Markin comment:
In 2007-2008 I, in vain,
attempted to put some energy into analyzing the blossoming American presidential
campaign since it was to be, as advertised at least, a watershed election, for
women, blacks, old white anglos, latinos, youth, etc. In the event I had to
abandon the efforts in about May of 2008 when it became obvious, in my face
obvious, that the election would be a watershed only for those who really
believed that it would be a watershed election. The four years of the Obama
presidency, the 2012 American presidential election campaign, and world
politics have only confirmed in my eyes that that abandonment was essentially
the right decision at the right time. In short, let the well- paid bourgeois
commentators go on and on with their twitter. I, we, had (have) better things
to do like fighting against the permanent wars, the permanent war economies,
the struggle for more and better jobs, and for a workers party that fights for
a workers government . More than enough to do, right? Still a look back at some
of the stuff I wrote then does not a bad feel to it. Read on if you like
************
The Slippery Slope to War-Iran
The recent swirl around Iran
makes me nervous. Every since Seymour Hersh’s article on White House Iranian
war preparations in the April 2006 New Yorker I have been taking sideway
glances at developments around that issue closely. I do not like what I see
right now. Let me just summarize the
litany here.
·
Over the past
several weeks General Fallon, the head of U. S. Central Command (that means
the Middle East), has been knocking over
or kicking downs doors all over the capitals of most Middle Eastern countries
giving the word on American intentions toward Iran. Fallon, like all top
American generals, is not known for ‘blowing smoke’ when war is in the air. He
is also not known, when the deal goes down, for being slow on the trigger.
·
The French
Foreign Minister has ‘accidentally’ mentioned that the military option was not
off the table in order to resolve the Iranian situation. His boss immediately
reigned him in on this but the ‘cat is out of the bag’ now.
·
The United States
Senate, the same people who couldn’t muster up the energy to pass the placid
Webb amendment on ‘troop rest’ has this past week gone out of its way to vote
to label the nefarious Iranian Revolutionary Guard that sprung forth from the
United States Embassy takeover in 1979 a “terrorist” organization. That means
something unlike the non-binding tripartite partition of Iraq resolution. I
note that leading Democratic presidential contender Senator Hillary Clinton
voted for the designation. Thus bi-partisan support for any future actions
against Iran has a running start. This time it would be nice if Senator Clinton
and the others at least read the documentation before they vote for war. Vain
hope.
·
The periodic
talk, recently louder, about the Iranian role, and the need to call them to
account for it, in providing powerful IED’s that are claimed to be the number
one of death to American troops to both Shiite and Sunni factions in Iraq.
·
Reports that Iran
is shelling in northern Iraq in an effort to break one of its internal
oppositional guerilla groups based in that area.
·
The ongoing
international pressure to increase various sanctions against Iran in order to
halt its nuclear development program. Many of these types of embargos and boycotts are ‘acts of war’ under
international law.
·
The recent visit
of the cunningly bizarre Iranian president to New York where he was cheered and
jeered, mainly jeered with a frenzy that matched some of the buildup against
Saddam Hussein (remember him) before the occupation of Iraq. Whether the
president is anything more than a front man for the mullahs on the Supreme
Council he is still the ‘face ' of Iran to the international public.
·
Finally, the key
to the whole situation, one George W. Bush and his coterie. Bush, already in a
neck and neck race with Millard Fillmore for the title of least popular
president, has nothing to lose. He is probably thinking why shouldn’t he go out
in a blaze of glory. And if he is not up to it, his puppet master Karl Rove,
oops, fellow draft dodger Vice President Dick Cheney certainly has the appetite
for it.
There are some impediments in
the way like a depleted American army in Iraq but where there is a will there
is a way. In some ways there is a hell of a lot more going on concerning Iran
than before the run up to the Iraq war. Yes, I am definitely nervous. A three
front war strategy is in the air. We better have a three front anti-war
strategy. Better dust off the old slogan-Hands Off Iran!
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