by NavnDansk » Thu Oct 26, 2006 5:04 am
<!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://tikkun.org/rabbi_lerner/News_Item.2006-10-11.5241">tikkun.org/rabbi_lerner/N...10-11.5241</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--><br><br>Attacking Iran for Electoral Gain?<br><br>If the Bush Administration believes that it can shift the elections by attacking Iran, the only thing that might restrain them would be for Democratic Party leaders to say that such an attack scheduled to influence voting, would be an impeachable offense. Could that happen? <br><br>And how likely is an attack on Iran?<br><br>We at Tikkun worry that an attack on Iran by the Bush Administration, motivated in part by narrow electoral considerations (switching the discourse away from the sexual scandal of former Republican Congressman Foley with its dramatization of the sexual hypocrisy of many right-wingers who publicly rail against sexual offenses; and away from the failure of Bush's policy of refusing to meet face to face with the North Koreans to prevent nuclear proliferation as they have repeatedly sought), could lead to a worldwide terror and war beyond anything we have seen (and we normally are very skeptical about apocalyptic scenarios).<br><br> But can anything prevent this? Well, one thing might make a difference. If the Democratic Party leadership (not the Kucinich's and other relatively isolated voices, but the Nancy Pelosi's and John Edwards's and other centrists) were to announce immediately that launching a war in the weeks before an election (when there is no evidence that waiting foranother few months would cause any serious damage to the US or to world peace) would be an impeachable offense.<br><br> The only thing that could make that happen would be an extraordinary outpouring of public sentiment to their Congressional and Senatorial representatives demanding that they take this position publicly. And that means you and your friends.<br><br> Please read the articles below to give a perspective on what is currently happening. You may remember Chris Hedges as the level-headed NY Times reporter who has become a leading analyst of the war in Iraq and of US military strategy. To call your Senators or Congressional representatives, dial 1 202 224-3121 and ask for the office of your Senator or Congressperson. In this case, timing is everything.<br><br>**************************************************************************<br><br>Chris Hedges: Bush’s Nuclear Apocalypse<br><br>10/09/06 -- -- The aircraft carrier Eisenhower, accompanied by the guided-missile cruiser USS Anzio, guided-missile destroyer USS Ramage, guided-missile destroyer USS Mason and the fast-attack submarine USS Newport News, is, as I write, making its way to the Straits of Hormuz off Iran. The ships will be in place to strike Iran by the end of the month. It may be<br>a bluff. It may be a feint. It may be a simple show of American power. But I doubt it.<br><br>War with Iran—a war that would unleash an pocalyptic scenario in the Middle East—is probable by the end of the Bush administration. It could begin in as little as three weeks. <br><br>This administration, claiming to be anointed by a Christian God to reshape the world, and especially the Middle East, defined three states at the start of its reign as “the Axis of Evil.” They were Iraq, now occupied; North Korea, which, because it has nuclear weapons, is untouchable; and Iran. <br><br>Those who do not take this apocalyptic rhetoric seriously have ignored the twisted pathology of men like Elliott Abrams, who helped orchestrate the disastrous and illegal contra war in Nicaragua, and who now handles the Middle East for the National Security Council. He knew nothing about Central America. He knows nothing about the Middle East. He sees the world through the childish, binary lens of good and evil, us and them, the forces of darkness and the forces of light. And it is this strange, twilight mentality that now grips most of the civilian planners who are barreling us towards a crisis of epic proportions... <p></p><i></i>