IRAN NEXT TARGET FOR ENDLESS WAR?

  Word is circulating that Bush is moving a Naval carrier group including the nuclear aircraft carrier Eisenhower as well as a cruiser, Aegis destroyer, frigate, mine sweepers, submarine escort and supply ship, to the Persian Gulf, just off Iran's western coast.

Former Colorado Senator Gary Hart has this to say about possible war with Iran. "Were these more normal times, this would be a stunning possibility, quickly dismissed by thoughtful people as dangerous, unprovoked, and out of keeping with our national character. But we do not live in normal times. And we do not have a government much concerned with our national character. If anything, our current Administration is out to remake our national character into something it has never been."

According to The Nation magazine, the Eisenhower had been in port at the Naval Station Norfolk for several years for refurbishing and refueling of its nuclear reactor; it had not been scheduled to depart for a new duty station until at least a month later, and possibly not till next spring. Family members, before the orders, had moved into the area and had until then expected to be with their sailor-spouses and parents in Virginia for some time yet. First word of the early dispatch of the "Ike Strike" group to the Persian Gulf region came from several angry officers on the ships involved, who contacted antiwar critics like retired Air Force Col. Sam Gardiner and complained that they were being sent to attack Iran without any order from the Congress.

So the evidence is mounting that Bush is not bluffing about an attack on Iran. The attack would serve several key purposes. One would be to try to rally the nation, right before the Nov 7 election, around the Republican Party in power. A second would be to widen the Middle East war and force the Democrats, if they were to take power in the House, to continue to "prosecute" that war or face being called weak and unpatriotic.

The only question now is does Bush pull another 9-11 first and blame it on Iran as a pretext for an attack on Iran? Or does he just invade with virtually no real evidence of Iran having a nuclear weapon. And even if Iran did have one, where does Bush come off with 7,500 nukes in the U.S. arsenal of hypocrisy, to tell another country they can't have them?

It now appears that the information I got a couple of months ago about cruise missile targets being selected by U.S. and Israeli military personnel was accurate. These ships moving into the Persian Gulf would be outfitted with Tomahawk first-strike cruise missiles and would likely be the first weapon fired in the attack on Iran.

Folks had better step up the anti-war activity now before it is too late.