03 September 2007

A call to arms (figuratively, that is)

Prompted by my man Keith’s blog entry on the apparent run-up to a massive bombing campaign against Iran and my reading of the most recent analyses, I’ve been pondering what I, or any of us, can do about this.

Were I a member of the inner sanctum of the White House, the closest of advisors to President Bush, surely I could persuade him that this would be a monumentally, historically stupid thing to do. Help Iran’s younger, well-educated, mostly liberal and Western-friendly generation grow up in relative peace and reclaim their country from the nutcase mullahs, and we’ll have a generation of at least semi-friendly relations. Bomb them now, and we’ll create a generation of passionate enemies. For a more sensible approach to combating the Iranian threat, check out this op-ed by Senator Barack Obama - I especially like this statement: "While conventional Washington thinking says we can only talk to people who agree with us, I believe that strong countries and strong Presidents shouldn't be afraid to talk directly to our adversaries to tell them where America stands."

Apparently, that would be an incorrect assumption. Much blogosphere speculation has it that Karl Rove’s recent resignation was in response to his having lost the argument with Vice President Voldemort, I mean, Cheney, over whether to attack Iran. Some speculation also extends to Tony Snow’s resignation, although maybe he really couldn’t manage his family finances to be able to live on only $165,000 a year like he said.

So if Rove can’t stop Chenemort’s (that just sounded better than Voldeney) plans, and if the current plan really is to conduct an overwhelming air attack on Iran with the intent of bombing its military back to the era of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), is there anything that we ordinary citizens can do?

Much as I like the idea of impeaching Bush and Chenemort, there’s absolutely no way it could happen – and removing Bush without removing Chenemort first would be pointless. Politically speaking, you could never get enough votes in Congress to install Nancy Pelosi as President.

Can Congress stop this plan? Not directly. Bush has the power (if not the moral authority) to launch an attack all by himself. There’s no spending authority to revoke that could conceivably preempt the attack.

So where does that leave us? Can we, as citizens, affect our government’s actions? I say yes, and I hope I am right. Here are some modest suggestions to you, dear reader, to take up arms against this sea of troubles and by opposing, end them.

1) Call your Representative and Senators (even if they’re a couple of right-wing wankers like mine) and tell them to go on the record opposing this idiotic preemptive attack on Iran. Call, don’t email – emails come in by the thousands daily and are easy to disregard, but direct phone calls are much less frequent and thus have more impact. The House switchboard is 202-225-3121, and the Senate switchboard is 202-224-3121. Congress can’t stop it, but if enough members of Congress vote on a resolution expressing their outrage and opposition (especially if many Republicans join in), that would at least ratchet up the pressure and media attention on the Administration.

2) Alert the media! Write letters to your local newspaper or other media outlet and express your opposition in no uncertain terms to this impending debacle.

3) Start protesting now, not after the launch. Sign up with organizations like MoveOn.org, gather like-minded citizens, and stage protests around the country.

Can Congressional rebuke, media scrutiny, and public opprobrium actually change this Administration’s plan of attack and thus have the potential to change history? I don’t know, but I’d like to find out. How about you? Isn’t it time to reclaim government of the people, by the people, and for the people?

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