“Anyone Can Go to Baghdad, Real Men Go to Tehran”
The wonderful folks who brought us the debacle in Iraq aren't done yet.
No, they have plans for President Bush to leave office with a bang.
In a recent encounter with Senator Patty Murray on campus, I told her that many of us were growing concerned about what seems to be preparations for a US attack on Iran.
Then I urged the Senator to put out the statement like the one that Senator Barak Obama recently made in Clinton, Ohio.
Observing a familiar pre-Iraq drumbeat to war, Senator Obama stated, “George Bush and Dick Cheney must hear… you don't have our support, and you don't have our authorization for another war.”
Senator Murray assured me that the president would have to come back to Congress for another resolution for Iran, adding that the Congress has grown increasingly “cynical towards this administration” and their assertions of power.
In an action that took courage, we should remember that Senator Murray initially voted against the Iraq war resolution in 2002.
Pressing further, I said that according to Professor Barnett Rubin and other respected Middle East specialists, under the Cheney-Addington interpretation of the Constitution, the administration would not need to come back to Congress.
If the State Dept were to designate the Revolutionary Guard of Iran a “terrorist organization,” then a military attack would fall under the original Authorization for Use of Military Force of 2001, which gave the president authority to attack not only terrorist organizations themselves, but “those who harbor terrorists.”
Senator Murray quickly responded to me, “[we] won't let that happen.”
Unfortunately, her words didn't put me at ease.
Some of Senator Murray's colleagues have tried to put actions behind their words. Senator Jim Webb of Virginia tried to insert language in a recent war supplemental that would've prohibited funding for a strike on the Iran without congressional approval.
But due to intense pressure from AIPAC and other lobbying groups, the Democratic leadership removed the language, leaving the president a carte blanche.
Recent developments however, are more alarming.
Indeed, two senators itching for a war, Sen. Lieberman and Kyl have introduced an amendment on Friday that would “support the…use of all instruments of the United States national power” including “military instruments” against the Republic of Iran.[AG1]
In an article titled “US Officials Began Crafting Iran Bombing Plan,” Fox reporter James Rosen says, “‘everyone in town’ is now [talking] about the costs and benefits of military action against Iran,” sometime in the next eight to 10 months.
The Sunday Telegraph joins the drumbeat to war asserting that, once expressly opposed to the military option, Condoleezza Rice is now prepared to join Cheney and sanction military action.[AG2]
Concerned CIA officials Vincent Cannistraro, and Robert Baer assert, “The decision to attack was made some time ago,” and “there will be an attack on Iran,” respectively.
And adding to the fervor, former Ambassador John Bolton says the US will support an Israeli preemptive strike.
This is important because of the threat of an accidental war or worse, the reported "end run" strategy by the vice president's office.
The strategy consists of ‘nudging’ Israel to launch a small-scale attack on Iran's facilities with the assumption that Iran would retaliate against the massive US buildup in the gulf. The rest, as they say, would follow naturally.
That scenario is much more worrisome and probable.
So who is going to stop this war?
Democrats have already squandered numerous chances to prevent this president from starting a war unilaterally.
It's still possible for Congress to pass legislation to head off this catastrophe... but I'm not holding my breath.
Maybe the military will step in as Rep. Jim McDermott suggested to me recently. After all, the Joint Chiefs of Staff are unanimously opposed, as well as the head of the US Central Command (CENTCOM), Admiral William Fallon.
And in a stunning rebuke of one of the administration's main rationales for war, former CENTCOM head General John Abizaid said, “[there] are ways to live with a nuclear Iran.”
Nevertheless, George W. Bush is still Commander-In-Chief (of the Armed Forces) and unsympathetic, outspoken generals tend to be replaced under this administration.
As conservative commentator Pat Buchanan observed, “If Americans sickened by the carnage of Iraq wish to stop an even more disastrous war on Iran, they had best get cracking.”
