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Tuesday, July 17, 2007
Pat Buchanan :: Townhall.com Columnist
Tonkin Gulf II and the Guns of August?
by Pat Buchanan
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Iran has no interest in a war with the United States, which it seems to be toying with. Iran supports the pro-American Shia regime in Baghdad. And the al-Qaida umbrella group in Iraq, which is our mortal enemy, has just warned Iran it faces terror attacks if it does not stop supporting Shiites in Iraq.

Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, who leads the al-Qaida group known as the Islamic State in Iraq, says his fighters have been preparing for four years for war on Iran:

"We are giving the Persians, and especially the rulers of Iran, a two-month period to end all kinds of support for the Iraqi Shiite government and to stop direct and indirect intervention -- otherwise a severe war is waiting for you," al-Baghdadi said in a 50-minute videotape.

Al-Baghdadi also warned Arab Sunnis in the region who do business with Shiites in Iran that they were inviting assassination.

Query: If Iran's ally, the Maliki government, is our ally, and if Iran's enemy, al-Qaida in Iraq, is our enemy, why would Iran use the Quds Force to attack Americans and risk U.S. retaliation?

Killing Americans in Iraq is not going to defeat the United States. But it could trigger heavy U.S. retaliation, not only on the Quds Force, but on Iran's nuclear facilities -- and a war with the United States. Yet Iran's diplomatic behavior suggests it wishes to avoid such a war.

Another explanation comes to mind. Iran is not initiating, but is responding to U.S.-inspired attacks inside Iran, in the Kurdish north, the Arab southwest and the Baluchi southeast of its country. Was Karbala an attempted kidnapping to exchange U.S. soldiers for the five Iranian "diplomats" we are holding?

Has Bush secretly authorized covert attacks inside Iran? Are U.S. and Israeli agents in Kurdistan behind the attacks across the border to provoke Iran? On July 11, Iranian troops clashed with Kurd rebels inside Iran, and the Iranians fired artillery back into Iraq.

Why is Congress going on vacation? Why are a Democratic-controlled House and Senate not asking these questions in public hearings? Why is Congress letting Bush and Vice President Cheney decide whether we launch a third war in the Middle East?

Or is Congress in on it?

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About The Author
Pat Buchanan is a founding editor of The American Conservative magazine, and the author of many books including State of Emergency: The Third World Invasion and Conquest of America .
 
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Reply # 1
Date: Jul 19, 2007 - 5:42 PM EST
Pat will be remembered...
Pat will be remembered for standing against the lunacy of Bush's globalist idealism. The bizarre views of Bush & Co. have obscured the vast problems the "long war" will make for our country. Bushism is strange; it is blindly idealistic, imagining that American power can do absolutely anything, and yet hideously short-sighted. I can readily imagine that Bush will instigate (with proper provocation out of LBJ's Gulf of Tonkin playbook) some sort of action against iran. It will look very flashy on TV--probably lots of shock and awe, and do about as much good as that did. What may well follow is some sort of embogment (that's my new word, combining "bogged down" with "embedded") that will cost a lot of American lives and accomplish about as much as the surge is really doing in Iraq.

In doing this, Bush's political strategy will be to emphasize the imminent threat Iran poses to the US, hoping to generate a domestic patriotic surge that will elect a Republican president in 08. That Republican will be committed to more of the same in the Middle East, with more of the same results. [The Republicans can hammer on religious/moral issues to put them over the top; expect another wave of anti-gay marriage referenda--they worked well in 04, so they might as well be rolled out again for 08.] Religious and moral rhetoric will be piled onto patriotic bombast so the Republicans will keep the White House.

Now you'd expect me to say that a Democrat in the White House will be great, but I'm not so sure. The last thing we need is some sort of leftwing peace-mongering and dissing of our military, and I'm afraid that's what the Dems will serve up.

What's needed is someone who can understand competent advice about the real danger: the emerging "long war" of Islam against the West, that my children will be paying for, and in which my future grandchildren, if any, will be fighting. Is there any potential candidate who can see past the next news cycle to look ahead a few years? If so, I haven't heard of him.
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Reply # 2
Date: Jul 19, 2007 - 7:50 AM EST
PV
"Time For Pat to go
Just like most of our long-in-the-tooth politicians of both stripes, journalists like Pat and Novak have outlived their usefulness.

They are shells of what they once were and all of them and us would be much better if they took up golf full time."

--------

Interesting comments, PV. Are you also one who believes the Constitution to be outdated? How about our country's sovereignty and heritage? Is that outdated too? Hey, maybe freedom is a thing of the past in your book too, PV.

If we want to have a country much longer, we'd damn sure better start remembering what set this country apart from all the rest. Hint: It had something to do with some people, long ago, who PV would probably call antiquated, who devised for us the greatest form of government the world had ever seen. Benjamin Franklin, when asked what form of government he and the rest of the Framers had given us remarked, "A Republic M'am, if you can keep it." Apparently, we forgot.

The greatest experiment in the history of mankind will soon be over, if we don't start remembering right now.
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