STOP U.S. war plans on IRAN - Democratic Underground

TexasLawyer

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Mon Jan-24-05 02:05 PM
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STOP U.S. war plans on IRAN

Fellow DU-ers

The writing may be on the wall with regard to US plans to make war on Iran. But I will not be able to sleep at night knowing I didn't try to keep this from happening. At very least, we need to make sure that our congressmen cannot claim, months and years down the line, that they had "no idea" that these covert activities were being undertaken by the US military.

I just sent a letter to my Senators and my congressman alerting them to this unbelievable development on Iran reported in The New Yorker. (The letter is at the end of this post). Congress needs to know-- right NOW-- what US agents are up to, and they need to shut down this lunatic operation.

If you feel the same way, let your representatives know!

p.s., here is some more background on this coming fiasco, from a 1/19/05 interview of Seymour Hersh, the author of the New Yorker investigative report, by Amy Goodman, Democracy Now.

http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/21021/

<snip>

Of course they're planning to attack Iran. The goal of the neo-conservatives — the Paul Wolfowitzes and Doug Feiths in the Pentagon, the civilian leadership in the Pentagon — their theory is, one of the things they've learned in Iraq (they have learned something) is that regime change by overwhelming force isn't working so well. So the goal in Iran, since it's also three times as large as Iraq, and it does have a large secular population and there's a lot of reason to believe that if we hadn't gone into Iraq, there would be a lot of dissent right now in Iran over the leadership; but nonetheless, I think their thinking is, that if we hit three or four dozen targets in the spring — late spring or summer, which I think is the tentative plan — that would be roughly at the time (Israeli Prime Minister Ariel) Sharon is beginning his pullout of Gaza, and so the theory in the Pentagon (is) there would be more good feelings towards America in the Muslim world once this begins. And if Iraq can be stabilized, which they think it will — I don't know why, but they do — after the elections, if that gets stabilized, then the goal is you hit three or four targets quickly and cleanly and you be sure you're right and you have evidence to show that the Iranians are cheating more than they might — than the world knows, this could lead to the secular population, those millions of young people, etc., who don't like the clerical leadership, to overthrowing or beginning to agitate against the mullahs once again.

And the only problem with that thinking, of course, is that it's pretty much unique to those group of civilians in the Pentagon; because almost everybody else I talked to, in and out of the government, were scathing in their critique of this, saying it's absolutely hogwash, that what's going to happen, of course, is that the White House and the Pentagon is ignoring the nationalism that exists, the enormous feelings of togetherness inside Iran and love for country.

<snip>

*******************
My letter. Copy if you want to.

Dear Senator __________,

I am very concerned that the US is in the process of deliberately provoking war with Iran, and perhaps other countries as well.

Investigative journalist Seymour Hersh reported in The New Yorker magazine this week that the Pentagon has already secretly sent in forces to Iran to identify possible future military targets. In the article, titled “The Coming Wars: What the Pentagon Can Now Do in Secret,” Hersh wrote that he had been repeatedly told by intelligence and military officials, on condition of anonymity that "the next strategic target was Iran."

The Senate must act immediately to determine whether Mr. Hersh's article is accurate. If, as many suspect, it is true that preliminary steps are being taken by our own US military to make a military strike against Iran, I beg you to intervene and halt this process.

This nation's concern with Iran's potential development of nuclear weaponry can be handled through diplomacy. The US is undermining the current negotiation process between Iran and the Europeans by its refusal to participate in that process.

We, the American people, are already footing the bill-- in blood and money-- for one useless Middle Eastern war. We will not stand for another war, particularly one that is initiated in secret by raw U.S. aggression. Thank you for your attention to this matter.