The same neocons who persuaded George W. Bush and crew to, in Ron Paul’s inimitable words, “lie their way into invading Iraq” in 2003, are beating the drums of war more loudly these days to attack Iran. It is remarkable how many of these warmongers are former draft dodgers who wanted other Americans to fight the war in Vietnam.
With the exception of Ron Paul, who actually knows the history of U.S.-Iranian relations, the Republican presidential contenders have declared their belligerency toward Iranian officials whom they accuse of moving toward nuclear weapons.
The Iranian regime disputes that charge, claiming they are developing the technology for nuclear power and nuclear medicine.
The inspection teams of the International Atomic Energy Authority (IAEA) that monitor compliance with the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), to which Iran belongs, have entered Iran numerous times and, while remaining suspicious, have not been able to find that country on the direct road to the Bomb.
While many western and some Arab countries in the Gulf region have condemned Iran’s alleged nuclear arms quest, Israel maintains some 200 ready nuclear weapons and has refused to sign the NPT, thereby avoiding the IAEA inspectors.
Israelis in the know have much to say. Defense Minister Ehud Barak responded to PBS’s Charlie Rose’s question “If you were Iran wouldn’t you want a nuclear weapon?” with these words:
“Probably, probably. I don’t delude myself that they are doing it just because of Israel. They have their history of 4,000 years. They look around and they see the Indians are nuclear. The Chinese are nuclear, Pakistan is nuclear as well as North Korea, not to mention the Russians.”
The Iranian regime, with a national GDP smaller than Massachusetts, is terrified. It is surrounded by powerful adversaries, including the U.S. military on three of its borders. President George W. Bush labeled Iran, along with Iraq and North Korea, one of three countries in the “axis of evil,” and Tehran knows what happened to Iraq after that White House assertion. They also know that North Korea inoculated itself from invasion by testing nuclear bombs. And all Iranians remember that the U.S. overthrew their popular elected Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh in 1953 and installed the dictatorial Shah who ruled tyrannically for the next 27 years.
Recently, Iran has experienced mysterious cyber sabotage, drone violations of its air space, the slaying of its nuclear scientists, and the blowing up of its military sites, including a major missile installation. Israeli and American officials are not trying too hard to conceal this low-level warfare.
Israel military historian-strategist Martin van Creveld said in 2004 that Iranians “would be crazy not to build nuclear weapons considering the security threats they face.” Three years later he stated that “the world must now learn to live with a nuclear Iran the way we learned to live with a nuclear Soviet Union and a nuclear China….We Israelis have what it takes to deter an Iranian attack. We are in no danger at all of having an Iranian nuclear weapon dropped on us…thanks to the Iranian threat, we are getting weapons from the U.S. and Germany.”
U.S. General John Abizaid is one of numerous military people who say that the world can tolerate a nuclear Iran — which, like other countries, does not wish to commit suicide.
Using the “Iranian threat,” served Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, who on his first tour of duty back in 1996, speaking to a joint session of Congress, made a big point of the forthcoming Iranian bomb.
Somehow the Iranians, who were invaded in 1980 by a U.S.-backed Saddam Hussein, resulting in a million casualties, and who have not invaded anybody for 250 years, are taking a very long time to build a capability for atomic bomb production, much less the actual weapons.
In mid-2011, Meir Dagan, recently retired head of Israel’s “CIA,” repeated his opposition to a military attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities, adding it would engulf the region in a conventional war.
He further took the Israeli government to task for failing “to put forth a vision,” noting that “Israel must present an initiative to the Palestinians and adopt the 2002 Saudi Arabia peace proposal, reiterated since, that would open full diplomatic relations with some two dozen Arab and Islamic countries in return for an Israeli pullback to the 1967 borders and recognition of a Palestinian state.”
The warmongers against Iran have often distorted Iranian statements to suit their purpose and kept in the shadows several friendly Iranian initiatives offered to the George W. Bush Administration.
Flynt Leverett, now with Brookings and before a State Department and CIA official, listed three initiatives that were rejected. Right after the Sept. 11 attacks, Iran offered to help Washington overthrow the Taliban. The U.S. declined the offer. Second, in the spring of 2003, top Iranian officials sent the White House a detailed proposal for comprehensive negotiations to resolve questions regarding its weapons programs, relations with Hezbollah and Hamas and a Palestinian peace agreement with Israel. This proposal was rebuffed and ignored.
Third, in October 2003, European officials secured an agreement from Iran to suspend Iranian uranium enrichment and to pursue talks that Mr. Leverett said “might lead to an economic, nuclear, and strategic deal.” The Bush administration “refused to join the European initiative, ensuring that the talks failed,” he added.
A few days ago, U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Iran was developing a capability for making nuclear weapons someday but was not yet building a bomb. So why is the Obama Administration talking about a western boycott of Iran’s oil exports, so crucial to its faltering, sanctions-ridden economy? Is this latest sanction designed to squeeze Iranian civilians and lead to the overthrow of the regime? Arguably it may backfire and produce more support for the government.
Backing the Iranian regime into such a fateful corner risks counter-measures that may disrupt the gigantic flow of oil through the Strait of Hormuz. Should that occur, watch the prices of your gasoline, heating bill, and other related products go through the roof — among other consequences.
Isn’t it about time for the abdicatory Congress to reassert its constitutional responsibilities? It owes the American people comprehensive, public House and Senate hearings that produce knowledgeable testimony about these issues and all relevant history for wide media coverage.
The drums of war should not move our country into a propagandized media frenzy that preceded and helped cause the Iraq invasion with all the socio-cide in that country and all the costly blowbacks against U.S. national interests?
It is past time for the American citizenry to wake up and declare: Iran will not be an Iraq Redux!
ahmad says: January 13, 2012 at 4:49 pm Good Article by a True Citizen who wants to protect USA from neocon nazis and israhell leeches.
Kermit says: January 13, 2012 at 6:04 pm It’s all about removing the main supporter of Hizb’ALLAH, the nuclear-bomb issue is nothing but hypocrisy. It would be no “redux”.
Susie Van Dyke says: January 13, 2012 at 7:59 pm Rick Santorum promises his crazed religious right wing haters that he will bomb Iran on his first day in office.
How many more wars will we sacrifice our soldiers, our wealth, and our international prestige and reputation , for that racist ,rogue criminal clan that calls themselves Israel ?
Gary says: January 13, 2012 at 9:35 pm Iran needs the bomb soon or it will be too late to save their country from the disaster that awaits them.
Ponders70 says: January 13, 2012 at 10:52 pm To Susie Van Dyke, They will continue to do it as long as the there is a Rogue,Racist,Soulless, Neocon Right in America. Sorry for the vulgarity, but, it pales in comparison to the despicable acts perpatrated by the soulless filth.
sovereignty4us says: January 14, 2012 at 1:33 am For a moderate Leftist Ralph Nader brings encouragement to the prospect that the anti-Zionist Left and Right can unite agaist a common enemy: International Zionism.
Ingrid B says: January 14, 2012 at 3:19 am Ralph Nader, more than anyone outside the inner circle of US politics, must know the ins and outs, the “why`s”, amd “wherefors.” why they do the dastardly things they do..
~~~~~~~~ The OneDollarDVDProject needs patriot activists to help wake the town and tell the people. Do friends and family know what you know?
We all know AIPAC has a war with Iran in the pipeline, the question is will the US military be willing to fight it? Sorry for the rhetorical question, but should they, I hope they get their asses pounded in spades. The Persians are brighter and tougher than this mess of a military we've assembled. Not to mention they will be defending their homeland and will fight like cornered dogs.
The vast majority of the people I try to talk to are willfully ignorant at best and that goes for my family as well. In the twenty years I have been a truth seeker, I have woke up maybe 2 people.
It is hard to free fools from the chains they revere. Voltaire
An ideal form of government is democracy tempered with assassination. Voltaire
Aaron Russo's Freedom to Fascism is a good starting point.
Oh, I thought you were talking about a particular program or system of DVD's.
I had copies of Freedom to Fascism that I handed out to no avail. I have handed out so many DVD's to "dead heads" it's ridiculous. Hence, my favorite term "ostrichsheep". It is very appropriate when discussing most creatures (I hesitate to classify them as humans) that reside in this country at least.
It is hard to free fools from the chains they revere. Voltaire
An ideal form of government is democracy tempered with assassination. Voltaire
The vast majority of the people I try to talk to are willfully ignorant at best and that goes for my family as well. In the twenty years I have been a truth seeker, I have woke up maybe 2 people.
'willfully ignorant' is the part that gets me, plugging their ears, "I don't wanna know." - it angers me now to the point I can not hide it anymore
I know many think this guy Icke is a joke, but I really appreciate the work coming from him and a few rare others last few months:
~ the truth will set ya free, but only after it pisses ya off ~
Aaron Russo's Freedom to Fascism is a good starting point.
Just go to his site and order some to hand out to family, friends, and complete strangers.
You'll have the personal satisfaction of knowing that you tried...
Jim:
I sent that packet of DVDs to Mendenhall of Steeler fame, and the dude sent me a thank-you note. That packet had to contain at least 50? DVDs which I now assume are circulating among his inner clique.
~ the truth will set ya free, but only after it pisses ya off ~
The actual biblical quote is "the truth will make you free"
In other words, you have no choice. If the jailer opens the door to the cell, that's one thing. But to have the jailer open the door and physically push you out of the cell is something a little different.
It is hard to free fools from the chains they revere. Voltaire
An ideal form of government is democracy tempered with assassination. Voltaire
I don't have a TV, but I do scavenge the newspapers where i drink coffee and wifi.
I was happy to see the local Oregon Ducks quarterback is going pro along with the arrogant LaMichael James. I have yet to see an Oregon Duck game, and hope they lose more games next season.
I did win a bet and watch an entire Pro football game on TV once in 1972. It was excruciatingly boring, but somehow I managed it.
#37. To: Ferret, Original_Intent, Itistoolate, abraxas (#35)
I did win a bet and watch an entire Pro football game on TV once in 1972. It was excruciatingly boring, but somehow I managed it.
I can totally relate, I find sports an annoying distraction from actually living life. Sitting around getting excited about an overpaid moron "scoring a point" or "making some play" is hero worship at it's lowest.
The whole idea of letting a certain color jersey be the determining factor as to whether I am happy (the color I want scores) or sad (the other color scores) is not only stupid but a waste of time. With "free agency" these days, worshipping a group because they represented your tribe (school, city or state) are gone, it really boils down to worshipping a jersey.
Living vicariously through talmudvision is the most asinine and unenlightened way to waste a huge portion of this life we are given by our creator.
If people were using talmudvison to actually learn something that would be different, but even in that case the information is tainted by the agenda of it's controllers.
The other big problem with the TV is the depletion of our nuero peptides (brain chemicals). Normal life only requires the release of these elaborate endorphins on not to often occasions like when your daughter comes home and says someone tried to rape her..... Your response is one of rage, anger and action to "kill" the party responsible.
But in today's slack jawed miscreant TV culture where their endorphins have been depleted by endless programs that portray events that normally take years to occur. These events occur in the span of 2 hours causing endorphins to be depleted that are responsible for many of our emotions, causing our responses to be dulled/muffled. That holds true for all of our normal human responses to love, excitement, anger, joy, animation and so on. TV destroys cultures by dampening all normal human responses to the point where the receiving party of the response walks away with the thought...."I guess I'm not important' or "they don't really care"
TV is the greatest enemy for us and the greatest tool of the elite. If you continue to give them "access to your mind" then you are a fool and cannot become a Tully independent and enlightened being of which you WERE intended to be.
It is hard to free fools from the chains they revere. Voltaire
An ideal form of government is democracy tempered with assassination. Voltaire
I took the world of Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 as a prophetic warning decades ago.
Today, we metaphorically kill the world of reading and by extension critical learning culturally. just listen to the dumbed down 1984like news-speak most people utter and they grunt their short interpersonal communications as they converse. That is, if you call thinking about what one wants to say while the other party is speaking instead of listening conversation.
In the world of Fahrenheit 451 people party in front of high definition flat screens that are all high quality color and sound with no real content. They want instant gratification and pleasure and have learned well how not to think too deeply about anything.
The violence in the book is black and white culture war with dramatic death and destruction to it, and at the end of the book when the main character Guy Montag escapes by the skin of his teeth, the robotic drone hound kills a patsy merely out for a walk that the government's surveillance culture had long known about as it did everything else unusual about particular people who dared not fit the norm the powers that be value in their herd of workers. After all, if the powers that be turn a pursuit into a reality TV spectacle, it has to have a 'happy' ending to make the all powerful seem all just and good.
When I first read that incredible book in the late 1960s I deeply suspected and feared it accurately forecast the future, and I am sad in the knowledge that my suspicions were far too correct not to be painful to bear.
In my world, all the best people I know are Guy Montags. I also try always to be one myself.
thats a great post you wrote! I dont watch tv, but at the same time, I realize that most people watch tv & ball games to relax, so i dont really hold it against them.
"Even to the death fight for truth, and the LORD your God will battle for you".Sirach 4:28
