Incursions in Iran

“Tin soldiers and Nixon coming,
We’re finally on our own.
This summer I hear the drumming
Four dead in Ohio.”

On May 4, 1970, students at Kent State University gathered to protest the escalation of a doomed war in Vietnam into the soveriegn nation of Cambodia. Four of them were killed by the National Guard. Eight more were wounded and one was paralyzed. Neil Young wrote a song about it. Thirty-six years later, we have again invaded a neighboring country in an effort to stave off defeat in a doomed war. And Neil Young is writing songs about it. Bush really does seem to emulate Nixon at every turn.

Asia Times tells us:

A former Iranian ambassador and Islamic Republic insider has provided intriguing details to Asia Times Online about US covert operations inside Iran aimed at destabilizing the country and toppling the regime – or preparing for an American attack.

“The Iranian accusations are true,” said Richard Sale, intelligence correspondent for United Press International, referring to charges that the US is using the Mujahideen-e Khalq (MEK) organization and other groups to carry out cross-border operations. “But it is being done on such a small scale – a series of pinpricks – it would seem to have no strategic value at all.”

There has been a marked spike in unrest in Kurdistan, Khuzestan and Balochistan, three of Iran’s provinces with a high concentration of ethnic Kurdish, Arab and Balochi minorities respectively…

“The president hasn’t notified the Congress that American troops are operating inside Iran,” said Sam Gardiner, a retired US Army colonel who specializes in war-game scenarios. “So it’s a very serious question about the constitutional framework under which we are now conducting military operations in Iran.”

How can you run when you know?

7 Comments

rba on April 25, 2006 at 5:41 pm

Nixon had a helluva lot more understanding of geopolitics coming into office than GW will have after leaving it. Different war, different times. But yeah, same wine, new bottle.

idredit on April 25, 2006 at 6:14 pm

In an op-ed piece “Do not Attack Iran”, saying “An Air strike would merit impeachment of the President,” Zbigniew Brzezinski calls on Bush to ‘sober up, to think strategically, with a historic perspective and with America’s national interest primarily in mind.’

.[t]he attack would be a unilateral act of war. If undertaken without formal Congressional declaration, it would be unconstitutional and merit the impeachment of the President.[.]

[.] How else to explain the current U.S. “negotiating” stance: the United States is refusing to participate in the on-going negotiations with Iran but insists on dealing only through proxies. That stands in sharp contrast with the simultaneous negotiations with North Korea, in which the United States is actively engaged.

At the same time, the United States is allocating funds for the destabilization of the Iranian regime and is reportedly injecting Special Forces teams into Iran to stir up non-Iranian ethnic minorities in order to fragment the Iranian state (in the name of democratization!).

(emphasis added)

Thinkprogress provides link to full Op-ed here

Getting Bush to think strategically? All by himself? First he has to listen, to hear facts, to become curious!!

My sides hurt.

Goooooood luck Zbig.

Arcturus on April 25, 2006 at 6:23 pm

Maybe someday I’ll forgive Neil’s shilling for Reagan. This is a start.

Howard Zinn asks:

Now that most Americans no longer believe in the war, now that they no longer trust Bush and his Administration, now that the evidence of deception has become overwhelming (so overwhelming that even the major media, always late, have begun to register indignation), we might ask: How come so many people were so easily fooled?

and winds up:

Our leaders have taken it for granted, and planted that belief in the minds of many people, that we are entitled, because of our moral superiority, to dominate the world. At the end of World War II, Henry Luce, with an arrogance appropriate to the owner of Time, Life, and Fortune, pronounced this “the American century,” saying that victory in the war gave the United States the right “to exert upon the world the full impact of our influence, for such purposes as we see fit and by such means as we see fit.”

Both the Republican and Democratic parties have embraced this notion. . . .

What is the idea of our moral superiority based on? Surely not on our behavior toward people in other parts of the world. Is it based on how well people in the United States live? The World Health Organization in 2000 ranked countries in terms of overall health performance, and the United States was thirty-seventh on the list, though it spends more per capita for health care than any other nation. One of five children in this, the richest country in the world, is born in poverty. There are more than forty countries that have better records on infant mortality. Cuba does better. And there is a sure sign of sickness in society when we lead the world in the number of people in prison—more than two million.

A more honest estimate of ourselves as a nation would prepare us all for the next barrage of lies that will accompany the next proposal to inflict our power on some other part of the world. It might also inspire us to create a different history for ourselves, by taking our country away from the liars and killers who govern it, and by rejecting nationalist arrogance, so that we can join the rest of the human race in the common cause of peace and justice.

Gotta get down to it . . .
Should have been done long ago.

Alice on April 25, 2006 at 6:54 pm

We need to remember Jackson State along with Kent State. Two dead, many injured. Military assaults on college campuses. I remember Gov. Reagon’s tanks and tear gas in the Berkeley streets

It’s hard remembering when we were the hated enemy. I imagine the white house feels the same as Nixon’s now, but it is they who should be afraid. Because we are all grown up now and not collected in target ranges. Hopefully just as fearless.

The time has come for power to the people. It’s happening all over the world.

venice ca on April 25, 2006 at 7:43 pm

It’s hard remembering when we were the hated enemy.

I remember. While attending UCLA, I had a part-time office job in West L.A. A co-worker told me she was happy that the students had been shot in Ohio. She also said that I should have been shot for protesting the war.

Somethings you don’t forget.
- canberra boy on April 26, 2006 at 12:05 am
  
  It’s very hard on you when someone is that confronting… hope you’ve got it in perspective with alot of hindsight since then.

Jaded Prole on April 26, 2006 at 7:48 am

We were scorned and cursed for objecting to the Iraq invasion but now most people agree. Except for the true beleivers of the extreme right poeple recognize that everything we said turned out to be true and everything Cheney/bush said was a lie.

A wounded animal can be very dangerous and while this administration is going down in flames, it is more likely in arrange another attack against us or to dig us in deeper in Iran.

rba on April 25, 2006 at 5:41 pm

Nixon had a helluva lot more understanding of geopolitics coming into office than GW will have after leaving it. Different war, different times. But yeah, same wine, new bottle.
idredit on April 25, 2006 at 6:14 pm

In an op-ed piece “Do not Attack Iran”, saying “An Air strike would merit impeachment of the President,” Zbigniew Brzezinski calls on Bush to ‘sober up, to think strategically, with a historic perspective and with America’s national interest primarily in mind.’

.[t]he attack would be a unilateral act of war. If undertaken without formal Congressional declaration, it would be unconstitutional and merit the impeachment of the President.[.]

[.] How else to explain the current U.S. “negotiating” stance: the United States is refusing to participate in the on-going negotiations with Iran but insists on dealing only through proxies. That stands in sharp contrast with the simultaneous negotiations with North Korea, in which the United States is actively engaged.

At the same time, the United States is allocating funds for the destabilization of the Iranian regime and is reportedly injecting Special Forces teams into Iran to stir up non-Iranian ethnic minorities in order to fragment the Iranian state (in the name of democratization!).

(emphasis added)

Thinkprogress provides link to full Op-ed here

Getting Bush to think strategically? All by himself? First he has to listen, to hear facts, to become curious!!

My sides hurt.

Goooooood luck Zbig.
Arcturus on April 25, 2006 at 6:23 pm

Maybe someday I’ll forgive Neil’s shilling for Reagan. This is a start.

Howard Zinn asks:

Now that most Americans no longer believe in the war, now that they no longer trust Bush and his Administration, now that the evidence of deception has become overwhelming (so overwhelming that even the major media, always late, have begun to register indignation), we might ask: How come so many people were so easily fooled?

and winds up:

Our leaders have taken it for granted, and planted that belief in the minds of many people, that we are entitled, because of our moral superiority, to dominate the world. At the end of World War II, Henry Luce, with an arrogance appropriate to the owner of Time, Life, and Fortune, pronounced this “the American century,” saying that victory in the war gave the United States the right “to exert upon the world the full impact of our influence, for such purposes as we see fit and by such means as we see fit.”

Both the Republican and Democratic parties have embraced this notion. . . .

What is the idea of our moral superiority based on? Surely not on our behavior toward people in other parts of the world. Is it based on how well people in the United States live? The World Health Organization in 2000 ranked countries in terms of overall health performance, and the United States was thirty-seventh on the list, though it spends more per capita for health care than any other nation. One of five children in this, the richest country in the world, is born in poverty. There are more than forty countries that have better records on infant mortality. Cuba does better. And there is a sure sign of sickness in society when we lead the world in the number of people in prison—more than two million.

A more honest estimate of ourselves as a nation would prepare us all for the next barrage of lies that will accompany the next proposal to inflict our power on some other part of the world. It might also inspire us to create a different history for ourselves, by taking our country away from the liars and killers who govern it, and by rejecting nationalist arrogance, so that we can join the rest of the human race in the common cause of peace and justice.

Gotta get down to it . . .
Should have been done long ago.
Alice on April 25, 2006 at 6:54 pm

We need to remember Jackson State along with Kent State. Two dead, many injured. Military assaults on college campuses. I remember Gov. Reagon’s tanks and tear gas in the Berkeley streets

It’s hard remembering when we were the hated enemy. I imagine the white house feels the same as Nixon’s now, but it is they who should be afraid. Because we are all grown up now and not collected in target ranges. Hopefully just as fearless.

The time has come for power to the people. It’s happening all over the world.
- venice ca on April 25, 2006 at 7:43 pm
  
  It’s hard remembering when we were the hated enemy.
  
  I remember. While attending UCLA, I had a part-time office job in West L.A. A co-worker told me she was happy that the students had been shot in Ohio. She also said that I should have been shot for protesting the war.
  
  Somethings you don’t forget.
  - canberra boy on April 26, 2006 at 12:05 am
    
    It’s very hard on you when someone is that confronting… hope you’ve got it in perspective with alot of hindsight since then.
Jaded Prole on April 26, 2006 at 7:48 am

We were scorned and cursed for objecting to the Iraq invasion but now most people agree. Except for the true beleivers of the extreme right poeple recognize that everything we said turned out to be true and everything Cheney/bush said was a lie.

A wounded animal can be very dangerous and while this administration is going down in flames, it is more likely in arrange another attack against us or to dig us in deeper in Iran.

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