President Bush’s approval rating shows only 1/3 (or less) in the US approving of either his military or his domestic policies. He has taken the sympathy of the world after 9/11 and transformed himself into a video game/comic book type avenger. Iran is the next country in his crosshairs. Will the voters put a stop to this? Will we have time to?
The Republican Party has the majority in the Senate and the House. They control the agenda and pass the laws. Whatever the President wants, he gets.
The courts, including the Supreme Court, have been packed with more Bush syncophants who choose not to investigate policies that break the laws and ignore the Constitution (in the name of national security).
Military commanders admit they are unable to stop the mounting violence that kills 1,000 Iraqi civilians a month, with overstressed American troops pushed beyond the breaking point, both physically and mentally. Afghanistan is in no better shape, with both the Taliban and the drug trade booming and US troops continuing to die. Contamination by depleted uranium will see deaths mount as years go by, as well as increases in birth defects for future generations. The same scenario may happen (again) very soon in Iran.
Iran offered in 2003 to accept peace with Israel, cut off assistance to Palestinian armed groups and pressure them to halt terrorist attacks within Israel’s 1967 borders. The two-page proposal for a broad Iran-US agreement covering all the issues separating the two countries, a copy of which was obtained by IPS, was conveyed to the United States in late April or early May 2003. The two-page document contradicts the official line of the administration that Iran is committed to the destruction of Israel and the sponsorship of terrorism in the region. Iran has sent two letters to Bush recently; both have been dismissed without an answer.
Iran President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad supposedly said he wants Israel “wiped off the map.” Farsi speakers say the translation was intentionally bungled. The Iranian president was quoting an statement by the late Ayatollah Khomeini, that “this regime occupying Jerusalem must vanish from the page of time” (just as the Shah’s regime in Iran had vanished). He was not making a military threat, but was calling for an end to the occupation of Jerusalem at some point in the future.
Iran is in total compliance with the Non-Proliferation Treaty and with an International Atomic Energy Agency Safeguards agreement entered into “for the exclusive purpose” of “preventing diversion of nuclear energy from peaceful uses to nuclear weapons.” Director-General ElBaradei repeatedly reports that he can find “no indication” of diversion of “source or special nuclear materials” to a military purpose.
Nuclear armed US ships are now steaming to the Gulf. Plans for attack have been in place for some time. The truth is being concealed here, just as it was in Iraq. American oil companies are our friends. We are there to serve them.
What can Republicans do who feel they were blindsided by Bush’s insistence of Iraq’s 9/11 involvement and wmd’s? Sending more of the same to Congress will make matters worse. Taking a hiatus in 2006 and 2008 may be an option, while working to bring the Republican Party back to its roots.
Let’s give the Democratic Party breathing space to give us real security: no more illegal, pre-emptive wars for corporate gain – and let’s (again) use diplomacy instead of bombs. Protecting Social Security. No other promises; the out-of-control spending, deficits, corruption and corporate giveaways will take years to correct before we can even begin to have a conversation about what the government should, and can afford to provide the people. We need goals, but we also need to be realistic. We need to stop the bleeding first and then find common ground.
(May God help those people on the Gulf Coast, with more hurricanes coming, and no help in sight).