Tired of wars and spending; you’re about to get more of both

Your Congress is at work again bringing about the next war and spending more money on the military than the military wants.
Congress is inching its way to a war with Iran by passing resolutions written and put forth by the powerful pro-Israel lobby group, AIPAC. While denying it wants war, AIPAC mirrors the blood thirst for war of Benjamin Netanyahu and the right wing war hawks in Israel. AIPAC insists it is only attempting to promote sanctions, but the sanctions are so intense they hope to put Iran in a position of having to retaliate, thus giving AIPAC and its prostitutes in Congress the pretext for war they have been longing for.

A recent Congressional resolution speaks volumes about AIPAC’s thirst for blood and the willingness of the US Congress to feed into the thirst. H.Res. 568 passed last week, dramatically raises the bar by adding a new wrinkle. Current US policy is that Iran cannot acquire a nuclear weapon, but the latest resolution requires a policy that prevents Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons “capability”. The use of the nebulous term “capability” as a line in the sand, can mean a million different things to different folks, and is a wonderful pretext for war. There are about 20 nations that now have the “capability” to produce nuclear weapons, which they mastered while pursuing a peaceful nuclear program. Almost any nation that has a peaceful nuclear program has the “capability” to produce a nuclear weapon, and indeed some have argued that Iran already has the “capability” but has chosen not to exercise the option of making a nuclear weapon. There is not one bit of evidence to suggest that Iran has a nuclear weapons program with the CIA, the Intelligence Estimate of the US, (a complication of all the spy agencies in the US), and the Israelis, all having said there is no such program. The US Congress has ignored this fact and has brought war one step closer to your door. H.R. 568 changes the rules in the middle of the game by adding a new and impossible demand that Iran not be allowed the “capability” of producing a nuclear weapon. This means if the US believes Iran has the knowledge of how to make a nuclear weapon we could attack. The Congressional prostitutes have also forbidden the use of any other policy, including containment, which we successfully employed against Russia during the Cold War, or working out a negotiated settlement allowing Iran to enrich uranium for peaceful purposes, in return for a guarantee of Iran not to produce a nuclear weapon. So in effect Congress has outlawed diplomacy with Iran. A peaceful settlement is pretty much forbidden by the Likud in the US Congress and by congressional cowards who are afraid to antagonize AIPAC by voting for what is best for the American public. Clearly H.Res. 568 is designed to scuttle and sabotage the impending nuclear talks with Iran that have been planned for later this month. The pre-talks have been promising and AIPAC’s fear of a successfully negotiated nuclear settlement would destroy their hopes for a war in which the US would once again do their dirty work. The timing of this resolution is not coincidental and its forbiddance of a negotiated settlement on the eve of the talks is clearly designed to sink the talks. It appears that the Congress is only interested in war; not a peaceful settlement.

Bibi Netanyahu this week raised the bar yet again. He insisted that Iran must give up completely the right to enrich uranium and give all their stored uranium away to the international community. Iran is a member of the Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty which guarantees the right of member states to enrich uranium for peaceful purposes such as nuclear power plants and medical usage. Netanyahu is defying international treaty rights in his ridiculous insistence that Iran now be prohibited from exercising its legal right. Netanyahu’s latest demand must be put into perspective to illustrate the ridiculousness of his demands. Israel has between 200-400 nuclear weapons, acquired illegally because they refused to belong to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and have refused any kind of nuclear inspection, unlike Iran which has been inspected more than any nation on earth. The hypocrisy of his position can be put into better perspective when readers realize there have been several international efforts to declare the entire Middle East a Nuclear Free Zone. The only two nations to have blocked all of these efforts are Israel and the US. The policy of the US is always to protect Israel first and foremost. One of the efforts to push for a Nuclear Free Middle east zone came from Iran itself; however that proposal was also scuttled by Israel and the US.
In addition to bringing the US one big step closer to war and making it virtually impossible to negotiate our way out of war, Congress then turned to spending money for the impending war.

Congress passed the NDAA Act of 2013 which appropriates $642 billion dollars for defense, which represents 8 billion dollars more than the military had requested. How about that? Congress just threw money at the military and completely ignored its own Congressional mandate to cut military spending. Among other things, the bill calls for building a missile system along the East Coast which the military themselves oppose. According to a 2010 treaty with Russia, nuclear weapons would be gradually reduced, but congress defied the treaty making it impossible to reduce nuclear weapons. While cutting social programs for citizens in need, Congress was busy spending money on weapons and systems the military wanted to eliminate.
Congress rose to the level of the absurd this week by preventing a peaceful settlement with Iran and by raising the bar for Iran just before nuclear talks with Iran are about to begin. This is no coincidence. Additionally by bringing the US closer to a war with Iran, Congress then saw fit to throw money at the military to prepare for the impending war. The US Congress, controlled by AIPAC, is more willing to do the bidding of the right wing Israeli government than is the Israeli Knesset, even if it means going to war with Iran to placate Israel’s political right.

Tired of endless wars and endless spending on weapons systems; well vote the prostitutes out.