Letter to my senators on NUKING IRAN

[yurbud]

Dear Sen. & Rep,

Seymour Hersh, the Pulitzer Prize winning journalist at the New Yorker, is reporting that the Bush administration is planning pre-emptive air strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities.

Whatever Iran’s nuclear ambitions are, or weapons they have, they are not and will not be a threat to us given our arsenal of 10,000 nuclear warheads. It is nearly as unlikely that they would strike Israel given their arsenal of 200 or more and our close relationship with them. Anyone smart enough to gain political power in any country would remember MAD, mutually assured destruction, from the Cold War, and would know that the calculus would be even worse for anyone who used a nuke on us or gave a nuke to a terrorist group that used it on us—the country that did that would know he may harm us, but before the mushroom cloud cleared here, his country would no longer exist.

Last summer, Russia, China, and several former Soviet republics asked us when we were going to finish up our military operations in Asia and leave. I doubt that they would sit idly by while we invade another major oil producing country, effectively controlling the spigot for the whole world.

Before the Iraq War, in addition to the embarrassing, childish lies about ties to 9/11, WMD, and spreading democracy, a quieter argument was made that controlling Iraq’s oil was a way to break the back of OPEC, and lower the price of oil. Now BBC journalist Greg Palast has received State Department documents that indicate the purpose was to prop up the price of oil and keep Saddam from pumping more when the sanctions came off. This was verified in a portion of one of the Downing Street Memos recently that said Bush sent reassurances to Russia’s Putin that our invasion of Iraq would NOT drive down the price of oil.

So it appears that even that figleaf of a national security argument is a lie. We killed over a hundred thousand Iraqis and wasted the lives of our soldiers to pad the profits of oil companies, the defense industry, and a handful of other corporations.

America should not have to sacrifice so much of our blood and tax dollars so that so very, very few can profit.

As an elected representative of the people of California, you must do whatever you can to stop this. A good start would be telling America plainly why we invaded Iraq in the first place without referring to the insulting PR firm lies the Bush administration has fed us. Jack Murtha has done an admirable job telling us the truth about what’s going on in Iraq today. Now we need a Murtha to tell us how we got there.

You must stop Bush from attacking Iran.

[Jack Rabbit]

1. Good letter

Unfornately, the response will be a form letter.

[paul_fromatlanta]

2. Try to think how the coming war will be justified

Iran funds Hezbollah and Hamas - two terrorist groups known for trying to kill civilians. The argument will likely be that even if Iran as a state never launched a nuke at Israel or Europe they could still either on purpose or accidentally funnel nuke technology to terrorists.

BTW, I do think war with Iran has already been decided on but I don't think it will be nuclear.

[yurbud]

3. there will have to be a nuke terrorist attack here to justify use of nukes

[Jack Rabbit]

4. They're selling this war as national security

EDITED for typing

Iran with a nuclear weapon would be a threat to the US and to other nations in the region. However, Iran is five years away from developing a nuke, so I fail to see any urgency in taking out that threat at this time.

If Iran were dealt with now, nuclear weapons probably would be involved. With the US military tied down next door occupying Iraq, there really is no US military force that can strike Iran were that necessary. A nuclear strike becomes an alternative to invasion and occupation. Bush's occupation of Iraq is going badly. Whether Mr. Bush has the capacity to understand it or not, somebody in the White House or the State Department or the Pentagon undoubtedly realizes that an occupation of Iran would be even more difficult. Iran is about three times larger than Iraq geographically and has about two and a half times as many people. While Iran's Islamic Republic is not a true democracy, it resembles one far more than Saddam's Iraq did; there will be even less reason to suppose US forces will be greeted as liberators by the Iranians than there was to suppose Iraqis would. The population of Iran are more homogeneous than that of Iraq; unlike Iraq, resistance to occupation will be unified. A nuclear strike avoids that contingency.

[yurbud]

6. Iran is not a threat to us even with a nuke. It is likely they will use

it exactly the same way every other country does--as a deterrent.

We are worried about them getting it because our options are severely limited once they get it. We can't invade to get hold of the oil concessions.

If you think this is about anything else, go read THE PRIZE by Daniel Yergin, a history of oil written by a guy who now works with Papa Bush at the Carlyle Group.

We have 10,000 nukes. Israel likely has a couple of hundred. No one could attack us with impunity. A recent CFR study even asserted that we could now do a first strike on Russia and China without fear of retaliation.

[Jack Rabbit]

7. I wish I could agree with that

Unfortunately, Ahmadinejad is as looney as Bush.

[yurbud]

8. Bush's attack on Iraq and even on Iran has some chance of success

Iran attacking us has zero chance of success.

Can you point to one example of another country committing suicide on a military attack with zero chance of success?

[Jack Rabbit]

10. Of course I couldn't point to such an example

That's largely because nuclear proliferation is a fairly recent phenomena. People like Kim Jong Il or Mahmoud Ahmadinejad -- or G. W. Bush, for that matter -- have never had nukes before. I don't want these escapees from the state hospital to have them. There'e no telling what they'll do.

[yurbud]

11. so let one mental patient treat another?

[iamahaingttta]

5. Letters are important...

...but it's time for more drastic action.

Stop paying your taxes, stop using your credit cards, stop using any petroleum products that are not absolutely necessary.
It's time for a revolution, friends, and the only one that is going to work, is the one that starves this beast. Stop the conversion of stolen oil into profits, money that goes directly to the top. It's the only way.

Sorry...

[petersjo02]

9. May I use your letter as a model?

I've been thinking today that I need to write to my senators and rep. Are you willing to share? Thanks so much.

[yurbud]

12. please do, and thanks for letting me know--makes me feel like my

words will have more impact.

[bdamomma]

13. I wrote a letter to

Senator Feingold and my Senator Reed. Bush is crazy enough to start this war, without no consent.

And the Congress is on recess.

[yurbud]

14. Recess is when bullies cause trouble