Bush
Plans War On Iran
By Prof. Marjorie
Cohn
07 September, 2007
Global
Research
The
Sunday Times of London is reporting that the Pentagon has plans for
three days of massive air strikes against 1,200 targets in Iran . Last
week, Alexis Debat, director of terrorism and national security at the
Nixon Center , told a meeting of The National Interest, a conservative
foreign policy journal, that the military did not intend to carry out
"pinprick strikes" against Iranian nuclear facilities. He
said, "They're about taking out the entire Iranian military."
Bush has already set the
wheels in motion. With Rovian timing, Alberto Gonzales' resignation
was sandwiched between two Bush screeds - one aimed at ensuring Congress
scares up $50 billion more for the occupation of Iraq , the other designed
to scare us into supporting war on Iran . As Gonzales rides off into
the sunset, the significant questions are who will take his place and
how that choice will facilitate Bush's occupation of Iraq and attack
on Iran .
One name that's been floated
for Bush's third attorney general is Joe Lieberman, the "independent"
senator from Connecticut . Lieberman, who advocates the use of military
force against Iran , was the only person Bush quoted in his August 28
speech to the American Legion. Bush called Iran "the world's leading
state sponsor of terrorism" and pledged to "confront Tehran
's murderous activities."
Gonzales greased the Bush/Cheney
wheels for torturing in violation of the Geneva Conventions, illegally
spying on Americans, and purging disloyal Bushies.
Similarly, Lieberman would
ensure the Justice Department mounts a vigorous defense of a war of
aggression against Iran . And Bush would get a two-fer: Connecticut
's Republican governor would appoint a Republican to fill Lieberman's
seat, returning control of the Senate to the GOP. A Republican-controlled
Senate would direct the agenda, thereby furthering the Bush/Cheney plan.
Lieberman is closely affiliated
with American Israeli Public Affairs Committee. "AIPAC leverages
its power by an alliance with the Christian Right, which has adopted
a bizarre ideology of 'Christian Zionism,'" according to University
of Michigan professor Juan Cole. "It holds that the sooner the
Palestinians are ethnically cleansed, the sooner Christ will come back.
Without millions of these Christian Zionist allies," Cole added,
"AIPAC would be much less influential and effective."
During the 2004 election,
a 100% "AIPAC voting record" was Lieberman's litmus test for
an acceptable presidential candidate. As the House of Representatives
was on the verge of passing a resolution that would've required Bush
to consult Congress before attacking Iran, the AIPAC lobby stopped it
in its tracks.
Bush's WMD-hyping against
Iran is déja vu in the run-up to Operation Iraqi Disaster, where
he played loose and fast with the truth about Iraq 's alleged WMDs.
His statement that a nuclear Iran could put the region "under the
shadow of a nuclear holocaust" conjures up his images of a "mushroom
cloud" in the hype-up to Iraq .
How inconvenient for Bush
that the UN International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) just found Iran
's uranium enrichment program is operating well below capacity and is
nowhere near producing significant amounts of nuclear fuel. The IAEA
report says Iran "has been providing the agency with access to
declared nuclear materials, and has provided the required nuclear material
accountancy reports in connection with declared nuclear material and
facilities."
Iran and IAEA agreed on a
plan with a step-by-step timetable of cooperation to settle unresolved
issues. The agreement said there were "no other remaining issues
and ambiguities regarding Iran 's past nuclear program and activities,"
and characterized the accord as "a significant step forward."
"This is the first time
Iran is ready to discuss all the outstanding issues which triggered
the crisis in confidence," said IAEA director general Mohamed ElBaradei.
"I'm clear at this stage you need to give Iran a chance to prove
its stated goodwill. Sanctions alone, I know for sure, are not going
to lead to a durable solution".
In 2003, when Dr. ElBaradei
reported there was no evidence that Iraq was reconstituting its nuclear
program, the White House was not pleased. And as Saddam Hussein became
more cooperative with the weapons inspector, Bush became "infuriated,"
according to Bob Woodward.
Bush's vow, "We will
confront this danger before it is too late," is the Iran incarnation
of his illegal preemptive war doctrine, which he inaugurated in Iraq
. In a clear signal he is seeking regime change in Iran , Bush called
for "an Iran whose government is accountable to its people, instead
of leaders who promote terror and pursue the technology that could be
used to develop nuclear weapons."
Barnett Rubin reported on
Global Affairs blog that one of the leading neo-conservative institutions
has "instructions" from Dick Cheney's office to "roll
out a campaign for war with Iran in the week after Labor Day; it will
be coordinated with the American Enterprise Institute, the Wall Street
Journal, the Weekly Standard, Commentary, Fox, and the usual suspects.
It will be heavy sustained assault on the airwaves, designed to knock
public sentiment into a position from which a war can be maintained.
Evidently they don't think they'll ever get majority support for this
- they want something like 35-40 percent support, which in their book
is 'plenty.'"
Bush/Cheney created the White
House Iraq Group (WHIG) to lead a propaganda campaign to bolster public
support for war with Iraq . The White House decided to wait until after
Labor Day of 2002 to kick off WHIG's mission. Chief of staff Andrew
Card explained, "From a marketing point of view, you don't introduce
new products in August." Five years later, they're marketing a
new and even more dangerous product - war with Iran . British military
historian Corelli Barnett says "an attack on Iran would effectively
launch World War III."
Our military spending has
reached $1 billion every 2-1/2 days and we are borrowing $2-1/2 billion
per day. Bush is mortgaging our children’s future security and
wealth. We have lost more than 3,700 soldiers in Iraq and hundreds of
thousands of Iraqis have died.
We have already seen how easily Congress caves in to AIPAC. It's up
to the people. As Noam Chomsky said, "The most effective barrier
to a White House decision to launch a war [on Iran] is the kind of organized
popular opposition that frightened the political-military leadership
enough in 1968 that they were reluctant to send more troops to Vietnam."
Marjorie Cohn is a professor at Thomas Jefferson School
of Law and president of the National Lawyers Guild. She is the author
of " Cowboy Republic : Six Ways the Bush Gang Has Defied the Law."
Her articles are archived at http://www.marjoriecohn
.com/.
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