All Aboard the Republican Spin Express; Next Stop Iran

"See in my line of work you got to keep repeating things over and over and over again for the truth to sink in, to kind of catapult the propaganda."
George W. Bush, Rochester, NY, May 24, 2005

To counter the Bush propaganda repeated over and over and over again, I will remind everyone that the reality is: Iraq had no WMD, no ties to al Qaeda, played no part in 9-11 and the Bush administration knew it. We attacked to remove Saddam Hussein, replace him with a government that would be friendly to American interests, to control their oil, to remove a potential threat to our ally Israel, and because George Bush wanted to be a war president.

In 1999, Bush told his former ghostwriter, Mickey Herskowitz, "One of the keys to being seen as a great leader is to be seen as a commander-in-chief." He added, 'My father had all this political capital built up when he drove the Iraqis out of Kuwait and he wasted it. If I have a chance to invade, if I had that much capital, I'm not going to waste it. I'm going to get everything passed that I want to get passed and I'm going to have a successful presidency."

Thanks to the revelations of eight leaked secret British government documents, we now know that the illegal, unnecessary invasion of Iraq really started almost a year before the March 19 kick-off of the official "shock and awe" bombing campaign. As early as May 2002, before going to Congress, before going to the UN, the US and the UK began "increased spikes" of bombing Iraq to try to goad Saddam Hussein into retaliation as an excuse for this inexcusable war. Their other aim, bombing Iraqi command and control centers, radar detection systems, Revolutionary Guard units, communication centers and mobile air-defense systems, as Gen. Tommy Franks wrote in his autobiography, was to make Iraq's defenses "as weak as possible" before the actual invasion. Gen. Moseley has confirmed the pre-war attacks. Besides being illegal, this was when the American people were being told the lie that we were trying diplomacy to resolve the issue of Iraq's non-existent WMD. Congress did not authorize military action until six months later, in October 2002.

Now the Bush White House is warning us that Iran may have nuclear weapons. Iran says its nuclear program is solely for energy purposes. This is backed up by the UN inspection team, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) which reported that it found Iran "has no nuclear weapons program" and "Teheran was very cooperative with the inspections."

Former intelligence analysts and Pentagon consultants have leaked information that US commando and special forces units have been conducting covert missions from eastern Afghanistan into Iran since the middle of last year. We are flying drones and military planes over Iran to test their military defenses and identify potential targets. A Washington intelligence source has been quoted as saying, "The idea is to get the Iranians to turn on their radar, [in order] to get an assessment of their air defenses."

Does the Bush administration think Americans have developed a case of national amnesia and won't recognize that we are being taken down the same lie-filled path of excuses they used to invade Iraq? Come on. What's with the re-run? If they expect us to sacrifice our children as cannon fodder, the least they owe us is a fresh lie.

With the recent discovery of a new field, Iran now has the second largest oil reserves in the world, second only to Saudi Arabia and ahead of third ranking Iraq. It has the second largest reserves of natural gas. Only Russia has more. Iran also controls the Strait of Hormuz through which 40% of all oil shipments from the Persian Gulf travel.

An invasion of Iran won't be the "cakewalk" predicted for the Iraq invasion. In the first place, they have a capable military unlike Iraq whose military was decimated after the first Gulf War according to Gen. Schwarzkopf and never rebuilt. In the second place they have strong economic ties to Russia and China. India and Pakistan are discussing plans with Iran for a pipeline. All would no doubt look unfavorably at an attack by the US on a country so close to their sphere of influence. Even if Iran has no nuclear weapons, those four countries with definite interests there do. This administration has a record of not thinking its invasion plans through. Their unrealistic view of a population bombed and invaded greeting us with flowers didn't quite turn out as predicted. They ignored warnings from their generals and the leaders of other Middle Eastern nations that an invasion of Iraq (to put it kindly) would not be a good idea. They dismissed any advice that was contrary to their determination to invade. Will they be as quick to dismiss the implications of the dangers inherent in an attack on Iran?

In a case of deja vu, this administration wants to remove Iran's current government, replace it with a government that would be friendly to American interests, to control their oil, to remove a potential threat to our ally Israel, and because, with his approval ratings plummeting, and support for his second term agenda meeting opposition, George Bush needs to be a war president.

As we continue to hear recycled propaganda from this administration about the threat from Iran, it would do us well to remember the immortal words of George W. Bush, "Fool me once...shame on...shame on you...............Fool me...can't get fooled again."

07/05/2005