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Down The Middle - Oct 17, 2005 - Printable Version
- U.S.S. MAINE EXPLODES IN THE PERSIAN GULF!
WAR IS DECLARED ON IRAN!
by Down The Middle
Of course, this headline originally read, "THE U.S.S. MAINE EXPLODES AT ANCHOR, IN HAVANA HARBOR! WAR IS DECLARED ON SPAIN!". Others more simply said, "IT'S WAR!", announcing the beginning of that long, sought after...indeed, fervently solicited cause of Randolph Hearst and Joe Pulitzer, who, in the interest of American corporations, had propagandized the nation with their "yellow journalism" in the months leading up to the Spanish American War. Once again, the war drums are sounding in the nation's media and the battle cry will soon be raised, only this time around, the headlines will be announcing an explosion on one of our ships in the Persian Gulf...or some other such attack upon our forces or our people, here at home.
Not unlike that 1898 war of antiquity, the war that we are now gearing up for with Iran has been colored in the same fashion with a "neo-yellow journalism", offered up from a cowed and complicit media that is controlled like a nervous dog by the corporate masters who will, once again, stand to benefit from the mass murder that is war.
Fortunately, duly elected leaders of democracies must justify the call to arms with their citizenry, so that the taxpayers and their fighting age off-spring will fully support the "noble" effort with both their money and their lives. In the absence of moral purpose, acting in self-defense (or extreme circumstances, such as mass starvation) can be the only reasonable motivation beyond the taint of abject greed.
Some U.S. Presidents stand accused of inventing such reasons for war, as was the case with Lyndon Johnson, in the 1964 Gulf of Tonkin incident http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=2261 off the eastern shores of North Viet Nam, where others, like FDR are suspected of allowing the enemy a first strike, even when forewarned, just to enrage the public as some believe happened at Pearl Harbor. http://www.geocities.com/Pentagon/6315/pearl.html
In the Spanish American War, the battle cry of "Remember the Maine" was centered around the mysterious explosion which sank the battleship in Havana Harbor, bringing a rapid response of false accusations in the newspapers and a taste for revenge on the lips of outraged Americans.......but this time, it won't be a daring, heroic charge up San Juan Hill. It will be a rush to capture the rich oil fields of the Khuzestan province, at the northern tip of the Persian Gulf.
I suppose, most all wars have their similarities, usually beginning with the ruling class of one country wanting what another country owns...and then, creating an excuse to go steal it. In the Spanish American War, the Rough Riders of Oklahoma, New Mexico and Arizona went to war as adventurist patriots, defending their nation and liberating the oppressed.....but it was the sugar industry that won Cuba. Other spoils acquired were the Philippines, Guam, Puerto Rico and Diego Garcia, a large island in the Indian Ocean, where our B-52s will be flying out of for the bombing of Iran.
Many will call the retaliation...or "preemption" a necessary step in the "War on Terror" and tout the move as "national security". At this point in the history of our screwed up foreign policy, they may not be too far off the mark...but the national security question is not with the terrorists. As many Americans as they may kill, they can never bring down a democracy. Only our own government can do that, by selling off the rights that keep us free. The real national security question is the ingenious, but presumptuous, neo-con plan of grabbing the oil, thereby securing our own energy and gaining control over others', not to mention the preemption to Iran's plan of setting up it's own "Bourse" (oil exchange), having already broken the "black golden" rule of trading oil for Euros, instead of dollars.
The gaping flaws in this approach (other than the obvious moral questions) come to the surface with the realization that only the oil companies and a few wealthy corporations like Halliburton are "picking the fruit", while the middle class...and the nation goes broke, paying for it all. The other incidental that some may consider worth mentioning is the very large risk of starting a third world war, guaranteed to distract the middle class from the post-invasion tripling of gasoline prices.
I have claimed, for years (long before Billy Bob Joe Bob took office) that Iran, considering our long, tenuous relationship and the radical Islamic views held by their empowered theocracy, was always the true threat...and therefore, I remained adamantly opposed to the overthrow of their historical enemies, the Sunnis of Iraq, who had long held the first line of defense against the Persians, not only for themselves and the oil kingdoms but for the oil consuming West, by proxy, as Saddam had so graciously explained to King George I's State Department, when he asked for...and was granted permission to invade Kuwait.
But terrorism was never the cause of the neo-con. Only the excuse. Their goal is to set up controllable "democracies" that their corporate sponsors can safely "deal" with, while holding other nations' economies in check.
This month will see the arrival of "replacement" units which are overlapping tours with the troops already in Iraq, supposedly for extra security during the upcoming referendum of the new constitution. Moving into theater will be the famed "Desert Rats" of the British 7th Armored Division (Briton's biggest and best heavy armor, shock force. Not what one might use for "security" purposes), the American 4th Infantry Division (Missed the initial Shock and Awe invasion of Iraq, because Turkey disallowed their port of entry) and the entire 101st Air Assault Division (The only division of it's type in the world, possessing 281 helicopters including three battalions of Apache Attack helicopters. The "Screaming Eagles" are capable of inserting a combined arms task force of 4,000 troops 150 to 300 kilometers behind the front lines.)
If I were a corps commander, this (along with the Air Force) is the exact combination of capabilities that I would want for a blitzkrieg style assault into the Iranian oil fields. The dirty business of war goes on.
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