Stop War Against Iran Update

February 4, 2007

By Joe Miller

First, a few positive, hopeful developments in countering the Bush/Cheney/Neocon ramp-up to attacking Iran.

The BBC (1) reported today that Britain's Sunday Times published a letter written by three high-ranking former U.S. military officers warning of the "disastrous consequences" of an attack on Iran, and urging "a strategy of diplomatic engagement."

On Friday, Jim Lobe (2) reported that some members of Congress are increasingly concerned about the the possibility that Bush will launch a preemptive attack on Iran without seeking Congress's approval. As of Friday, five different resolutions have been filed in an attempt to force the administration to seek Congressional approval for such actions. While all the resolutions are non-binding, they're moving in the right direction.

In a blog post (3) that otherwise warned of all the ways the administration is planning an attack on Iran, John Pilger indicated that on January 24 the Campaign Against Sanctions and Military Intervention in Iran presented the Blair administration with a document entitled "Answering the Charges Against Iran" (4) which identifies and counters 21 inaccurate charges made by Blair and Bush.

As reported on the Information Clearing House blog (5), on Thursday, "twenty-two of the nation's most prominent physicists (6) asked Congress ... to restrict the authority of President Bush to order nuclear strikes against non-nuclear-weapon states. The physicists include twelve Nobel laureates, the current and three past presidents of the American Physical Society, the nation's preeminent professional society for physicists, and the chair of the Union of Concerned Scientists."

Now the bad news.

Eric Margolis (7) reported in the Toronto Sun today on some of the preparations that are occurring that are consistent with an attack on Iran. On January 28, Gabriel Ronay (8) reported in Scotland's Sunday Herald on preparations consistent with an attack that are occurring in bases in Bulgaria and Romania.

While Bush, Cheney, and their supporters escalate plans to attack Iran, the Los Angeles Times (9) reported yesterday that "Bush administration officials acknowledged Friday that they had yet to compile evidence strong enough to back up publicly their claims that Iran is fomenting violence against U.S. troops in Iraq."

Similarly, the McClatchy Newspapers (10) reported that the National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) released by our country's top intelligence analysts on Friday, indicated that support from Iran to Shia militants "intensified" the conflict and violence, but was not a "major driver." See also "Bleak Iraq Report is Sent to Congress" in the Washington Post on Saturday.

We all need to do everything possible to stop war with Iran, reduce and remove our troops from Iraq, promote justice and stability throughout the Middle East, and end our dependence on oil. I know it all sounds impossible (the last one is clearly possible), but these are our only choices. Chalmers Johnson (11) does a superb job describing the momentous situation and choices we face in his article "Empire v. Democracy: Why Nemesis Is at Our Door" (11).

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Joseph Miller
Department of Psychology
51 Madeleva
Saint Mary's College
Notre Dame, IN 46556

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Stop War Against Iran Update

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