By Bob Petrusak
Senator John McCain's recent rock
music parody which suggested that the United States "bomb Iran" would have
been less offensive had it come from a speaker with no experience of war or
violent death. McCain however, is a
veteran pilot who flew bombing missions against North Vietnam. McCain's aircraft was shot down during one such
mission and McCain himself was
rescued from a possible drowning by a North Vietnamese citizen. McCain then spent several years in
tortuous imprisonment. Since
entering public life, he has portrayed himself not only as a
patriot, but as a wise statesman and political maverick capable of drawing on his war experience
to resist popular hysteria
particularly on the issue of torture.
However, the "bomb
Iran" line suggests that the wise
statesman and political maverick are masks for a reckless demagogue particularly
when we place that remark in context.
A member of an apparently friendly audience had prefaced questions to
McCain by stating that it is "well documented" where the "real problem is in the
Middle East" and that President Bush adequately
described it as "the axis of evil." He then asked McCain "How many times do we have to
prove that these people are blowing up people now, never mind if they get a
nuclear weapon?" and "When do we send them an airmail message to Tehran?"
A wise statesman might have told the audience that the problems
of the Middle East are complex and that we must
question "well documented" claims suggesting simple solutions. A true political maverick might have
pointed out how quite recently, it had been "well documented" that the "real problem"
in the Middle East was Saddam Hussein and that "regime change" in Baghdad would
bring not only utopia on the Tigris but an "arc of democracy" throughout the
region.
A true political maverick might have
related that the "real problem" behind September 11th had nothing to do with
Iran and everything to do with a
Saudi society that had been producing hateful, anti-western extremists for
decades. A wise statesman would
have informed his audience that Iran had supported American efforts to root such
extremists out of Afghanistan through the overthrow of
their Taliban allies. He might have also pointed out that
Iran had been
quietly struggling against this Taliban--al-Qaeda axis since 1998 when the
latter had murdered several Iranian diplomats.
A wise statesman would have admitted
that all people will act when they believe their neighborhood is threatened by
outsiders especially when those outsiders have threatened them and betrayed
their trust. He would have related how Iran's secular, elected government
trusted American leadership in the early 1950's only to be overthrown by an
American-organized coup that brought a quarter-century of American-supported
repression. He could have rightly
condemned the Iranian seizure of our embassy in 1979 but pointed out that
Iran has been "paid back"
many times over through American support of Saddam Hussein's war on
Iran.
A true political maverick might have mentioned that
Iran's reward for helping to
overthrow the Taliban was placement on the "axis of evil." Then, he might have pointed out that Iranian support for
Shiite militias in Iraq is,
in Iranian eyes, no different from American support for the Cuban rebels who
wanted independence from Spain. He also might have told his audience that
if there is a present danger of
nuclear weapons falling into the hands of extremists it is not in
Iran but in
Pakistan where a shaky dictator was
made even shakier by the killing of innocent Pakistanis in an American
airstrike.
Both the wise statesman and the
political maverick might have reminded the audience that bombing campaigns are
not "airmail messages" because bombing campaigns kill the people beneath the
bomb-sights. Bombing campaigns also
invite immediate self-defense and subsequent reprisals. Bombing campaigns thereby cause the death, dismemberment
and imprisonment of those who must carry them out on the orders of politicians who thrive on
ignorance.
About the author: The author is a retired appellate
and trial prosecutor who also served as a police administrator and counsel for a
state prison system. He is now a
graduate student focusing on the history of American foreign
policy.
Related Article:
John McCain For
War: A deadly "joke" - Saadi, a 13th century Iranian
poet, cares about mankind and acts as a global thinker when he talks about
oneness of mankind. On the other hand, McCain, a 21st century American
politician who wants to spray the world with freedom and democracy, sings: "bomb
bomb bomb, bomb bomb" Iran. -Ali Moayedian
4/20/07
... Payvand News - 4/24/07 ... --
