Your Thoughts Exactly

Before you dive into this blog, please jump over to the New Yorker and read Seymour Hersh’s piece on the Bush Administration’s inner debates about the Iran problem. Done that? Ok. Since I wrote my last two posts on the threat of Iran and the utilization of resources by state leaders, I am going to turn this post into a big I told you so that combines points from both. Self-gratification is so fun!

Ok I promise to write some new shit. Anyways Seymour Hersh has been trumpeting the U.S.’s eventual involvement in Iran for some time now, as he first broke that the U.S. was flying covert missions over Iran’s airspace in late 2005, (looking for potential nuclear sites.) There is a very important international debate as to whether or not Iran has a second, shadow secret nuclear program that is further developed than the program currently under surveillance by the IAEA and the UN. If there is no “shadow” program, then Iran is 5 to ten years away from getting nuclear weapons; if there is, then Iran could be a year or two away.

Meaning of course, we will be relying on the CIA and other intelligence agencies to provide us with an accurate picture of Iran’s capabilities and nuclear stockpiles. And since they did such a good job of getting it right in Iraq, we should be all set!

The scariest line in this article of doom and gloom, is Hersh’s portrayal of Bush as believing that, in inciting regime change in Iran, and in using any means necessary, including the use of tactical nuclear weapons, he is taking steps that the next President, be he Republican or Democrat will not have the courage to do. I would like to discuss this depiction for the rest of the post. And I always get what I want.

The President of the United States is often described as the most powerful position in the world. All leaders have the ability to enact changes that affect the lives of their citizens. The President of the U.S., the commander-in-chief of the world’s most powerful army, has the ability to affect the lives of people around the world. The power to kill without retribution, to order a “tactical strike,” without seeing the mess of body parts and ruined buildings that comes with it. The power to press a button that sends a five kiloton bomb underground that may or may not cause fallout for the next fifty years, and may or may not lead to World War III.

Having more power than anyone else, and utilizing such power in unpopular ways is not courage. Courage is embodied in those who do not have power, yet put their livelihoods at risk against those who wield it against them. Courage is embodied in those who put their lives in danger by choosing to join the American military, to defend their country, to put their lives in the hands of blithering idiots who continually send them into dangerous situations without planning achievable goals, giving them adequate equipment, or finishing up with their first invasion before initiating their next step.

The Bush Administration needs to be stopped. The only wrath he faces is that of history, who will look upon his administration as the greatest disaster of the post World War II Era, one which simultaneously ruined economic prosperity, destroyed the American image in the international community, and eroded personal freedom. What a legacy to leave. The only way to do this is to destroy the backing of the Bush Administration from the House of Representatives and Senate, through voting in the Democrats in 06. Not that I am a huge fan of the Democratic party in ’06, but they will at least force some compromise from the Bush camp.

Or will they? Who knows. In the 21^st century, no one wants to seem weak. No one speaks for peace. No one speaks for progress and change. Will the Democrats show “courage,” by doing whatever is necessary to derail Bush’s misguided foreign policy? Or will they buy into everyone’s worst fears about Iran, that they are ruled by loonies who want to build a nuke just to destroy Israel?

Does such a plan exist? And what should the U.S. be doing about covering Israel’s ass? That is the real question of the Mideast, and soon to be the subject of the most controversial YTE post ever. I know you can’t wait.

# posted by Marmaniac @ 8:35 AM