A Dangerous Game of Middle East Musical Chairs
By Allen
J Duffis
Published: January 7, 2012
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It was well understood until the Korean conflict that only Congress had the power to declare war. Since that time politicians of both political parties have abused their office by asking those of our armed forces to lay down their lives in military actions taken outside of the process required by the Constitution. When Congressman Ron Paul reminded Henry Hyde of this before troops were sent to Iraq, he was told that the process was outdated and that we don’t declare war anymore. At that point Congressman Hyde violated his oath of office. The War Powers Resolution of 1973 is a federal law which gives the president 48 hours to notify Congress and a maximum of 60 days to use the armed forces without congressional approval. " Israel is America’s "unsinkable battleship in the Middle East." Former Secretary of State Alexander Haig (1924 - 2010)
The Winds of War - Again 
Once again the drums are beating in the halls of Congress for the U.S. to give serious consideration to engaging in another - preemptive war of choice. Well, why not? After all, we did so well with the last one - Iraq. Our losses came to a mere 4484 American soldiers (4802 total coalition forces), and there was only 320, 226 seriously wounded. Of course, not to forget the countless numbers of Iraqi men, women and children who got in the way of our nobel deed; the number of which will never be accurately known, but is estimated at somewhere near - 104,000 to 113,000 plus. Noteworthy it should be counted among our successes that, (a) there were no Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq, (b) and we were able to ascertain, with certainty, that there were never any WMD in Iraq, and (c) we rid ourselves of a Middle East tyrant, Saddam Hussein - a former ally, who served no good purpose other than to keep the growing power aspirations of a far more dangerous neighbor in check. Therefore, why not give serious consideration to taking another crack at nation-building with a country 3.3 times the size and ten times better armed and with a standing army with training far superior to that of our last opponent - Iran. Sneaking up on chaos Before our government can get us into more trouble, they must at least try to make certain that the back door on any previous mess has been effectively closed. This need may shine a light on the recent actions of CIA Director, David Petraeus: Petraeus' Secret Trip to Iraq By Wolf Blitzer - CNN - December 21st, 2011 
(CNN) – When I got up early Wednesday morning, I got an e-mail from CNN's Arwa Damon in Baghdad. She had been hearing that CIA Director David Petraeus was spotted in Iraq in recent days. She asked me to check it out with my sources in Washington, which, of course, I did. I learned that the retired U.S. Army general who once commanded U.S. forces in Iraq had indeed gone to Iraq, this time as head of the CIA... There is a serious fear of violence breaking out among the three groups. Talk of a civil war – coming only days after all U.S. troops pulled out of the country is - rampant... A deputy prime minister who’s a Sunni told Damon that al-Maliki is like a “mini-Saddam Hussein.” A vice president, also a Sunni, has been accused of supporting terrorism and is now holed up in Kurdistan. None of this bodes well for Iraq, or the 17,000 American diplomats and private security contractors who are still in the country. I’m very worried about their safety. Click HERE to read more. And if that is not all we have to concern ourselves and our country's finances with, we appear to have to deal with the Israeli factor coming up hard on the right over - Iran. Allies of Political Inconvenience 
Incredible as it may seem, normally when Americans uttered the name - "Israel", one can almost hear a choir singing off in the distance - somewhere in the mythical land of Christian righteousness. For years, in fact since the end of WW ll, it has been accepted as outright blasphemy to speak ill of the Jewish State, or even in opposition to many of questionable actions in the Middle East. To do so brought up images of the 'Holocaust' and the 'rightful' reclamation of a wandering people's land. And to question this carefully evolved image was to risk the socially costly stigma of - anti Semitism. So in the political shadow of this well orchestrated fiction, we allowed the former State of Palestine to be politically transformed into the - State of Israel. And in the ongoing process we have allowed them to do whatever they desired to the Palestinian people to the present tune of - 3 billion dollars a year in U.S. financial aid. Israel is also the only Middle-Eastern state to have once elected a previous wanted and avowed 'terrorist' as it's leader: Menacham Begin.  They have also been allowed to clandestinely develop a nuclear program (without sanctions or inspection), and to produce nuclear weapons. The U.S. has also allowed them to 'not' sign on to the - Middle East Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, while at the same time holding their Arab neighbors 'feet to the fire' if they didn't. In the last two decades, however, there have been some brave voices within the American political and journalistic community, such as columnist Patrick Buchanan, who have dared to challenge this deadly Middle East myth. Another has been the perpetual Libertarian presidential candidate - Ron Paul, as noted in the following editorial comment: Ron Paul: Israel can take care of itself By Stephanie Condon - CBS News - November 22, 2011 
Setting himself far apart from his Republican colleagues, Republican presidential candidate Rep. Ron Paul on suggested that the U.S. should have less involvement in Israel's affairs. "I think they're quite capable of taking care of themselves," he said. The statement came in response to a question in a debate about whether the GOP candidates would, as president, support Israel in an attack against Iran. Paul responded that he wouldn't expect such an attack to take place -- but if it were to, "Why does Israel need our help? We need to get out of their way." The United States sends roughly $3 billion to Israel in military assistance every year. If they were to conduct such an attack, "that's their business, but they should suffer the consequences," Paul continued. He added that Israel has - hundreds of nuclear missiles, so - "they can take care of themselves." Turnabout Intruder
Israeli activist groups have lobbied for his release. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has voiced particularly strong support for Pollard, visiting the convicted spy in prison in 2002. Read: Why Pollard Should Never Be Released (The Traitor) It should be noted that most of the developed countries, and other nations as well as many others, do not necessarily assume this same political stance and duplicitous foreign policy outlook as the U.S. government in this matter. Imposing idiot sanctions on Iran is a direct route to war The Guardian - UK - 2009 Britain has no interest in bullying Iran over nuclear proliferation. The very trap that led to Iraq and Afghanistan looms again What is the difference between Iraq, Afghanistan and Iran? The answer, future historians may relate, is none. At the dawn of the 21st century, all three states were ruled by nasty undemocratic regimes to which America and its allies took exception. Antagonism began with hectoring ostracism. This led to economic sanctions, diplomatic isolation and bloodcurdling threats of "other measures". Finally a pretext was drummed up for military intervention, for bombing, invasion, occupation and appalling destruction. Will Iran really be on this list? At present the west, covered in blood and expense, is trying to leave Iraq and Afghanistan, yet at the same time it stumbles into an identical trap in Iran Israel: America's last sacred cow The Roanoke Times of January 3, 2012 By John Freivalds 
The American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the Israeli lobby in Washington, knows how to play American politicians like well-tuned musical instruments. I predict that in this American presidential election year, Israel will indeed attack Iran, and no American politician will have the nerve to say it was a bad thing to do and that we should go and finish the job. Why? They want the American Jewish vote to win the election. "....Since Israel is about to draw us into yet another Middle East war, we should ask ourselves: Is it worth it?.Iran is vehement in its support of Palestinians and thus an archenemy of Israel..... But what really riles me are the people in Israel who are the most intransigent, the religious right, the Haredi, who don't have to fight in the Israeli army, but - given the nature of Israel's coalition government - have an enormous say in which way Israel goes. So when the next Middle East war breaks out, it will be American soldiers doing their duty to fight for Israel while the people who ardently pushed for war (Israelis) will sit idly aside and "study." The military exemption for the Haredi is a big issue in Israel at present, by the way. Maybe Iran has nuclear bombs and maybe it doesn't, but it was our so-called allies, Pakistan and now Russia, that gave them the technology to develop it. The spread of nuclear weapons is real and really can't be stopped; the money is too great for selling the technology. What can be stopped is Israel leading us into another war. I see the very conservative in Israel making a last stand against what they fear, not what they know, Iran will do and having no hesitation to draw America into it. Israel is free to pick whatever fights it wants. I just don't want the United States to be part of keeping Israel as the last sacred cow in our foreign policy" "U.S. support for Israel, sometimes described by their Arab nations as ‘America’s aircraft carrier in the region’, is seen as integral to U.S. plans for domination. All this is seen as also serving Western economic interests: such as in securing oil; which dovetails with the agenda of keeping Islam under foot". What we must also take into consideration is that there is a history long stubborn hardcore of element of anti Semitism that runs deep within our society. Denying its existence will not make it go away, and any military conflict where Americans lives are seen as being spent for a Jewish State may bring to the surface undesired social consequences - right smack in the middle of a national election. Why Attack Iran? There is no sane or logical reason for the United States to attack Iran. We know for a fact that Iranian developed missile technology is not capable of distancing the range necessary to endanger the U.S. Nor do they at the moment have the capability of producing nuclear warheads that can be fitted to the missiles they do have. Therefore, for the Israelis, sans the use of ‘low-yield’ nuclear strikes, they haven’t any realistic hope of knocking out all, or even a significant portion, of Iran’s nuclear sites – past the point of future recovery. 
Some of Iran’s key facilities are not just underground; but are dug into mountainsides in well-guarded remote areas heavily fortified with anti-missile technology. In essence, they have been expecting and preparing for an attack. Even the highly touted ‘bunker busting’ bombs would have difficulty achieving any sort of lasting destruction, assuming of course that enough of the slow moving aircraft delivering the behemoth ordinance made it through the anti-aircraft fortifications. Click HERE to read more Conventional attacks would take weeks of sustained air strikes (of which the Israelis are not capable), during which, naturally, the Iranians would not be simply standing by as spectators. And one should keep in mind that there are many avenues of effective retaliation open to them. There are, however, political reasons motivating the U.S. toward such an irrational and highly dangerous action, the primary of which is – American Jewish Community support of Israel. Barry Rosen was the last U.S. press attaché to Iran, and was one of the 52 Americans held hostage by Iran for 444 days. Rosen does not believe that a war with Iran is inevitable, but may come about for all the wrong reasons: "Let's be frank. Iran's intransigence with its nuclear intentions and the West's efforts, led by the United States, to undermine Iran's economy and, perhaps, its legitimacy, are moving both sides further from a war of words and closer to a hot war." Keeping in mind that they have never attacked us, nor have they made any threats to attack, or have they declared war upon the United States, still we cooperate with Israel to sabotage their technical sites with computer viruses, blow up their military sites and, on a regular basis, assassinate their scientists. In other words, as he and most other experts in the region feel, we are pushing that country toward a war that neither side really wants. And we are doing so for political reasons timed with the upcoming U.S. presidential election of 2012. U.S., Israel Discuss Triggers for Bombing Iran’s Nuclear Infrastructure The Daily Beast - December 28, 2011 The Obama administration is trying to assure Israel privately that it would strike Iran militarily if Tehran’s nuclear program crosses certain “red lines”—while attempting to dissuade the Israelis from acting unilaterally. 
When Defense Secretary Leon Panetta opined earlier this month that an Israeli attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities could “consume the Middle East in a confrontation and a conflict that we would regret,” the Israelis went ballistic behind the scenes. Michael Oren, Israel’s ambassador to Washington, lodged a formal diplomatic protest known as a demarche. And the White House was thrust into action, reassuring the Israelis that the administration had its own “red lines” that would trigger military action against Iran, and that there is no need for Jerusalem to act unilaterally. Panetta’s seemingly innocent remarks on Dec. 2 triggered the latest drama in the tinder-box relationship that the Obama administration is trying to navigate with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government. With Republicans lining up to court Jewish donors and voters in America in 2012, Obama faces a tricky election-year task of ensuring Iran doesn't acquire a nuclear bomb on his watch while keeping the Israelis from launching a preemptive strike that could inflame an already teetering Middle East. The stakes are immensely high, and the distrust that Israelis feel toward the president remains a complicating factor. Those sentiments were laid bare in a speech Netanyahu’s minister of strategic affairs, Moshe Ya’alon, gave on Christmas Eve in Jerusalem, in which he used Panetta’s remarks to cast doubt on the U.S.’s willingness to launch its own military strike.Ya’alon told the Anglo-Likud, an organization within Netanyahu’s Likud party that caters to native English speakers, that the Western strategy to stop Iran’s drive for nuclear weapons must include four elements, with the last resort being a military strike. Click HERE to read complete editorial . And the matter has been well stated by Conservative columnist, Patrick Buchanan: Make Congress Vote on War on Iran Pat Buchanan - Townhall.Com Lest we forget, the Israelis are a "Never Again!" nation. And there is another serious matter here. While Obamaites, neocons and Republicans are talking about "all options on the table," the war option, if we still have a Constitution, cannot be used against a nation that has not attacked us, unless Congress, which alone has the power to declare war, has authorized military action. When did Congress tell Obama or any president he can bomb Iran as soon as he concludes Iran is building a nuclear weapon? If, after leaving Iraq, we are going into yet another war of choice, let the Congress debate and vote on this new war with Iran We don't need another War 
Why are we, a powerful country of over 307 million people, discussing with Israel, a country with a population of 7.5 million people - the fate of our involvement in the Middle East? After two long grueling wars, our forces are exhausted, our military equipment depleted, and our financial resources are stretched to the limit. Our Middle Class is on the brink of collapse and the country's infrastructure is in need of major repair and rebuilding. At this point one has to give credence to the sentiments expressed by presidential candidate, Ron Paul. If the Israelis want to jump into the bloody pool of another Middle East War, let them do so themselves; they have more than enough experience. Let them bear the costs, human and financial, and whatever consequences their actions may bring about, both in the present and in the future. But for crying out loud, this time - leave us out of it!
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