[Marxism] Reformatted post on Iran

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

(Below is Fred Feldman's post without the staircasing. Glad to see him back
even with the formatting problems. We were a bit worried.)

David Walters wrote: "US plans to hit Iran militarily over it's nuclear
energy policy (which the US sees as a threat to it because they believe
it's a nuclear weapons program)."

The discussion involves what the US could do or would like to do. It
involves the usual scenerios of bombing, how to get "all" the nuclear
sites, troops landings, what the political backlash would do, etc. Howeve,
along these lines, one such scenerio, which is very scary, is an
'abbrviated invasion" into the mostly Arab speaking part of Iran,
Krushistan, where, incidently, much of Iran's petro-chemical industry is.
Now, this is really scary be the US, in theory, already has enough in place
to do something like this.

I want to solidarize with david, a perceptive comrade, whom I often
disapgree with on matters that we both think are substantive, in sounding
the alarm about the seriousness of the threat of a US attack on Iran.

Do you see powerful Democrats warning against it? Peace activists? The
Washington Post? The New YOrk Times? Hilary Clinton? OK, ridiculous idea,
Russell Reingold?

The issue is not, is this an adventure? No, Iraq was an adventure. This is
more like madness. But can Washington afford to have a Middle East power
other than Israel emerge as a nuclear power? No.

And, of course, Iran is seeking nuclear capacity. How else can they
effectively deter Washington and Israel.

Military power is Washington's strongest point. Do not assume that all
Iran's threats can be backed up, because Washington doesn't. Maybe an
attack will be an immediate disaster,l but maybe as in the case of Iraq, it
will take more time.

One reason why people are afraid of taking the threat against Iran
seriously is that we are afraid of having to take on the prejudices of Iran
in public opinion.

After all, this would be the anti\Isamofascism war, the feminist war, the
gay rights war.

But we have to take it on. Only if there is real division at home can we
expect some sector of the ruling class to decisively put its thumb on the
scales againt. Washington's problems in Iraq push it towards attacking Iran
to cover a partial retreat and to counter the gains for Iran which are
central consequences of the setback in Iraq.

We must operate on the assumption that the Iran attack is a totally serious
prospect. And therefore we must fight against it, not just weigh various
estimates. The attack is far from inevitable, but our weight must be on the
scales. Marxism] Iranian invasion\attack plans?



________________________________________________
YOU MUST clip all extraneous text before replying to a message.
Send list submissions to: Marxism@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism