AFP Editorial: Resist the Neo-Cons; Don’t Attack Iran

THE UNITED STATES AGAIN STANDS at a critical Israeli pressure and attack Iran or will they do what is best for America and mind their own
business? With Tehran’s recent announcement that it now has the technology to enrich uranium, the chicken hawks in the administration are spoiling for yet another war despite the harsh facts about our depleted military capabilities, with 1.8 million men and women now under arms pursuing the apparent but senseless goal of attempting to establish hegemony over the planet.

We must also mention the harsh political and military realities resulting from President Bush’s unconstitutional aggression in Iraq.

It is as clear as can be that the Iraqi adventure is a loser and again this great country is involved in a guerrilla war and we will be forced out of Iraq as we were forced out of Vietnam and Cambodia, with our tail between our legs.

Why can’t our leaders learn from history—even recent history? Lesson number One: an aggressor (that’s us) can’t win a guerrilla war; this is something we’ve been saying for years. In a guerrilla war you are fighting the people, with enemies literally everywhere. Don’t know that? Then read the histories of Castro’s guerrilla war, or that of Mao in China, or our own Revolutionary War against Britain, then the world’s greatest power.

Bush’s sinking poll numbers may get some of these unpleasant facts into the craniums of our commander-in-chief and his pro-Israeli advisors.

Thankfully, at least so far, President Bush seems to be listening to his generals and is dismissing the neo-cons’ calls to bomb Iran. Perhaps the boy president is growing up.

Only recently, Bush painted reports in U.S. magazines and newspapers that claimed the White House was considering dropping nuclear weapons on Iran as “wild speculation.”

The fact that the leading proponents of the war in Iraq have now been kicked upstairs or have retired, such as Douglas Feith and Richard Perle, is also an encouraging sign. Still, the war clouds hover.

Senior British officials, meeting with military leaders in London April 3, called an American attack on Iran “inevitable” unless its leaders comply with demands to freeze their nuclear program.

Arnaud de Borchgrave, editor of United Press International, reported April 11 that a prominent neo-con at the White House and the Defense Department told him that the United States will bomb Iran before Bush leaves office. He quotes the anonymous source, who incredibly claims: “B-2s—two of them—could do the job in a single strike against multiple targets.”

Before Bush leaves office, the source said, Iran’s nuclear ambitions would be history. As usual, these armchair generals don’t think of the blowback.

Let’s not forget that 160,000 U.S. troops are currently bogged down in Iraq and Afghanistan, the two countries that sandwich Iran. Every day, the occupation creates more anti-American sentiment. American forces are continually menaced by a never-ending and growing supply of militia and guerrilla fighters who are on better terms with the Iranian government than any of the U.S.-backed puppet rulers in the Middle East.

If the bloodshed seems deplorable today, just think that an American attack on Iran would kill and maim untold thousands of civilians. It would predictably mobilize hundreds of millions of Muslims from Afghanistan to Sumatra. At that point, the United States would have one of two options: Stage a hasty retreat or commit genocide.

And although we have little doubt that this government’s neo-con (Israeli) advisors would recommend genocide, we know that such a course would not be acceptable to other Americans and would mark America as a criminal aggressor to the entire world.

We can only hope that Bush has learned an important life lesson and now realizes that following the advice of the pro-Israel neo-conservatives has been a tragic mistake.

But the road ahead is long and rocky. The powerful Israeli lobby, the Evangelicals and the neo-con wing of the Republican Party will keep the pressure on the mainstream media, over which it has tremendous power.

Ranking military officers had always opposed the invasion of Iraq and are resisting plans to target Iran. But good soldiers must follow orders. And there are always “contingency plans” for war—including nuclear war.

It has been outraged Americans, with American Free Press in full voice, who have so far been able to compel the president to back off. These voices must not fall silent; the fight for peace continues Americans must cling to their outrage; a battle has been won but the war for our country persists.

(Issue #17, April 24, 2006)