[Peace-discuss] Attack Iran in autumn or winter?

[C. G. Estabrook]

Of course it's impossible to predict what the administration will do -- 
I'm not sure they yet know themselves -- however heartened they may be 
with their new legal rights to torture and imprison -- but there's 
certainly a chance that they may decide that war with Iran is the only 
way to rally the populace before the November election.

There's also a chance that, if they hold off and lose one or both houses 
of Congress, they may want to launch the war to rally support before the 
new Congress convenes in January.  The US (and Israel) need war; without 
it, the raison d'etre for their crimes goes away.

I suggest we take some time at Sunday's meeting to talk again about what 
we do if Iran is attacked.  --CGE

==============

	Protest Against Bush Attack on Iran at Norfolk Naval Base
	By Mac McKinney
	Staff writer for The Southern ‘I’

10/03/06 "Southern ‘I’" -- -- Protesters held a peace demonstration at 
Gate 5 at NOB, the Norfolk Naval Operating Base, home of the Atlantic 
Fleet, Sunday afternoon, October 1st. This was in response to ongoing, 
threatening rhetoric toward Iran by the Bush Administration and news 
that a nuclear carrier strike group led by the USS Eisenhower would be 
steaming out of Norfolk on Tuesday, October 3. The small strike group, 
consisting of some half-dozen naval vessels, is said to be under orders 
to position itself for actions off the coast of Iran by October 21st, 2006.

This is viewed by alarm in many quarters, particularly in light of the 
fact that the US Air Force was tasked earlier this year with drawing up 
plans for a massive bombing campaign against Iranian nuclear reactor 
facilities and military infrastructure. And there have been allegations 
in various journals and websites of clandestine U.S. Special 
Forces-sponsored activities within Iran’s borders, including sabotage 
and assassinations, possibly through the aegis of the Kurdistan Workers 
Party or PKK, a Kurdish independence group traditionally on the U.S. 
State Department terrorist list, that is accused by both Turkey and Iran 
of ongoing terrorist acts against their citizens.

In response to all this, local peace and justice groups mounted a 
demonstration against an attack on Iran from Noon to after 2:00 pm today 
outside Gate 5, the main entrance for the submarine piers at NOB, taking 
up positions at all four corners of the intersection at Gate Five with 
signs and posters. Members of the Norfolk Catholic Worker, Hampton Roads 
Peace and Justice Coalition, the Tidewater Peace Alliance, Gaia Circle, 
Norfolk Food Not Bombs as well as the Defenders for Freedom, Justice and 
Equality focused on getting their messages out to local motorists and 
pedestrians going in and out of the Naval Base or moving up and down 
Hampton Blvd, many of whom are military personnel. Reaction from 
military personnel and other motorists was quite mixed, with some 
honking in support, many just staring at the signs to read them, and 
some yelling out various hostile remarks, several too crude to print.

Asked why she was demonstrating, Luna Negra, one of the organizers from 
the Tidewater Peace Alliance, said, “The purpose of this event for me 
was to let the military know that we are aware of the intentions of the 
Bush Administration in relation to Iran, just like we knew what their 
intentions were in relation to Iraq. We took to the streets before the 
war on Iraq and we will take to the streets again in order to be heard 
by the people in power. Any of these wars are not endorsed by me or by 
many of the American people.”

Around 1:00 pm demonstrators were surprised when an organization all the 
way from the Washington DC/Maryland area showed up and joined the 
demonstration, some half dozen members of CASMII, the Campaign Against 
Sanctions and Military Intervention in Iran, carrying two large banners 
demanding dialogue with and truthfulness about Iran that they unfurled 
along Hampton Blvd. They had gotten wind of the local event through the 
Internet and were glad to make the long drive to Hampton Roads to 
confront what they consider a serious threat to the Middle East region. 
They pointed out that certain elements within the Bush Administration, 
the Media and Congress are clearly pressing an attack on Iran.

They commented also that there seems to be a de facto media blackout on 
demonstrations against war with Iran in the Washington DC area. 
Ironically, there was no media coverage of the demonstration today by 
any local newspapers or TV Stations except for the Southern ‘I’, a 
small, local independent journal. Local TV station and Fox affiliate 
WTKR, Channel 10, did do an interview on a previous date with one of the 
organizers and did dispatch a news van to this Sunday’s event. However, 
bizarrely, no personnel ever left their van and they simply drove off 
after a short wait.

When asked about this episode, another demonstration organizer, Star 
Womanspirit of the Tidewater Peace Alliance exclaimed, “I am here to do 
what I can to give a voice to the majority of the people. The majority 
of Iraqis (62%), the majority of our troops (72%), and the majority of 
Americans (64%) want America to withdraw from Iraq. These voices have 
been silenced by a corporate media that gives the elite--a tiny 
group--the power to blast their message all over the world. That same 
corporate media that silences the voices of the majority refused to 
cover this rally today....the first local rally against Bush's war on Iran.”

All told, some thirty plus individuals showed up over the two hour plus 
period in the hot sun to voice their displeasure with the Bush 
Administration's increasingly hostile stance toward Iran. Some 
demonstrators also discussed among themselves reports and rumors on the 
Internet that Karl Rove has promised the Republican leadership an 
October Surprise, speculating whether an attack on Iran would become 
just such a politically motivated scenario.

[The Southern ‘I’, a Hampton Roads, Virginia Independent Media Journal]