I really can't believe I'm writing this, but it seems the top leadership of the United States of America have actually been busy drafting plans to "pre-emptively" attack yet another sovereign nation, this time with nuclear weapons. NUCLEAR WEAPONS!!!
The problem: Iran is working toward nuclear capability, a sobering development by anyone's estimation and something the administration believes only big, benevolent, responsible superpowers like us can have. So it only makes sense to stop them by nuking their R&D facilities, which by the way include university laboratories--a strategy inspired, no doubt, by parents who beat their children for hitting each other. Please, someone wake me up and tell me I'm just caught in a sci-fi nightmare.
They've denied it of course. "Wild speculation," the president says. "Fantasyland," Rumsfeld echoes. Oh yeah, like I really believe them. Pinnochio couldn't keep up with this pack of liars. The latest evidence: we've learned the president himself authorized the long-celebrated media leak that led to Valerie Plame Wilson's exposure as a CIA agent. Yes, the same president who told us how much he hated leakers, promised us he would fire this one when he/she turned up, and then ordered a big, fat investigation into the situation. Your tax dollars at work.
If only the news about Iran war plans had come from some third-rate, conspiracy-theorist blogger, but alas, the reporter was none other than the venerable Seymour Hersh of the New Yorker, the same writer who first acquainted us with the atrocities at Abu Ghraib. This guy has some sources.
Surely, I first thought, Bush can't really attack Iran without congressional approval, and Congress won't fall for his scare tactics again. But it turns out he can. We could wake up tomorrow morning, and it could already have happened.
Words fail in describing the lunacy, the immorality, the hyper-hypocrisy of all this. Suffice it to say, we have met the axis of evil, and they is us. The good news is the president's approval ratings have dropped a few more points, indicating more Americans are figuring out he's not the compassionate conservative they thought he was.
Update, May 31, 2006: Some commenters suggested I was seriously over-reacting here. But apparently I wasn't alone. Dozens of prominent physicists have written to President Bush calling U.S. contingency plans to use nuclear weapons against Iran "gravely irresponsible" and warning of "disastrous consequences for the security of the United States and the world." You can see a petition signed by nearly 2,000 physicists, including several Nobel laureates, at http://physics.ucsd.edu/petition/
4 comments:
Pretty sure Iran is the evil one
Dear Anonymous,
I agree; they're not exactly Boy Scouts. But if we start slinging nukes at them, we'd be no better.
Dear Anonymous,
Thanks for posting again. I'm afraid I haven't made my point clear. I'm not praising Iran, and I'm not criticizing America. I'm criticizing our leadership. Without a doubt, there are far too many oppressive regimes in power all over the globe. And without a doubt, the U.S. has a long track record of helping other countries in countless ways. But I disagree with your implication that Iraq and perhaps now Iran have "created wars we have to fight." We didn't have to invade Iraq, and we don't have to invade Iran. Even the world's last superpower isn't big enough to fight all the wars it would take to liberate all the enslaved people all over the world. We have to pick our battles. Bush picked Iraq. And now he's eying Iran. In the process he has unfortunately tarnished our national reputation as a good global citizen and made us seem instead like a big bully looking to build a worldwide empire.
Well, Anonymous, maybe you're right. Maybe I am too tolerant of evil foreign regimes. We probably should unleash our nuclear arsenal and just blow them off the face of the earth. Good riddance. But since I don't have access to any big red buttons or secret launch codes, I'll just settle for getting rid of anonymous critics instead. I've put my name behind my opinions. If you're willing to do the same, I'm happy to hear you out. Until then, go post somewhere else.
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