Protecting from Tyranny

How curious. The Times of London reports that

“There are four or five generals and admirals we know of who would resign if Bush ordered an attack on Iran,” a source with close ties to British intelligence said. “There is simply no stomach for it in the Pentagon, and a lot of people question whether such an attack would be effective or even possible.”

[Michael Smith and Sarah Baxter, "US generals ‘will quit’ if Bush orders Iran attack", Times Online, 25 February 2007.]

In former times, we have had concerns about, and gone to some length to prevent, the possibility that our democratically elected leader (let's be generous and even include the not-elected presidents) might get too close to the military and use it to his own tyrannical advantage. At other times, Eisenhower warned us about the dangers of a rising military-industrial complex.

That, fortunately, seems the least of our worries when it comes to the Bush II administration.

One extra note on prevarication clarification. White House spokesman Tony Snow keeps repeating that "the President has no plans to invade Iran at present"; "no plans at present" easily changes to "previously had no plans" at a moment's notice, and the folks at the White House do not consider bombing Iran to be at all related to invading Iran.

Posted on February 25, 2007 at 12.28 by jns · Permalink
In: All, Current Events

2 Responses

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  1. Written by S.W. Anderson
    on Sunday, 25 February 2007 at 18.04
    Permalink

    I'm convinced the generals and admirals aren't alone about getting into it with Iran. A large majority of Americans have no stomach for it, either. They have no reason to believe Bush or Cheney any more, and they don't believe them.

    At basis, we cannot depend for our safety on preventing other countries all over the world, including some that qualify as enemies, from making or acquiring nuclear weapons. We don't have enough young men and women to sacrifice. Well off as the U.S. is, we don't have enough trillions of dollars.

    Intelligence, surveillance, in some cases containment, and always, always, a credible, thoroughly capable deterrent are what's required.

    One half-assed pre-emptive war has broken our Army, Guard and Reserve forces, turned much of the world against us, wasted most of $1 trillion plus 3,000-plus lives and utterly failed to make terrorists believe what they're doing is futile. To the contrary, it has revealed to them our weaknesses. Not the least of those is what incompetent clods we have for national leaders.

  2. Written by Ken Larson
    on Monday, 26 February 2007 at 19.38
    Permalink

    We have bought into the Military Industrial Complex (MIC). If you would like to read about how this has happened, please see:
    http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2007/03/spyagency200703

    Through a combination of public apathy and threats by the MIC we have let the SYSTEM get too large. It is now a SYSTEMIC problem and the SYSTEM is out of control. Government and industry are merging and that is very dangerous.

    I am a 2 tour Vietnam Veteran who recently retired after 36 years of working in the Defense Industrial Complex on many of the weapons systems being used by our forces as we speak.

    There is no conspiracy. The SYSTEM has gotten so big that those who make it up and run it day to day in industry and government simply are perpetuating their existance.

    The politicians rely on them for details and recommendations because they cannot possibly grasp the nuances of the environment and the BIG SYSTEM.

    So, the system has to go bust and then be re-scaled, fixed and re-designed to run efficiently and prudently, just like any other big machine that runs poorly or becomes obsolete or dangerous.

    This situation will right itself through trauma. I see a government ENRON on the horizon, with an associated house cleaning.

    The next president will come and go along with his appointees and politicos. The event to watch is the collapse of the MIC.

    For more details see:

    http://www.rosecoveredglasses.blogspot.com

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