beat beat beat those drums of war

[Guest guest]

Published on Sunday, September 9, 2007 by Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Prelude To War? World is Worried

Editorial

The chilling report that the Pentagon is planning a " three-day blitz "

targeting Iran hasn't gotten much play here in the U.S. The British

press, meanwhile, has been buzzing with what the Bush administration's

plan is for Iran, and the news isn't good.

 

The Times of London, which reported on the Pentagon's plans, has a

source who claims that the U.S. is looking to launch air strikes

against 1,200 targets in Iran.

 

The Department of Defense is always " planning " something. It's what

a

military does, scenario planning. But with the tough talk coming from

President Bush and a series of odd bits of news (a proposed gradual

troop drawdown from Bush and the jet carrying nuclear weapons over the

U.S. " by mistake " ), a bunch of grim theories are emerging.

 

We can engage in scenario planning, too. For example: Why would Bush

want to start pulling out troops earlier than the date suggested by

Democrats (a plan he shot down)? To send them elsewhere, perhaps? And

the DailyKos.com reports that the base at which the nuke-carrying B-52

landed, in Barksdale, La., is " a jumping off point for Middle East

operations. " The U.K.'s Sunday Telegraph, meanwhile, reports that

recently " a group of Bush administration staffers is gathered to

consider the gravest threat their government has faced this century:

the testing of a nuclear weapon by Iran. "

 

Now, there may be no connection between those stories, but together,

they certainly feed the frenzied mood surrounding the U.S. dealings

with Iran, whose President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is hardly a cool-headed

leader himself, dishing out his own brand of rhetoric. But according

to the International Atomic Energy Agency, there's no evidence that

Iran has weaponized its nuclear program. IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei

said the U.S.'s standoff with Iran is " a reminder of pre-war Iraq...

Based on the evidence, we have, we do not see ... a clear and present

danger that requires that you go beyond diplomacy. "

 

A ray of hope comes via news that former Iranian president Hashemi

Rafsanjani (a moderate compared to Ahmadinejad) has been chosen to

lead The Assembly of Experts, a clerical body that handpicks the

country's supreme leader, a position higher than that of the

president. So the hardliners' days in Iran may be numbered.

 

The U.S. already has lost a tremendous amount of credibility in the

eyes of the world - so far, the most dangerous stash of Iraq's

chemical weapons we've found have been stored at the United Nations

Building in New York since 1996. While our president may think he's a

cowboy, the fact remains that we can't go it alone in this world. We

need allies. We need good will. We need real, sophisticated

leadership.

 

© 2007 Seattle Post-Intelligencer

 

 

I never thought about the universe, it made me feel small

Never thought about the problems of this planet at all

Global warming, radio-active sites

Imperialistic wrongs and animal rights! No!

Why think of all the bad things when life is so good?

Why help with an 'am' when there's always a 'could'?

Let the whales worry about the poisons in the sea

Outside of California, it's foreign policy

I don't want changes, I have no reactions

Your dilemmas are my distractions

I never looked around, never second-guessed

Then I read some Howard Zinn now I'm always depressed

And now I can't sleep from years of apathy

All because I read a little Noam Chomsky

I'm eating vegetation, 'cause of Fast Food Nation

I'm wearing uncomfortable shoes 'cause of globalization

I'm watching Michael Moore expose the awful truth

I'm listening to Public Enemy and Reagan Youth

I see no world peace 'cause of zealous armed forces

I eat no breath-mints 'cause they're from de-hoofed horses