Preventing
The Impending War On Iran
By
Marjorie Cohn
26 November,
2007
Countercurrents.org
Rhetoric
flowing out of the White House indicates the Bush administration is
planning a military attack on Iran. Officials in Saudi Arabia, a close
Bush ally, think the handwriting is on the wall. “George Bush’s
tone makes us think he has decided what he is going to do,” according
to Rihab Massoud, Prince Bandar ben Sultan’s right-hand man. Saudi
Social Affairs Minister Abdel Mohsen Hakas told Le Figaro, “We
are getting closer and closer to a confrontation.”
As Bush and
Cheney try to whip us into a frenzy about the dangers Iran poses, their
argument comes up short. They say Iran is developing nuclear weapons,
but Mohamed ElBaradei, director of the U.N. International Atomic Energy
Agency (IAEA), says there is “no evidence” of this. They
say Iran is sending deadly weapons into Iraq to kill U.S. troops, but
those devices can be manufactured in any Iraqi machine shop. Now the
New York Times reports most of the foreign fighters in Iraq come, not
from Iran, but from two Bush allies - Saudi Arabia and Libya. An estimated
90 percent of suicide bombings are carried out by foreign fighters.
And senior U.S. military officials believe the financial support for
Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia comes primarily from Saudi Arabia.
Yet the Bush/Cheney
polemics about Iran continue to escalate. In light of the lack of evidence
Iran is actually developing nukes, Bush equated Iranian “knowledge”
to make nuclear weapons with World War III. “If you’re interested
in avoiding World War III,” he said recently, “it seems
like you ought to be interested in preventing them from having the knowledge
necessary to make a nuclear weapon.” This substantially lowers
the bar for a U.S. attack on Iran.
A few days
after Bush warned of World War III, Cheney called Iran “the world’s
most active state sponsor of terrorism,” adding, “The Iranian
regime needs to know that if it stays on its present course, the international
community is prepared to impose serious consequences . . . We will not
allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon.” These threats are eerily
reminiscent of his rants in the run-up to the U.S. invasion of Iraq.
In an unprecedented
move, the Bush administration labeled the Iranian Revolutionary Guard
a terrorist organization. It appears the administration applied that
label in an effort to trigger language in the 2002 Congressional authorization
for the use of military force in Iraq. That authorization says, “The
President has authority under the Constitution to take action in order
to deter and prevent acts of international terrorism against the United
States.”
Like Bush’s
invasion of Iraq, an attack on Iran would violate international and
U.S. law. The U.N. Charter prohibits the use of military force except
in self-defense or with the approval of the Security Council. Iran,
which has not attacked any country for 2,000 years, hasn’t threatened
to invade the United States or Israel. Rather than protecting Israel,
U.S. or Israeli military force against Iran will endanger Israel, which
would invariably suffer a retaliatory attack.
In making
its case against Iran, the administration points to Iranian President
Mahmoud Ahmedinejad’s alleged comment that Israel should be wiped
off the map. But this is an erroneous translation of what he said. According
to University of Michigan professor Juan Cole and Farsi language analysts,
Ahmadinejad was quoting Ayatollah Khomeini, who said the “regime
occupying Jerusalem must vanish from the page of time.” Cole said
this “does not imply military action or killing anyone at all.”
Journalist Diana Johnstone points out the quote is not aimed at the
Israeli people, but at the Zionist “regime” occupying Jerusalem.
“Coming from a Muslim religious leader,” Johnstone wrote,
“this opinion is doubtless based on objection to Jewish monopoly
of a city considered holy by all three of the Abramic monotheisms.”
It seems
significant that support for Ahmadinejad may be waning among the real
power brokers in Iran, particularly the supreme leader Ayatollah Ali
Khamenei. The Jomhouri Eslami daily in Iran, which has close ties to
Khamenei, has denounced Ahmadinejad’s characterization of those
opposed to his nuclear program as traitors.
If the United
States attacks Iran, the results would be catastrophic. Three Europeans,
including former French Prime Minister Michel Rocard and Yehuda Atai,
a member of the Israeli Committee for a Middle East without Weapons
of Mass Destruction, wrote in Libération, “We are being
warned about it from all sides: The United States is at the brink of
war, ready to bombard Iran. The only thing lacking is the presidential
order.” Drawing parallels with the U.S. war in Iraq, they caution,
“An attack against Iran, whatever its targets, its methods and
its initial scope, will significantly aggravate the situation, achieving
similar results, without even talking about the disastrous impact on
the global economy.” They add, “It would be still worse
if the insane idea of using tactical nuclear weapons - which exist -
to prevent Iran from building, in spite of its denials, the nuclear
weapons that recent IAEA inspections have found no trace of, were implemented.”
The threats
against Iran appear to be politically motivated. Seymour Hersh’s
extensive research has convinced him that Bush/Cheney will invade Iran.
They likely think embroiling us in Iran will ensure a GOP victory in
2008. It will certainly make it harder for the next President to withdraw
from Iraq once we are mired in Iran.
If Hillary
Clinton becomes that next President, she will likely continue Bush’s
foreign policy. Clinton, who favors leaving a large contingent of U.S.
troops in Iraq, says nothing about disbanding the huge U.S. military
bases there. Clinton is also rattling the sabers in Iran’s direction.
She voted to urge Bush to label the Iranian Revolutionary Guard a terrorist
organization and she, too, misquotes Ahmadinejad about Israel.
As we go
to the polls in the coming months, it is imperative we scrutinize the
candidates’ positions on Iraq and Iran. The security of the United
States, as well as the Middle East, is hanging in the balance.
Marjorie
Cohn is a professor at Thomas Jefferson School of Law and President
of the National Lawyers Guild. Her new book, Cowboy Republic: Six Ways
the Bush Gang Has Defied the Law, was just published. Her articles are
archived at http://www.marjoriecohn.com.
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