Four years after failing to discover any weapons of mass destruction (WMD) or evidence of links between Iraqi regime and the al Qaeda terror network, and faced with the colossal and growing violence of insurgency and civil unrest, the Bush Administration is at it again by accusing Iran of violating the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and aiding the insurgency in Iraq. The preposterous and since discredited [1] dog and pony show put on Feb 11, 2007 in Baghdad by three military personnel who would not dare to go on record while claiming that Iran is providing explosive devices used in attacks on US troops, fell far short of delivering the long promised "smoking gun" linking Tehran and Iraqi militants.
Just as assertions made on Sept 12, 2002 before the U.N. General Assembly, where he declared that "Saddam Hussein's regime is a grave and gathering danger and to suggest otherwise is to hope against the evidence" and "to assume this [Iraqi'] regime's good faith, is to bet the lives of millions and the peace of the world in a reckless gamble", once again we're told to take Mr. Bush at his words when he blames Iran for our desperate and self-perpetuated predicament in Iraq.
Four years on, one is left with a sense of Deja vu as everyday new and unsubstantiated allegations of blame and culpability are leveled at those "up to no good" Iranians. While the same casts of characters in the Bush administration avoid the kind of "flexibility" demonstrated in the North Korean agreement [2] reached this week, they pay only lip service to all notions of diplomacy or any meaningful dialog with Iran.
Just as Iraq was faced with the dilemma of proving a negative with regard to WMD's before invasion, Iran is being tasked with confirming that they are not enriching uranium for nuclear weapons despite full cooperation with and no evidence found by the UN watch dog International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
So these are the questions we as citizens must now ask ourselves ï ¿ ½ Can we afford to forget the lessons of a tragic war based on fabricated and manipulated intelligence? Have we not seen enough of the repugnant outcome of the short sighted action that created the current instability in Iraq and made this a far more dangerous world to live in? And finally, will we just stand by and let this administration spend [3] our children's and grand children's future on this and possibly another far larger conflict with Iran embroiling the entire region into pandemonium while completely squandering whatever little reverence remains for what was once perceived as the greatest democratic experiment?
[1] http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=36547
[2] http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/02/14/europe/EU-GEN-Russia-US-NKorea-Iran.php
[3] http://www.fcnl.org/budget/index.htm
Just as assertions made on Sept 12, 2002 before the U.N. General Assembly, where he declared that "Saddam Hussein's regime is a grave and gathering danger and to suggest otherwise is to hope against the evidence" and "to assume this [Iraqi'] regime's good faith, is to bet the lives of millions and the peace of the world in a reckless gamble", once again we're told to take Mr. Bush at his words when he blames Iran for our desperate and self-perpetuated predicament in Iraq.
Four years on, one is left with a sense of Deja vu as everyday new and unsubstantiated allegations of blame and culpability are leveled at those "up to no good" Iranians. While the same casts of characters in the Bush administration avoid the kind of "flexibility" demonstrated in the North Korean agreement [2] reached this week, they pay only lip service to all notions of diplomacy or any meaningful dialog with Iran.
Just as Iraq was faced with the dilemma of proving a negative with regard to WMD's before invasion, Iran is being tasked with confirming that they are not enriching uranium for nuclear weapons despite full cooperation with and no evidence found by the UN watch dog International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
So these are the questions we as citizens must now ask ourselves ï ¿ ½ Can we afford to forget the lessons of a tragic war based on fabricated and manipulated intelligence? Have we not seen enough of the repugnant outcome of the short sighted action that created the current instability in Iraq and made this a far more dangerous world to live in? And finally, will we just stand by and let this administration spend [3] our children's and grand children's future on this and possibly another far larger conflict with Iran embroiling the entire region into pandemonium while completely squandering whatever little reverence remains for what was once perceived as the greatest democratic experiment?
[1] http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=36547
[2] http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/02/14/europe/EU-GEN-Russia-US-NKorea-Iran.php
[3] http://www.fcnl.org/budget/index.htm
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