Oust the Bush regime before Iran becomes a threat

[Jack Rabbit]

Our court-appointed president and vice president want to go to war with Iran, without regard to legality or popular opinion. This comes at a time when the public views the Bush regime as a den of contemptuous liars rather than Iran as a threat. This creates a crisis for a democratic state and is good reason to demand the resignation of Messrs. Bush and Cheney or for Congress to begin legal proceedings to remove them office as soon as possible.

Bush and Cheney are forced to plot their war against Iran in a thinly veiled cloak of secrecy because they know that they would get no support for it were he to ask for it. This is the first time in American history that a president is bent to starting a war without congressional authorization or even public consensus. At least they had the IWR as a fig leaf when they sent troops into Iraq.

They wouldn't get congressional approval if they asked for it. If they were to start public discussion on going to war against Iran, Bush's numbers would soon fall to the low twenties and Cheney's into a single digit.

They really can't just start the war, either. If they did, more people would support their impeachment than would support them.

What should really bother us is that Bush and Cheney have no credibility. They shot their wad over Iraq. Except for die hard Bush babies, no one will believe them if they cry "wolf" again. That is a very dangerous situation. Suppose Iran were more of a threat than we think? Would any one be willing to take Bush's or Cheney's word for it? If they presented facts, would any one believe them genuine? If they presented documents, would any one think they are not forged?

Most of us, I included, do not believe Iran is an immediate threat and that military action would not be justified at this time. Whether necessary or not, a war against Iran would be more difficult and costly than was the war against Iraq. Iran is three time the size of Iraq with about that many more people; Ahmadinejad may by off his rocker, but he is not a brutal tyrant like Saddam and he is president because more Iranian voters thought he was a better choice than the next candidate. There is even less reason to suppose Iranians will greet American troops as liberators than there was to suppose Iraqis did; there is even more reason to suppose the Iranian people will fiercely resist a foreign occupation of their country than Iraqis did.

Invading Iran is not something to be done without due consideration for no better reason than to keep Mr. Bush or Mr. Cheney in office any longer than this.

If we recall Aesop's story of the boy who cried "wolf" then we note that at the end there really was a wolf. In a twist of irony, the boy died because every one assumed he was playing another prank. Aesop doesn't tell us whether any lambs were carried off, but no doubt the wolf was more interested in the flock (lambs taste better than shepherds) and the boy died defending it. Perhaps the prankster was not regarded as a great loss, but the wolf's loot could have fed a hungry family in the village.

This could have been avoided by replacing the boy with a more reliable shepherd, one more interested in protecting sheep than playing pranks on the villagers.

We cannot and should not wait for January 20, 2009 to replace Bush and Cheney with a Commander-in-Chief who will be believed when he or she says that Iran is an immediate threat immediate military action is needed to deal with it. It is not likely that a reliable Commander-in-Chief will say so between now and then, but we have no reliable Commander-in-Chief but a dangerous prankster who will say anything.

Bush and Cheney must be impeached and removed now.