"I have authorized our military commanders in
Iraq to confront Tehran's murderous activities"
George Bush's address to war veterans in Nevada on
28th August was a carefully choreographed and unambiguous declaration of war on
Iran.
Bush accused the Iranian government of being
behind the insurgency in Iraq as well as assisting the Taliban in Afghanistan.
He said "We must confront these dangers before it's too late ... We
will fight them over there so we do not have to face them in the United States
of America."
In the past year and especially with the failure of
the so-called surge strategy, Iran has been blamed for the United States'
failure in Iraq and Afghanistan, and has been demonised as the source of all
ills in the Middle East, including Palestine and Lebanon. The US military
briefing of 2nd July and 5th August accuse Iran of cooperation with AlQaeda and
supporting the insurgency and the killing of American servicemen in
Iraq. These accusations have not been backed by evidence and are in direct
contradiction with earlier statements by Gen. David Petraus made as early as
April 07.
Notable are also the recent statements by Afghan
President, Karzai, and Iraqi PM, Al-Maliki who separately praised the positive
contributions of Iran to the limited stability in their countries. Karzai called
Iran a "helper and a solution". These remarks were sharply rebuked by the
US.
The passage by the US Congress of an amendment to the Defense Authorization Bill accusing Iran of "intolerable acts of hostility towards the US" and
demanding the US government to take "Immediate action", and the unprecedented
move by the American government to designate Iran's Revolution Guards as a
"terrorist organization", provide the White House lawyers with a legal pretext
for a direct US military attack on Iran without seeking further authorization
from the Congress.
British Foreign Minister, David Miliband has
admitted in an interview with the Financial Times on
8th July that there was no evidence of Iranian involvement in the violence and
instability in Iraq.
Bush's repeated labelling of Iran as the
"biggest sponsor of terrorism" and his demonisation of Iran's nuclear programme
as casting "a shadow of holocaust" over the Middle East is reminiscent of
Rice's infamous warning of the danger of Iraqi WMD and the threat of a "mushroom
cloud over New York".
Following an IAEA's visit to Tehran on August
7 in which agreement on the modalities and timetable were reached to address all
outstanding ambiguities regarding Iran's nuclear energy programme, it was
announced on 27th August that "earlier statements made by Iran [about
Plutonium experiments] are consistent with the Agency's findings, and thus this
matter is resolved."
The agreement further states:
"The Agency has been able to verify the
non-diversion of the declared nuclear materials at the enrichment facilities in
Iran and has therefore concluded that it remains in peaceful
use."
Bush and his Neoconservative backers disgraced and
wounded at home and caught in the bloody quagmire of Iraq and Afghanistan are
unlikely to be willing to leave office in 2008 with the legacy of failure and
the perception of having made Iran the dominant power in the region. The end of
Bush's presidency could also be an end to the NeoCons' dream of controlling the
vast energy resources of Iran and the larger Middle East. In throes of defeat,
war can be resorted to as the only option.
It was the opposition and outrage with Tony Blair's
slavish pursuit of the US foreign policy and his taking Britain into the US
imperial wars that led to his final ousting and replacement by Gordon
Brown.
Gordon Brown must now honour his office by
distancing Britain from the US's war plans for Iran and openly denouncing the
military option. Anything but a clear denunciation of military attack on Iran
will make him complicit in George W Bush's wars, the bearer of the legacy of the
tragic bloodbath in Iraq as well as unleashing catastrophe in Iran and
beyond.
For more information or to contact CASMII
please visit:
Campaign Against Sanctions and Military
Intervention in Iran (CASMII)
... Payvand News - 8/30/07 ... --
