islamofascism's weapon of choice (and) a front in World War IV."

This idea is finding its way into Bush’s speeches. On the day that the UN inspectors announced that Iran was not a nuclear threat, Bush spoke about how it has put the Middle East "under the shadow of a nuclear holocaust" and predicted action against Iran would come "before it is too late."

Following the same line, Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn) said during the Petraeus hearings, "If [the Iranians] don't play by the rules, we've got to use our force, and to me, that would include taking military action to stop them from doing what they're doing."

Lieberman is voicing the new Administration lie that our failures in Iraq are because of Iran.

Realizing that invoking the nuclear specter raises suspicions of crooked intelligence and faked reports, Bush has decided to use alleged Iranian interference in Iraq as the primary justification for war. Thus, Bush said in August: "Iran's leaders...cannot escape responsibility for aiding attacks against coalition forces...The Iranian regime must halt these actions. And until it does, I will take actions necessary to protect our troops. I have authorized our military commanders in Iraq to confront Tehran's murderous activities."

The U.S. is provoking Iran at every opportunity. We kidnap Iranian officials in Iraq, label the Revolutionary Guard “terrorists”, and ridicule and insult their elected leaders.

Congress seems unable to grasp the seriousness of this march toward war. Earlier this year the House leadership was unable to even raise the idea of a resolution requiring the President to "consult" with Congress before attacking Iran.

As the drumbeat mounts, we should press for the impeachment of this President. He is not only destroying all constitutional restraints in pursuit of imperial power but endangering the future of the earth itself.

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