Visions of Darkness and Light: Iraq, Iran and Perpetual War

"I don’t know how many times the president, Secretary Rice and I have had to repeat that we have no intention of attacking Iraq … er…Iran."

Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates.

As surely as the sun will rise and another mother’s son will die, the Bush White House is planning an attack on Iran. The propaganda machine is cranked up and spinning a toxic brew of selected facts, fantasies, fear and loathing.

Confident in having cleansed their tarnished image (if not their journalistic soul) of collaboration in the Iraq War, with CNN and Fox working point, the table is being set and the president is poised with his finger on the trigger.

The accusation that Iran is supplying weapons and assistance to Iraqi resisters and is therefore accountable for a fixed number of American deaths, is receiving a respectful hearing despite a dearth of convincing evidence. In Iraq, as in any Middle East war zone, a black market industry supplies weapons to the hands of combatants. It does not require investigative journalism to know that Saudi, Jordanian, Russian, Turkish, Syrian and European weapons and technology have found their way to war. Shall we attack them all?

Moreover, who is more responsible for the deaths of all our soldiers – more than 3,100 at last count: Iraq, Iran or George W. Bush? How many would have died if we had not invaded on a package of prepared lies and deceptions? How many more would die if we withdrew today?

With congress inexplicably paralyzed by fear of debating the critical issue of appropriations for war, we are creeping ever closer to the cross-generational war of civilizations that Vice President Dick Cheney cynically promised us from the very beginning.

Iraq, Iran and North Korea.

The president is not prepared to change course. In his twisted world vision, he made a vow and he will hold to it until the presidential torch is ripped from his hands.

What does he have to lose? As it now stands, only Franklin Pierce (a family relation) and Millard Fillmore rival him as the worst presidents in American history. His approach to foreign policy is a mirror to his policy on global climate change: Distort the facts and push back the truth until the crisis is so acute and so desperate it cannot be undone.

He would rather go down as the president who stood his ground, even as it crumbled beneath his feet, than the president who acknowledged defeat. He would rather send a thousand, a million more to their final reckoning than to admit he was overwhelmed by his imperial ambition.

He wants us once again to bow down in trembling horror, to believe in the demons he has himself created, but we have seen this act before. We have seen the man behind the wizard’s mask. We have witnessed the truth and our memories are not so short as he imagines.

Iran is not a threat to our nation; we are a threat to Iran. Iran did not occupy Mexico; we occupied Iraq.

Iraq is in bloody chaos because we put her there, not Iran. We invaded a nation without cause and created a power vacuum that exposed civil divides. We are accountable, not Iran, and it is our responsibility now to remove ourselves before our destructive presence creates ever more harm.

What stands between us and the grim future our president has prescribed is a congress that has not yet found the courage of its conviction.

It is not a matter of discovering what must be done; we already know.

1. Stop the war by cutting off appropriations on six-month timeline of withdrawal.

2. Preempt the looming war with Iran by congressional mandate (see the Boland Amendment, circa 1982.)

3. Convene an international body to oversee Iraqi reparations and reconciliation.

4. Remove the President and Vice President from office for violations of international law, congressional mandates, constitutional restraints, and misleading the nation into war.

5. Restore America’s standing in the world community by leading a massive mobilization to free the world economy from toxin spewing fossil fuels and radioactive waste – including solarization of the Arabian deserts.

What this nation desperately needs is bold new leadership in all branches of government that will restore the balance of good faith, mutual respect and tolerance for all cultures, all religions and all nations within the bounds of civility and law.

What this nation most emphatically does not need is another war in another foreign land.

Jazz.

JACK RANDOM IS THE AUTHOR OF THE JAZZMAN CHRONICLES (CROW DOG PRESS) AND GHOST DANCE INSURRECTION (DRY BONES PRESS). THE CHRONICLES HAVE APPEARED ON THE ALBION MONITOR, PEACE-EARTH-JUSTICE, THE NATIONAL FREE PRESS, LEFTWARD, DISSIDENT VOICE AND COUNTERPUNCH.