Celebrate the life of Molly Ivins - join the tribute today!

In case you haven't heard, the beloved Molly Ivins has passed away, following a long battle with breast cancer. Just before she died, she pledged to spend the rest of her columns on fighting the Iraq War, working to bring it to a close.

We now have the opportunity, thanks to the Berkeley Daily Planet, to carry on her legacy and speak truth to power in a way greater than anything we've done before.

Anytime you feel like writing about the issue of Iraq, or the onrushing war with Iran, send your submissions to the Daily Planet and you will be a part of their ongoing series, in honor of that pioneering progressive heroine, Molly Ivins of Texas.

Here's my submission:

Senators Worry Over Bush's Dirty War

"Senators Warn Against War in Iran". Nearly a year and a half after former UN weapons inspector Scott Ritter warned America that "the war with Iran has already begun", a few sensible Democrats in the US Senate are finally starting to come around.

It's about time. As Scott Ritter warned in his piece on Common Dreams:

"Americans should be put on notice that Iran is well-fixed in the cross-hairs as the next target for the illegal policy of regime change being implemented by the Bush administration...But Americans, and indeed much of the rest of the world, continue to be lulled into a false sense of complacency by the fact that overt conventional military operations have not yet commenced between the United States and Iran."

We have allowed the right-wing media and the Republicans in the House and Senate to distort and downplay this issue since June of 2005, and now that the policy has advanced nearly to the final bloody stages of an all-out invasion of Iran, only now a few Senators have developed enough spine to voice their concerns?
Why now? What's changed? Why should this be the week that the threat of war with Iran be considered dangerous enough for these Senators to mention it, on the record?

Could it have something to do with the fact that three of these Senators are running for President? Could be. Presidential campaigns have a way of bringing out the spark in a dim-bulb representative. But Hagel, Obama, and Biden have had Presidential aspirations longer than the past few weeks. Something else is happening here, that goes beyond just the standard posturing of political campaigns.

Where were the august voices of these public servants when American military forces stormed the Iranian consulate in Iraq last month? How about when two carrier groups were ordered to the Persian Gulf, along with a ship carrying a Patriot missile system? Patriot missiles will be useless in Iraq. They are useful only against airborne targets, of which there are presently zero in Iraq. And one of those carrier groups steaming to the Gulf is supposedly replacing the USS Abraham Lincoln, which will be moving to the Indian Ocean.

Guess which ocean the Persian Gulf drains into? If you guessed the Indian Ocean, you win a prize.

Are you starting to see just how close we are to all-out war with Iran? If you consider Scott Ritter's words regarding the optimum timing of war in the Middle East being sometime in February or March due to weather conditions unique to the Persian Gulf, you get it that we are directly on the cusp of a global catastrophe. War with Iran will surely end up with a worse outcome than even our disastrous occupation of Iraq. And don't even get me started about the price of oil after such an event.

Of course, now that our fine Senators have begun speaking out about this, this new war will surely be averted, right?

Wrong. Several Democratic Senators are on record speaking hyperbolically of the dangers posed by Iran's nuclear program. Sadly, they fail to mention the fact that Iran is at least ten years away from being able to build an actual nuclear weapon. Former Senator John Edwards and New York Senator Hillary Clinton, two more Democratic contenders for the Presidency, just got back from a "security" conference in Israel in which they both spoke of the serious threats posed by Iran's nuclear ambitions.

Iran may be scary, they may send money and even arms to support terrorists in Syria and Palestine, but they are nowhere near having the capability to build a nuclear weapon, so what's all the fuss?

I believe that what we are seeing now is the same kind of "reasoned debate" we had regarding the threat of Iraq just prior to the invasion of that country, a country that posed no threat to us or to our allies, a country which had no weapons of mass destruction, a country whose leader was hemmed in and unable to attack its neighbors even if he wanted to. This "reasoned debate" is simply the platform on which the actual plans for invasion will be signed, quickly and under cover of official sanction, when the provocation for war with Iran is considered large enough to justify an attack.

So what form might such a provocation take? An invasion by ground troops, following on the heels of an "invading" Iranian raiding party? A bombing of a caravan of Iranian merchants, supposedly smuggling Katyusha rockets under their pots and pans, sparking a violent counter-reaction by the Iranian military? Or how about a "Remember the Maine" style event, in which an American ship is shot and possibly sunk by a missile from inside Iranian territory?

If you consider what Scott Ritter has told us about the terrorist groups inside Iran operating on the behest of the CIA, is it too unlikely to believe that they might be positioning to fire on our troops from inside that country, thereby justifying a massive aerial bombardment of Iran and her nuclear facilities?

Sound a little nutty? Too conspiracy-minded? I sure hope you're right. And if enough of you get on the horn and call your Senators and members of Congress, maybe, just maybe, this nightmare scenario might just be avoided.

God willing, the tragic death of Molly Ivins will have a happy outcome, with a resolution to stop the escalation into Iraq passing the House and Senate, and the oncoming war with Iran being stopped dead in its tracks.

Our future's in your hands, America. Do you have what it takes to change the fate of the entire world?

Here's the toll-free number for Congress: 1-800-862-5530. Call em today, and tell em Molly Ivins sent ya.

Categories: War & Peace, Alternative Media, Politics - National