Chris Hedges: Hands Off Iran

[babylonsister]

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20071210/hedges

Hands Off Iran

Chris Hedges


I will not pay my income tax if we go to war with Iran. I realize this is a desperate and perhaps futile gesture. But an attack on Iran--which appears increasingly likely before the coming presidential election--will unleash a regional conflict of catastrophic proportions. This war, and especially Iranian retaliatory strikes on American targets, will be used to silence domestic dissent and abolish what is left of our civil liberties. It will solidify the slow-motion coup d'état that has been under way since the 9/11 attacks. It could mean the death of the Republic.

Let us hope sanity prevails. But sanity is a rare commodity in a White House that has twisted Trotsky's concept of permanent revolution into a policy of permanent war with nefarious aims--to intimidate and destroy all those classified as foreign opponents, to create permanent instability and fear and to strip citizens of their constitutional rights.

A war with Iran is doomed. It will be no more successful than the Israeli airstrikes on Lebanon in 2006, which failed to break Hezbollah and united most Lebanese behind that militant group. The Israeli bombing did not pacify 4 million Lebanese. What will happen when we begin to pound a country of 65 million people whose land mass is three times the size of France?

Once you begin an air campaign it is only a matter of time before you have to put troops on the ground or accept defeat, as the Israelis had to do in Lebanon. And if we begin dropping bunker busters and cruise missiles on Iran, this is the choice that must be faced: either send US forces into Iran to fight a protracted and futile guerrilla war, or walk away in humiliation.

But more ominous, an attack on Iran will ignite the Middle East. The loss of Iranian oil, coupled with possible Silkworm missile attacks by Iran against oil tankers in the Persian Gulf, could send the price of oil soaring to somewhere around $200 a barrel. The effect on the domestic and world economy will be devastating, very possibly triggering a global depression. The Middle East has two-thirds of the world's proven petroleum reserves and nearly half its natural gas. A disruption in the supply will be felt immediately.

snip//

I will put the taxes I owe in an escrow account. I will go to court to challenge the legality of the war. Maybe a courageous judge will rule that the Constitution has been usurped and the government is guilty of what the postwar Nuremberg tribunal defined as a criminal war of aggression. Maybe not. I do not know. But I do know this: I have friends in Tehran, Gaza, Beirut, Baghdad, Jerusalem and Cairo. They will endure far greater suffering and deprivation. I want to be able, once the slaughter is over, to at least earn the right to ask for their forgiveness.

[AndyTiedye]

1. Do You Have any Assets? The IRS Will Seize Them

They can also impose backup withholding to go after your income.

Interest and penalties can easily double the amount you owe.
Court costs and attorneys' fees would probably double it again.

Have tax resisters have ever won in court? I have not heard of such a case.
You might want to research that.

The most effective form of tax resistance is a good accountant.

The only way to completely avoid supporting the war machine is to leave the country.

[peacetalksforall]

2. A new hero du jour. To tell it like it is while some generals, admirals and underlings

keep quiet - while others pant in anticipation. Takes guts.

To risk holding back on payment of taxes takes guts.

It's troubling to me to not keep contributing to our roads, our employees, our fireman and rescue people - but, on the other hand, Cheney is stealing this money from us with his insatiable need to satisfy the insatiable needs of the barons. UNTOLD PROFITS FOR A FEW.

We are so screwed in this country. It's another sports, shopping, and watching serials day in the good 'ol U.S. - while Cheney pursues their war. Struggling to make people buy into it. Ari Fleisher and his gang are probably not watching football - they're hard at work wording the call for war just right to win over believers.

The innocent people of IRAN DO NOT DESERVE THIS. Probably right after Christmas folks -

Chris Hedges - thanks for telling it like it should be told if only we were a democracy.

[MasonJar]

3. If we all refuse to pay, there is nothing that they can do. I say we

start a campaign and let them know the consequences of their actions. If they steal another campaign, if they attack anymore countries pre-emptively, if Bush and Cheney do not leave office in January 2009 or earlier, if the torture does not stop, if the war in Iraq does not end, etc., we will not pay our taxes.