Will Congress Heed McClellan's Iran Warning?

How often have we been told that institutions of our society that dominate public debate over foreign policy - Congress, the intelligence bureaucracy, the media - learned lessons from the run-up to the Iraq war, and everything is different now?

Now these claims are put to the test, because we are witnessing a concerted campaign to scare and misinform the American public about Iran. At this writing, six in ten Americans - including half of McCain voters - want U.S. talks with Iran. These folks are the target of the misinformation and scaring campaign.

The Bush Administration and most U.S. mainstream media are ignoring that Iran has a proposal on the table that would allow uranium enrichment in Iran to be under international control - a proposal whose outline has been endorsed by independent, international experts.

Former White House spokesman Scott McClellan - could there be a better source? - has warned that just as the Bush Administration deliberately misrepresented what it knew in order to justify the U.S. invasion of Iraq, we should expect the Bush Administration to misrepresent what it knows to justify an attack on Iran.

MSNBC's Keith Olbermann asked McClellan late last week, "Knowing what you know, if [White House spokeswoman] Dana Perino gets up there and starts making noises that sound very similar to what you heard from the administration ... in 2002, ... you would be suspicious?"

"I would be," McClellan answered. "I think that you would need to take those comments very seriously and be skeptical."

Congress needs to take the Bush administration very seriously and be skeptical of its claims on Iran. A coalition of groups working for real talks between the U.S. and Iran is promoting a call-in and write-in to Congress on June 10. As part of that campaign, these groups are putting an ad in Washington media calling on Congress not to let us be dragged into war, and calling for direct, comprehensive talks with Iran without preconditions.

The text of the ad reads:

Congress Must Not Be Left Asking What Happened in Iran. The Bush administration will say and do anything to justify an attack on Iran.

Not sure? Just ask former press secretary Scott McClellan.

Congress must act to ensure that the President does not take the U.S. into another catastrophic war. It's time for direct, comprehensive talks with Iran without preconditions."

You can see the layout of the ad - and throw a dollar in the hat - here.

Comments

[MajorKong]

Maybe the Republicans wouldn't attack Iran if they knew that the bombing might kill some stem cells?

[BethStuart]

McCain even thinks it's funny to parody a Beach Boys song with the words, "Bomb, bomb Iran." I guess that's his version of "shock and awe."

[FullChat]

Be very scared.
The Quds Force is accused of interference in Iraq and Kyl-Lieberman (HATE that man) designated them as a terrorist organization, so Bush feels that as a War President, he has the authority to attack.

WHY must this be done now? Iran is years from a nuke, and violence is down in Iraq. Where is the ticking clock???

Does anyone know if the two recently fired Air Force leaders agreed with Admiral Fallon that Iran should not be attacked? Is Bush simply firing those who don't agree with HIM so the attack can begin?

But consider:
Akminijad is looney, but he is up for re-election in March. Our looney is up for re-election in November. Maybe their new guy and Obama can get along better than Akminijad and Bush.
May we please have some verifiable evidence of Iranian Government " not civilian - involvement in Iraq? The photo op for captured Iranian weapons was canceled because almost none of the weapons were Iranian.
Worried about nukes? They have agreed to do enrichment under the control of an international group, as long as it's done in Iran, so what's the problem?
In Basra, Iran was called in to stop the violence.

And think about the day after.
Do you want a worldwide depression?
Do you want the draft?
Think of all the counter attacks. Consider the affect on terrorism if we attack another Muslim country in a preventative attack.
It'll cost your grandchildren trillions of dollars.

[TheEmptinessOfTruthiness]

Neocons, Bush's puppetteers, don't care about our grandchildren.

Yes, we should be afraid.

[EvgenyLibek]

MSM will not tell you about Scott McClellan's real lie.

No, his LIE to America was not his relaying the lies Karl Rove and Scooter Libby told him (doesn't take one to quote one).

Here's his real lie: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERKEXwLnJBk

It is shameful that this video has had fewer than 2000 views.
Every American should see what disgraceful lengths our government will go to in order to manipulate media.

How many times did MSM repeat the Bill Clinton lie ("I never had sex with that woman"), or Hillary's Sniper-Fire tale, or Hillary's planting 2 questions in Iowa, but Bush's scripted meeting with the troops, which completely destroyed his credibility (and a few millitary careers) died in the press.

I watched the event live -- it was billed as a completely "impromptu" conversation.
It was fully scripted -- where is the youtubes of the actual event?
The satelite feed on a live camera picked up the entire preperation.
Where is the youtube of that?
Somebody please provide a link.

Now, Scott McClellan has wrote this pro-Bush book, which blames everything on Bush's evil underlings (a charge Bush would like to make himself, but it would destroy loyalty, and who'd believe him anyway), and MSM eats it up, without so much as a question about this matter.

Bush lied, Bush had McClellan lie, and has MSM bothered to ask McClellan about it?
NOPE.
Not a word.

The 4th branch of Government is a leaf.

[caj]

IF I were a terrorist organization and wanted to bring down a powerful democracy, here is what I would do.

1. Make sure the sheeple were scared sh*tless all the time. Scared citizens don't think.
2. Shrink the dollars so gas and food prices soar.
3. Keep unemployment high.
4. Cause chaos on Wall Street.
5. Eat away at the Constitution of the country.

I'm sure there are many more, but even these few could bring a powerful country to her knees.

(sigh)

[sophiekeats]

I can't believe people are suddenly presenting McClellan as an expert on everything. He is, basically, a snitch with a guilty conscience. He was hardly in a position of power then, and he's not telling us anything we didn't know already.

[syllepsis]

http://www.nationalinterest.org/Article.aspx?id=16298

What a shame that Rep. Jones' efforts to return to the plain language of the Constitution, which gives Congress sole power to declare war, have so far gotten nowhere. If Congress will not assert its reponsibility, then the Executive Branch will fill the gap, and we will get more Imperial Presidencies, till the nation is destroyed- in an undeclared war.
Students nowdays must find the language of Article I, Section 8 utterly quaint.

The Congress shall have Power:

To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water....

Does anybody know what Letters of marque and Reprisal are- or what it means to declare War?

I didn't think so.

[cylindar]

If our Congressional representatives are stupid enough to get behind or OK any war with Iran while Bush is in the White House then I guess the American people deserves what will happen because they elected the dumbasses to begin with. People ae sooooooo stupid in the US. It is unbelievable just how stupid the American public really is. I feel that the USA is getting just what it deserves. If they voted for Bush then Bush is what they voted for and what they got. I hope they all enjoy themselves while they can because the cost and pain of another war would be almost too stupid to contemplate.

[flanardiente]

The sad truth is that the American people are NOT stupid. It's much worse than that. They're not INTERESTED. Americans have always cherished their right to be ignorant, and it's revealing that this right, above all others, has been left intact and untouched by the gauleiters of the Bush machine. It looks like stupid, but it's really the impatience of the working-class guy who spends his days tiptoeing through the usual minefield of office politics and the threat of unemployment and rising prices and all he wants to do now is watch one team beat another team on the hardwood gym floor, and his war cry is DON'T BOTHER ME. What makes it sad, rather than stupid, is that in the end, he's never going to know what hit him, and his family, or why. It's all the fault of the Jews/ liberals/ illegal immigrants/ gays/ Democrats. He's not stupid. He probably couldn't do his job if he was. He uses his recliner and his TV to relax his body and his mind, and he uses his ignorance as a couch for his responsibility to know what's going on. If he actually thought about it--he might not even agree with me!--but I'd feel a whole hell of a lot better.

[MajorKong]

Be afraid. Be very afraid.

[zippywpinhead]

it could get ugly- sooner than later...

[vippy]

Remember the Kyl/Lieberman Act? Seems like we have the same runup to war as we did have
with Iraq. People just don't care. When their sons and daughters get called up then perhaps people
use their brain. In the meantime, we have a recession and we need to join the Army!
Sad, that America cannot do without war. The press misquotes Ahmedinejad and says that he stated to have Israel wiped of the face of the earth. He never said that, but people believe the press since
they don't know what he had said. And the press is being dictated by BIG BROTHER in order to
further their interests. Nice going.

[Shaddup]

The press makes a shitload of money from war. Also they seem to forget that Ahmedinejad had no power. He is merely a figurehead.

[peterg76]

"How often have we been told that... everything is different now?" Come to think of it, I haven't heard anyone that was wrong about Iraq, even those who admitted it, actually come out and say they would start doing things differently. That's probably why the Iran propaganda campaign doesn't even bother with falsified evidence.

[itmaybetoolate]

In fact, the crooks in the WH are disputing the senate report that says they misled us into the current war. They argue that they just didn't have good intell. So, they have never misled anyone. If bush or his band of baboons is talking, rest assured they are lying.

[SpoxLogic]

It is not so much an attack by the administration on Iran, that I am worried about.

It's an attack on the US BY the administration.

What better way to ensure that McCain wins?

BOOM!

We get scared. We immediately forget all that high voluting ideas about hope and change. We vote scared. McCain wins.

Simple and it works.