[Marxism] Suddenly, a dangerous turn

["Nasir Khan" <nasir.khan@xxxxxxx>]

Republished: http://sudhan.wordpress.com and http://nasir-khan.blogspot.com

Suddenly, a Dangerous Turn

Robert Pary | The Smirking Chimp, March 15, 2008

Two seemingly disconnected events have created a suddenly dangerous turn 
regarding the future of U.S. wars in the Middle East.

One was the abrupt resignation of the person who has been the biggest obstacle 
to a U.S. military strike against Iran, Admiral William Fallon, the chief of 
Central Command which oversees U.S. military operations in the volatile region.

The second is the ugly direction that the Democratic presidential competition 
has taken, with Hillary Clinton's campaign intensifying its harsh rhetoric 
against Barack Obama, reducing the likelihood that he can win the presidency - 
and thus raising the odds that the next president will be either John McCain or 
Sen. Clinton, both hawks on Iran.

Throughout the campaign, Clinton has mocked Obama as inexperienced for his 
desire to engage in presidential-level diplomacy with Iran and other 
adversarial states. And she recently judged him as unqualified to serve as 
Commander in Chief, while declaring that both she and Sen. McCain have crossed 
that "threshold."

The cumulative effect of Clinton's attacks on Obama's qualifications - combined 
with her campaign's efforts to turn many white voters against him as the "black 
candidate" - has buoyed Republican hopes for November.

By simultaneously marginalizing and dirtying up Obama, the Clinton campaign 
also has tamped down the excitement of many Democrats, especially the young, 
for a candidate that they see as offering a refreshing message of hope and 
change.

Replacing Obama's message of reform and reconciliation is a Clinton message of 
resentment and victimization, as voiced by former Rep. Geraldine Ferraro who 
claimed that Clinton confronts "sexist media" bias as a woman while Obama gets 
an easy ride because he's black.

"If Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position," Ferraro, the 
former Democratic vice presidential candidate, told The Daily Breeze of 
California. "And if he was a woman (of any color) he would not be in this 
position. He happens to be very lucky to be who he is."

The idea that a black man in America, who was raised by a single mother and who 
bears an exotic foreign-sounding name, would be deemed "very lucky" struck many 
Americans as a bizarre choice of words. But it fits with a key sub rosa theme 
of the Clinton campaign, that an unqualified black man was cutting line in 
front of a better qualified white woman.

Clinton gingerly distanced herself from Ferraro's comments and Ferraro resigned 
from Clinton's finance committee. But even political analysts who are fond of 
Clinton found the larger picture of her campaign strategic demeaning of Obama 
offensive.

MSNBC's Keith Olbermann said he decided reluctantly that he must speak out 
against the Clinton campaign's behavior.

"As it has reached its apex in their tone-deaf, arrogant and insensitive 
reaction to the remarks of Geraldine Ferraro, your own advisers are slowly 
killing your chances to become president," Olbermann said in a "Special 
Comment" on March 12.

"Senator, their words, and your own, are now slowly killing the chances for any 
Democrat to become president. . You are now campaigning as if Barack Obama were 
the Democrat and you were the Republican. As Shakespeare wrote, Senator, that 
way madness lies."

Into the Abyss

If followed to its logical - yet crazed - conclusion, the madness also might be 
leading the United States into the ever deepening abyss of Middle East wars.

After all, both McCain and Clinton were staunch supporters of the Iraq War, now 
nearing its fifth anniversary with no end in sight.

McCain remains an Iraq War advocate, even he says if the U.S. occupation must 
last a century or more. Clinton only reversed herself on the war as she 
prepared to run for the Democratic nomination, realigning herself with the 
anti-war views of most Democrats, but she refused to admit that her 2002 
war-authorization vote was a mistake.

Both McCain and Clinton also favor a hard line toward Iran.

During a South Carolina campaign stop in April 2007, as the Bush administration 
was pounding the war drums with Iran, McCain veered off into a musical 
rendition, changing the lyrics of an old Beach Boys song to "Bomb, bomb, bomb, 
bomb, bomb Iran."

In September 2007, Clinton supported a Senate resolution co-sponsored by 
neoconservative Sen. Joe Lieberman that sought to have Iran's Revolutionary 
Guard designated a "global terrorist organization," a move that Sen. James 
Webb, D-Virginia, warned could be tantamount to a declaration of war.

A month later, however, President George W. Bush opted for a less extreme 
position than the one Sen. Clinton favored. He designated only the Quds Force, 
a special operations branch of the Revolutionary Guard, as a "global terrorist" 
group.

Now, however, the abrupt resignation of Admiral Fallon, who had publicly 
challenged the saber-rattling toward Iran coming from the White House, removed 
one of the chief obstacles to the use of military force against Iran over its 
nuclear program.

Intelligence sources have told me that President Bush and Vice President Dick 
Cheney were eyeing possible air strikes against Iranian targets in 2007 before 
they encountered Fallon's stiff opposition.

The White House hardliners also met resistance from the U.S. intelligence 
community, which released a National Intelligence Estimate reporting that Iran 
had shut down a key element of its nuclear weapons program.

Since Fallon's sudden resignation, intelligence sources have said they do not 
foresee an imminent U.S. assault on Iran, although one source said Fallon quit, 
in part, over a new White House demand for an updated attack plan.

More likely, the sources say, the issue of how to deal with Iran will pass to 
the next president. In that regard, McCain and Clinton promise more tough talk 
and belligerence, while Obama vows to speak directly with Iran's leaders over 
how to reduce tensions.

Yet, the combined events of the past several days - the sudden ouster of the 
chief military opponent of an expanded war in the Middle East and the apparent 
decline in the political fortunes of the most dovish candidate - suggest that 
the Bush-Cheney belligerent strategies may well outlast their terms of office.
_______



About author 
Robert Parry broke many of the Iran-Contra stories in the 1980s for the 
Associated Press and Newsweek. His latest book, Secrecy & Privilege: Rise of 
the Bush Dynasty from Watergate to Iraq, can be ordered at 
secrecyandprivilege.com. It's also available at Amazon.com, as is his 1999 
book, Lost History: Contras, Cocaine, the Press & 'Project Truth.'

Robert Parry's web site is Consortium News
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