"Kooks Are Us" aka Nicholas F. Benton
Posted on 06/28/2005 3:58:57 AM PDT by chambley1
The gap between the Bush administration's passion for "lebensraum" in the Middle East and the American public's growing impatience with the whole mess in Iraq widened this week. On the one hand, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's saber-rattling speech in Cairo signaled the U.S.'s intent to extend its military operations into both Syria and Iran. On the other hand, the latest polls show that almost two thirds of Americans are fed up with Iraq and think that the whole thing was a very bad idea.
The latter sentiment is reflected in statistics for military recruitment in the U.S. The numbers are way down. In cases of wars that the American people believe in, young men and women rush to the recruitment halls to fight for their country. Nothing tells the real story about the public attitude toward Iraq more than the military's disgraceful failure to attract new soldiers.
But none of this is sinking in on Bush, and the more he tries to convince the public through some major speeches that Iraq is really OK, the more it is going to come back on him. Still, this hasn't deterred his regional game plan.
Former U.S. arms inspector Scott Ritter, who was right about the lack of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq prior to the invasion, now writes for Aljazeera that the same Bush deceptions and lies that preceded the U.S. invasion of Iraq are now being applied to plans to invade Iran.
"As was the case with Iraq pre-March 2003, the Bush administration today speaks of `diplomacy' and a desire for a 'peaceful' resolution to the Iranian question. But the facts speak of another agenda, that of war and the forceful removal of the theocratic regime currently wielding the reigns of power in Tehran," Ritter writes.
With the help of the U.S. media, the Bush administration has characterized last week's election in Iran as a complete sham, despite the extraordinarily-high level of participation by the Iranian electorate.
As Ritter notes, code phrases like "liberation" and "spread of democracy" emanating from the mouths of Rice and other administration officials translate into "regime change."
"By the intensity of the liberation/democracy rhetoric alone, Americans should be put on notice that Iran is well-fixed in the cross-hairs as the next target for the illegal policy of regime change being implemented from the Bush administration," he writes.
But while no conventional fighting has yet commenced against Iran, Ritter notes that "the U.S. war with Iran has already begun. As we speak, American overflights of Iranian soil are taking place, using pilotless drones and other, more sophisticated, capabilities."
This is combined, he noted, with covert CIA backing for terrorist bombing operations inside Iran by an Iranian opposition group, the Mujahadeen el-Khalq, or MEK. Also, in Azerbaijan on the northern border of Iran, the U.S. is preparing a base of operations for a massive military presence there "that will foretell a major land-based campaign designed to capture Tehran," Ritter says, using the coastal highway running along the Caspian Sea from Azerbaijan to Tehran.
Due to the existing presence of U.S. forces in Iraq, the timetable for a build-up to invasion will be significantly reduced compared to that needed for Iraq in 2002 and 2003.
Thus, Ritter concludes, the war with Iran has already begun and will escalate quietly as the world remains focused on the mess in Iraq.
So, even as public support for his foreign policy nosedives, Bush hopes to present the invasion of Iran as a virtual fait accompli to the American people.
One can understand why Bush has no sense of accountability to his public. He lost the popular vote in 2000, and that didn't stop him from becoming president. Now, he's losing public support even more dramatically, but why should that stop him now, especially as a lame duck president with no chance to run again, anyway.
As the tension mounts between Bush's agenda of conquest and a slowly-awakening American electorate, the only way to stop a far greater travesty in than we've already seen in the Middle East is for Congress to act. The 2008 election is too far off. Maybe nothing short of impeachment can derail Bush's grand obsession, and the best of the nation's Congressional leadership had better start facing up to that fact.
Email Comrade Nick Benton here:
nfbenton@fcnp.com
Right.
"Kooks Are Us" aka Nicholas F. Benton
I guess he didn't learn anyting from Durbin's recent troubles.
"Living space" in the Mid-east? The man's an idiot.
Yeah, he's smoooooth. I also like that his favorite "expert" is Scott Ritter.
Damn, I missed the opening ceremonies.
Hey Nick! I have a German term for you too:
"Schadenfreude."
I wonder if he also shares Scott's perverted fondness for young, very young, girls?
...and/or Burger King.
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