patrickmurfin

The Times They Are A-Changin'

I have long been a passionate supporter of a single payer national health plan as advocated by Healthcare Now!.  I continue to be one.  And I will do everything in my power to make sure the single payer option is fully discussed by Congress.  Recent events have shown that public opinion is moving in this direction despite the timidity of many Democrats in Congress.  Maybe a tsunami of pubic support can move the mountain.

But despite the Healthcare Now! slogan, “Because Nothing Less Will Do,” I am not willing to cut off my nose to spite my face if we can’t swallow the whole pie now.  The health care crisis in this nation is too critical. We need to make sure that any health care reform includes a critical public option. Which is why I am also throwing my full support to Organizing for America’s Health Care Action Center. 

President Obama has called for health care reform in 2009 that upholds three core principles. It must:

• Reduce costs — Rising health care costs are crushing the budgets of governments, businesses, individuals, and families, and they must be brought under control.
• Guarantee choice — Every American must have the freedom to choose their plan and doctor – including the choice of a public insurance option.
• Ensure quality care for all — All Americans must have quality and affordable health care.

Folks, the manure is about to hit the rotating ventilation device.  The powerful forces of those who reap huge rewards from the current inequitable system, the ideologues and the fear mongers are united in doing everything in their power to block true reform and to sow confusion and division among Democrats, progressives, and the rightfully concerned public.

Stand with the President and Sign the Declaration of Support.  Call your Congressman and Senators.  Sign up to host or attend an event in your community.  Write a letter to the editor.  Don’t just stand there!  Do something!  Now!

MoveOn dropped me an e-mail asking me to post this on my blog.  Fair enough.  A complete re-prioritization of American energy policy is key to our economic recovery in the short run and our survival on this planet in the long.

It's 2009. Democrats have ample majorities in both houses of Congress. President Obama campaigned on the promise to tackle climate change and boost our economy by investing in clean energy.

So why on earth is Congress considering an energy bill that:

• Would weaken current law, repealing President Obama's authority to crack down on dirty power plants, and
• Doesn't actually require the creation of new solar or wind power? (The Union of Concerned Scientists has concluded that the clean energy standards won't make power companies produce more clean energy than is already in the works.)

Why? Because Big Oil and Coal have teamed up with conservatives in both parties, and they've been successful in weakening the bill.

These are major flaws, but the bill has a lot of really good provisions, too. The key thing is that Congress can still strengthen it—if there's a public outcry. But we don't have much time: Congress is expected to vote on this bill in less than three weeks.

Can you sign this petition to Representative Donald Manzullo today? Eighty thousand MoveOn members have already signed. We need to double the number of signatures by Wednesday—that means we need 10 more signatures in Crystal Lake. MoveOn members will personally deliver this petition to many congressional offices the next day. Click here to add your name:

http://pol.moveon.org/cleanenergy/o.pl?id=16315-3430421-yY2.Vnx&t=4

The petition says: "We need a stronger energy bill to fulfill Obama's vision of a clean energy economy. Congress should strengthen the clean energy standards and restore Obama's authority to crack down on dirty coal plants." 

Congress must change the energy bill to require power companies to produce more clean energy for America. Wind and solar create more than twice as many jobs as coal and oil. And Congress needs to hold polluters accountable by restoring President Obama's current authority through the EPA to crack down on global warming pollution from power plants.

The Union of Concerned Scientists analysis finds that the current version of the clean energy standard "won't require utilities to use any more renewable electricity than...would be generated as a result of state renewable electricity standards already in place and the recently enacted stimulus package."
 

If we just sit back, we'll miss our chance to go big with wind and solar—and we'll lose the jobs those industries would create. Big Oil and Coal will keep getting billions of dollars in taxpayer subsidies. And President Obama will be powerless to stop more than 100 new dirty coal plants, which will crowd out the clean energy growth we need to boost our economy.

There are some good parts of the bill, but these are significant problems. As the Sierra Club's Carl Pope writes, the bill establishes strong long-term goals for cutting carbon pollution and very strong energy-efficiency investments, "but in its present form, it won't do all that's needed. The oil, coal, and dirty-utility interests...were able to prevent enactment of President Obama's much bolder vision...Yes, they will try to kill the green-jobs recovery in its cradle, and yes, they will try to block our clean-energy future."

Please urge Rep. Manzullo to fight for a stronger energy bill. Clicking here will add your name to the petition:

http://pol.moveon.org/cleanenergy/o.pl?id=16315-3430421-yY2.Vnx&t=5

Thanks for all you do.

–Anna, Michael, Joan, Noah and the rest of the team

Sources:

1. Bill Needs Strengthening to Guarantee Necessary Carbon Reductions, New Green Jobs and Consumer Benefits, Science Group Says, Union of Concerned Scientists, May 14, 2009 http://www.moveon.org/r?r=51475&id=16315-3430421-yY2.Vnx&t=6

2. EPA urged to act on climate, not wait for Congress, Associated Press, May 18, 2009 http://www.moveon.org/r?r=51479&id=16315-3430421-yY2.Vnx&t=7

3. American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009, Library of Congress, May 15, 2009 http://www.moveon.org/r?r=51482&id=16315-3430421-yY2.Vnx&t=8

4. Green Recovery: A Program to Create Good Jobs and Start Building a Low-Carbon Economy, Political Economy Research Institute at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, September 2008 http://www.peri.umass.edu/green_recovery/

5. Stopping the Coal Rush, Sierra Club

http://www.moveon.org/r?r=51483&id=16315-3430421-yY2.Vnx&t=10

6. So How Good Is This Climate Bill, Anyhow? Sierra Club, May 22, 2009
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=51478&id=16315-3430421-yY2.Vnx&t=11

The Democratic Party of McHenry County assembled by Harvard High School before the Milk Days Parade. (Photo by Tom Cynor)

Hillary Clinton was giving her long awaited concession and endorsement of Barack Obama as McHenry County Democrats gathered for the Harvard Milk Days Parade Saturday morning.  It was hot and muggy.  The sun burned through thin clouds as we assembled and waited behind the high school. We were near the end of the parade so we had plenty of time to soak up the sun—burn.  We finally started moving after 2 pm, a full hour after the head of the parade started off.

About thirty adults plus assorted children turned out.  Our unit included a float, a Tom Cynor for State’s Attorney trailer and several candidates. Most of us were elegantly turned out in our bright blue “Proud to be a McHenry County Democrat” tee shirts.

For those who are unfamiliar with the place, Harvard lies in the northwest of McHenry County just a bit south of the Wisconsin border.  It once was the center of the dairy industry and the town was known as the “Milk Capital of the World.”  That status is celebrated by Milk Days, Illinois oldest continuous municipal festival dating to 1941, and by the beloved fiberglass statue of Harmilda the cow located at the intersection of U.S. Route 14, Illinois Route 173, and the city’s main drag, Ayers Street (AKA “The Milky Way.”

Although the Dean Foods dairy plant is still a major local employer, most of the dairy farms are gone now and the city long ago lost its dairy crown.

But Harvard is the most resolutely working class of all McHenry County municipalities.  Far from encroaching suburbia that has swallowed most of the southeast portion of the county and is now marching north from Huntley in the southwest housing prices are relatively modest.  Local industry has provided jobs.  A brief brush with prosperity evaporated when Motorola  shut down a mammoth new cell phone production factory a few years ago.  5000 jobs disappeared with the stroke of a pen.  And the building sits empty on the edge of town on the edge of town defying all attempts to attract new tenants and new jobs.

Nearly 40% of the population is now Hispanic.  There is a lot of tension between the new immigrants and the older Anglo community.  But Ayer Street and the rest of downtown would now be a virtual ghost town if it were not for the many Latino business that have opened there in recent years.  In fact the parade crowd along the Milky Way was largely Hispanic, while Anglos tended to gather on the tree shaded lawns along the residential streets between the High School and downtown.

Democrats, however, go a warm welcome from both communities.  Not a block was passed without out breaks of actual cheering, whooping and fist pumping.  A lot of folks called out for Obama.  While we have always had support in Harvard, not too many years ago scattered individuals sheepishly acknowledged us hoping that their Republican neighbors would not notice.  Boos would sometimes outnumber cheers.  This year there was one boo.

Coroner Candidate David Bachmann watched the parade from the sidelines with his family.  He wrote in an e-mail to other party members, “I am soooooooooo proud of our people that were in Harvard today…The Republicans should be embarrassed.  All they had was an old beat up car, not resorted at all, with a few campaign signs made of old cardboard stuck to the car with “duck tape”…Not a single candidate or party representation…”

Any way here are some photos from the day.

State’s Attorney Candidate Tom Cynor with his main man, Quinn. (This and all further photos by Murfin)

Auditor Candidate Kerry Julian and family.

                                       

The candidate contingent—Robert Ludwig, County Board Dist. 6; James McTague, County Board Dist. 1; Cynor; Robert Abboud, 16th Congressional District; Julian; and Jeff Thirtyacer, County Board Dist. 4.

                                       

 Thirtyacer and Bill Nowaskey prepare to step off at the head of the contingent.

SENATOR BARACK OBAMA outlined his plan to end the WAR IN IRAQ in a long anticipated speech delivered today in Clinton, Iowa.  This afternoon the plan was posted on his web site and e-mail asking for supporters to sign on in support was flooding computers from coast to coast. 

In plain bullet points, Obama’s plan is simple:

“My plan for turning the page on Iraq is clear:

• remove our combat troops from Iraq’s civil war by the end of 2008
• take a new approach to press for reconciliation within Iraq
• escalate our diplomacy with all of Iraq’s neighbors and the United Nations
• confront the human costs of this war directly with increased humanitarian aid”

In application, of course, it is far from simple.  And like all proposals to wind down the war it is fraught with peril.  The criminal policy of the current maladministration has been so disastrous that no options are easy or painless. 

It goes without saying that the plan is being denounced in hysterical tones by Republicans and their media operatives.  It has also drawn fire from some of Obama’s opponents for the Democratic Presidential nomination for not being “Now” enough.

I sympathize.  I yearn for a quick end to the war and bloodshed.  But I’ve known for a long time that there is no way to just blow a whistle and trot off the field.  Withdrawal, even if it begins tomorrow, will take time.  Obama’s plan recognizes that fact.

So when the Senator, whose candidacy I endorsed as soon as it became official, I was willing to do so.  But not without some reservations.  This is how I put it in the comments section: 

Your draw down plan with a firm exit date of the end of 2008 makes good sense.  While I would like us out yesterday, I understand that for the safety of the troops and best interests of the Iraqi people there must be an orderly withdrawal that takes with it all of the munitions and ordinance with which we have flooded that country, cleans up at least part of the environmental devastation we have unleashed, and attempts to restore as much civilian infrastructure as possible.  This will likely be a retreat under fire, the most difficult of military operations, so care must be taken.

This plan is unenforceable, however, unless Congress enacts strict timelines, limits military funding to facilitating the withdrawal safely, and specifically withdraws from the President authority to conduct continued offensive operations.

It is also critical that Congress act NOW to explicitly deny the President the authority to launch yet another war—against Iran—without the consent of Congress.

It is not the only plan out there.  Other Democrats are advancing theirs.  And they deserve consideration as well.  In the end the war will wind down when Congressional Democrats decide they truly do have the power to make it happen.  The particulars will be thrown together from many suggestions.  A messy compromise will satisfy few.  But the troops will start coming home and Iraq will have he chance to work out its own destiny.  And that is more than we can ever expect from this Administration, Republican jihadists, or those Democrats too timid to lead.

            It was bound to come.  After the announcement of the resignation of ATTORNEY GENERAL ALBERTO GONZALES the other day, my e-mail inbox was flooded with messages from just about every organization to the left of the yellow stripe in the highway—I get ‘em all.  Most of them were a variation on the “You did it!” theme.  They congratulated their members/readers/supporter on keeping up the pressure on Gonzales, the Resident, and Congress by signing petitions, writing letters, demonstrating—and most of al—by sending money to those groups to wage the battles of righteousness for us.  And it always feels great to feel vindicated.

            Then, of course, the e-mails continued, there is more work to do!  Sign another petition, write another letter, wave a placard on another corner, send more money.

            They are right, of course. As soon as the steam evaporated of off the turd, speculation began about what aspiring patsy the administration would send up to take up Gonzales’s crucial work.  Speculation centers around that jack-of-all-portfolios, MICHAEL CHERTOFF , he of the skeletal visage so reminiscent of the skull on an SS uniform. 

            But no mater who it is,  the AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION yesterday sent out yet another e-mail urging that supporters contact Congressional Leaders to demand that no easy pass be given to whatever empty suite is dispatched up the hill.  It’s yet another petition, I know.  But a good idea.

            As usual, I added my own two cents where it asks us to add our own comments.  I doubt if anyone ever reads these comments, but it sure as hell is cathartic to write them.  Here’s mine:

Gonzales was only a pathetic and incompetent tool. His assaults on the Constitution, law, and decency were not accidents or his own invention.  They were the corrupt policy of a corrupt administration.  Any replacement will be selected by the President to carry out that same policy.  No apologies for the past, blinking assertions of respect for Congress and the Courts, or promises never-to-do-it-again-I-swear-cross-my-heart can be believed or accepted.  Better that the office be filled by an interim for the rest of the administration than be filled with another functionary who can wave Congressional approval around as a cover for more crimes.

Felon "SCOOTER" LIBBY'S prison sentence commuted.

            Sputtering outrage is pretty much the order of the day.  Surprise is not. As many Americans were occupied with Fourth of July holiday plans and travel and as the media relentlessly beat the drums of a new terrorism panic—albeit one in Britain in which actual bombs were involved—RESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH announced that he was issuing a Get Out of Jail Free card to LEWIS “SCOOTER” LIBBY.

            Yes indeed, that Compassionate Conservative who once mocked a woman he was eager to eradicate in Texas’s hyperactive execution chamber, was stirred by the plight of a minion of the DARK SITH LORD CHENEY.  He was predictably lauded as “courageous” by the usual array of right wing troglodytes and their media sycophants.

            The vast majority of every one else, however, was plenty pissed off.

            So why did he do it?  Just the usual Bush loyalty to his acolytes?  A pay-off to the right wing base that was beginning to desert him as “soft” on the war and insufficiently fascist on immigration?  On orders from Cheney, now pretty much accepted as the real capo de capo of this Outfit?  “Because I can?”

            All fair enough guesses.  And with his popularity already at an all time low, there was probably a feeling that it couldn’t really get any worse.  On this, I am convinced the White House is mistaken.  Can any one say “single digits?”

            But I think something else is afoot.  With Congress and the Executive Branch hurtling toward a Constitutional crisis over subpoenas issued to administration officials in the U.S. Attorney Firing scandal and with several other investigations creeping toward a similar status, the administration was signaling its loyalists to stand fast and have no fear.  In case any of them are indicted for, say, contempt of Congress, they can expect to saved by Presidential fiat.

            In the end, like Cheney’s ludicrous claim that he is not part of the Executive Branch, and like the oft repeated mantra of virtually unlimited Presidential authority under the mythical “unitary power of the executive,” this act of defiance was yet another “double-dog-dare-ya” to Congress.  The Shrub bets that the legislative branch will shrink from pulling the trigger on the only weapon that can really stop him (and his boss, the Veep)—impeachment.

            Unfortunately for Constitutional Democracy and for us all, he will probably win that bet.

William Rivers Pitt portrait from 
www.americanswhotellthetruth.org/images/portrait

            Easily the biggest buzz the last few days has not been Paris Hilton’s (note: no links here) release from the pokey.  No, the delinquent debutant has been pushed aside by the latest act of jaw-dropping gall by the DARK SITH LORD CHENEY.  His bald faced assertion,  made in order to avoid turning over records of his use of classified materials to those pesky gnats at the NATIONAL ARCHIVES INFORMATION SECURITY OVERSIGHT OFFICE, that he is “not part of the executive branch” and thus not covered by a presidential order may finally convince any one with lingering doubts that he is power mad monster who considers himself above and beyond all law.  This comes on the heels or revelations that the Veep attempted to have the Oversight Office abolished entirely.

            Even the usually cautious REP. RAHM EMANUEL, the centrist chair of the HOUSE DEMOCRATIC CAMPAIGN COMMITTEE and a man allergic to “radical” positions, suggested that if the Vice Resident does not believe his office is part of the Executive Branch, then perhaps CONGRESS should strip that office of its budget.  Instead of dismissing the idea outright leaders in both houses, including our own SENATOR DICK DURBIN seemed to think it might not be such a bad idea. 

            Others contented themselves with threatening subpoenas and court action.  Some are even getting the courage to mutter the “I” word under their breath.

            I was searching for the right words of indignation to comment on this three ring service when I found “How Dick Cheney Broke My Mind” by TRUTHOUT contributing columnist WILLIAM RIVERS PITT:

    I was absolutely savaged by an unexpected emotional detonation on Thursday. Every rough emotion I am capable of experiencing - anger, fear, sorrow, rage, bitterness, despair, loathing, astonishment, woe, regret, horror, fury - erupted within me at the same time that day. I spent hours in the aftermath trying to type an accurate description of what had happened to me and why, but I failed. For the first time in a long, long while, I was completely unable to write.

    What could have been powerful enough to huff and puff and blow my house down? What manner of mind bomb could hurl me so far off kilter that I was incapable of explaining it on paper?

    It was, of course, Dick Cheney…

            Please take time to read the whole article at the link above.  I don’t have to have to write any more on the subject because Pitt has said it perfectly.  He has my vote hands down as one of the finest writers out there on the Net.  Enjoy!

All week the in-box of my e-mail has been stuffed with screaming outrage.  Thurdsay the Democratic led congress handed Resident GEORGE W.  BUSH  the fabulous gift of almost complete surrender on funding the WAR IN IRAQ.   After a “compromise” deal was worked out with the White House the measure cleared both houses on Thursday.  MAJORITY LEADER HARRY REID voted for the measure.  In an act of slight of hand SPEAKER NANCY PELOSI voted against it while letting her leadership team advance the bill.  The lip-stick-on-the-pig, meant to mollify a public demanding an end to the war, is that for the first time Bush will have to accept “benchmarks” for progress from the Iraqi government in getting control of the country.  Make that optional earmarks.  Shrub can wave them if he sees fit.

            As part of the deal, the Democrats got to bundle some spending initiatives unrelated to the bill—most of them worthwhile.  And they finally got the long treasured MINIMUM WAGE increase, albeit with tax-cut bribes for business.  Great. Just great.  By tying those measures to the bill they invite the Republicans to mock them and unprincipled pork-barrel traders and the corrupt recipients of public bribes.  It will make no difference that the corrupters and bribers are the Maladministration and the GOP (stands for Got Ours, Patsy) Congressional minorities.

            With in moments of the announcement of the “deal” by Democratic leaders earlier in the week, jubilant Republicans were claiming a total Democratic capitulation to the President’s insistence on “no surrender dates.”  They also knew that the Democrats were now full partners in the war.  By playing Tweedle Dee to Tweedle Dum Democrats were neutralizing the war as an election issue.

            There can be no question that this is both a policy and a political disaster for Congressional Democrats.  No one now believes them when they claim that they will stand fast when they tackle the subject again when the regular Defense Department funding bill comes up for consideration in July.

            So what will the vote achieve?  Can any silk purse be knit from this sows ear?  One good thing is that the vast network of anti-war organizations, websites, blogs and publications have become instantly re-unified.  Just months ago stand-fasters like DEMOCRATS.COM, CODE PINK,  and others were at the throats of  “pragmatists” at MOVEON and moderates like the COUNCIL FOR A LIVABLE WORLD when the latter went along with Nancy Pelosi’s incremental approach to a funding bill.  This week there wasn’t a dimes worth of difference in the outrage all expressed or in the intensity in mobilizing their supporters to swamp Congress with protest.

            Dozens of  Democratic incumbent Congress people and Senators who have signed on to the capitulation will now be the targets of well financed and organized primary challengers as the grass roots rises up to seize the party and not only make it a true peace party, but drive it significantly to the left.  Things look bleak indeed for “triangulators” and DEMOCRATIC LEADERSHIP COUNCIL types.

            This also will have a major impact on the Presidential race.  Marginal dark horses who have been consistently and vocally anti-war may be the beneficiaries of those now taking pledges never to vote for anyone who approves of this measure.  Score points for DENNIS KUCINICH, MIKE GRAVEL,  and CHRISTOPHER DODD.  If one of them could establish himself as a clear alternative he could suddenly find himself both funded and a real player in some of the primary states.

            Established anti-war candidates BARACK OBAMA and JOHN EDWARDS will do alright as well.  Edwards came out strongly against the temporary funding measure a few days ago in a policy speech to the COUNCIL ON FOREIGN RELATIONS, where he outlined a detailed proposal for ending the war.  Out now hardliners might not, however like the details of his plan which calls for removing the bulk of U.S. troops by the end of the year but maintaining a strong presence in Kuwait and the Gulf and even a sizable garrison in Baghdad to “protect the embassy.”  Like it or not this is version of JOHN MURTHA’S earlier proposal of maintaining a regional presence “over the horizon.”  Obama, who got to cast a vote against the measure in the Senate, has been less detailed but tends in the same direction.   And in point of fact this is how America will get out of the war, no matter how unsatisfactory to the bring-‘em-all-home-now crowd. 

            HILLARY CLINTON also voted against the funding.  Will that be enough to placate the rabidly anti-Hillary peace left?  Or will she be seen as bending to the whims of polls and thus sully the image as a “strong” leader she has carefully built.  The right already hates her.  They will take special delight in smearing her now as a “flip-lopper” and a “surrender monkey.”  She calculates that the public’s absolute rejection of the war and its sycophantic boosters that she can weather that storm.  A new CBS NEWS/NEW YORK TIMES presidential preference poll showed her picking up seven points over the past two weeks and now enjoying a wide lead over Obama.  Maybe the move can actually woo the anti-war public as opposed to the anti-war movement, which will never embrace her.

JOHN KERRY who, despite dropping out of the race following an embarrassing case of foot-in-the-mouth disease, has scrupulously maintained his campaign e-mail list and today made a point of touting his vote against the bill.  He may still harbor fantasies of the Party turning to him after the main contenders cannibalize each other.  Fat chance.

By coincidence  AL GORE launched his new book ASSAULT ON REASON, stinging rebuke to the post “reality based” trips of the Bush administration, this week.  That gave him the opportunity to pummel “failed leadership” not just in the White House, but in Congress and the Courts as well. He was everywhere from the Sunday morning talking head shows to DAVID LETTERMAN.  And while maintaining constantly (and most of his friends believe it) that he does not intend to run for President, he has lately made a point of saying “never say never.”  A hugely laudatory profile in the NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE by JAMES TRAUB has been circulated throughout the net by several blogs and websites and hints that Gore might be mulling a “late entry” into the race if the front runner falter and there is a “grassroots” demand.  A number of high powered political pros have refrained from signing on with other campaigns and are setting up an un-official shadow operation.  Gore growing iconic status and the yearning of many Democrats may overwhelm his desire not to run.  Were he to announce there would be a stampede of supporters deserting other campaigns for Gore.  It might not be enough to put the former vice-president over the top, but it could sink campaigns with shallow support—Hillary being the most vulnerable.

What ever happens, the anti-war movement will be tempted to jettison its attachment to the Democratic Party—a move longed for by the left militants of such demonstrations machines as THE WORLD CAN’T WAIT.  We could see an up-turn in street demonstrations, direct action, and civil disobedience and the development of a movement reminiscent of the Vietnam War resistance.  That could drain maybe tens of thousands of dedicated, motivated boots-on-the-ground troops that Democrats were counting on next year not only for the Presidential campaign, but to build solid majorities in both houses of  Congress.

            To end the war and to build a Democratic Party strong enough to advance a positive progressive agenda, Congressional Democrats must find a way to say no to the least popular President in history.  And they have to find that way fast.

            Now is the moment to raise Hell, or Hell will surely find us.

HERETIC, REBEL, A THING TO FLOUT has long been concerned with the Bush maladministration’s apparent rush to war with Iran.  See the February 8th posting URGENT ALERT--US TARGETING IRAN.  Since that article was posted, more and more evidence of determination to launch another ill advised war has piled up.  MOVEON.ORG is offering an easy way to make your voice heard.  Consider supporting their advertising appeal to Congress.

A Message from MoveOn.Org

In a news conference last weekend, Vice President Cheney inched closer to war with Iran.

Does this feel like déjà vu to you? Experts agree that escalating the war into Iran will make things worse, and Congress has the constitutional power to stop the White House. But they need to hear from all of us that Americans don't want a widening war—and we expect them to do something about it.

So, we've prepared an ad to send a simple clear message to Congress, and we need your help to make sure it gets into national newspapers. We need to act now before it's too late. Can you chip in? To see the ad and contribute, click here:

MOVEON.ORG DONATE TO SUPPORT IRAN AD.

             While the peace movement focuses on preventing the Resident’s escalation-cum-surge in Iraq and the Senate dithers over the mildest of non-binding resolutions against it, the administration is reported to be locked into an attack on Iran, perhaps as early as the end of the month.

            Such a move is George W.’s only option to “change the conversation” in America from his failed Iraq policy, his assault on constitutional rights, and the dangerous revelations that seem to be spinning out from the Scooter Libby trial.  The Dark Sith Lord Cheney has assured him that opening hostilities with Iran will rally the American people to him and stymie a timid Democratic Congress from “acting against the troops under fire.”  As an added bonus it could even open the door to sweeping new domestic restrictions on privacy, speech, and assembly.  It’s a dangerous gamble, but one which a president with messianic delusions, a maliciously ambitious power-behind-the-throne, and their devoted army on Neo-Con Orcs are willing to make.

            The game has been afoot for some time.  It was implied in the original conception of a never-ending “War on Terror” with multiple battlefields.  Iran was identified from the beginning as one of the “Axis of Evil.”  But the original Neo-Con conception envisioned an easy victory in Iraq transforming that country into a permanent forward military base from which to dominate the Middle-East and the southern tier of former Soviet republics. 

While the original simple RISK strategy of being able to pick off enemies one by one by massing armies on their boarders has long been rendered obsolete, Iran never dropped off of the eventual target list. 

For a while the possibility that a new, moderate government might take power in Iran and seek a diplomatic accommodation with the West, threatened these ambitions.  But by relentlessly impugning Iranian national pride, by refusing to enter into any meaningful negotiations directly and by interfering with European efforts, the administration was able to assure the triumph of hardliners over pro-western moderates in the last Iranian presidential election.

And what a special gift MAHMOUND AHMADINEJAD has been.  This repellent little ideologue, reputed to be one of the architects of the 1979 HOSTAGE CRISIS, is a strutting thug and vicious anti-Semite Holocaust denier who has been eager to push his confrontation with the West over the development a possible nuclear weapons to the brink.  The Vice President could not have wished for a better partner in his dance of death.

Tensions over Iran’s nuclear ambitions have been mounting for two years as the US has adroitly maneuvered the Europeans and the United Nations into supporting its demands for total Iranian surrender on the issue.  Each threat of diplomatic condemnation or economic sanctions by the West has brought back more belligerence from Ahmadinejad.  Not only has he announce repeatedly that Iran has made this or that step toward  manufacture of possible arms grade plutonium, he has publicly tested a range of sophisticated rockets and missiles—thanks to North Korean technology—capable of delivering a nuclear warhead.

Despite the fact that international arms experts believe that Ahmadinejad’s bark is ten times worse than his bite—that the Iranians are years away from assembling a usable nuclear arsenal—the  American administration has been able to relentlessly hype the dangers of “weapons of mass destruction” in an eerie parallel to the charges leading to the Iraq debacle.  And the Iranian President’s bluster has only lent a credibility to the charges that Bush would have otherwise already forfeited.

Meanwhile the Iraq disaster has opened the door to Iranian ambitions in that country.  It had long supported the Shiite majority against its old Suni/Baathist enemy.  It has been a long term dream of the ruling Iranian clerics to either draw Iraq’s eastern Shiite provinces into a new Greater Iran or if the local Shiite Arabs demurred from Persian domination, at least a compliant satellite state.   The turmoil in Iraq unleashed by the American invasion ultimately led to the acsension of Iranian Shii’a allies to dominance of an American sponsored “democratic government” and the ensuing undeclared civil war.

Long complaining about Iranian meddling in Iraq, Bush has recently upped the rhetoric on that front as well.  American troops invaded an Iranian Consulate in the Kurdish north and arrested 5 diplomats.  Subsequently a policy of “arresting or killing” any Iranian agents found in Iraq “abetting the terrorists” was announced.   Some even suspect that a recent highly publicized ambush which killed five Americans GIs (including one outspoken war critic), might have been a covert operation meant to be blamed on Iran.

Those are the background conditions on which Bush and company plan to justify war.  The actual military preparations have been on going for some time and Pentagon sources, alarmed at the rush to disastrous war, have been leaking warnings that the plans are nearly complete and that execution of them can be expected at any time.          

It was long assumed that the US would let the Israelis, who greatly fear Iranian nuclear ambitions, conduct a preemptory attack on Iranian nuclear facilities.  But those facilities are super-hardened, buried under hundreds of feet of reinforced concrete and widely disbursed over the mountainous nation.  Military experts believe that Israel tested some of America’s newest and most powerful “bunker busting” bombs and technology against hardened Hezbollah sites in their summer war in southern Lebanon.  But Hezbollah troops survived that bombardment and emerged to engage Israeli troops in bloody combat (see the archives from the August 30th entry LUNDY'S LANE AND LEBANNON--"BY GOD REGULARS!" )  From that point on it was apparent that a successful Israeli strike in Iran would require nuclear weapons, American super-jumbo DAISY CUTTER (and their even larger, newer kin) bunker busters not yet transferred to Israel, or direct American participation in the attack.

Meanwhile the U.S. military has been going beyond the planning phase to pre-positioning of forces.  Naval power in the Persian Gulf has been boosted.  A second full aircraft carrier battle group is nearing the gulf as we speak.  Heavy bombers—both trusty old B-52s and newer B-1Bs and B-2s—based in the US and the Indian Ocean Island of DIEGO GARCIA have been placed on alert and have run test long distance missions.  The Defense Minister of a former Eastern block nation last week let it slip that air bases in his country have been cleared for use in action against Iran—important because bases in Germany, Turkey and other NATO states are almost surely will be unavailable for an offensive war on Iran.

The plan now seems to be to allow Israel to strike first, with American support.  This counts on the Iranians to strike back against American forces in the area.  They are known to have dug in numerous anti-ship missiles capable of striking and sinking American ships in the Gulf.  These are the decedents of the EXOCET class of missiles which sank a British cruiser during the FAULKANDS WAR.          Although that attack was launched from an Argentine jet, the Iranian missiles are hidden in caves and bunkers along the length of the Persian Gulf and are quite capable of hitting ships within it.  It is not inconceivable that US ships could purposefully be placed as inviting targets with the hope that incoming missiles could be shot down.  If one was hit and destroyed, however, it would only magnify the excuse to fire back and become a REMEMBER THE MAINE rallying cry for the war at home.  Those who think this is a far fetched scenario have forgotten the documented case of the attack of the USS  MADOXX  and the resultant GULF OF TONKIN RESOLUTION.

Other scenarios involve some Iranian provocation in Iraq (or an act that can be plausibly blamed on them), or, better yet some act of domestic terrorism that can be tied (however tenuously) to the Ayatollahs.

The administration seems to be under the delusion that war against Iran can be fought mainly with air and naval forces with perhaps peripheral engagement by troops in Iraq and Afganistan confronting Shii’a uprisings there in support of Iran.

Less deluded observes don’t believe it for a moment.  War against Iran would almost surely become regional, if not global.  Iran probably has the power, as it has long claimed, to close the Persian Gulf to shipping and damage petroleum instillations in Saudi Arabia the Gulf States causing an instant international energy crisis and a crippling attack on Western economies.

Syria, in a defensive alliance with Iran would surely be drawn in.  Although that might be to the liking of the Neo-Cons who always aimed to get to Syria sooner or later, the last thing the US military wants or needs is yet another war front.  In addition Hezbollah forces in Lebanon would rise against the shaky government there and launch attacks on Israel.  Shiite minorities throughout the Gulf would be inflamed against “moderate” Suni states.

If Iraqi based Kurds take advantage of the opportunity to launch a “war of liberation” for the Iranian ruled cousins—and they are already training to do so—the crisis could spread even to NATO ally Turkey, which has long battled Kurdish separatists and has vowed never to allow the establishment of a Kurdish state.  That could drive moderate (and militarily powerful) Turkey into the arms of Jihadist Islam.

In addition, other international powers could be drawn in.  China depends on Iran for a significant portion of its oil supplies.  North Korea, already a de-facto ally providing technical support to Iranian rocket forces, and feeling that it is inevitably the next target of American aggression, could launch its long feared attack on the South.  Even resurgent Russia might be tempted to enter the fray directly or indirectly if it seems possible to eliminate the United States as super power.

However it unfolds, observers inside and outside the military are becoming convinced that the Resident and company are committed to action soon.

Only the most dramatic action may now be able to avert disaster.  The Peace Movement needs to re-focus its attention to stopping the next war.  Congress must act now to explicitly deny the Resident the authority to launch operations against Iran, including a refusal to authorize any funds for the adventure.  Bush and company must not be allowed to argue that Congress has ceded its war making authority to the Administration in this instance under the broad authorization of a “War on Terror.” PEACE ACTION, among other groups has launched a petition to Congress.  UNITED FOR JUSTICE AND PEACE  has compiled articles and links with which an activist can arm herself. 

But the time for petitions grows short.  The anti-war movement and all of the allies it can muster must take to the streets NOW.

The clock is ticking.  Tomorrow may be too late.