As if we needed more reason to be in the streets Saturday: this week the Bush Administration declared that the Iranian Revolutionary Guard is a "weapons proliferator" and that its Quds Force is a "terrorist" group. Let's pass over the world-historical hypocrisy of this chest-beating declaration. The word "chutzpah" needs to be officially retired, like Roberto Clemente's uniform. As the New York Times reported, while the U.S. beats its breast about the "Kurdish terrorists" called the PKK who run over the Turkish border from Iraq, kill Turkish soldiers, and run back, the cat has our tongue when "Kurdish terrorists" called the PJAK - basically the same people as the PKK, as the Times points out - run over the Iranian border from Iraq, kill Iranian soldiers, and run back.
Why, man, he doth bestride the narrow world
Like a Colossus; and we petty men
Walk under his huge legs and peep about
To find ourselves dishonorable graves. Men at some time are masters of their fates:
The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves, that we are underlings.
The Los Angeles Times, in an editorial, pointed out that declaring that part of the Iranian military a terrorist organization was such a stupid idea that even the Bush Administration was debating whether to do it, despite having been urged by Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama to do so. The LAT noted that Iranian officials with whom anyone who was actually serious about diplomacy would want to meet - like its pragmatic former nuclear negotiator, Ali Larijani - have also been affiliated with the Iranian Revolutionary Guard. In the event, the Bush Administration did not go as far as they were urged by 76 Senators, declaring that only the Quds Force, and not the whole Revolutionary Guard, was a "terrorist" organization. The editorial even urged Congress to pass the Webb bill, to prevent an attack on Iran without explicit Congressional authorization. But let's pass over that as well. Snow-covered pigs will fly through Hell before you see that editorial in the Washington Post.
This week a "jury of peers" in Texas cried foul on the whole "naming terrorists" charade. They decided not to convict leaders of an Islamic charity, who were accused by our government of "supporting terrorism" by collecting funds for humanitarian relief for Palestinians. Our government argued that since the humanitarian relief projects were affiliated with Hamas, and since our government has declared Hamas to be a terrorist organization, such projects supported Hamas politically, and therefore, supported terrorism. But let's pass over that as well. After all, those Texas jurors were just ordinary citizens. They haven't taken Madeleine Albright's graduate seminar in U.S. foreign policy.
Let's focus instead on the indisputable fact that "naming" part of Iran's military as a "terrorist organization" moves us closer to the "World War III" that President Bush has warned us about. This week, CQ Today reported, Democrats in Congress objected to a new funding request from Bush for "bunker buster" bombs that they suggest could be used to strike Iran's nuclear facilities. So much for Bush Administration officials' reassurances about how the U.S. is committed to diplomacy.
As we all know from our experience, mere public opinion, as important as it is, will not, by itself, move Washington. American public opinion against endless war must be forcefully and repeatedly expressed so that it cannot be ignored.
Fortunately, we have a wonderful opportunity to do so Saturday. Others have toiled to create the infrastructure for 11 regional demonstrations against the war in Iraq and against war with Iran. We just have to show up.