Will America attack Iran? If so, it won’t include a ground invasion this time, but more likely a series of extensive air attacks on various targets real and imagined, and quite possibly employing small tactical nuclear weapons.

Of course, the irony of using nuclear weapons against a nation which indisputably has none, and does not have the capability to develop any any time soon and which claims only a legal desire to develop nuclear energy for peaceful purposes, is lost on an administration for whom subtlety and nuance have never been strong points.

Also unavailable is awareness of the breathtaking hypocrisy in that the only nation to have employed nuclear weapons against two different civilian populations is once again claiming pre-emptive self-defense while contemplating a third eternally unforgivable crime against humanity. And recall that thanks to the US, Israel, that humanitarian paragon of restraint and progress possesses an arsenal of around 200 weapons, ones which its leaders have said it would not hesitate to use to threaten and extort the USA. Seems to be working, so far.

If America attacks Iran it will be for some of the same reasons that it attacked Iraq: advancement of world dominance as outlined in The Plan for a New American Century (PNAC), destabilization of the current regime, and to advance Israel’s goals in the region. If the Iraq adventure had gone better (Cheney’s rose petals and all that), then a full scale occupation might have ensued with the de rigueur establishment of military bases and (once again, after deposing PM Mossedeq in1953 and installing the Shah) control of Iranian oil. The best laid plans might ‘gang astray’, but that doesn’t mean you can’t still drop bombs.

At this point, if America attacks Iran it will be for some of the following reasons. There will be plenty of smokescreens, but any such smokescreens including mushroom ones will be purely of American manufacture. In my view, the reasons for attacking Iran all converge domestically, and all serve as a desperate attempt on the part of the Bush Administration to evade responsibility for seven and a half years of disastrous, destructive, criminal and contemptible domestic and foreign policy.

In their supreme arrogance which brooked counsel from no one outside the divinely privileged circle, these Machiavellian, Straussian, Rovian-addled rogues never contemplated failure in their PNAC map-quest for world dominance, much less that so much could all go wrong so quickly and at the same time. That is an important point. They never expected that they wouldn’t succeed. But with such colossal failures on every front (Afghanistan, Iraq, Katrina, the environment, health care, the economy, domestic spying, contempt for the Constitution, kidnapping, torture, caught out lies, lies, lies, the loss of standing in the world community, etc.), someone in the upper echelons must have got it that especially in the face of what many are predicting might be the greatest economic collapse to date—one not brought on by an act of God as they might ask you to believe (‘You’re doin’ a heckuva job, Goddie-Boy’), that another distraction might be in order. But it’ll be much more than that, as we shall see. As plans disintegrated, Iran was never off the ‘To Invade’ list, just the reasons for doing so.

War and Depravity

Back in the days when the Crawford Cowboy vowed to capture that Osama varmint ‘dead or alive’ [1] shortly before he didn’t care anymore, [2] unlucky Afghanis, Pakistanis a couple of Britons, an Australian, a Canadian and who knows who else were kidnapped and sold to the Americans who had unwisely offered bounties in princely sums (for the region) for Al Quieda members, associates, relatives or whatever. These for the most part are ‘dangerous terrorists’ who languish at Quantanamo and other prisons without recourse to the most basic human courtesies, let alone rights.

Deprived of everything except the inevitable tortures, a few managed to escape—not physically of course, but through suicide. But America could not acknowledge even such small, sad victories. The suicides were described by the camp commander as “ asymmetrical acts of war waged against us.” Wish that America were so ‘asymmetrical’.

Had America simply invaded Iraq, deposed Saddam with as genuinely little collateral damage as possible, helped install genuine democracy (if requested), helped rebuild, pledged assistance, and left, the original exercise would not have been any less illegal, but at least America’s intentions might have been seen as honorable, if misguided.

To have begun with ‘Shock and Awe’ as if real death and destruction were a Disney fireworks display revealed from the beginning America’s true intentions. We soon saw how America valued Iraqi life and property. Only the Ministry of Oil received protection, along with buildings housing government archives.

‘Smart Bombs’ rained down quite dumbly. Water and electrical infrastructure were deliberately destroyed, clearly war crimes. Sewage plants were hit. There was no provision at all, contrary to international conventions, to protect and supply the population under invasion. All over Iraq, doors were being kicked in in the middle of the night, inhabitants terrorized, men and boys taken away often never to be seen again. All in the name of ‘democracy’ and ‘freedom’. And then it got worse.

After four Blackwater mercenaries were attacked and murdered at Fallujah (we are in a better position now to surmise why that might have happened), the decision was made to subject the entire city of 300,000 to collective punishment, a tactic favored by Israel but shunned by civilized nations as a crime against humanity.

While some older people were allowed to leave, men and boys were prevented from doing so. The city was cut off from all supplies, and the slaughter began. No target was exempt including doctors, ambulance drivers and their patients. When Iraq invaded Kuwait, an American PR firm had been hired to peddle the story that Saddam’s soldiers threw babies from their incubators to die. In Fallujah, patients really were thrown out of hospital beds by American soldiers to die. No PR necessary. Injured citizens were denied care. Doctors were denied entry to the city, as was food and medicine.

American snipers were situated all around the city to ‘hunt’ anything that moved (Marines are encouraged to think of themselves as hunters, with the implication that their ‘prey’ are animals. In training, big game hunters help to instruct them.) A favorite tactic was to deliberately wound a target so that his or her helpless screams could inspire maximum terror in the area. Children were considered an especially prized trophy kill, especially if they screamed for awhile first. ’That’s a 10, dude! Booyah!’ Another trick is to use bait. If an unsuspecting (and likely impoverished) Iraqi stoops to examine a coil of copper wire or a rucksack purposely planted, he becomes an instant ex-Iraqi ‘terrorist’. ‘High-five! Booyah!’

Although there were denials, white phosphorous was employed against the civilian population as a punishment/terror tactic. Impossible to douse with water, white phosphorous (or Willie Pete) can burn down to the bone while leaving clothing intact. It’s use against men, women and children is documented. When Saddam used the same materials against civilians, they were considered WMD’s and their use crimes against humanity.

Documentation of American war crimes and crimes against humanity in Fallujah exists, but as there were no ‘embedded journalists’ there and independent ones were considered legitimate targets for death (a price which some paid), one can only speculate at what might have been on the record, or the extent of crimes against humanity committed there.

Torture and Conformity

That all-powerful America would return to barbaric practices abandoned as simply beyond the pale in the Middle Ages is surely telling in terms of the perennial disconnect between her behavior and her image of herself as ‘God’s Chosen’, etc. It’s also instructive that in America, objective reality seems less important than personal material and psychological comfort, within strict conformist limits; thus the ‘My country right or wrong’ attitude of the Vietnam era, the silly and nauseating yellow ribbon phenomenon, the moronic bumper stickers, the compulsory flag lapel buttons. Symbols of patriotism seem more important than the real thing, conformity abounds, and reality never is allowed to intrude. No matter what, ‘We’re Number One!’ Yay.

The Commander-In-Chief insists that ‘We do not torture.’ But his chief torture-enabler, John Yoo (now teaching law at Berkeley!) insisted in some of the most tormented and contorted legal language ever devised that the Unitary Commander has the authority to ‘crush the testicles of a child in front of its parents’ (wasn’t this sort of thing a pretext for deposing Saddam?) Perhaps defining the limits (or lack thereof) of the President’s torture powers is the 21st Century equivalent of theology’s previous endless discussion regarding how many angels can dance on the head of a pin (or maybe pincers).

Professor Yoo [5] also maintains that the Commander also has the authority to order genocide if he so chooses, or the assassination of you or me. The Commander can also order someone’s eyes poked out, or for acid to be poured over them. You name it! This is law? If so, then wiping out all those American Indians was justified after all. Slavery also, presumably. If that is law, what of justice? Strange that a professor of law (Berkeley!) would be justifying for a grateful President behavior that even Satan might eschew. Now the Commander of Torture can proudly take his place amongst the likes of ‘Blowtorch Bob’ D’Aubisson, the late President of El Salvador, Idi Amin, Pinochet, Mengele, Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot, Vlad the Impaler, Uzbekistan’s Islom Karimov (whom Bush has already entertained, perhaps to discuss Islommy-boy’s neat way of dispatching enemies by boiling them alive.)

And don’t forget, gentle, freedom-fighter Ronnie Reagan can boast raped and murdered nuns to his credit and at least one bumped-off Archbishop as well as Nicaraguan children beheaded by grenades being jammed into their mouths then exploded. The torture club is less exclusive than gruesome, and they’re always looking for new ideas.

With this kind of thinking, no wonder children have been sadistically raped at Abu Grahaib and elsewhere (some, no doubt, in front of helpless and innocent parents). Hundreds of people have died under brutal torture at the hands of Americans, and an unknown number in the clutches of America’s allies in the shameful task such as Egypt, Syria, Turkey, and others unknown.

Thousands have had their bodies and minds destroyed. Mr. Bush just has to blink his eyes and say ‘Abra al Quieda’ and it makes it all more or less acceptable to the so easily frightened and docile American people. Moreover, Mr. Yoo’s papers and Mr. Bush’s signing statements put paid to the ‘bad apple’ theory of torture, especially when lawyers for Bush, Cheney, and Rumsfeld attended an early torture fest at Quantanamo and gave the ‘green light’ on behalf of their clients.

Given the virtual unanimity of opinion amongst intelligence experts that torture is not efficacious, one must wonder at the motives of a President, a self-described ‘Compassionate Christian’ in so enthusiastically embracing barbaric practices which while serving no end (except perhaps to satisfy perverse bully/sadistic instincts in the torturers and their bosses) have added another indelible stain to America’s already ruined reputation. The same ‘compassionate’ Christianity earlier inspired Texas Gov. Bush to set a new record of executions not only for that state, but for the whole nation. Some of those death sentences scarcely bear scrutiny, and in one case he ignored pleas for mercy from heads of state and even the Pope, and then mocked the condemned woman (also a Christian) post-mortem. It was a joke to him.

9-11

The One Percent Doctrine, also known as the Cheney Doctrine [6], states that if a terrorist event has as little as one percent chance of occurring, then it must be treated as 100 per cent likely to occur. Obviously there are exceptions.

In spite of many Americans’ willingness, even eagerness to blindfold themselves with yellow ribbons, there has been a growing and unstoppable feeling of malaise in the land regarding 9-11. The people know they were lied to. The truth occurred to Europeans much more quickly, but nevertheless, there is an awakening in America that is indeed spreading.

When JFK was killed, information was much more easily managed. The FBI was in charge of the information flow, and it, in turn, fed the Warren Commission, which did no independent investigation of its own. Agree with the Oswald theory or not, much of public opinion was cast by what J. Edgar Hoover wanted the American people to ‘know’. The case was closed by the evening of November 22, 1963. Of course many pertinent records will not be released in the lifetime of anyone reading this, and LBJ stated that he never agreed with the conclusions of the Warren Commission(!). Most Americans believe that important facts regarding the assassination were withheld.

In the case of 9-11, the same uneasy feeling obtains, except that there are mountains of evidence suggesting that the investigation which was called only so reluctantly and late by the Bush Administration, then obstructed and strangled at every turn, was a complete whitewash. Just as the Warren Commission cherry-picked witnesses and testimony and swallowed whole whatever it was fed by the FBI, so did the 9-11 Commission in its fashion and in some cases just said ‘Oh, we don’t know…’ The collapse of Building Seven is an example.

But it doesn’t matter. Because unlike the case of the Kennedy assassination, there isn’t just the one Zapruder film to be confiscated and buried away by the authorities, but thousands of tapes, voice recordings, television accounts and interviews, all leading to the unmistakable conclusion that the Twin Towers and Building Seven fell as a result of controlled demolitions. There is video, audio, eyewitness, seismic, and even a television interview with WTC leaseholder Larry Silverstein in which he admits to giving the order to ‘pull’ Building Seven. Why would Building Seven already be prepped for demolition and wired to a computer? Samples of Thermate (a patented form of Thermite) were recovered from Ground Zero. Thermate has only one legal use.

From the documented PNAC desire for a ‘new Pearl Harbor event’ to ‘catalyze the American people’ into following their agenda to ‘Full Spectrum Domination’ (and remember, these are followers of Leo Strauss, who taught that populations need to be manipulated and lied to ‘for their own good’) the stand-down of air defenses, to the failure to treat GZ as a crime scene, the rapid destruction of evidence, to a thousand other facts and discrepancies, there is a growing perception that elements of the Bush Administration were behind the tragedy.

If Bush/Cheney (although Bush would have been afforded limited knowledge and thus plausible deniability) were willing to sacrifice 4,000 Americans and up to 1,000,000 Iraqis to ‘a good cause’ abroad, why not a few thousand at home to make it all possible? In Straussian/Rovian logic, the end always justifies the means. A sufficient cynic could almost make it sound like it was Americans’ patriotic duty to die in New York on that day. And of course, they’re still dying.

But it’s the growing perception that’s dangerous to the Bush Putsch and there’s a plethora of convincing evidence available to anyone curious enough to look. And they are. Every patriotic American has a duty to examine the evidence for her or himself, to come to an honest conclusion, and then to act on that conclusion. The facts speak for themselves. Of course, the realization that the justification for the ‘war on terror’, all those deaths, all that suffering, loss of freedom, insults to the Constitution, concentration camps waiting in America, was a false flag operation (like ‘Operation Northwoods’ would have been if Kennedy hadn’t stopped it), a massive betrayal, a naked power grab at home and abroad is difficult to internalize and is likely to generate a fair amount of anger against its perpetrators. The perception is growing.

The Economy

It is interesting how ordinary Americans, time after time, can be persuaded to vote against their own interests. Thus permanent tax cuts for the top wealthiest people in the land, while manufacturing jobs are sent abroad faster than they can be counted. Americans are constantly told that less regulation is better. Even after the Savings & Loans fiasco on Reagan’s watch, regulations to ensure it couldn’t happen again were rescinded (by Bill Clinton). The result is the so-called Sub prime debacle, which in conjunction with other self-inflicted wounds is likely to usher in the worst financial crisis since the ‘30s, Mr. Bush’s ‘What, me worry?’ assurances aside. It’s going to be brutal, and it’s already being felt worldwide with people in Canada, Japan, the UK and elsewhere already losing savings and retirement funds. A bank in the UK, in business since the 1800s is now gone. More to follow.

Many Americans are insular regarding events in the world, perhaps even a bit callous. To many, a million Iraqi deaths is no great matter for concern. But a million pennies gone from their bank accounts or in terms of spending power is a matter of great concern and a cause of great anger. Mess with their money at your own peril. Bush has done that.

In a properly regulated economy (not a ‘command’ economy, just one in which pirates are not in charge), Exxon and the other oil companies would not be allowed to bank $5 or $9 or $11 billion dollars per quarter while ordinary Americans have to skimp on food or heat simply so they can drive to work. Exxon and the others would not be allowed to offer flimsy excuses (even in Congress) year after year while looting the economy. ‘Well, it was a cold winter.’ ‘Well, it’s the driving season.’ ‘We don’t have enough refining capacity.’

Leading up to the current crisis, banks and investment institutions were allowed to exercise almost unlimited greed and to commit fraud on such a massive scale that disaster is inevitable. It is instructive that the Fed and the Government were quick in their futile efforts to bail out the financial institutions with taxpayer money while blaming the entirely innocent victims for their own fate. As the new reality gradually sets in, demands for accountability and justice will become deafening. Much of the shouting will be at the Bush Administration. Rightly so.

Attacking Iran: Suicide Circus

The Bush Administration will attack Iran if it deems that there are sufficient domestic reasons for doing so. After being repudiated by the NIE (comprising sixteen Intelligence Agencies), Mr. Bush was reduced to the absurd position of claiming a right to attack Iran if the latter thought of advancing its nuclear program. Now you can be bombed for thinking. Watch out, Einstein!

Attacking Iran might afford an increasingly desperate Administration a welcome diversion, one more call to a wearying populace to support their ‘War President’ one more time and ignore the economy, two other disastrous wars, domestic failures, and 9-11. A VP, whose response to being told that 70 per cent of Americans think America is being mislead is ‘So what?,’ isn’t going to worry too much about public opinion on that matter either.

Of course, it couldn’t work. Attacking Iran will be another disaster, but it would give the War President an option: since such a direction would bolster Maverick McCain’s chances in an election (despite the fact that he’s looking a little Maverickity these days), he could take his chances, knowing that a McCain victory would mean a continuance of his warlike policies, and under a McCain Presidency, he and his partners in crime would escape prosecution, if not complete accountability. Or he could use his self-imposed new powers and simply declare an emergency, deal brutally with any domestic unrest as a result, and remain in office for the duration of the bogus ‘War on Terror’. W forever!

According to the 1% Doctrine, the Cheney Doctrine [6], I would advise Iran to prepare for an imminent terrorist attack. It’s all Bush/Cheney have left. And if their actions were to result in another world war? Typically, a shrug, a smirk, a sneer, and ‘so what?’

*****
John S Hatch is a Vancouver writer and film maker.
john@freakishlyfinefilms.com/www.freakishlyfinefilms.com [1]

Notes:

[1] "The most important thing is for us to find Osama bin Laden. It is our number one priority and we will not rest until we find him."
- G.W. Bush, 9/13/01

[2] “I don't know where bin Laden is. I have no idea and really don't care. It's not that important. It's not our priority."
- G.W. Bush, 3/13/02

[3] “I just want you to know that, when we talk about war, we're really talking about peace.”—George W. Bush, Department of Housing and Urban Development
Washington, D.C.
June 18, 2002

[4] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fallujah%2C_The_Hidden_Massacre [2]

[5] Torture from the top: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXpavT5RCP8 [3]
John Yoo: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11488.htm [4]

[6] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_One_Percent_Doctrine [5]

* Brickbats to Berkeley. What next—Professor O.J.? Doctor Bush?