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AFP Editorial: Resist the Neo-Cons; Don’t Attack Iran

THE
UNITED STATES AGAIN STANDS at a critical Israeli pressure and attack
Iran or will they do what is best for America and mind their own
business?
With Tehran’s recent announcement that it now has the technology to
enrich uranium, the chicken hawks in the administration are spoiling
for yet another war despite the harsh facts about our depleted military
capabilities, with 1.8 million men and women now under arms pursuing
the apparent but senseless goal of attempting to establish hegemony
over the planet.

We must also mention the harsh political and
military realities resulting from President Bush’s unconstitutional
aggression in Iraq.

It is as clear as can be that the Iraqi
adventure is a loser and again this great country is involved in a
guerrilla war and we will be forced out of Iraq as we were forced out
of Vietnam and Cambodia, with our tail between our legs.

Why
can’t our leaders learn from history—even recent history? Lesson number
One: an aggressor (that’s us) can’t win a guerrilla war; this is
something we’ve been saying for years. In a guerrilla war you are
fighting the people, with enemies literally everywhere. Don’t know
that? Then read the histories of Castro’s guerrilla war, or that of Mao
in China, or our own Revolutionary War against Britain, then the
world’s greatest power.

Bush’s sinking poll numbers may get
some of these unpleasant facts into the craniums of our
commander-in-chief and his pro-Israeli advisors.

Thankfully, at
least so far, President Bush seems to be listening to his generals and
is dismissing the neo-cons’ calls to bomb Iran. Perhaps the boy
president is growing up.

Only recently, Bush painted reports
in U.S. magazines and newspapers that claimed the White House was
considering dropping nuclear weapons on Iran as “wild speculation.”

The
fact that the leading proponents of the war in Iraq have now been
kicked upstairs or have retired, such as Douglas Feith and Richard
Perle, is also an encouraging sign. Still, the war clouds hover.

Senior
British officials, meeting with military leaders in London April 3,
called an American attack on Iran “inevitable” unless its leaders
comply with demands to freeze their nuclear program.

Arnaud de
Borchgrave, editor of United Press International, reported April 11
that a prominent neo-con at the White House and the Defense Department
told him that the United States will bomb Iran before Bush leaves
office. He quotes the anonymous source, who incredibly claims:
“B-2s—two of them—could do the job in a single strike against multiple
targets.”

Before Bush leaves office, the source said, Iran’s
nuclear ambitions would be history. As usual, these armchair generals
don’t think of the blowback.

Let’s not forget that 160,000 U.S.
troops are currently bogged down in Iraq and Afghanistan, the two
countries that sandwich Iran. Every day, the occupation creates more
anti-American sentiment. American forces are continually menaced by a
never-ending and growing supply of militia and guerrilla fighters who
are on better terms with the Iranian government than any of the
U.S.-backed puppet rulers in the Middle East.

If the bloodshed
seems deplorable today, just think that an American attack on Iran
would kill and maim untold thousands of civilians. It would predictably
mobilize hundreds of millions of Muslims from Afghanistan to Sumatra.
At that point, the United States would have one of two options: Stage a
hasty retreat or commit genocide.

And although we have little
doubt that this government’s neo-con (Israeli) advisors would recommend
genocide, we know that such a course would not be acceptable to other
Americans and would mark America as a criminal aggressor to the entire
world.

We can only hope that Bush has learned an important life
lesson and now realizes that following the advice of the pro-Israel
neo-conservatives has been a tragic mistake.

But the road
ahead is long and rocky. The powerful Israeli lobby, the Evangelicals
and the neo-con wing of the Republican Party will keep the pressure on
the mainstream media, over which it has tremendous power.

Ranking
military officers had always opposed the invasion of Iraq and are
resisting plans to target Iran. But good soldiers must follow orders.
And there are always “contingency plans” for war—including nuclear war.

It has been outraged Americans, with American Free Press
in full voice, who have so far been able to compel the president to
back off. These voices must not fall silent; the fight for peace
continues Americans must cling to their outrage; a battle has been won
but the war for our country persists.

(Issue #17, April 24, 2006)

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