Credible Predictions About U.S. Military Attacks on Iran are Increasing
Posted by Web Editor on October 20th, 2007
A year ago most knowledgeable people— even within the peace movement— were dismissing as unlikely the rumors that the Bush-Cheney regime was planning to attack Iran with military violence. It was perceived as posturing and threatening in order to bully Iran, but not representing a likely military attack. In recent months, however, growing numbers of reports and articles from credible sources indicate that the U.S. is likely to actually make war on Iran. For example, the UK’s Guardian newspaper reported these statements:
In September a high-ranking UN official expressed that the drift toward war was “out of control.”
Also in September the United Nations’ chief nuclear weapons inspector warned against U.S. military action against Iran. “I would not talk about any use of force,” Mohamed El Baradei told reporters at the International Atomic Energy Agency headquarters in Vienna. “There are rules on how to use force, and I would hope that everybody would have gotten the lesson after the Iraq situation, where 700,000 innocent civilians have lost their lives on the suspicion that a country has nuclear weapons.”
“There’s a strategic reason for doing these things,” one official said. “He really is alarmed. He sees this thing going out of control. The feeling around here is that this looks like the run-up to the Iraq war.”
U.S. Senate Threatens Iran by Passing a Reckless, Dangerous Amendment
Peace Movement Must Act Now to Prevent the Next War!
On September 26 the U.S. Senate overwhelmingly (76 to 22) passed the reckless and dangerous Kyl-Lieberman amendment. (Washington State’s Sen. Patty Murray voted yes and Sen. Maria Cantwell voted no.) This amendment will worsen U.S. relations with Iran and could easily lead us into war.
The U.S. Senate has now officially called for the “use of all instruments of United States national power in Iraq,” including military. Despite its call for “prudent and calibrated” measures, the rest of the world also will see this explicit military threat as a blatant threat against yet another state that has never threatened us.
The Bush-Cheney regime — which has been escalating its propaganda campaign through accusing Iran’s government of supporting attacks on U.S. troops in Iraq and planning to build nuclear weapons — will likely use the Senate’s reckless action to reinforce its own propaganda campaign and could even use it as a “blank check” to justify military violence against Iran.
Five years ago the Bush-Cheney regime was aggressively deceiving Congress, the news media, and the American people with lies, deception and other propaganda to justify an unprovoked and illegal war against Iraq. Many people thought they could not be so stupid as to go ahead with their threats, but we were wrong — and Congress and the news media have largely let them get away with it, even though a majority of American people have figured out that they were duped.
Must we repeat the Iraq fiasco now in Iran — a nation with five times Iraq’s population and with its infrastructure fully intact? (The U.S. had destroyed Iraq’s electrical, water, sewage, hospital, military, and other infrastructure during the 1991 Gulf War and during the devastating economic sanctions that continued until the current war.)
The American people do not want another war. U.S. military violence against Iran will only strengthen the hand of extremists seeking to overthrow governments in countries like Iraq, Afghanistan, and nuclear armed Pakistan.
Please urge Congress and the news media to debunk the propaganda, expose the lies and deceptions, stop escalating tensions, and choose dialogue and diplomacy, which — unlike warfare — actually does work to solve problems.
Please join the Olympia FOR’s peace vigils every Wednesday and Friday.
Please participate in the Western Washington FOR’s Fall Retreat “Resisting the War Machine.”.
Information and Action
United for Peace & Justice, the big, broad new peace coalition, has a lot of resources about Iraq, Iran, and other subjects. See www.unitedforpeace.org, for Phyllis Bennis’ Feb. 14, 2007, talking points opposing military action against Iran.
CODEPINK, the feisty women’s peace group, has posted a number of useful items about Iran on its website, including a Prevent War with Iran page filled with simple, effective actions you can do to help stop the next war now.