Iran

J U LY / A U G U S T 2 0 0 8 W W W. T I K K U N . O R G T I K K U N 13 section of conservative prowar Democrats of the Lieberman style and provide a majority for the funding of it. At that point, the liberal antiwar Dems get to cast a vote against the war without being in real conflict with the opportunistic leadership of their Congressional caucus. They get to have it both ways. The only losers in this process are: a. the people of Iraq, who continue to suffer; b. the vets and the GIs; c. the global environment; d. the ethical options for the rest of the world. This cynical process, somewhat obscured by all the attention given to the primaries , accounts for why the war has gone on without massive outcry. But let us be clear: this has been an immoral process. The blood of tens of thousands of innocent people who might otherwise be alive or not wounded or not disabled is on the hands not only of President Bush, Vice President Cheney, and the U.S. Armed Forces, the CIA, and others of this ilk who were “only following orders ,” but also on the hands of Nancy Pelosi, Stenny Hoyer, and their many allies who have voted hundreds of billions of dollars to keep fighting this war throughout the past two years. The media is a major culprit here, as it was in buying the lies and half-truths put forward by the Bush Administration and recently re-revealed for the nth time, this time by former White House Press Secretary Scott McLellan whose task it was to disseminate these lies and half-truths from the Bush Administration to the media and thence to the public. ■ restraints on the war are largely undone. Then it goes to the president who finds the remaining restraints too fierce and hence vetoes the whole package and calls on the Congress to send him a bill he can sign, else they will be abandoning “the troops.” At this point, it’s all in the hands of the Speaker. She can, as she has done for other issues, simply say: “No, there will be no bill till the president accepts our requirements .” In that case, there’s little the President can do. All funding bills must originate in the House of Representatives according to the U.S. Constitution. But if the Speaker puts the bill back on the floor of the House, now largely rid of all the positive elements restricting how and how long the Iraq war should continue, then the Republicans can ally with a small While the media’s attention was focused on the presidential election primaries, the Iraq war not only continued but was once again refunded by the Democratic Congress that had been elected to end it. The mechanism was the same old trick that had been refined by Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and her comrades Rahm Emanuel and Stenny Hoyer. The House votes for a budget package that has tens of billions of dollars to continue funding the war in Iraq, other elements that give liberal Congresspeople some programs for the most oppressed , and a stipulation that the war monies should be used to help end the conflict and bring the troops home by a certain date. The bill is then sent to the Senate, where it is whittled down considerably and its Current THINKING C Cu ur rr re en nt t CongressEnablesMoreYearsofWar it short shrift. When the Chair of the House Judiciary Committee sends a letter to the President warning that an attack on Iran without prior authorization from the Congress would constitute an impeachable offense, the media barely notices. And who can notice, when the climate had been set by Democratic hawk Hillary Clinton who courted right-wing elements of the Jewish world by talking about “obliterating Iran” should it attack Israel, weapons. When the leading Iranian cleric in a society whose power is ultimately vested in the clerics publicly proclaims that Iran has no interest in nuclear weapons but does need to develop nuclear power, the media...