Fighting everybody in the bar
The longer it continues, the more self-defeating and dangerous this misconceived “War on Terror” becomes. It’s simply not possible to wage war on an abstract noun. Like a drunk in a barroom brawl, the Bush administration knows it’s getting hit, but doesn’t know exactly who’s to blame. So now it wants to fight everybody in the joint.
Judging by the administration’s latest deeply unconvincing propaganda campaign, it’s Iran’s turn. Unnamed “senior U.S. military officials” have made “educated guesses” that the Iranian government smuggles bombs into Iraq to kill American soldiers. Guesses? You’d almost think the officers peddling this stuff hoped not to be believed.
Last week, Iran was allegedly helping Sunni extremists, its mortal enemies. Now, the other side. Actually, there are at minimum four sides in Iraq’s civil war, but I digress. Supposedly, serial numbers on bomb fragments trace back to Iranian factories.
So the cunning Persian mullahs are sneaking explosives into Iraq and stamping them “MADE IN IRAN?” People, even George W. Bush ain’t that dumb, although some who work for him definitely are.
Consider what the Pentagon inspector general has called the “alternative intelligence” stylings of former undersecretary of defense Douglas Feith. Manfully defending himself on (where else?) Fox News, Feith insisted, “Nobody in my office ever said there was an operational relationship between Iraq and Al Qaeda. It’s just not correct. I mean, words matter.”
This from an administration that shipped $12 billion in cash, 363 TONS of crisp, shrink-wrapped $100 bills to Iraq, then LOST it. Testifying to Congress recently, Coalition Provisional Authority honcho Paul Bremer couldn’t account for the money. In 2004, Bush awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Remember Iran-Contra? Ollie North and friends were selling Israeli missiles to, yes, the Persians. And $12 billion will buy off a lot of border guards along the 900-mile frontier between Iraq and Iran — much of it more remote than, say, the airtight U.S.-Mexican border.
Meanwhile, the two groups most eager to see the United States attack Iran are Al Qaeda and the Israeli extreme right. Bin Laden’s whole game is suckering Americans into making war against Muslim countries; attacking his non-Arab, Shiite enemies would give him a double triumph. Israeli politicians like Benjamin Netanyahu, shaken by last summer’s inconclusive campaign against Hezbollah, call Iranian president Ahmadinejad the “new Hitler,” and warn of a second Holocaust.
Iranian reformers are begging the United States not to take the bait.
“We try to tell politicians in Washington, D.C., please don’t do anything in favor of reform or to promote democracy in Iran. Because in 100 percent of the cases, it benefits the right wing.” Saeed Leylaz, a Tehran businessman told the Los Angeles Times.
The UPI recently reported an exchange between Soroush Shehabi, an Iranian-American acquaintance, and President Bush at a Washington reception.
The grandson of one of the late Shah’s ministers, Shehabi said, “I simply want to say one U.S. bomb on Iran and the regime we all despise will remain in power for another 20 or 30 years and 70 million Iranians will become radicalized.”
“I know,” Bush answered.
“But does Vice President Cheney know?”
Bush walked away, chuckling.
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette columnist Gene Lyons can be reached by e-mail at [email protected].