Stopping George W. Bush's Wars (Still More)
This is the most clear enumeration of recent events (with documentation and references) that we have seen pointing to an imminent action against Iran. Worth reading along with all the numerous accompanying links.
How Congress Can Stop the Iran Attack or be complicit in nuclear war crimes
Saturday, 20 January 2007
By Jorge Hirsch
01/20/07 "ICHBlog" President Bush is invoking his "commander in chief" authority to escalate the war in Iraq, and he will likely also invoke it to launch an aerial attack against Iran. Congress has long ago abdicated and delegated to the President its constitutional responsibility to initiate wars. Yet Congress still has one surefire way to influence events: it has the constitutional authority to make the "nuclear option" against Iran illegal. In so doing, it would stop the relentless drive to war against Iran dead in its tracks.
Notwithstanding Joe Biden's threat of a "constitutional confrontation" if Bush attacks Iran without Congressional authorization, the fact is that such an attack would be perfectly legal: the War Powers Act gives the US President legal authority to wage war against any country for 60 days. It would also be legal for Bush to order nuclear strikes against Iran: under NSC-30 of 1948, "the decision as to the employment of atomic weapons in the event of war is to be made by the Chief Executive". Neither nor votes to withold funding will have any effect on preventing such events.
However, Congress could pass a law making a nuclear attack on a non-nuclear nation in the absence of Congressional authorization illegal. In so doing, Congress would effectively be preventing Bush from launching any attack against Iran without its authorization, thus reclaiming its broader constitutionally assigned duties. Because Bush will not dare putting 150,000 American lives in Iraq at risk of Iranian retaliation without having the nuclear option on the table. By removing the nuclear option from the Bush toolkit, Congress would be forcefully imposing its will and that of the American people on an administration gone mad.
If Congress chooses not to face the fact that US military action against Iran is likely to lead to the first US use of nuclear weapons since Nagasaki, each one of its members will share responsibility for the nefarious chain of events that is likely to follow, and should be preparing to face his/her very own nuclear Nuremberg trial.
Preparations for the Iran attack
The following recent events have led to widespread suspicions that a US/ Israeli attack on Iran is imminent:
* Additional aircraft carriers deployed to the Persian Gulf.
* US Patriot missiles just deployed to the Persian Gulf.
* F16 fighter planes just deployed to the Incirlik base in Turkey.
* Increased number of US nuclear submarines in Persian Gulf.
* Admiral Fallon named Centcom commander.
* Israeli pilots training for Iran bombing mission.
* Increased rethoric and provocations against Iran.
The F-16's can deliver B61-11 nuclear bunker busters, and there may be such bombs at Incirlik.
A conventional aerial attack against Iran will not destroy the underground facilities that Israel and the US have set their sight on. And it will provoke a violent Iranian response, with missiles targeting US forces in Iraq and Israeli cities. The US administration will argue that these missiles could potentially carry chemical or biological warheads as "justification" for nuclear strikes on Iran, as anticipated in the new US nuclear weapons policies, to achieve "rapid and favorable war termination on US terms".
Read the rest here.
