Note to Obama and Edwards: Step-Up on Iran

I'm glad to see John Edwards and Barack Obama have finally begun to upbraid Hillary Clinton for going along with Bush's impending attack on Iran. We presidential candidates must keep raising this story because the mainstream media is not doing its job, once again. Two weeks ago, Seymour Hersh exposed the Pentagon's plans to attack Iran, but the MSM failed to follow up with a sustained inquiry. We presidential candidates must pick up the slack and constantly alert the American public that Bush, Clinton and the go-along Congressional Dems are leading us into another disastrous war.

Despite what Hillary claims, Congress gave Bush the green light to attack Iran when they labeled the Iranian Revolutionary Guard (IRG) a terrorist organization. Bush can now attack the IRG as a counter-terrorism measure. All he needs is a "Gulf of Tonkin incident" in Iraq that can be tied to the IRG, and he will begin bombing IRG facilities in Iran. Of course Bush will disregard Hillary's resolution demanding he check with Congress before attacking Iran. No president since James Polk has felt the need to check with Congress before "defending" American troops.

What makes Hillary believe a congressional resolution will prevent Bush from doing anything? A war on Iran has been a neocon dream for decades and Bush sees himself as a modern-day messiah ridding the world of evil-doers. Throughout his presidency, Bush has consistently disregarded checks and balances. He defied a Supreme Court decision banning torture simply by ordering his Justice Department to secretly issue a go-ahead. (The MSM also dropped this story.)

After Bush launches the planned strikes on the IRG, Iran will hit our naval forces in the Persian Gulf and our troops in Iraq. Within an afternoon, we will be at war. Bush might later ask our rubberstamp Congress for a show of support. But by then any opposition will be moot. The Iranian navy will cut the oil supply of the European economies and a worldwide depression will hit American markets. Other regional powers, including Saudi Arabia and Israel, might be drawn into the war. Within weeks tens of thousands will be dead and that's only the beginning.

We presidential candidates must do our best to avoid this tragedy by bringing it up constantly. And it's not enough for my fellow candidates just to challenge Bush and Hillary out on the stump. They must join me in challenging her directly during the debates.

If we immediately and consistently inform the American public what their government is up to, I believe we have a shot at stopping this war. Without any sort of public outcry, we are most certainly heading for disaster.

Comments

[Jane22]

That is why we are here Sen. Gravel! Thanks for your continuing support! I'm on your E-Mail list. We have one point of disagreement! It is too late to go after Osama to KILL HIM! He is now and for some time at martyr status. Non-Violence is the Way, Sir. Violence begets violence. If the U.S. is ever to be taken seriously again, we must not play the dominator game in World Affairs. We must honestly attone for the wrong-doing of present and past "leaders" to restore a new status of "World Leader" to our country, IF in fact this is ever possible again. If the peoples of the world see true change in our approach, one of impeccable HONESTY/RESTITUTION, we could make this a reality. Please change your mind about this advocacy for any killing! Until then, I will listen, but not truly support you for the U.S. Presidency. Thanks for reading and for your support of those actions I CAN support. Peace

[AusRob72]

As usual Senator Gravel is right on the money.
Main stream media once again fails to alert the people that the most popular candidate in the race is once again decieving the people. Send this link to all friends and family. More people need to be aware of this!

[fariqabdulaziz]

Senator Gravel, once again you have spoken the truth, and it is refreshing to hear. Bush and Clinton and the military industrial complex are trying to make war with Iran inevitable, and there are too few with the courage you have to speak out and try to stop this madness.

[toddpw]

So, now that the housing bubble has delayed the onset of the next depression, they are trying to create another large-scale war to get us out of it BEFORE it even happens?

I'm either brilliant or crazy, but it seems like they are trying to replay the 30's and the 40's only without the soup kitchens or the New Deal, while insisting that tax cuts and freedom cuts deserve the credit.

In hindsight the MoveOn.org ad about Petraeus was brilliant because it exposed how insecure the conservative talking heads have become. We Lilliputians need to focus our efforts into taking down the MSM Gulliver so that more Americans wake up from the Matrix and realize that It Can Happen Here.

Unfortunately, I fear we don't have a lot of time. The trap of 1984 is set and ready to spring on us.

[tejasgole]

I hope the primary voters are listening to Gravel and vote for him.

[theLeftPaw]

Aside from the "opportunity" that attacks on troops in Iraq would provide Bush, there is also military that is placed along the Caspian Sea that are vulnerable - even though they are also perfectly positioned for attack.
Putin sees and is warning of the dangers in that:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071016/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iran_russia;_ylt=AuV3NaGQCZGYAxd1r9Ghi6es0NUE

[ikebona]

Spot-on, uncle Mike.

This probably the only time i agree with a politician 200%.

[tejasgole]

I hope the primary voters are listening to Gravel.

[chrisreadabook]

I hope so too, but I'm not optimistic. Where is the mainstream media? Why don't they give Senator Gravel the coverage they give to the others? Forums like this are fine, but they're not going to reach the majority of the primary voters.

[avicenna]

Speaking as an outsider looking through the smokescreen at the U.S., reading Mike Gravel's words reassures that those in government are not immune to sense or are wondering witlessly without a moral compass. What is still a bit unsettling is the amount of power that the Bush administration apparently has to wield - are there no inherent checks and balances? Can the government launch illegal warfare on whichever nation it chooses, silence scientists, rebrand torture, and transgress citizen privacy issues? The economy is faultering, there are numerous accounts of corruption and unethical influence on journalism. Why do Americans put up with this crap? The man (and I use the term loosely) vetoed health care for children for goodness sake - but has no problem investing billions at irridiating innocent people for the sake of oil. This administration has completely devastated the dignity and foundation of America.

[jimbrauner]

OK. Here is a leader who has integrity and the courage to speak the truth. Now is the time to go to www.gravel2008.us and sign up and donate as much as you can. We need to get him some leverage to get this message (and many others out) NOW!

Lets GO!

[robert596]

Senator Gravel is right. We need to be proactive people - think back to Colin Powell's holding up that vile...that's the point we're at now. We need to be very aggressive in stopping the war machine. This country cannot afford to be reactive to this administration again. Oh, and, watch out for Hillary. She's not that far from the Bush administration either if you do your homework. Do you want to do your homework...or do you just want to be done with it and say, "I vote for Hillary -- DONE!"???

[craigmart]

Thank you, Mike. Bush, the MSM, and the Democrats are all to blame if we end up in a war with Iran. Continue speaking the truth and keep the pressure on the other candidates and the media for not doing its job.

[hoopoe]

once again, i couldn't agree more with sen. gravel. not only do candidates need to denounce this back-door war policy, but they need to use their media access to propel the truth into every american home each day. so far, the coverage has been an affirmation of the policy, and not a critical examination of it.

i'd love to see the candidates challenge those who supported this amendment to define the term 'terrorism' and then explain, in detail, what irrefutable evidence they have that the IRGC has committed terrorist acts.

IF an iranian national military force directly attacks a US military force, it's NOT terrorism (and there is no credible evidence to suggest they have.) if guerrilla forces within iraq attack military targets it is also NOT terrorism. and even IF iran is supporting those guerrillas, it is still NOT terrorism.

unless the US can demonstrate with incontrovertible evidence that members of the IRGC are engaged in activities outside of their chain of command that have been deliberately targeting CIVILIANS with the purpose of causing fear or compliance within the population toward a political end, they cannot call them a terrorist organization, if indeed, any national military force can be labeled as such. this is a false argument.

we need to demand a thorough explanation from hillary and all those who voted for this resolution, as well as anyone in the media who blindly accepts this designation as fact without exploring the legitimacy of it.

we are just one persian-gulf-of-tonkin incident away from another war. they had better be able to explain why.

[peaceandfreedom]

hoopoe--

"i'd love to see the candidates challenge those who supported this amendment to define the term 'terrorism' and then explain, in detail, what irrefutable evidence they have that the IRGC has committed terrorist acts."

So how do we make them do it?

I remember The Alamo, The Maine, The Lusitania, Pearl Harbor, Gulf of Tonkin...god I miss the good old days when they actually manufactured catastrophes to get us into war.

Oh, wait--I seem to remember a couple of buildings in NYC...

When the next "attack" comes you will see more redstate renecks running off to war just as they always have, and getting anyone to take a stand other than Mike Gravel, let alone tell us the truth about the economics of the war machine, feels like believing in Santa, right now.

[walley]

To me Hillary is nothing more than a Bush supporter hiding as a Democrat. If Bush does not start a war in Iran she surely will if elected. It appears that she has been bought and paid for by the same profiteers that support our present administration. Mike has my vote.

[TurnThePageGA]

People she is not a Bush supporter. It's all about calculating (for general election) and "Playing The Game" for the Clintons. Unfortunately these kind of games can be deadly.

[Ahmad10]

This morning MSNBC characterized the pact between CASPIAN Sea countries not to allow their soil to be used as staging ground for invading the other ones as a sinister development. I guess any move that may delay the next war and potential revenue for the Media is sinister.

[WilliamWallace]

There is a very troubling "machine" at work, indeed.