If Bush attacks Iran, don't say we didn't warn you

While Congress dithers with what's happened in the past, President Bush may be hell-bent on repeating history by attacking Iran. Can a democracy — and I'm including the U.S. in this — remain intact when its leader goes off in his own direction regardless of what the people want?

Congress is supposed to be the mouthpiece of the people, and yet Congress is so swept up in examining the crimes perpetrated by the White House over the last six years it's not even looking into the crimes that the White House may commit in the next two.

Meanwhile, most Americans are blissfully unaware of what tragedies this White House is committing in their name.

This is not to absolve other regimes that are equally as hell-bent to perpetrate conflict, war and suffering over peace and stability. But because the U.S. parades itself as a peace-loving democracy it should act that way as well. Saying one thing and doing another works for a while but will not work forever. It is no accident that we quote James Madison at the head of our page:

"If tyranny and oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy."

The following is from the Guardian Unlimited:

Target Iran: US able to strike in the spring

Despite denials, Pentagon plans for possible attack on nuclear sites are well advanced

Ewen MacAskill in Washington
Saturday February 10, 2007
The Guardian

US preparations for an air strike against Iran are at an advanced stage, in spite of repeated public denials by the Bush administration, according to informed sources in Washington.

The present military build-up in the Gulf would allow the US to mount an attack by the spring. But the sources said that if there was an attack, it was more likely next year, just before Mr Bush leaves office.

Neo-conservatives, particularly at the Washington-based American Enterprise Institute, are urging Mr Bush to open a new front against Iran. So too is the vice-president, Dick Cheney. The state department and the Pentagon are opposed, as are Democratic congressmen and the overwhelming majority of Republicans. The sources said Mr Bush had not yet made a decision. The Bush administration insists the military build-up is not offensive but aimed at containing Iran and forcing it to make diplomatic concessions. The aim is to persuade Tehran to curb its suspect nuclear weapons programme and abandon ambitions for regional expansion.

The rest is here.