Well, according to Glen Ford of the Black Agenda Report it sure wasn’t the Democrats in Congress:
When the CIA and elements of the Pentagon do more – much more – than the Democrats to restrain the Bush gang from plunging the planet into an even wider spasm of war, it is time to recognize the absolute irrelevance of the Democratic Party – certainly, under present leadership.
Jaws dropped in capitals all around the globe when the combined intelligence agencies of the United States yanked the rationale for war with Iran, like a rug, from under George Bush’s feet. It was a mutiny, centered in the CIA and in the Pentagon’s nine separate intelligence agencies, designed to prevent Bush and Dick Cheney from expanding, against all military and political logic, their failed jihad in the Persian Gulf. Visibly startled, Bush behaved like he’d been knee-capped by his own men – which he had. The Pentagon-CIA revolt – witnessed by the entire planet – is unprecedented in modern times. Anyone who tells you differently is too blinded by imagined spy-novel schemes to recognize a mutiny when he sees it. […]
The intelligence agencies only look like temporary saviors of the planet in comparison to the Democratic Party, which has done nothing to put the brakes on the Bush-Cheney war machine, or to hold these criminals accountable for a phone book-full impeachable offenses. When spies and generals are more useful to the cause of peace than Democrats, when career intelligence officers and life-time military men conspire to derail the insane schemes of their Commander-in-Chief – yet the opposition party offers no resistance whatsoever – then one must accept that the Party is…worthless.
Please read Mr. Ford’s entire commentary. His remarks regarding the Democratic Party and its leadership are quite damning, and rightfully so.
And I can’t say I disagree with his analysis of the situation one iota. This was an unreported mutiny by the US intelligence agencies and certain high placed Pentagon Generals and Admirals (General Casey and Admiral Fallon, CENTCOM commander, to name but two) that kept Bush from advancing his plans to attack Iran, at least for now. The Democrats? They helped pass the Kyl-Lieberman Iran amendment, which made Bush’s job to justify another aggressive, illegal “preventive” war against Iran easier.
What this “mutiny” says about our democracy is far more disturbing than we are being told by the national corporate news media. It means that the only real power base which can effectively assert opposition to the Bush administration is the CIA and the military. I feel fortunate that they did what they did, but fearful of what it means for future conflicts between our civilian leadership and the military and/or the intelligence community. Much as I feel we are indebted to them this time, what they did to stymie Bush sets a bad precedent for the future. We are a country predicated on the principle of civilian control over our armed forces. The military and intelligence agencies have now tasted their first victory over our civilian leaders. I doubt it will be their last, and next time their motives and agenda may be less pure.
