Iran: An Invitation
I’ve been thinking a lot about the administration’s plans for Iran. Am I the only one?
I mentioned it to a number of people over the weekend, and got very disturbing responses. Some people had absolutely no idea what I was talking about. Some people didn’t understand that the plan being formulated is for a nuclear attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities. One man confidently asserted that it’s all just sabre rattling, that the administration wasn’t stupid enough to actually attack.
To me, it seems like the administration is employing the same plan they used for Iraq. Demonization, assertion of a threat, distorted intelligence, disingenuous gestures at negotiation, threats and provocation, and ultimately a manufactured casus belli.
Of course, it’s not just the administration that’s in favor of nuking Iran. The top Democratic presidential candidates have all gone out of their way to indicate that "all options are on the table," "all options" being the polite way of saying first-strike nuclear attack in which potentially hundreds of thousands of human beings are incinerated and poisoned.
With the Democrats and Republicans trying to "out-hawk" each other on Iran, there is no countervailing political force. Thus, an attack seems all too likely. Given their record, I think they *are* stupid enough to attack Iran.
So I find the apathy among my friends and associates regarding Iran *appalling*. If an attack is to be prevented, who will do it? Not Congress, not the Democrats. They can’t even bring themselves to deal with the actual disaster of Iraq, let alone the potential disaster of Iran. If our feckless legislators can’t stop our reckless executive, who then has the power to prevent this horrifying human tragedy?
At this point, I’m not interested in debating whether maybe nuking Iran might be a good idea. For me, that debate is dead, it’s offensive, and it’s a waste of time.
What is interesting to me is getting ahead of the whole process, brainstorming with others who would like to actually prevent an attack from happening. Therefore, I invite any of you who share my concerns, and my determination to be an actor — not a reactor — to contact me. Since not all of you agree with this endeavor, or perhaps are even interested in it, I will be setting up a dedicated list on my own server. Not a list for endless discussions, hand wringing, diatribes and complaints; a list with the aim of preventing a war. All are welcome.
Thanks for listening —
Liam
Here are a couple more recent articles on Iran, one from conservative Patrick Buchanan and one from Seymour Hersh. (The Hersh article also describes how the Bush administration is funneling money to… Sunni extremists in Lebanon allied with Al Qaeda? Fact is stranger than fiction!)
Patrick Buchanan, 3/3/07:
If Americans sickened by the carnage of Iraq wish to stop an even more disastrous war on Iran, they had best get cracking.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article17229.htm
Seymour Hersh, 2/25/07:
… the Pentagon is continuing intensive planning for a possible bombing attack on Iran, a process that began last year, at the direction of the President. In recent months, the former intelligence official told me, a special planning group has been established in the offices of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, charged with creating a contingency bombing plan for Iran that can be implemented, upon orders from the President, within twenty-four hours.
http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/articles/070305fa_fact_hersh