Holding Bush Back from Attacking Iran

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Bush will not likely ask permission to make war on Iran, and it's up to Congress to stop him

As Congress and the American people protest the travesty Bush created in Iraq, our President is gunning for a confrontation with Iran. Bush is rattling the sabers and opting for gunboat diplomacy by pledging to "seek out and destroy" Iranian networks "providing advanced weaponry and training to our enemies" in Iraq. But he has produced no hard evidence that Iran is supplying forces in Iraq with such weapons or manufacturing their own nuclear weapons.

When I say "gunboat diplomacy," I mean that literally. Bush recently sent US warships and Patriot missile batteries to the Persian Gulf and moved US attack aircraft to Turkey and other countries on Iran's borders. US forces stormed the Iranian consulate in northern Iraq and captured six Iranian nationals, and Bush announced he will go after any Iranians he considers a threat. There are also indications the Bush administration would support military action by Israel against Iran.

On Tuesday, the administration stepped up its inflammatory rhetoric. US officials said Iranians may have trained attackers who killed five Americans in Karbala on January 20. They also implicated the Mahdi Army, the militia controlled by Moktada al-Sadr. It's very interesting that the New York Times characterized the focus on Iran and the Mahdi Army as "convenient from the point of view of the Bush administration."

Investigators were stumped at how the attackers, who wore American-style uniforms, secured forged US identity cards and American-style M-4 rifles, and used stun grenades like those used only by US forces. They are also confounded at the way the attackers' convoy of S.U.V.'s gave the impression that it was American and slipped through Iraqi checkpoints. Wednesday's article in the Times cites a theory that "a Western mercenary group" may have been involved. In the past the US government used the CIA to covertly overthrow governments, such as Iran's in 1953 and Chile's in 1973. Could mercenaries now be doing the Bush administration's dirty work?

http://www.alternet.org/story/47519/

Can it be that Iranian leaders aren't as insane as Bush and the neocons would have us think? :eyes:

to take away Simpleton's simple tools for his simple plan. Debate and delay in publishing "intelligence" about Iranian hostile actions. The Iraqis and many other states are digging in their heels too. Senate could jump into this debate considering past abuses and give support to those now throwing their careers under the wheels for America to stop the propaganda. This would be a real check, not the sideshow of reinforcements for Iraq.

And some clarification should be demanded as to how our troops are going to be used in Iraq. IF Iran and El-Sadr are threats embedding unprepared and number weak troops among them is madness or a lie. Use of these troops to barricade themselves against a Shiite uprising shows the lie and a predisposition to war with Iran. The WH should be called on the carpet and pressured in regards to all this and more. ASAP.