Los Angeles Times
May 31, 2008
May 31, 2008
An opinion piece by the former German foreign minister published today in a leading Middle East paper says that Israel is planning to attack Iran over its nuclear program.
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Joschka Fischer, German’s top diplomat from 1998 to 2005, is a visiting scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.
He wrote a piece that appeared in today’s Daily Star, an English-language Lebanese newspaper, arguing that President Bush’s recent visit to the Middle East was a precursor to a war on Iran’s nuclear program:
The Middle East is drifting toward a new great confrontation in 2008. Iran must understand that without a diplomatic solution in the coming months, a dangerous military conflict is very likely to erupt. It is high time for serious negotiations to begin.
Fischer said Bush’s speech during his address to the Israeli Knesset, or parliament, this month indicated a coming Israeli-U.S. attack on Iran’s nuclear program:
He seemed to be planning, together with Israel, to end the Iranian nuclear program — and to do so by military, rather than by diplomatic, means…. Although it is acknowledged in Israel that an attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities would involve grave and hard-to-assess risks, the choice between acceptance of an Iranian bomb and an attempt at its military destruction, with all the attendant consequences, is clear. Israel won’t stand by and wait for matters to take their course.
Fischer, former leader of Germany’s Green Party, was one of the key diplomats involved in assessing Iran’s nuclear facilities and pressuring Tehran for a temporary halt of its uranium enrichment program from 2003 to 2005, when he left office.
Do NOT wait for the bombs to start falling. The time to act is NOW.
Individually we find that we are powerless against corporate media or Big Oil or Washington. Our choices are limited. Our effectiveness diminished. This is not by accident. Unions, social gatherings, clubs that all flourished before the 1960s have all been destroyed by those who find you & me to be a threat. Today people will tell you that protest are ineffective. And they are. But real change does not come from the ballot box as the politicians & media want you to believe. Great social change like the eight hour work day, child labor laws, a woman's right to vote, civil rights, etc., etc. all came about through blood & sweat & great effort. Just showing up every four years to pull the lever on election night only changes the faces of those who will lie to you. For the next four years. Today we find ourselves in a very unique situation because rank & file republicans, democrats, greens, independets & libertarians ALL agree that Bush & Co. MUST GO & NOW. And we must end this war & NOW. Congress & the president have failed to come up with an exit stategy for our troops. THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE. Constant redeployments, lack of equipment or medical leave, destroying families & creating thousands of widows & orphans on both sides, etc. MUST STOP & NOW. Here is our EXIT STRATEGY until every troop comes home. And we have a hero's welcome home parade for our brave sons & daughters: 1. ECONOMIC STRIKE STARTS NOW Immediate Consumer Fast from all non essentials. 2. GENERAL STRIKE STARTS 9/11/08 "Sooner or later all freedom loving Americans will realize that the only way to stop those who would bleed our nation dry, dismantle our constitution, and dissolve our national sovereignty is to say I will not work for you, buy from you, fight for you, or die for you, until the criminals are gone from the halls of our government." Shut 'Em Down!
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