On the other hand, the ability of Rumsfeld, Cheney and Rice to throw us into war at deceitful whim (or at the behest of the Saudies) has already been demonstrated. The building momentum of hysteria to start armed conflict with Iran is staggering, at a time when our military readiness is plummeting daily. (Anyone who claims to be "patriotic" while refusing to notice that our readiness has plummeted below Pearl Harbor levels, is a blithering hypocrite. We are far less ready to handle a sudden shock than we were before 9/11.)
As for Iran, for 3 years I have proposed the alternative of a Nixon-to-China peace offensive toward the pro-western PEOPLE of Iran, bypassing hte crotchety mullahs. It makes sense on every level. The only losers would be the sheiks of Rihyad...
...which is of course the reason that it will not be done....
Here is the article.
http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/Columnists/Toronto/Eric_Margolis/2005/02/06/922316.html is source url for the below article.
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Gen William Boykin, who has publicly stated that Bush was "Šappointed President by GodŠ" (see for example: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2003/10/17/wboyk17.xml ) is going to head the Pentagon's new Strategic Support Branch "SSB" which possesses the power to do anything anywhere to anyone and is totally unconstrained by any Constitutional authority being answerable solely to that unholy trinity, Rumsfeld, Cheney and Bush. Where is this leading?
Sun, February 6, 2005
Paranoia grips the U.S. capital
By Eric Margolis -- Contributing Foreign Editor
The film Seven Days In May is one of my all-time favourites. The gripping 1964 drama, starring Burt Lancaster, depicts an attempted coup by far rightists in Washington using a top-secret Pentagon anti-terrorist unit called something like "Contelinpro."
Life imitates art. This week, former military intelligence analyst William Arkin revealed a hitherto unknown directive, with the Orwellian name "JCS Conplan 0300-97," authorizing the Pentagon to employ special, ultra-secret "anti-terrorist" military units on American soil for what the author claims are "extra-legal missions."
In other words, using U.S. soldiers to kill or arrest Americans, acts that have been illegal since the U.S. Civil War.
This frightening news comes as Washington is gripped by reborn, Cold-War-style paranoia, ominous threats of war against Iran from the real president, Dick Cheney, and a titanic bureaucratic battle just won by Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.
Instead of being fired for the grotesque military-political fiasco in Iraq and the shameful torture scandals, Rumsfeld has just managed to create a new, Pentagon spy/special ops organization, blandly named "Strategic Support Branch," that will replace or duplicate many of the CIA's tasks.
The CIA has been sent to the doghouse. Too many CIA veterans criticized or contradicted Bush's and Cheney's phony claims over Iraq and terrorism. So Bush has imposed a new, yes-man director on the agency, slashed its budgets, purged its senior officers, and downgraded CIA to third-class status.
Rumsfeld's new, massively funded SSB will become the Pentagon's CIA, complete with commando units, spies, mercenary forces, intelligence gathering and analysis, and a direct line to the White House. The Pentagon has just effectively taken over the spy business
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