Many awakenings: Ron Paul is as surprised as anyone at the near messianic zeal he inspiresBy SARAH LIEBOWITZ
Monitor staff
September 30. 2007 12:07AM
Ron Paul doesn't understand his own success. He didn't know his calls for an end to the Federal Reserve and the Department of Education would draw cheers, that his anti-income tax, anti-foreign intervention and libertarian message would resonate. He was reluctant to run for the Republican presidential nomination, he said yesterday: He was convinced it would take another "generation for education" before his message - rooted in Paul's reading of the Constitution - gained traction.
"I have been just dumbfounded about what's happening," Paul said yesterday in Manchester's Veteran's Park, where roughly 500 sup
porters gathered for a glimpse of the presidential candidate. "I've been talking this way for 30 years. But something, something special is happening." Click here for more.
Important email I received.
ReplyDeleteAmericans,
The Bush Administration is on track with its plans to
attack Iran before George Bush Jr. leaves office
in 18 months.
Unfortunately, few Americans think this is probable,
let alone possible.
It is both.
I agree with Scott Ritter and Daniel Ellsberg
(of "The Pentagon Papers" fame) that this attack
will have negative consequences on the world and
American citizens far in excess of 9/11 and the
Iraq War.
It could very well be the final nail in the coffin
of American democracy.
With that in mind...
Here are some facts to share with your friends and
colleagues about the Iran situation to stop this war
before it starts:
*** Reality check
The Bush propagandists are hard at work trying to draw a
comparison between Nazi Germany and Iran.
There are a few major problems with their fairy tale.
For example:
1. Modern Iran has no history of military aggression
Fact: Iran has never invaded or attacked another country
in the Middle East or elsewhere.
In contrast, the US has savaged Iraq causing the death
of over 600,000 civilians since 2003 alone.
In the summer of 2006, Israel bombarded Lebanon in a
"search for terrorists" killing over 1,000 civilians and causing
billions of dollars in damage to the country's infrastructure
(airport, ports, roadways, housing, and factories.)
In 1980, the US encouraged its ally Saddam Hussein
to attack Iran and he did with terrible consequences
for the Iranian people.
2. Who has nukes?
Facts:
a. Iran has no nuclear weapons
b. Iran lacks the ability to create nuclear weapons
c. Iran is permitted by international treaty to develop
a nuclear energy program.
In contrast, the US has the largest nuclear weapons stockpile
on earth and has stated, under the Bush administration,
its "right" to use them "pre-emptively" at President
Bush's discretion. The US continues to develop new
and "improved" nuclear weapons.
Israel has a well developed nuclear weapons program
and is the only nuclear power in the Middle East.
3. The US attacked Iran in the 1980s using Iraq as a surrogate
Saddam Hussein, who was put in power by the US, was supported
in his invasion of Iran with billions of dollars in US weapons
shipped to him by Ronald Reagan and George Bush Sr. and coordinated
by people including Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney.
Over 300,000 Iranians were killed in this US-funded war and
over 500,000 were wounded.
It was during the US supported-Iraq attack on Iran that the
US transferred chemical and biological weapons technology
to Iraq. There is evidence that the Bush family commercially
profited from these arms exports.
4. The US installed and maintained a tyranny in Iran
that operated from 1953 to 1979.
In 1953, the US and CIA with help from the UK engineered a violent
overthrow of the country's democratically elected government and
then supported a brutal, anti-democratic dictator in Iran - the
so called "Shah of Iran" - who jailed thousands of dissidents and
engaged in vicious torture.
*** Military considerations
1. Iran is the 18th largest country in the world by size - the area
of the UK, France and German combined.
2. Iran has over 70 million people - three times the population of
Iraq
3. The Iranian military
Unlike Iraq, which lost a war with the US in 1990 and was
militarily attacked non-stop up to the US invasion in 2003,
Iran has had approximately 20 uninterrupted years to
build and refine it defense capacity
4. Iranians are as patriotic about their country as
Americans are about theirs and will stand and fight
as they proved when attacked by Iraq in 1980.
When fighting Iraq, Iran used every human and
material recourse it had including "human waves"
of poorly armed and equipped suicide troops
who overcame the Iraqis with their sheer numbers.
We have 160,000 troops in the region. The Iranians
have 70,000,000 people and they will be fighting
on their home turf for their homeland.
5. Invaders are always at a disadvantage no
matter how technologically advanced.
Invaders who have a supply line many thousands of
miles long are at an extreme disadvantage.
6. Iranian tactics and operations are up-to-date
and formidable.
Iranian-trained militias in Lebanon were able
to counter an all out attack on Lebanon by the
US-equipped Israel army and air force and compel
the Israelis to retreat and agree to a cease-fire.
7. Potential Iranian responses to a US attack
Iran in a counterattack has the option of:
a. closing the Straits of Hormuz (through which over 20%
of the world's oil passes),
b. attacking Israel, and/or
c. attacking US military installations in Iraq
None of these operations would be difficult or expensive to
carry out.
However, the financial and human consequences could
be extreme.
Oil, already at $80 a barrel could, according to Wall Street
analysts, hit $200 per barrel - or more - with a doubling of
current gasoline prices.
Thousands of civilians and military personnel could be
killed and wounded in a matter of days.
*** Is war with Iran possible?
Yes.
1. Bush has the legal authority
Bush secured the legal authority to attack any country
any time for any reason post 9/11 and pre-Iraq invasion.
Congress has never taken this power back from him.
They need to do it. NOW.
2. The troops, weapons and plans needed are already in place
The so called "surge" has put many extra thousands
of US troops and equipment into the region. (For the
geographically challenged Iran is right next to Iraq.)
3. The propaganda war has already started
A very well funded and well organized propaganda
operation - Freedom's Watch - staffed by former
Bush administration officials has set up in Washington DC
with a multi-million dollar budget to "sell" war with
Iran to the American people.
Sadly, they are doing an excellent job and few
Americans are aware of how they are being conned
(again.)
*** Who benefits from attacking Iran?
The people who will benefit from an attack on Iran
are very same people who benefited - and continue
to benefit - from the invasion of Iraq:
1. Oil companies - the price of their product will
skyrocket
2. Weapons makers - including the Carlyle Group,
which the Bush family owns a major stake in.
3. Virulent Anti-Muslim and Arab zealots in Israel and elsewhere
- and the idiots in America who support them
4. Insiders with the financial resources place "bets" on the
war: buy gold, buy oil, short the US dollar etc.
5. Anti-democratic forces in the United States
About this last point...
Starting with the Reagan administration and continuing
unabated through the Clinton administration and
accelerating after 9/11, the executive branch of the United
States government has methodically been:
1. Destroying traditional rights and protections guaranteed
to US citizens by the Constitution
2. Creating a police state apparatus designed to silence
and suppress dissent with maximum force.
Simply by declaring you an "enemy combatant" or
someone who "supports" a declared enemy, you can be
arrested and held without charge indefinitely and without
the right to counsel.
This means that should the Bush administration engage
in a war of naked aggression against Iran openly killing
thousands of innocent Iranian civilians with bombardment,
including nuclear attacks, the very act of speaking out about
the immorality of such an attack could land you in jail
for the rest of your life or until such time the President
of the United States decides to release you.
Does this sound improbable?
It's not.
Imagine this possible scenario.
The US attacks Iran.
Iran counterattacks hitting Israel and US troops
in Iraq.
Underestimating the capacity of the Iranians to
defend themselves, the US finds its troops pinned
down in Iraq by a military that is capable of killing
them by the thousands.
What would the US do if, in yet another Bush
blunder, Bush put thousands of US troops at
the immediate risk of being killed?
How would the average uneducated American,
coming late to the story, react to the news that
hundreds of US servicemen and women were
being killed daily?
Would this give Bush the green light for what
his administration has been creating the
military doctrine for: a unilateral, first strike
nuclear attack?
You bet it would and in the perverse world of
the Bush family and its allies, it's possible they
may welcome the chance to finally let that
particular genie out of the bottle.
Bottom line:
Once a military attack against Iran gets started,
there is no imaginable positive outcome and potential
negative outcomes are worse than anything any
of us have seen in our lifetime.
For example:
* The reputation and moral standing of the US, which has
already been smeared by the blatant criminality of the Bush
administration, will be ruined, perhaps beyond repair
* Thousands of civilians and troops - perhaps tens
or even hundred of thousands - could be killed or
wounded. There could be casualties in ONE DAY that
dwarf all the casualties in Iraq since the invasion.
* The world economy will be thrown into a tailspin
and the US economy, the world's most dependent
on oil, will be hit especially hard.
* Underlying financial instability caused by a culture
of corruption and fraud (Enron, WorldCom, sub-prime
mortgages etc.) will be further strained perhaps
to the breaking point.
* China and Russian, two very formidable potential
enemies with human, natural and technological
resources equivalent to the US, may decide (if
they already haven't) that they need to join forces
to "check" US power and may begin to do so in
an aggressive way.
Again, this is all great news for the oil companies,
the weapons makers, the anti-Muslim and Arab zealots,
the opponents of civil rights and the Constitution.
and plugged in Wall Street operators.
It will be a disaster for American citizens.
Disasters for average Americans is what the Bush family
has been about for four generations now:
1. The great grandfather *Samuel Bush* was Woodrow Wilson's
liaison to the weapon's industry and profited mightily in that
role. He was one of a handful of architects "present at creation"
of the modern military-industrial complex which has
steadily bled the US financially and morally for private
profit for decades.
2. The grandfather *Prescott Bush* was US banker to the
Nazis, helping them before, during, and after World
War II with their financial operations.
3. Bush Sr. was behind the Iran-Contra operation
which illegally sent arms to Iran and siphoned
the profits for personal gain and to fund terrorist
operations in Central America. He also worked
with the Bin Laden family and others to fund the
so called Afghani resistance which became the Taliban
and al Queda.
4. And finally, George W. Bush, who in seven years has done more
lasting harm to to the United State than any group of external
enemies, real or imagined, could ever do.
Undermining fundamental America values and
strengthening US enemies been a lucrative business
for the Bush Family for four generations now.
*** Action items to stop the coming war
Let your friends and colleagues - and the media and
your local representatives know that:
1. You don't buy the Bush administration's anti-Iranian propaganda
2. A war against Iran would be potentially catastrophic,
much worse than the current disaster in Iraq
3. Advocacy for this war as practiced by
Bush administration front groups like Freedom's Watch
is against American interests and needs to be exposed
4. Bush needs to have the war powers granted to him
post 9/11 taken away and taken away now.
Brasscheck TV will be posting a number of new videos
about the impending war with Iran.