BUT WHERE WILL THE SOLDIERS COME FROM?
We don't have the infrastructure to sandbag the levys, and thus an American city
dies of neglect. We've used up our National Guard and Reserves. Wjhat soldiers
we have in the field are in Korea or in the *real* war against Islamist
terrorism in Afghanistan. Now President Bush, in an increasingly surreal
national nightmare, sounds about Iran a lot like he did about Iraq, before the
invasion. America has the will neither to resort to a military draft nor to the
dangerous precedent of unleashing our own nuclear arsenal. Yet talk of war with
Iran is in the air. The theocracy in Iran is an abomination. It would never
have come into being if we had had a more pragmatic view in the late 1970s.
Thank you, Jimmy Carter, exit the Shah , enter the
dragon of medievalist Islamo-fascism.
. But, here we are, post-Soviet, post 9/11
and, it seems, post reality. We have Bush. Night Falls. Henry_Allen
Don't try to solve serious matters in the middle of the night.
- Philip K. Dick
consortiumnews.com
Iran Clock Is Ticking
By Robert Parry
January 31, 2007
While congressional Democrats test how far they should go in challenging George
W. Bush’s war powers, the time may be running out to stop Bush from ordering a
major escalation of the Middle East conflict by attacking Iran.
Military and intelligence sources continue to tell me that preparations are
advancing for a war with Iran starting possibly as early as mid-to-late
February. The sources offer some differences of opinion over whether Bush might
cite a provocation from Iran or whether Israel will take the lead in launching
air strikes against Iran’s nuclear facilities.
But there is growing alarm among military and intelligence experts that Bush
already has decided to attack and simply is waiting for a second aircraft
carrier strike force to arrive in the region – and for a propaganda blitz to
stir up some pro-war sentiment at home.
One well-informed U.S. military source called me in a fury after consulting with
Pentagon associates and discovering how far along the war preparations are. He
said the plans call for extensive aerial attacks on Iran, including use of
powerful bunker-busting ordnance.
Another source with a pipeline into Israeli thinking said the Iran war plan has
expanded over the past several weeks. Earlier thinking had been that Israeli
warplanes would hit Iranian nuclear targets with U.S. forces in reserve in case
of Iranian retaliation, but now the strategy anticipates a major U.S. military
follow-up to an Israeli attack, the source said.
Both sources used the same word “crazy” in describing the plan to expand the war
to Iran. The two sources, like others I have interviewed, said that attacking
Iran could touch off a regional – and possibly global – conflagration.
“It will be like the TV show ‘24’,” the American military source said, citing
the likelihood of Islamic retaliation reaching directly into the United States.
Though Bush insists that no decision has been made on attacking Iran, he offered
similar assurances of his commitment to peace in the months before invading Iraq
in 2003. Yet leaked documents from London made clear that he had set a course
for war nine months to a year before the Iraq invasion.
In other words, Bush’s statements that he has no plans to "invade" Iran and that
he’s still committed to settle differences with Iran over its nuclear program
diplomatically should be taken with a grain of salt.
There is, of course, the possibility that the war preparations are a game of
chicken to pressure Iran to accept outside controls on its nuclear program and
to trim back its regional ambitions. But sometimes such high-stakes gambles lead
to miscalculations or set in motion dynamics that can't be controlled.
‘You Will Die’
The rapidly deteriorating situation in Iraq is seen as another factor pressing
on Bush to act quickly against Iran.
Other sources with first-hand knowledge of conditions in Iraq have told me that
the U.S. position is even more precarious than generally understood. Westerners
can’t even move around Baghdad and many other Iraqi cities except in armed
convoys.
“In some countries, if you want to get out of the car and go to the market,
they’ll tell you that it might be dangerous,” one experienced American cameraman
told me. “In Iraq, you will be killed. Not that you might be killed, but you
will be killed. The first Iraqi with a gun will shoot you, and if no one has a
gun, they’ll stone you.”
While U.S. war correspondents in most countries travel around in taxis with “TV”
taped to their windows, Western journalists in Iraq move only in armed convoys
to and from specific destinations. They operate from heavily guarded Baghdad
hotels sometimes with single families responsible for security since outsiders
can't be trusted.
The American cameraman said one European journalist rebelled at the confinement,
took off on her own in a cab – and was never seen again.
Depression also is spreading among U.S. intelligence officials who monitor
covert operations in Iraq from listening stations sometimes thousands of miles
away. The results of these Special Forces operations have been so horrendous
that morale in the intelligence community has suffered.
The futility of the Iraq War also is contributing to professional cynicism. Some
intelligence support personnel are volunteering for Iraq duty not because they
think they can help win the war but because the hazard pay is high and life in
the protected Green Zone is relatively safe and easy.
Once getting past the risks of the Baghdad airport and the dangerous road into
the city, U.S. civilian government personnel ensconce themselves in the Green
Zone, which amounts to a bubble of U.S. creature comforts – from hamburgers to
lounging by the pool – separate from the world of average Iraqis who are mostly
barred.
Cooks are brought in from other countries out of the unstated concern that
Iraqis might poison the food.
That American officials have come to view a posting in Iraq as a pleasant career
enhancer – rather than a vital national security mission for the United States –
is another sign that the war is almost certainly beyond recovery.
Another experienced observer of conflicts around the world told me that Bush’s
new idea of putting small numbers of U.S. troops among Iraqi government forces
inside police stations represents an act of idiocy that is sure to get Americans
killed.
Conditions in Iraq have so deteriorated – and animosity toward Americans has so
metastasized – that traditional counterinsurgency strategies are hard to
envision, too.
Normally, winning the hearts and minds of a target population requires a
commitment to move among the people and work on public action projects, from
building roads to improving the judicial system. But all that requires some
measure of political goodwill and personal trust.
Given the nearly four years of U.S. occupation and the devastation that Iraq has
suffered, not even the most talented American counterinsurgency specialists can
expect to overcome the hatred swelling among large segments of Iraqi society.
Bush’s “surge” strategy of conducting more military sweeps through more Iraqi
neighborhoods – knocking down doors, gunning down hostile Iraqis and dragging
off others to detention camps – is not likely to assuage hard feelings.
Wider War
So, facing slim odds in Iraq, Bush is tempted by the allure of escalation, a
chance to blame the Iranians for his Iraq failure and to punish them with air
strikes. He might see that as a way to buy time, a chance to rally his pro-war
supporters and a strategy for enhancing his presidential legacy.
But the consequences both internationally and domestically – from possible
disruption of oil supplies to potential retaliation from Islamic terrorists –
could be devastating.
Yet, there is a sense of futility among many in Washington who doubt they can do
anything to stop Bush. So far, the Democratic-controlled Congress has lagged
behind the curve, debating how to phrase a non-binding resolution of disapproval
about Bush’s “surge” of 21,500 troops in Iraq, while Bush may be opening an
entirely new front in Iran.
According to intelligence sources, Bush’s Iran strategy is expected to let the
Israelis take a lead role in attacking Iran's nuclear facilities in order to
defuse Democratic opposition and let the U.S. intervention be sold as defensive,
a case of a vulnerable ally protecting itself from a future nuclear threat.
Once American air and naval forces are committed to a new conflict, the
Democrats will find it politically difficult to interfere at least in the near
future, the thinking goes. A violent reaction from the Islamic world would
further polarize the American population and let Bush paint war critics as
cowardly, disloyal or pro-terrorist.
As risky as a wider war might be, Bush’s end game would dominate the final two
years of his presidency as he forces both Republican and Democratic candidates
to address issues of war and peace on his terms.
On Jan. 10, the night of Bush’s national address on the Iraq War, NBC Washington
bureau chief Tim Russert made a striking observation about a pre-speech briefing
that Bush and other senior administration officials gave to news executives.
“There’s a strong sense in the upper echelons of the White House that Iran is
going to surface relatively quickly as a major issue in the country and the
world in a very acute way – and a prediction that in 2008 candidates of both
parties will have as a fundamental campaign promise or premise a policy to deal
with Iran and not let it go nuclear,” Russert said. “That’s how significant Iran
was today.”
So, Bush and his top advisers not only signaled their expectation of a “very
acute” development with Iran but that the Iranian issue would come to dominate
Campaign 2008 with candidates forced to spell out plans for containing this
enemy state.
What to Do?
The immediate question, however, is what, if anything, can Congress and the
American people do to head off Bush’s expanded war strategy.
Some in Congress have called on Bush to seek prior congressional approval before
entering a war with Iran. Others, such as Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pennsylvania,
have asked Bush to spell out how expansive he thinks his war powers are.
"I would suggest respectfully to the President that he is not the sole decider,"
Specter said during a Senate hearing on war powers on Jan. 30. "The decider is a
shared and joint responsibility."
But Bush and his neoconservative legal advisers have made clear that they see
virtually no limits to Bush's "plenary" powers as Commander in Chief at a time
of war. In their view, Bush is free to take military actions abroad and to waive
legal and constitutional constraints at home because the United States has been
deemed part of the "battlefield."
Nothing short of a direct congressional prohibition on war with Iran and a
serious threat of impeachment would seem likely to give Bush more than a
moment’s pause. But congressional Republicans would surely obstruct such
measures and Bush might well veto any law that was passed.
Still, unless Congress escalates the confrontation with the President – and does
so quickly – it may be too late to stop what could become a very dangerous
escalation.
[For more on this topic, see Consortiumnews.com’s “Logic of a Wider Mideast
War.”]
Robert Parry broke many of the Iran-Contra stories in the 1980s for the
Associated Press and Newsweek. His latest book, Secrecy & Privilege: Rise of the
Bush Dynasty from Watergate to Iraq, can be ordered at secrecyandprivilege.com.
It's also available at Amazon.com, as is his 1999 book, Lost History: Contras,
Cocaine, the Press & 'Project Truth.'
