War of Aggression Thwarted?

Several weeks ago, a gaggle of prominent neo-crazies, including Richard Perle, Michael Ledeen, David Frum, Kenneth Adelman and Michael Rubin, railed on the record in Vanity Fair magazine against the incompetent implementation by President Bush and Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld of their decades-long plans to effect regime change in Iraq.

There were already more than a few Congressional Democrats – most notably Hillary Clinton – similarly railing at American-Israel Public Affairs Committee sponsored soirees.

They demanded Rumsfeld be fired.

Bush has since sworn on a stack of Bibles that he didn’t make his decision to ask Rumsfeld to “retire” until after the Tsunami of November 7th.

And, of course, you believed him – right?

And you believe empowering the likes of Hillary Clinton in the Senate and Tom Lantos in the House will go a long way towards undoing the damage that the neocrazies and other international “regime change” activists have already wrought in the Middle East and Persian Gulf?

And you believe – more importantly – that a Democrat-controlled Congress will prevent Bush’s looming war of aggression against Iran?

Well, perhaps you’d better check out the Iran-Iraq Arms Non-Proliferation Act passed by a Democrat-controlled Congress in 1992.

“It shall be the policy of the United States to oppose, and urgently to seek the agreement of other nations also to oppose, any transfer to Iran or Iraq of any goods or technology, including dual-use goods or technology, wherever that transfer could materially contribute to either country’s acquiring chemical, biological, nuclear, or destabilizing numbers and types of advanced conventional weapons.”

Then there’s the Iran-Libya Sanctions Act of 1996, passed with overwhelming bipartisan support.

“The Congress declares that it is the policy of the United States to deny Iran the ability to support acts of international terrorism and to fund the development and acquisition of weapons of mass destruction and the means to deliver them by limiting the development of Iran’s ability to explore for, extract, refine, or transport by pipeline petroleum resources of Iran.”

Then came Title IV of the Iran Freedom Support Act [P.L. 109-293] – also passed by an overwhelmingly bipartisan majority – which principally threatens Russia for its continued construction of a nuclear power plant at Bushehr.

“(a) Sense of Congress- It should be the policy of the United States not to bring into force an agreement for cooperation with the government of any country that is assisting the nuclear program of Iran or transferring advanced conventional weapons or missiles to Iran unless the President has determined that –

    1. Iran has suspended all enrichment-related and reprocessing-related activity (including uranium conversion and research and development, manufacturing, testing, and assembly relating to enrichment and reprocessing), has committed to verifiably refrain permanently from such activity in the future (except potentially the conversion of uranium exclusively for export to foreign nuclear fuel production facilities pursuant to internationally agreed arrangements and subject to strict international safeguards), and is abiding by that commitment; or
    2. the government of that country –

(A) has, either on its own initiative or pursuant to a binding decision of the United Nations Security Council, suspended all nuclear assistance to Iran and all transfers of advanced conventional weapons and missiles to Iran, pending a decision by Iran to implement measures that would permit the President to make the determination described in paragraph (1); and

(B) is committed to maintaining that suspension until Iran has implemented measures that would permit the President to make such determination.”

The Iran Freedom Support Act also amends and updates the Iran-Libya Sanctions Act of 1996.

In particular, after “finding” that “the Government of Iran has admitted pursuing a clandestine nuclear program which the United States intelligence community believes may include a nuclear weapons program,” the amended act requires the President to impose sanctions on any person who exports, transfers, or otherwise provides Iran any goods, services, technology or other items which – in his opinion – can contribute to the ability” of Iran to

“(1) acquire or develop chemical, biological, or nuclear weapons or related technologies; or

(2) acquire or develop destabilizing numbers and types of advanced conventional weapons.”

Can contribute to Iran’s ability to acquire a technology that Bush doesn’t want the Iranians to have!

During the past two years Bush-Cheney and Rice-Bolton have strong-armed members of the Board of Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency and members of the UN Security Council into illegally imposing – in defiance of the wishes of the overwhelming majority of their constituents – similar sanctions on Iran even though there is no evidence whatsoever that Iran has a nuclear weapons program.

Bush’s looming war of aggression against Iran – which is to use as a template his war of aggression against Iraq – was not an issue in the recent Congressional elections. In fact, the pollsters and media elite never even mentioned that huge elephant in their living rooms to the voters.

But, there is some hope. The situation in Iraq is so bad that – like it or not – Congress and Bush-Cheney may have to adopt the recommendations of the bipartisan Baker-Hamilton Iraq Study Group.

In particular, Bush-Cheney may have to appeal to the Iranians (and the Saudis and the Turks and the Syrians) for help in establishing some sort of stable entity, perhaps a federation, in Iraq.

You think that won’t drive the neo-crazies crazy?

Author: Gordon Prather

Physicist James Gordon Prather has served as a policy implementing official for national security-related technical matters in the Federal Energy Agency, the Energy Research and Development Administration, the Department of Energy, the Office of the Secretary of Defense and the Department of the Army. Dr. Prather also served as legislative assistant for national security affairs to U.S. Sen. Henry Bellmon, R-Okla. -- ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee and member of the Senate Energy Committee and Appropriations Committee. Dr. Prather had earlier worked as a nuclear weapons physicist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California and Sandia National Laboratory in New Mexico.