If speculation and rumors add up, George W Bush could be planning an attack on another innocent nation of people.
(SALEM, Ore.) - The investigative journalist who revealed both the My Lai Massacre in Vietnam and Abu Ghraib military torture scandal in Iraq, Seymour Hersh, says his sources have revealed that the United States is very close to staging an attack against Iran. He told NPR that Congress' is already funding covert military operations, information that will be part of the upcoming issue of The New Yorker. (see: several articles on digg.com)
For his part, Bush dismissed the idea that his administration is planning to attack Iran as "wild speculation". His pattern of grave military errors up until now however, is certainly no reassurance that he isn't lying.
Even though former President Jimmy Carter revealed to the world that Israel has hundreds of armed nuclear weapons pointed at targets around the world illegally, (see: Carter Reveals Israel's Possession of 150 Nuclear Weapons) our cowboy president George "W" Bush is still injecting lie after lie into the news media about Iran's nuclear program.
It doesn't have one. Iran's only ambition is to one day have nuclear power, like other countries. The only country we know to have illegal nukes, is Israel.
In all probably, the current government of the Jewish State would love to blow Iran off the map, there is little doubt about that. But the charges of "nuclear" this and that are all made up, self created political statements from dishonest governments that are warring by desire, for the profit, for the alleged "security" that killing other people is supposed to deliver.
The sad reality is that an estimated 65% of the residents of Israel are against the hostile regard displayed toward the country's predominantly Muslim neighbors, and they seek the peaceful settlement of differences, rather than violence.
Israel didn't exist until 1947. It rests on land wrestled away from Palestinian people who had lived there for generations. They were literally "terrorized" from their homes and neighborhoods to make room for the arriving Jewish settlers who would be Israel's first residents. Then, over the years, for a number of reasons, Israel expanded more and more always with the support of the U.S. and Great Britain and other western nations. That certainly is the short version of it, but all too many Americans don't even know that.
Iran was ripped off by western governments for decades, and by the late 1940's they'd had enough of it, and demanded fair payment for their oil. The western response was to covertly kill Iran's first Democratically elected President, and kidnap the man who we knew as "The Shah" and place him in a CIA camp, until he agreed to serve as a puppet government leader for the U.S. and Britain. (see: Warmongers, Chickenhawks, FOX News and Iran ) By 1979, the people of Iran were maxed out and they experienced a revolution. This is when the hostage crisis began. The Shah was removed from power and no western nations have been friendly toward Iran ever since.
Iranian people are very fond of Americans and they are very westernized. Women in Iran are "covered" when they go outside. In most cases this is a garment that is worn over a woman's hair but not her face. The Chador is worn by some women, this is an Iranian Islamic veil- different from Burqa that is seen in Afghanistan and Iraq and Saudi Arabia. In fact, more than half of all Iranian students are female and many women hold office and high powered jobs.
I have established friendships with a number of people in Iran through MySpace and I feel blessed for being able to get so many realistic answers for the complex questions posed by the U.S. and western press. The people of Iran like Americans, value their freedom. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is much like President Bush in that he is a hard conservative. But any good side of this man is blocked from view by the American networks, and his words are twisted and mis-interpreted by political operations like FOX News.
Their pundits continue to suggest that the Iranian President "denies the Holocaust" but Iranian TV just ran a multi-episode series on the Holocaust the the plight of the Jews and others during WWII and it was government sponsored, That sure doesn't sound like a place that is trying to re-write history. Ahmadinejad's often missed point is that the Holocaust affected far more than just the Jewish people; it is very true when you truly measure the millions of civilians in Europe who were killed directly or indirectly by Hitler's war machine.
In the 2005 elections, Iran saw a good deal of youthful support for Hashemi Rafsanjani, the previous President. His policies were not all embraced, but they were tame some say, when compared with a new extremist called "Ahmadinejad". I have been told that he scared many of people and especially younger Iranians. This led to a good degree of support for Rafsanjani, described as a moderate politician. It sounds like the reason he was ultimately not elected, was because most of his youthful supporters didn't participate in the election. Thus, voter apathy really led to the election of the controversial President Ahmadinejad.
But he wanted to lay flowers at the place Americans call "Ground Zero" and he was denied. Again, not the mark of a man who lives to bring terror to the U.S. Indeed, it is the United States that is a threat for the former land known as Persia.
For Americans, the worst this could lead to is beyond all imagination. Some speculation is so scary that it is hard to swallow; but not that hard. One source suggested that Bush will attack Iran with our tired, stretched out military forces and then use the foolish attack as a basis for martial law, and the delaying of the next election. That may sound wild, but it doesn't hurt to consider the possibilities.
Bush is certainly not alone when it comes to a warring desire against Iran. Oregon's own Senator Ron Wyden is a vocal critic of Iran, but then he began by supporting the war against Iraq. (see: Oregon Lawmaker Introduces The “Stop Arming Iran Act”). But the most vocal Democrat calling for action against Iran over imaginary nukes is Senator Joseph Lieberman, (see: Lieberman's Demands for War in Iran are Cowardly) whose very core values and literal patriotism stands in strong question for many voters.
Seymour Hersh may well be right on this one, but from what I can gather, most Iranians themselves hardly believe it. That is because in their hearts, they still believe that the United States is a good country, and not just a rogue military agent for Israel. Only time will tell.
For more on the revelation from Seymour Hersh, visit this article from ThinkProgress.org:
Hersh: Cheney ‘Privately’ Says He Prefers U.S. — Not Israel — Strike Iran Because ‘We’ll Get Blamed Anyway’»
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Tim King is a former U.S. Marine with twenty years of experience on the west coast as a television news producer, photojournalist, reporter and assignment editor. Today, in addition to his role as a war correspondent in Afghanistan where he spent the winter of 2006/07, this Los Angeles native serves as Salem-News.com's Executive News Editor. Salem-News.com is the nation's only truly independent high traffic news Website, affiliated with Google News and several other major search engines and news aggregators. Tim's coverage from Iraq that was set to begin in April has been delayed and may not take place until August, 2008. You can send Tim an email at this address: newsroom@salem-news.com
Iran Doesn't Have Illegal Nukes; but Israel Has HundredsSalem-News.com