Bush targets Iran

The headline over an ad in the New York Times was blunt: “Job approval down to 34%? Time to start another war.” The first sentence of the text was equally blunt: “George W. Bush is hellbent on being our first three-war president.”
The ad, sponsored by the online Velvet Revolution in Washington, D. C., is no joke. Bush warred in Afghanistan and Iraq. Next: Iran.
To Bush, Iran is a rogue nation, part of an evil empire. It must be prevented from developing nuclear weaponry. But the typical U.S. hypocrisy and double standard is obvious. Israel has nuclear weapons so Iran must be prevented from acquiring them.
America always does the bidding of Israel, its client state. (Israel has never acknowledged its nuclear capability but has up to 200 nuclear warheads. Moreover, Israel refuses to admit arms inspectors.)
Richard Falk asked in a recent article in The Nation: should the world regard “as normal a system of nuclear apartheid in which a select group of nations is entitled to such weapons while others seeking to acquire them are treated as ‘rogue states’?”
The answer is no. And, please, this is not anti-Semitism, the usual charge when anyone criticizes Israel.
Walter Pincus, national security reporter for the Washington Post, asks: “Why shouldn’t the Iranians have nuclear weapons?” He answers cogently: “They’re surrounded by countries that have nuclear weapons: India, Pakistan, China, Russia and Israel.”
The scenario is similar to that of Iraq. To support a unilateral strike against Iran, beat the drums of war, demonize the foe, pour on the propaganda, threaten sanctions, urge regime change, tell lies and pretend to go the diplomatic route.
Ray McGovern writes on the Website Truthout: “The juggernaut has begun to roll. The White House and Fox News spin machine is at full tilt.” Heading that juggernaut is Bush. He says “we will use military might to protect our ally, Israel.” Vice President Cheney says Iran faces “meaningful consequences” if it does not abandon its nuclear ambitions. John Bolton, the United Nations-hating U.N. ambassador, says Iran faces “painful consequences if it continues nuclear activities.”
Not to be outdone by Goebbels, Bush proclaims: “See, in my line of work you got to keep repeating things over and over again for the truth to sink in, to kind of catapult the propaganda.”
The United States under Bush is the real rogue nation, evil empire spanning the globe. It disdains world sentiment. It is contemptuous of the United Nations. Bush and Cheney are warmongers and war criminals. The American people are the losers in blood, coin and morality.
Several months ago Bush warned Iran not to develop nuclear weapons with a war declaration: “all options are on the table.” He added: “We have used force in the recent past to secure our country.”
A strike against Iran secures America? The absurdity is manifest. What it does secure is Israel. And it also ensures still more worldwide hatred of Bush and America.
This would not be the first time America has meddled in Iranian affairs. It overthrew the democratically elected Mossadegh and installed the Shah. This led to a concatenation of events: the Shah’s police state, his overthrow by the Ayatollah Khomeini, the seizure of hostages at the U.S. embassy in Tehran and the reactionary rule of President Reagan perpetuated today by Bush.
Nor would it be the first time Israel has made a pre-emptive strike. It attacked Iraq’s Osirak nuclear reactor in 1981. It struck at sites in Lebanon and Syria.
Bush always talks of democracy. But he doesn’t really believe in it. The U.S. opposes the elected Hamas government in Palestine. It opposes elected Shiite rule in Iraq. And remember the democratic socialist government in Chile? Overthrown by America.
As the anti-democratic foreign policy guru, Henry Kissinger, remarked: he could see no reason why Chile should be allowed to “go Marxist” simply because “its people are irresponsible.” Ah, the realpolitik of Kissinger’s beloved Metternich. Is it any wonder that so much of the world hates America?
Iran is no threat to America. But when Bush wants war, as he did in Iraq, he goes to war. Neither the Constitution nor the spineless Congress nor the antiwar cries of the American people will stop him.
American presidents usually lie to justify war: Polk in Mexico, McKinley (about Cuba and the Philippines), Wilson in World War I, Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon in Vietnam, Reagan in Grenada, Bush I twice (Panama and the Gulf War) and Bush II in Iraq.
Lies could justify a pre-emptive air strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities. Such a strike by America and/or Israel seems inevitable.
Sparks Tribune, April 13, 2006