Who’s Planning Our Next War? [Hint: The Hooked-nosed Tribe]

COMMENTARY

by PATRICK J. BUCHANAN

Of the Axis-of-Evil nations named in his State of the Union in 2002, President Bush has often said, “The United States will not permit the world’s most dangerous regimes to threaten us with the world’s most destructive weapons.”

He failed with North Korea. Will he accept failure in Iran, though there
is no hard evidence Iran has an active nuclear weapons program?

William Kristol of The Weekly Standard said Sunday a US attack
on Iran after the election is more likely should Barack Obama win.
Presumably, Bush would trust John McCain to keep Iran nuclear free.

Yet, to start a third war in the Middle East against a nation three times
as large as Iraq, and leave it to a new president to fight, would be a
daylight hijacking of the congressional war power and a criminally
irresponsible act. For Congress alone has the power to authorize war.

Was recent Israeli exercise a dress rehearsal?

Yet Israel is even today pushing Bush into a pre-emptive war with
a naked threat to attack Iran itself should Bush refuse the cup.

In April, Israel held a five-day civil defense drill. In June, Israel sent
100 F-15s and F-16s, with refueling tankers and helicopters to pick up
downed pilots, toward Greece in a simulated attack, a dress rehearsal
for war. The planes flew 1,400 kilometers, the distance to Iran’s
uranium enrichment facility at Natanz.

Ehud Olmert came home from a June meeting with Bush to tell Israelis:
“We reached agreement on the need to take care of the Iranian threat. …
I left with a lot less question marks regarding the means, the timetable
restrictions and American resoluteness. …

“George Bush understands the severity of the Iranian threat and the
need to vanquish it, and intends to act on the matter before the end
of his term. … The Iranian problem requires urgent attention, and I see
no reason to delay this just because there will be a new president in the
White House seven and a half months from now.”

Why is Bush discussing war with Israelis, but not Congress?

If Bush is discussing war on Iran with Ehud Olmert, why is he not
discussing it with Congress or the nation?

On June 6, Deputy Prime Minister Shaul Mofaz threatened, “If Iran
continues its nuclear weapons program, we will attack it.” The price
of oil shot up 9 percent.

Is Israel bluffing — or planning to attack Iran if America balks?

Previous air strikes on the PLO command in Tunis, on the Osirak
reactor in Iraq and on the presumed nuclear reactor site in Syria last
September give Israel a high degree of credibility.

Still, attacking Iran would be no piece of cake.

Israel lacks the stealth and cruise-missile capacity to degrade Iran’s air
defenses systematically and no longer has the element of surprise.
Israeli planes and pilots would likely be lost.

Iran attack requires US complicity

Israel also lacks the ability to stay over the target or conduct follow-up
strikes. The US Air Force bombed Iraq for five weeks with hundreds
of daily runs in 1991 before Gen. Schwarzkopf moved.

Moreover, if Iran has achieved the capacity to enrich uranium, she has
surely moved centrifuges to parts of the country that Israel cannot reach
— and can probably replicate anything lost.

Israel would also have to over-fly Turkey, or Syria and US-occupied
Iraq, or Saudi Arabia to reach Natanz. Turks, Syrians and Saudis
would deny Israel permission and might resist. For the US military
to let Israel over-fly Iraq would make us an accomplice. How would
that sit with the Europeans who are supporting our sanctions on Iran
and want the nuclear issue settled diplomatically?

Israeli strike would sink the world economy

And who can predict with certitude how Iran would respond?

Would Iran attack Israel with rockets, inviting retaliation with Jericho
and cruise missiles from Israeli submarines? Would she close the Gulf
with suicide-boat attacks on tankers and US warships?

With oil at $135 a barrel, Israeli air strikes on Iran would seem to ensure
a 2,000-point drop in the Dow and a world recession.

What would Hamas, Hezbollah and Syria do? All three are now in
indirect negotiations with Israel. US forces in Afghanistan and Iraq
could be made by Iran to pay a high price in blood that could force
the United States to initiate its own air war in retaliation, and to finish
a war Israel had begun. But a US war on Iran is not a decision Bush
can outsource to Ehud Olmert.

Time for the American people to be consulted

Tuesday, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Adm. Michael Mullins left for
Israel. CBS News cited US officials as conceding the trip comes “just as
the Israelis are mounting a full court press to get the Bush administration
to strike Iran’s nuclear complex.”

Vice President Cheney is said to favor US strikes. Secretary of Defense
Robert Gates and Mullins are said to be opposed.

Moving through Congress, powered by the Israeli lobby, is House
Resolution 362, which demands that President Bush impose a US
blockade of Iran, an act of war.

Is it not time the American people were consulted on the next war that
is being planned for us?

June 27, 2008
The American Conservative

http://www.lewrockwell.com/buchanan/buchanan89.html

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