Right Wing Itches to Strike Iran

[babylonsister]

http://www.alternet.org/audits/52384/

Right Wing Itches to Strike Iran

By John Tirman, AlterNet. Posted May 26, 2007.

The hard right in the U.S. has tried to exploit the arrest of Middle East scholar Haleh Esfandiari to create a reason for America's conservatives to attack Iran.


The case of Haleh Esfandiari's imprisonment in Iran is sparking the kind of commotion that periodically grips America's intellectual class and, more ominously, is providing reasons for America's right wing to attack Iran.

Dr. Esfandiari, 67, was born and raised in Iran but has spent much of her professional life in the United States, now as the much-respected director of the Middle East Program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, a leading think tank in Washington, D.C. At the end of a visit to her ailing mother in Tehran last winter, she was detained. She was recently arrested and is now in prison awaiting trial. A citizen of both America and Iran, she has been charged with trying to foment a "velvet revolution" in Iran -- soft, nonviolent regime change. She and everyone associated with her deny the charges.

snip//

More important, however, is how the case is becoming fodder for the attack-Iran posse. As Chomsky says in his statement, "These actions are deplorable in themselves, and also are a gift to Western hardliners who are trying to organize support for military action against Iran. Now is a time for diplomacy, negotiations and relaxation of tensions, in accordance with the will of the overwhelming majority of Americans and Iranians, as recent polls reveal."

The U.S. Navy is conducting extensive exercises in the Persian Gulf, what William Arkin tartly calls "dumbboat diplomacy," but is clearly meant as a signal that the United States is ready to strike. Bush is proposing new sanctions to punish Iran for its alleged nuclear activities. A covert operation by the CIA to degrade Iranian financial assets and step up anti-cleric propaganda was revealed last week by ABC News, another set of actions -- among many reported -- to bring down the regime. In the political game in Washington, "Bash Iran" is a free card used by nearly everyone to look tough on foreign policy.

In this hostile climate, some elements in Tehran are in effect saying, "We want nothing to do with America," and they are sending that message with harsh actions. Engagement by American intellectuals, athletes, NGOs and cultural groups has proceeded for several years now and can be viewed as, at worst, harmless and, at best, beneficial toward building bridges of dialogue. It was precisely such activities during the Cold War that lowered tensions and empowered a peaceful conclusion to that far more dangerous confrontation.

Very few serious analysts of the situation in the Gulf believe that hostile American action will result in a more placid outcome. Many in the U.S. military are vehemently opposed to air strikes, not least because of the catastrophe in Iraq. The Tehran state is sturdy and, like it or not, democratic in many respects. The NGO and academic engagement must continue, just as we must continue to object strenuously to unwarranted arrests. Neither tactic, however, is aided by Washington's contemptible and counterproductive strategy of regime change.

[seemslikeadream]

1. AEI warmongers conspire with Cheney to foment war with Iran

http://www.counterpunch.org/roberts05262007.html

The Bush Doctrine
Democracy in Iraq, Tyranny at Home?
By PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS

......

Disinformation is being fed to the media that Iran is responsible for attacks on US troops in Iraq. This disinformation is routinely reported without skepticism by the American media in the face of challenges from experts. For example, a recent British report concludes: "few independent analysts believe Tehran is playing a decisive role in the sectarian warfare and insurgency."

While the Cheney/AEI conspirators strive to whip up American anger at Iran with lies and disinformation, they are doing everything possible to provoke Iran. The warmongers have planted the story in the media that the US is conducting covert operations against Iran. The US Navy is conducting "exercises" off Iran's coast. The US military in Iraq has violated diplomatic privilege and kidnapped Iranian officials in Iraq despite protests from the Iraqi and Iranian governments. The US government is stirring up more trouble in Lebanon by setting extremists Sunnis against Iran's Hezbollah ally. In short, the US government is doing everything possible to start a war with Iran. Bombing Iran, perhaps after a contrived "false flag" operation, is the next step.

......

What do people in other countries think when they hear Bush prattle on about "freedom and democracy" while he ignores opinion polls and election results and detains people without warrants, tortures them, and puts them before military tribunals in which they are denied even knowing the evidence against them? Bush has contrived a situation for defendants in which no defense is possible. In Bush's America, people can be executed on the basis of hearsay and secret evidence.

If this is "freedom and democracy," what is tyranny?

......

The problem is in implementing the will of the people. Democrats in Congress are not only recipients of AIPAC, oil industry, and military-security complex payoffs just as the Republicans are, Democrats are also behaving very cynically. They believe that it is Bush's policy that gave them control of Congress in November and that by continuing to let Bush prevail, they will clean up on a larger scale in 2008.

......

The problem with the Democrats' cynical logic is that allowing Bush to prolong the war in Iraq increases the chances that Cheney, Israel, and the neoconservatives can contrive a war with Iran. Most experts, and many in our own military, think that a war
with Iran would go very badly for us, endangering our troops in Iraq by exposing them to more intense attacks from the more numerous Shiites, who would be armed with Iranian weapons that can neutralize our tanks and helicopters, leaving our fragmented and divided troops isolated and cut off from supplies and retreat routes.

The pending disaster would play into Cheney's hands. With America faced with the loss of an army, Cheney and the neoconservatives would likely succeed in convincing Bush to nuke Iran. Cheney and Rumsfeld have already changed US war doctrine to permit preemptive nuclear attack against non-nuclear powers. Surprised by the inability of the US military to prevail in Iraq and by Israel's military failure against Hezbollah, the neocons concluded that the only way to establish US/Israeli hegemony over the entire Middle East is to nuke Iran. The neocons believe that using nuclear weapons against Iran will demonstrate to the Muslim world that they have no alternative but to submit to US hegemony.

The Democrats are far from being alone in lacking the vision to see the abyss into which their cynicism is leading us. With the corporate media serving as propaganda ministry for the administration, Cheney will be able to whip up enough fear and anger to convince the American people that the use of nuclear weapons was imperative.



SUPPLIES FOR OUR FORCES MUST FIRST REACH MAIN PORT IN KUWAIT BY SHIPS
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x972797

[BulletproofLandshark]

2. If the wingnuts want to fight Iran so badly

they should get their asses down to their local Armed Forces Recruiting Station immediately. I'll even give some of 'em a ride if they need it. Clearly these courageous armchair soldiers must be chomping at the bit to get into the war zone to defend our God-given right to cheap gas. :sarcasm:

[dave_p]

7. Support your local chickenhawk!

Perhaps DUers should organize a "Help America enlist" drive for those eligible supporters of the war who clearly have difficulty making it to the recruiting station. It would be a good way of showing real support for the troops by helping them make it home before ToD's become permanent. But let's make it clear we only want those who back the war - America has too long failed them by abandoning them to the frustration of civilian life.

[madrchsod]

3. good idea--

gasoline prices would at least double to over a gallon across europe and america, iran`s natural gas deliveries with the far east would halted leading to a very upset china and malaysia,and last but not least a very upset russia and surrounding countries.

the us economy would go into a deep recession with hundreds of thousands of america`s thrown out of work...


bombs away!

[Clark2008]

4. Who, exactly, do they think is going to fight this war?

Our current level troops are stretched too thin - if they're not either dead or limbless - and we're not recruiting well enough to refill the cannon-fodder doles.

A draft would rip the Republican Party into the final shreds of the dustbin and their hyper-rich donors would drop their patronage upon finding out that their little boys could be swept up to fight in another insane war.

Honestly, do these people have ANY common sense?

[L. Coyote]

10. Will it be a 24 hour Green Zone war? That's where it will be fought!

[Canuckistanian]

5. "Dumbboat diplomacy" - Good description.

It's so obvious that they're itching for another Gulf of Tonkin event.

[tularetom]

6. Right wing itches for other peoples kids to strike Iran

is the way it oughta read.

[dave_p]

8. Right wing itches for Iran to strike other people's kids

... would be more appropriate. The initial attack won't be by ground forces - there just aren't enough to spare thanks to W's strategic genius. But the Iranian response to airstrikes will certainly include full-scale war by Shia militias against the troops in Iraq.

[L. Coyote]

9. Another Article & Thread = Surging Toward War With Iran

Next STOP Iran? More BUSH LIES and Surging Toward War With Iran - http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x980363

Is this a "Here we go (to war) again" moment? At the very least, new excuses are being dredged up to replace the well-worn lies of past years.
As more innocent people and combatants die every hour due to BUSH's LIES, here are today's fresh lies:

====================
Guardian at the Gates: Surging Toward War With Iran
by Chris Floyd
Global Research, May 24, 2007