Gulf of Tonkin-Coming to a Middle East near you.

The spectre of the Gulf of Tonkin is back and it is pissed. It has also been working out, preparing to wreak havoc heretofore unseen.

The days since Bush’s surge speech have rendered me nearly catatonic with horror. Since declaring that we are throwing (“surging”/”bumping”) more of our people into the meatgrinder, the news has been nothing but a battering wave of ceaseless and baseless propaganda blaming Iran for all of our problems over in Iraq.

As you (hopefully) are already aware, Bush ordered the recent raid on the Iranian bureau in Erbil and has taken five diplomatic hostages in an effort to provoke a response from Tehran. The Iraqi foreign minister has stated that the Iranians were there with Iraqi government approval (remember, that’s “sovereign” and “democratic” Iraqi government), working in an approved liaison office. Bush and company continue to act as though this fact doesn’t exist, continuing to blame Iran and provoke yet another war in the Middle East. This administration is doing everything in its considerable power right now to provoke more war and nothing less. One has only to think about the many ways Bush tried to bait Saddam into violent conflict to see where this is going concerning Ahmadinejad. If you aren’t aware he continually tried to bait Saddam before our invasion, right now would be a good time to find out about how he wanted to paint some of our planes with UN colors to provoke Saddam into shooting them down, giving us the reason we wanted/needed to strike.

Bush has declared that the gloves are off over in Iraq, which means that our troops will begin fighting against Shi’ite militias as well (there will be no quarter for politics or anything else, as dutifully stated by the puppet Maliki), because we are told they are being supported and armed by Iran. The Shi’ites who have thus far not been a major part of the insurgency and who are fighting with Sunnis to try and ensure control in post-US Iraq-if that ever happens-(Arab on Arab violence suits those who control this war just fine) will increasingly join the insurgency if they are being actively attacked by the US. If Iran was truly the sole source of US problems in Iraq, believe me, our problems would be much, much bigger. Iran is much larger than Iraq in population and land mass, and the population is predominately Shia. Why in the world would Iranian Shi’ites be arming a Sunni insurgency that seeks to kill Iraqi Shi’ites in an effort to eventually regain the Sunni power and control they once had in Iraq? The answer is that Iran wouldn’t—you are being fed lies, just as you were in the run-up to the Iraq invasion.

Iran has only to begin actively encouraging the massive Shia population in Iraq to join the fight against not only Sunni’s, but also the US, to cause us much larger problems than those we are currently dealing with. These warhawk Nazi’s that are currently foaming at the mouth for war with Iran have grown so impatient they are now going to foment a raging anti-US Shia insurgency on their own. As the Shia population begins to increasingly engage in violent resistance in the coming months, the numbers of our dead (alongside further untold numbers of Iraqi civilian deaths) will climb. You will be told that it is Iranians who are at fault for the increasing numbers of American dead and that we must strike—you will not be reminded that it was us who “took the gloves off”, further inciting and helping to escalate the violence. Again, we are going to begin going after Shi’te militias as well (listen to the calls for the “taking out” of Al-sadr), and we will essentially begin fighting the entire (Sunni and Shia) population of Iraq.

We will begin to get crushed. You think the death toll is high right now—just wait.

There is currently a host of naval military in the region, from carriers to nuclear subs. All of this destructive military power along with the increasingly aggressive moves by this government both in action and rhetoric spell the coming of a major staged incident very soon that will practically have a name-tag stating “Hi, my name is Gulf of Tonkin, father of Run-Up to Iraq Invasion, nice to meet you.” I fervently hope this is not so, but the drumbeats from the corporate news services tell a different story as they continue to push policy and propaganda reminiscent of LBJ and Vietnam, except now it’s more like LBJ with a heavy crack habit and suffering the third stage of syphilis.

Bush on 60 minutes, Cheney and Condi (and many others) through the FOX mouthpieces are trying to crank up false patriotism once again within America. We are seeing a resurgence of the sentiment that if one doesn’t support the “surge” then one is undercutting the troops. Shenanigans. Only a fool believes such sentiment to be true.

You want to support our troops? Stop listening to the lies that make up the drumbeat propelling them to their death. They are too busy trying to keep their asses (and other extremities) and the asses of their friends from being blown away. Most of them don’t have the time or luxury (or access) to familiarize themselves with Middle Eastern religious and political considerations—they are too busy trying to carry out orders and trying not to die. In a hostile combat environment it is either you or the other guy, and when death is around every building corner, behind every door, and around every bend in the road, everyone not in a US uniform naturally becomes your enemy. We have only to look at Vietnam to know this as true and what the consequences of being in such a situation are.

It is our duty as the American public to do what needs to be done to stop these criminals that have taken over our government and military, because none of our current Senate or House leadership will. At this time, nearly every single person in a seat of power is more than happy to let the fighting continue as they discuss “non-binding” criticism of a unilateral, power-mad administration and continue plotting to grasp that power for themselves in ’08. Campaign strategies are already being formed on the assumption that we will still be in Iraq come next election.

You want to support our troops? Learn what is really going on and show others who aren’t aware. It is only a fully knowledgeable, aware, and active public that has any hope of stopping this utterly Orwellian madness.




Technorati: opinion Commentary Iraq Iran surge Gulf of Tonkin insurgency Sunni Shia invasion Bush unilateral news propaganda lies