“World Can’t Wait”Drive Out the Bush Regime!” Be There on Oct.
5
by Gary Leupp, www.dissidentvoice.org,
10/2/06
Gary Hart in a recent column warns that the Bush
administration may be planning an “October surprise” — “a preemptive war
against Iran
sometime before the November election.”
“The steps,” writes Hart, “will be these: Air Force tankers will be
deployed to fuel B-2 bombers, Navy cruise missile ships will be positioned at
strategic points in the northern Indian Ocean and perhaps the Persian
Gulf, unmanned drones will collect target data, and commando teams
will refine those data. The latter two steps are already being taken. Then the
president will speak on national television. He will say this: Iran is
determined to develop nuclear weapons; if this happens, the entire region will
go nuclear; our diplomatic efforts to prevent this have failed; Iran is
offering a haven to known al Qaeda leaders; the fate of our ally Israel is at
stake; Iran persists in supporting terrorism, including in Iraq; and sanctions will
have no affect (and besides they are for sissies). He will not say: …and
besides, we need the oil. Therefore, he will announce, our own national
security and the security of the region requires us to act. “Tonight, I have
ordered the elimination of all facilities in Iran that are dedicated to the
production of weapons of mass destruction…””
I don’t agree that Bush wants to go to war because “we need
the oil.” I think it more accurate to say that this administration is dominated
by people who think the U.S. needs to acquire hegemony over Southwest Asia in
order to control the flow of oil from the Persian Gulf and Caspian Sea,
encircle rising China, cow allies and future foes alike with a string of
military bases in the region, and maybe make the neighborhood friendlier to
Israel. I think the whole project and international reactions to it should be
understood in the context of inter-imperialist competition, rather than mere
lust for petrol. But the former Colorado
senator and presidential aspirant is surely right on target in suggesting that
Bush has goals quite other than his stated ones in planning the assault on Iran. And he’s
right to warn that such an attack — however idiotic it may seem to many of us
— is very much on the table as the November elections approach.
Many of those who warn of this simultaneously bemoan the
lack of an antiwar movement effectively organizing opposition. There is in fact
a movement of some significance, however factionalized and flawed. In
particular the organization World Can’t Wait has done some excellent work in uniting a
wide range of war opponents in numerous actions and events. Daniel Ellsberg,
Ray McGovern, Alice Walker, Howard Zinn, Rabbi Michael Lerner, Ralph Nader,
Gore Vidal, Ed Asner, Sean Penn, Harry Belafonte, Tom Morello, Martin Sheen,
Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Gloria Steinem, Viggo Mortensen, Margaret Cho, Susan
Sarandon, Jane Fonda, Bianca Jagger, Kurt Vonnegut, Rev. Jesse Jackson, Gen.
Janis Karpinski, Ron Kovic, U.S. Rep. Cynthia McKinney and thousands of others
have endorsed the group’s call to “drive out the Bush regime” and to “stop the
attack on Iran.” One step towards this worthy goal is a day of action October
5, with actions in many U.S.
cities. I am not optimistic that the regime will fall so soon, but I hope there
will be a substantial turnout in those demonstrations and that they will have a
political impact.
But let’s say we don’t stop the attack on Iran. It
happens and we learn of it some morning soon when we switch on the TV to learn
that for extremely precise missile attacks on Iran’s nuclear weapons production
facilities have been underway for several hours and that the Iranian leadership
has also been targeted and probably eliminated. We couldn’t prevent the
criminal attack on Iraq,
and haven’t been able to prevent this additional imperialist atrocity. What do
we do? What’s the plan?
According to a just released Reuters poll, 70% of Americans polled oppose a ground
invasion of Iran.
But 26% support it! (That’s the incorrigible hardcore butthead community which
thinks Saddam Hussein was involved in 9-11, things are going well in Iraq, and that horrific bloodshed in the Middle East has to happen before Jesus comes
back.) 42% favor a strike on Iran’s
nuclear facilities so long as Israel
does the deed (obviously not a moral issue for them) while 47% are opposed.
While one would hope that millions of people would fill the streets the day
after the Iran
attack, attempting in fact to drive out that regime which so arrogantly tries
to drive out others, I’m afraid the forces aren’t there. The consciousness
isn’t there. Still, a good turnout this Thursday, Oct. 5, could help change the
political landscape, and could just maybe constitute a dress rehearsal for the
protests that will have to follow the Iran attack.
There will be actions in over 150 cities. I urge all reading
this to show up at the nearest one.
Gary Leupp is a
Professor of History, and Adjunct Professor of Comparative Religion, at Tufts University
and author of numerous works on Japanese history. He can be reached at: gleupp@granite.tufts.edu.