Who, or What, Will Stop Bush’s Military Attack on Iran?
Recent articles in the Daily Telegraph in England and the Washington Post and New Yorker reinforce the speculation that the Bush Administration will launch a military attack on Iran. Although leading Administration officials from Bush to Secretary of State Rice to UN Ambassador Bolton insist that they are pursuing a diplomatic route to preventing a nuclear Iran, the military “option” remains at the core of the preemptive strikes consistently favored by this rogue Administration. Furthermore, while it may seem preposterous that this discredited right-wing cabal would undertake another military campaign while bogged down in a growing civil war in Iraq, both their previous actions and continual ideological orientation suggest that deliberative diplomacy is trumped by aggressive militarism. So, who, or what, will stop Bush’s military attack on Iran?
One might suppose that, given the Iraq debacle, the corporate media might now be more reluctant to act as conduits and cheerleaders for reckless military action. While there may be some evidence of periodic skepticism, the media’s lack of contextualization and adversarial investigative reporting has led to a recycling of half-truths and lies that framed the disastrous military adventure in Iraq. First and foremost, one hears about the threat of a nuclear-armed Iran without being reminded that most intelligence estimates put Iran’s development of a bomb some 5-10 years away. Moreover, as a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty of 1970, Iran has been calling for a nuclear-free Middle East. Given the willingness of Washington to support the robust nuclear-weapons programs in Israel, India, and Pakistan, the focus on Iran obviously is not about nuclear proliferation alone. In fact, the US has deliberately tried to marginalize the International Atomic Agency because of its findings that Iran was in “substantial compliance.” Instead, the Bush Administration has attempted to manipulate the UN Security Council into open antagonism against Iran.
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