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Our generation's Gulf of Tonkin is about to drag us further into endless war*By Daniel Patrick Welch**
3 February 2007
Daniel Patrick Welch reports on the war fever now being whipped up in the USA for an attack on Iran, and fears unimaginable consequences if the war is not stopped - if it is not already too late.
I'm putting my mother into bed and the high-pitched urgency of MSNBC's "this just in" crisis reporting cuts through the evening calm. Same on CNN, and I don't even bother to check the other channels. Iran, we are being told, is to blame for the Kerbala attack. We have always been at war in East Asia. I can't believe it is happening so neatly, so on cue and so cutely bundled in such a familiar package.
There is absolutely nothing credible about anything that comes out of Iraq, either through the administration or the mainstream media. War-weary Americans, who spoke loudly and clearly about the question of more war, are known suckers for official lies. In the aftermath of the Cold War, two long-term adversaries were waxing nostalgic about their governments' respective propaganda. "Yes, but the difference," said the Russian, "is that your people believed yours." And now, having been lied to by a stream of shameless governments, having swallowed their leaders' crap about our "destiny" and "greatness", is it even possible to imagine that we are going to let ourselves get sucked in again?
Aside from the shrieking of the media echo chamber tonight, the other relevant headlines of the day include a report that the US is poised to attack Iran from Bulgarian bases (Turkish Daily News), or that a US Navy strike group is steaming through the Suez Canal to join the general build-up of US forces in the Middle East (Jerusalem Post). The Guardian reports that Bush is "spoiling for a fight with Iran".
Leave aside the fact that the US government recently tried to fund a project that admitted - admitted, mind you - to planting fake news stories to achieve national policy ends. This, of course, would be in addition to myriad black ops projects denied over the years. Never mind that the Israeli right wing has been openly clamouring for war with Iran, leaking stories about how it was prepared to go it alone. Don't compare the timing of this story with the pending - albeit non-binding - anti-escalation resolution now being prepared for "rigourous debate" in Congress.
Just look at US Vice-President Dick Cheney's smug, untouchable smirking face as he tells Wolf Blitzer that Congress "won't stop us", even as Scooter Libby is throwing everyone in his Blackberry under the bus. Do pay attention, too, to Blitzer's complete inability to perform his function as a journalist. That is a very bad sign. Also notice the 10 billion dollars joint project announced today between Iran and a Spanish concern for the development of energy resources, and the multibillion dollar arms and energy agreements Iran already has with Russia and China. Are the neo-conservatives completely crazy? Never mind - we already know the answer.
And what the hell is wrong with us? Are we really going to let ourselves be lied into yet another war, a much bigger one, with a much more dangerous opponent and with even farther reaching consequences? The answer seems to be yes. The Democrats and the media will not save us from this one. They didn't before, and they won't now - they're in on the game, and they will do nothing without an enormous shove. The fact that they are getting ready to debate a toothless solution while the ships are sailing is chillingly out-of-touch. Our lives and our future are at stake, and they are looking for sound bites.
The made-in-USA tinderbox is unstable and about to blow, and the war profiteers and their puppets lighting the fuse have no concern for us. The enormous and dangerous forces against them only means more war, more contracts and more profits. There is no way the world is going to sit back and let the US have its way with world energy resources without a fight, and we stand warned that we are being dragged into a virtual Armageddon. The antiwar movement made a good show this weekend demanding an end to the Iraq war. It will be too little, too late unless the people wake up and demand a halt to the war already under way against Iran.
© Daniel Patrick Welch. Reprint permission granted with credit and link to danielpwelch.com.
*A translation of this article is pending. Click here to volunteer.
**Daniel Patrick Welch is
a writer, singer, linguist and activist. He lives and writes in Salem,
Massachusetts, USA, with his wife, Julia Nambalirwa-Lugudde. Together
they run The Greenhouse School. His website is at danielpwelch.com, where translations of this and other articles are available for linking or cross-posting in up to 20 languages.
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