A Nation Out of Control

Philip Giralid, an intelligence analyst, recently reported in The American Conservative that,

"The Pentagon, acting under instructions from Vice President Dick Cheney's office, has tasked the United States Strategic Command (STRATCOM) with drawing up a contingency plan to be employed in response to another 9/11-type terrorist attack on the United States. The plan includes a large-scale air assault on Iran employing both conventional and tactical nuclear weapons. Within Iran there are more than 450 major strategic targets, including numerous suspected nuclear-weapons-program development sites. Many of the targets are hardened or are deep underground and could not be taken out by conventional weapons, hence the nuclear option. As in the case of Iraq, the response is not conditional on Iran actually being involved in the act of terrorism directed against the United States. Several senior Air Force officers involved in the planning are reportedly appalled at the implications of what they are doing – that Iran is being set up for an unprovoked nuclear attack – but no one is prepared to damage his career by posing any objections."

If this report is accurate, it is, indeed, disturbing news, although it certainly is consistent with the distorted and crazed foreign policy that seems to be the bedrock of the Bush presidency. The possibility of the United States initiating an unprovoked nuclear attack on a foreign state establishes this country as unquestionably the most provocative and dangerous nation on the planet. The horror in terms of human suffering would be staggering, and the hatred that such an act of aggression would unleash from the rest of the world would be unprecedented. America would instantly become a pariah nation, and we, as a people, would quickly enter into a very dark and foreboding time.

This government is out of control and will ultimately lead this nation to ruin if allowed to act unchecked. We have already witnessed the devastating effects of the gross incompetence of this administration in regard to both foreign and domestic policies. The nation can readily sink into the abyss of fascism under the sheer weight of the ideologues who currently pose as the leadership. The people need to awaken to the truth and decide what kind of world they want to be left for their children.