A Preemptive Strike on Preemptive Strikes
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/cenk-uygur/a...pr_b_16928.html
These guys are nuts. I mean that with all sincerity. I don't think the mainstream press or conventional wisdom understands how truly different and dangerous this administration is. My God, I was a Republican who had never voted for a Democrat in my life until this administration. These guys are not Republicans, they're crazy.
Over the last couple of days, John Bolton, our ambassador to the United Nations, and our Vice President have both threatened military strikes against Iran. Everyone we talk to in the press and politics says this can't happen. Of course it can.
Everything in the last six years has shown us that they don't play by conventional rules, they don't give a damn about popularity ratings, they don't feel constrained by the law (or common sense) and they think they make reality instead of abiding by it.
Nine percent of Americans believe a military strike against Iran is wise. 9%! But the neocons in the administration are still considering it. My guess is that they think they'll rally people behind the flag anyway as soon as we start a military conflict with Iran.
The thinking goes, "Who are people going to side with -- us or the Iranians? Let the Democrats argue for the Iranians." If you think they won't do it -- even though they keep telling us they want to do it -- you're just as crazy as they are.
The Pentagon has already drawn up plans for it. Read this Washington Post article about it and then this one and then read what a conservative publication is reporting here. Fox News talks about it on a daily basis. Dick Cheney threatened to do it just today (in nearly the same exact way he threatened Iraq earlier). John Bolton threatened military strikes on Sunday. It's already up on the State Department website.
Of all the disastrous decisions of this administration, and I can count about 118 off the top of my head, military strikes against Iran would be the top. It would eclipse all others by a long shot. If you liked the war in Iraq, wait till you get a load of the war in Iran.
If we invade another Muslim country, we will set this world on fire. Hezbollah will strike into action in Lebanon plunging that country back into civil war. Shiites in Iraq will turn on us and defend their Shiite brothers in Iran. We will be left fighting the Sunnis and the Shiites in Iraq -- as well as Iran.
The democratic movement inside Iran will evaporate with our first bomb. And this is all before Saudi Arabia steps in to defend their Sunni brothers in Iraq and gets sucked into a regional war with Iran. And the pro-American king in Jordan is toppled by anti-American riots in the streets. And the inevitable bombs start hitting Israel.
And all of this is before Israel starts to strike back and thereby set into motion events that will spiral into a world wide conflict with Muslims that'll make the Iraq War look like kindergarten school.
This idea must be stopped before it gains any more traction. The administration must understand unequivocally that this is not an acceptable option. If they launch a so-called preemptive strike against Iran, a draft is 100% unavoidable. It will no longer be a remote control war where we see the kids in the volunteer army dying for our dalliances. We will all have to go to war -- and a war that we don't even believe in and that an overwhelming majority of Americans find senseless.
The military option MUST be taken off the table. I understand that might do short term damage to our negotiations with Iran on this issue (I don't want Iran to get nuclear weapons either; that's part of why I wouldn't have just told the Indians it's okay to build nukes like the President did last week -- our hypocrisy seems to know no bounds). If there was an administration we could trust to not make unilateral, disastrous decisions, I would argue that we should keep that "threat" on the table.
But we don't have such an administration. We have the impetuous kids who are convinced they are right about everything, no matter how overwhelming the evidence is against them. We have the guys who will throw everything on the table against their opponents. If you put military strikes on the table, they will take that as a green light to use military strikes.
They must be stopped. We have to strike now against this idea before they view our silence as acquiescence. We do not agree! We do not consent! We must launch an ideological and political preemptive strike against the idea of attacking Iran before they launch their actual preemptive military strike.
It is not an exaggeration to say the lives of your sons and daughters might be depending on it. Once we launch, there is no going back. The Republicans can turn around and yell, "Well, the Democrats don't have a good plan for getting us out of Iran either!" But by that time it will be too late.
But it's not too late now. And we do have a better plan - do not under any circumstances launch a military strike against Iran!
We are now being told the best way to avoid a war in Iran is to start a war with Iran. Other than being logically absurd, this argument is devoid of any historical accuracy. We contained the Soviet Union for fifty years. We understood back then that the best way to avoid war was to not start one. It's not too much to ask to remember that simple fact.