The Folly of Attacking Iran: Lessons from History

Looking into the history of American-Iranian relations, it is not hard to see why Iran is not exactly our Friday night drinking buddy. Even so, that did not stop either side from engineering what became known as the Iran-Contra scandal in the 80's. But this was an example of antagonists using each other, and the end result was quite negative.

The hostility remains, and plans are on the Pentagon books to bomb Iran back to the Stone Age, as well as to implement regime change, that is, to repeat the traditional Imperial paradigm all over again of "Bow to our will, dogs, or die!"

This is, of course, a prescription for more war, chaos, death and destruction, the eternal spawn of the Path of Fear and Hatred between nations. It is all about ego and power, which as any good Buddhist will tell you, are delusional concepts. And these concepts keep the planet in the sorry state it is today.

BUSH'S OILY ROLE IN IRAN ARMS DEAL

Like Father Like Son--It appears that W comes by "dishonesty" honesty. Tje Bush Sr's foreign policy also drove oil prices higher and they both illegally circumvented the Congress of the United States and defied our constitution checks and balances. So many atrocities have been committed in their pursuit to raise oil prices...(My emphasis is in bold.)


Read it here in a reprint of a Top Ten Censored Story of 1987

Vice President George Bush's acknowledged support for theill-fated secret arms shipments to Iran has been interpreted asevidence of his loyalty to the policies of President Reagan. Now, however, other evidence suggests that Bush, far more than President Reagan, promoted the Iran initiative, took part in key negotiations, and conferred upon Oliver North the secret powers necessary to carry it out.
It also has been charged that Bush actively promoted the Iran
arms sales because of an economic motive the president did not share -- the desire to stabilize the dropping oil prices in 1986.

Peter Dale Scott, co-author of THE IRAN CONTRA CONNECTION and
former senior fellow at the International Center for Development
Policy in Washington, suggests that Bush's primary concern in early
1986 was to stabilize falling crude oil prices by promoting a common
price policy between the United States and the oil producers of the
Persian Gulf, including, above all, Iran and Saudi Arabia.

Further, Scott says, the interest in higher oil prices was an
explicit goal in some of Oliver North's secret arms negotiations with the Iranians. The price of oil reflected the concerns of Bush, a former Texas oilman, rather than of Reagan, a free market advocate.

Scott traces Bush's involvement back to the January 17, 1986,
meeting of the president's national security advisers at which the
president signed the controversial finding which authorized the arms
sales. The meeting was attended only by Bush and three other known
supporters of the arms sales intiative -- Chief of Staff Donald
Regan, National Security Adviser John Poindexter, and Poindexter's
deputy Donald Fortier.

As the Iran-Contra Select Committee Report points out, Secretary
of State George Schultz and Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger
were deliberately kept in the dark about the trip North took with
Robert McFarlane to Tehran three months later. Yet Bush not only knew
of the trip but he helped in scheduling it. In a little-noticed
message of Aril 4, 1986, Poindexter told North that, "If we can manage
it, the VP would appreciate it if the Iran trip did not take place
until the VP leaves Saudi Arabia. If that screws up planning too much,
then he will uderstand that we can't do it." The request was honored;
the McFarlane-North trip took place a month after Bush returned from
Saudi Arabia.

Bush's mission to Saudi Arabia was to persuade leaders of that
country to help stabilize oil prices then rapidly falling to under $10
a barrel. His trip was successful; Saudi Arabia King Fahd received
the Iranian petroleum minister in the autumn of l986 and the two
countries agreed to OPEC arrangements for boosting oil prices to $18 a
barrel. The $18 price brought economic relief to oil-producing states like Texas which were the key to Bush's political base.

After the arms sale became public, oil industry sources commented
that McFarlane and Poindexter understood the connection between a
strong domestic oil industry and national security better than most
others in the administration.

SOURCE: PACIFIC NEWS SERVICE, 12/21/87, "Bush had oil policy
interest in promoting Iran arms deals," by Peter Dale Scott, pp 1-4.

Another Rubber Stamped Nomination

The media and the Senators united today to talk about how impressed they were that Gates was candid in stating that “We are losing in Iraq.” It takes so “little” to please this Rubber Stamp Senate. If Gates had stated the obvious deceitful propaganda, “that we are winning,” he would have been blasted. Frankly I don’t think there was any other answer that a logical, reasonable person could have given to the question. Therefore, it’s not time to “applaud” this candidate.

I’m not saying that Gates should NOT get the nomination. However, I have grave concerns given his history of deceiving Congress during the Iran Contra scandal and “cooking” the intelligence to fit his agenda. There is no history of Gates speaking "Truth to Power" and being truthful with intelligence reports to Congress. The Gates nomination has troublesome questions and to Rubber Stamp this nominee is irresponsible.

Bush and the Republicans are RUSHING this nomination through the current Republican lame duck congress. It’s only a matter of a month before the Democratic Senate would be installed.

Americans voted to put the Republican Rubber Stamp Congress out of business. Given Bush's horrible track record with his nominees the Senate needs to thoroughly assess any Bush nominee.

Consider this scenario...Bush obtained Rumsfeld’s resignation quickly after the mid-term elections so that he could put another "loyal Yes Man" appointee up before the Republican Rubber Stamp Senate.

A quickie four day hearing and then a vote by the current Rubber Stamp Congress is a slap in the face of the the voters ended the rule of the Rubber Stampers. This is the Congress that has rubber stamped Bush’s previous disastrous appointments.

The head of Homeland Security--Chertoff--was derelict in his duties during the Katrina disaster and allowed incompetents to head up disaster relief without overseeing the situation. The debacle during Katrina showed that his people were incompetent, corrupt, and guilty of cronyism. Gonzalez at the Justice Department and Rice as Secretary of State are simply extensions of the Bush administrations, worst they aren’t producing results. Gonzalez “shields” the White House from the legal system and gives opinions that appear “un-constitutional.” The one case that has been sent to the Supreme Court overruled Gonzalez’s opinion on the matter (I continue to wonder why Bill Frist doesn’t have his ankle bracelet on for insider trading. What’s good enough for a wealthy private citizen should be good enough for a wealthy, Republican “rubber stamp” Senator.)

Condoleeza Rice is showing the same incompetence as a Secretary of State as she did when she was in charge of national security when the 9/11 attacks occurred on the World Trade Center. Rice did nothing, in spite of a report with a title spelling out that Al Queda was determined and ready to attack the United States.

I’m not alone in this opinion; many others, including Donald Trump have noted that Bush “does not surrounded himself with good people. Rumsfeld is a disaster. Condoleeza Rice is a nice woman. But when she walks in she doesn’t solve any problems…..You think that’s good?”

It's obvious that Bush needs Congress to do it's job properly and provide the necessary oversight to insure that the best candidates are being nominated for these positions. Bush desperately needs help in order to hire the right people who can produce positive results.

Any current Democratic Senator who is not willing to thoroughly "vet" this nominee is choosing to support the Rubber Stamp Republican Congress that has thoroughly disgusted the American people. IF this nominee ends up being a disaster their maybe "hell to pay" when it comes re-election time. Americans voted and voiced their disgust with the Rubber Stamps.