Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Can Nothing Be Done to Stop a War With Iran?

The fanatics who control our government and the propagandists who work for the "news" organizations that support them are going to start a massive propaganda push soon after Labor Day for a war with Iran, a war they claim to be already in progress. All the despicable outlets of radical Right propaganda--Fox "News", The Wall Street Journal, Commentary, the neocon "think tanks"--will be baying for blood and demanding that other people's sons be sent off to die. The Democrats in Congress are too ineffectual and timid to offer strong opposition to this madness, and I really am convinced Bush and Cheney no longer care what people think of them. Glenn Greenwald, as usual, has some incisive thoughts about all this, right here:


The groundwork for an attack on Iran is so plainly being laid in the same systematic way as the attack on Iraq was and by the same people. Last week, [Greg] Djerejian read and then dissected the full "trip report" issued by [Kenneth]Pollack and [Michael] O'Hanlon following their return from Iraq. In addition to including even more propaganda-bolstering claims about Iraq than was found in their Op-Ed, Djerejian noted that the report also recites the most mendacious aspects of the administration's case for war against Iran, including the truly idiotic accusation regarding "Iran's ability to supply al-Qa'ida" -- an accusation so absurd that nobody other than Joe Lieberman has been willing to voice it until now. Yet now it issues from our most Serious Democratic, "liberal" foreign policy "scholars": Iran is arming Al Qaeda.

The true danger here is that even if there would be marginally more political opposition to an attack on Iran than there was for an attack on Iraq -- and surely there would be, perhaps considerably more opposition -- those who favor an attack are still politically strong within the administration. And there simply are no factions which would oppose such an attack that are anywhere near strong enough to stop one. Who and where are they? What are the political factions which have sufficient political strength and who are willing to risk political capital to stop such a confrontation?

By stark and dispositive contrast, those who are pining for an attack on Iran -- from the Weekly Standard to the AEI and various generic warmongers of the Dick Cheney/National Review strain, as well as our most pious evangelical Christian warriors -- are zealous adherents, True Believers. Bringing about a military confrontation with Iran has always been, and continues to be, their paramount priority.

Unless there is a strong and concerted groundswell NOW to stop this insanity, I fear the consequences will be even more horrendous than those which grew out of the deeply ill-advised war in Iraq. The lunatics are running the asylum, folks--and they're dragging us all down to disaster with them.
In the name of what is decent and rational, won't somebody do something?
UPDATE: Check out this sickening video. It compares what Fox "News" was doing to stir up war in Iraq and what they're doing to stir up war with Iran. G-d damn it, they're pulling the same bullshit again, and they need to be CALLED ON IT.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Neutron Bomb them. That way we kill them all but don't knock down a single building. That way we can take all the oil we want and Americans can be happy because gas will be cheap again.

Joseph Miller said...

I hope your post is a particularly snarky bit of sarcasm.

Lance Ehlers said...

It's IMPOSSIBLE to think of the Bush/Cheney legacy without it moreoreless resembling this scene from the Dead Zone.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1VHSQV0yn8

Joseph Miller said...

Lance--a chillingly prophetic clip.

Genève said...

http://www.lvrj.com/news/9466252.html

"anonymous" might not be very off from the thoughts of men in power in this country.