The Devil's Playground

I took my dog to the neighborhood park today – like I do every day.  There is something reassuring about children playing together oblivious of each others color and creed.   They are so very accepting of each other; perhaps it is this unconditional friendship that beings the parents together.  I marvel at them so engaged in animated conversation that  at times they seem not to be mindful of their children – no doubt they feel secure in this park with its tall trees in a tranquil neighborhood, maintained and well-protected by their tax dollars.  My mood is challenged for I cannot help but think of the tax dollars, mine and theirs, that has orphaned so many children – killed and maimed many more.  Will one hear the laughter of the children of Iraq again, will they have a park? I wonder if these happy parents think about the children of Iraq when they bring their child to this park.

I walk back with my dog and shudder at the thought of the more horrendous war we are planning.   Turning a deaf ear to the tens of  thousands of anti-war marches who demanded an end to the  Iraq occupation,  “Citing an urgent operational need," the Pentagon is seeking funds to modify B-2 stealth bombers to deliver an experimental 30,000 pound (13.6 tonne), satellite-guided bunker busting bomb”.   The same source reported that Rep. Jim Morgan is alarmed, asking for a hearing: "My immediate assumption is that it is a target in Iran, rather than Iraq or Afghanistan."[i]

I make an effort to understand this President turned dictator and his reasons for planning genocide.  Given Russia’s stark warning and Europe’s precarious stance in that  25% of it’s oil and 40% of its natural gas is supplied by Russia, a military confrontation with Iran would likely drag in other nations.  What reason other than sheer madness would he have for doing this?

He tells us that Iran plans to build a nuclear bomb and destroy Israel[ii].  Unless he has had another conversation with God as he did before totally destroying Iraq, he is on the wrong track.  According to the  IAEA chief, Mohammad ElBaradei “there is no evidence that Iran is building nuclear weapons and ElBaradei accused US leaders of adding "fuel to the fire" with recent bellicose rhetoric.”[iii] Furthermore, the forceful Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni has taken the uncommon stance of being upfront and in a series of closed door discussions has told the Israeli Prime Minster Ehud Olmert that in her opinion the Iranian ‘nuclear weapons’ do not pose an existential threat to Israel.[iv]

Mr. Bush says Iran sponsors terrorists.  While there lacks proof of this, there is actual evidence that the Bush administration does indeed support terrorists[v].  Not only does the administration support terrorists of one ilk or another, but Congressional members welcome them in their midst[vi] – and what is perhaps even more surprising  is that  the Muslim-hater Daniel Pipes who was appointed by Mr. Bush to the board of the United States Institute of Peace[vii], is supportive of a Muslim terrorist cult.  On several occasions he has pled  that the terrorists in question,  the MEK, the ones who had ‘decades ago’ killed Americans, be armed, taken off the foreign terrorist list, and ‘work for us’[viii].  Osama; get comfortable – before you know it, someone will be sending YOU arms while killing innocent people around you.     

Another one of Mr. Bush’s allegations is that Iran is arming Shiite militias in Iraq.  We all remember the lost weapons traced back  to Pentagon/KBR, a subsidiary of Halliburton.  This made every major newspaper’s headlines.   What did not make a single headline anywhere was Mr. Bush’s pledge in 2006 to ‘Iranian dissidents’ to “plant Desert Storm-vintage biological and chemical weapons shells, confiscated by U.S. forces in Iraq, on the Iranian side of the Iraqi border. The weapons will be used as "proof" of Iran's plan to "attack" U.S. troops in Iraq”[ix].  Those MEK terrorists did come in handy after all.  Perhaps Daniel Pipes was right in liking some Muslim terrorists.

The Bush Administration would like to intimidate Iran’s neighbors by implying that there is a Shiite revival.   The Arab countries, fearful of Shiism have become Bush/Cheney’s foot soldiers.  What is being held back from them is that it was Sunni Arabs who defiantly carryied pictures of the Hezbollah leader Hasan Nasrallah during last summer’s Lebanon conflict[x], not because he represented a ‘Shiia’, but because he was a hero standing up to the aggressive enemy.  It must also be understood that Lebanon was put before religion, otherwise stated, nationhood transcends religion.   This rule applies to Iran and Iraq.  While the two may have sympathy for each other, it is highly unlikely that the national interest of one would be compromised for the other.  

Unchecked, Mr. Bush  & Co. will destroy the region and turn it into the devil’s playground where only seeds of destruction will grow.   I would like my taxes to keep the park safe for the young children; for the mothers to continue talking without fear.  I would like to see the children grow up knowing their world had been saved from a crazed dictator in this country by parents who cared.  The tall trees in the park must go on witnessing many more generations of happiness.

I want the same for children all over the world.  Don’t you?