The Center
I figure it has been awhile since I did my part to drive down IOP readership, so with Sei's nudging...
Subject: war with Iran and complacency.
I think people have become complacent about the prospect of war with Iran. The "oh don't worry, not enough troops, we're overstretched because of Iraq, they couldn't possibly, really, truly do such a thing" meme has taken hold. I was reminded of that while reading this article at Antiwar.com by Ray McGovern, a former CIA analyst, who writes very powerfully and movingly about his regrets at not having had the courage to be a "whistleblower" during the process of increased U.S. involvement in Vietnam.
The theme of McGovern's article is to encourage those in the intelligence community that presently have the knowledge to possibly help prevent war with Iran to have the courage to be "whistleblowers" today--i.e., share the truth with the American public.
No, the irony in Bush's most recent lie that he "declassified" the information he tried to use to lie America into war with Iraq was really done because he felt that sharing the truth with the American public was essesntial to making his case for war has not escaped me.
And on the issue of complacency, McGovern's ending particularly struck me:
And if you are wondering about the timeframe for the beginning of our next war of aggression: it appears to be becoming likely that if Bushie wants this one as bad as many sources indicate, he has between now and November to get things rolling.
Subject: war with Iran and complacency.
I think people have become complacent about the prospect of war with Iran. The "oh don't worry, not enough troops, we're overstretched because of Iraq, they couldn't possibly, really, truly do such a thing" meme has taken hold. I was reminded of that while reading this article at Antiwar.com by Ray McGovern, a former CIA analyst, who writes very powerfully and movingly about his regrets at not having had the courage to be a "whistleblower" during the process of increased U.S. involvement in Vietnam.
The theme of McGovern's article is to encourage those in the intelligence community that presently have the knowledge to possibly help prevent war with Iran to have the courage to be "whistleblowers" today--i.e., share the truth with the American public.
No, the irony in Bush's most recent lie that he "declassified" the information he tried to use to lie America into war with Iraq was really done because he felt that sharing the truth with the American public was essesntial to making his case for war has not escaped me.
And on the issue of complacency, McGovern's ending particularly struck me:
Generally absent is any sense of the enormity of what the Bush administration has done and the urgent imperative to prevent a repeat performance. With no perceptible demurral from inside the government, George W. Bush launched a war of aggression, defined by the Nuremberg Tribunal as "the supreme international crime, differing from other war crimes only in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole" – like torture, for example.
If this doesn't qualify for whistleblowing, what does? Let us hope that administration officials, or analysts – or both – will find the courage to speak out loudly, and early enough to prevent the "disconnected-from-reality" cabal in the Bush administration from getting us into an unnecessary war with Iran.
And if you are wondering about the timeframe for the beginning of our next war of aggression: it appears to be becoming likely that if Bushie wants this one as bad as many sources indicate, he has between now and November to get things rolling.
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