[Peace-discuss] Where are the Liberals? (II)

[C. G. Estabrook]

[It's outrageous that liberal pundits and politicians cannot offer 
anything as cogent on the US/Israeli war as the paleo-conservative Pat 
Buchana does here.  The House passed today 410-8 jingoistic 
encouragement for Israelis to kill Arabs.  Noted liberals (like Kucinich 
and McKinney) were *not* among the eight.  (But another paleo-con, Ron 
Paul, was.)  --CGE]


No, this is not 'our war'
Posted: July 20, 2006
8:36 p.m. Eastern

My country has been "torn to shreds," said Fouad Siniora, the prime 
minister of Lebanon, as the death toll among his people passed 300 
civilian dead, 1,000 wounded, with half a million homeless.

Israel must pay for the "barbaric destruction," said Siniora.

To the contrary, says columnist Lawrence Kudlow, "Israel is doing the 
Lord's work."

On American TV, former Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu says 
the ruination of Lebanon is Hezbollah's doing. But is it Hezbollah that 
is using U.S.-built F-16s, with precision-guided bombs and 155-mm 
artillery pieces to wreak death and devastation on Lebanon?

No, Israel is doing this, with the blessing and without a peep of 
protest from President Bush. And we wonder why they hate us.

"Today, we are all Israelis!" brayed Ken Mehlman of the Republican 
National Committee to a gathering of Christians United for Israel.

One wonders if these Christians care about what is happening to our 
Christian brethren in Lebanon and Gaza, who have had all power cut off 
by Israeli airstrikes, an outlawed form of collective punishment, that 
has left them with no sanitation, rotting food, impure water and days 
without light or electricity in the horrible heat of July.

When summer power outrages occur in America, it means a rising rate of 
death among our sick and elderly, and women and infants. One can only 
imagine what a hell it must be today in Gaza City and Beirut.

But all this carnage and destruction has only piqued the blood lust of 
the hairy-chested warriors at the Weekly Standard. In a signed 
editorial, "It's Our War," William Kristol calls for America to play her 
rightful role in this war by "countering this act of aggression by Iran 
with a military strike against Iranian nuclear facilities. Why wait?"

"Why wait?" Well, one reason is that the United States has not been 
attacked. A second is a small thing called the Constitution. Where does 
George W. Bush get the authority to launch a war on Iran? When did 
Congress declare war or authorize a war on Iran?

Answer: It never did. But these neoconservatives care no more about the 
Constitution than they cared about the truth when they lied into war in 
Iraq.

"Why wait?" How about thinking of the fate of those 25,000 Americans in 
Lebanon if we launch an unprovoked war on Iran. How many would wind up 
dead or hostages of Hezbollah if Iran gave the order to retaliate for 
the slaughter of their citizens by U.S. bombs? What would happen to the 
130,000 U.S. troops in Iraq, if Shiites and Iranian "volunteers" joined 
forces to exact revenge on our soldiers?

What about America? Richard Armitage, who did four tours in Nam and 
knows a bit about war, says that, in its ability to attack Western 
targets, al-Qaida is the B Team, Hezbollah the A Team. If Bush bombs 
Iran, what prevents Hezbollah from launching retaliatory attacks inside 
the United States?

None of this is written in defense of Hamas, Hezbollah or Iran.

But none of them has attacked our country, nor has Syria, whom Bush I 
made an ally in the Gulf War and to whom the most decorated soldier in 
Israeli history, Ehud Barak, offered 99 percent of the Golan Heights. If 
Nixon, Bush I and Clinton could deal with Hafez al-Assad, a tougher 
customer than son Bashar, what is the matter with George W. Bush?

The last superpower is impotent in this war because we have allowed 
Israel to dictate to whom we may and may not talk. Thus, Bush winds up 
cussing in frustration in St. Petersburg that somebody should tell the 
Syrians to stop it. Why not pick up the phone, Mr. President?

What is Kristol's moral and legal ground for a war on Iran? It is the 
"Iranian act of aggression" against Israel and that Iran is on the road 
to nuclear weapons – and we can't have that.

But there is no evidence Iran has any tighter control over Hezbollah 
than we have over Israel, whose response to the capture of two soldiers 
had all the spontaneity of the Schlieffen Plan. And, again, Hezbollah 
attacked Israel, not us. And there is no solid proof Iran is in 
violation of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which it has signed, 
but Israel refuses to sign.

If Iran's nuclear program justifies war, why cannot the neocons make 
that case in the constitutional way, instead of prodding Bush to launch 
a Pearl Harbor attack? Do they fear they have no credibility left after 
pushing Bush into this bloody quagmire in Iraq that has cost almost 
2,600 dead and 18,000 wounded Americans?

No, Kenny boy, we are not "all Israelis." Some of us still think of 
ourselves as Americans, first, last and always

And, no, Mr. Kristol, this is not "our war." It's your war.

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