This essay from the Lew Rockwell site also includes a moving memorial for the war dead the author has known; but here is the part I'd particularly like to flag for readers:
"These days I scan the lists of killed GIs in the New York Times, many of whom, now nearing a thousand, are rarely mentioned in conservative or liberal mass media. Perhaps they really don’t care enough to even print their names.
"But mainly I think of them because the same people who sent them to war in Iraq and are now subtly promoting yet another war, this time against Iran. 'Forget an October Surprise, a much worse one could come in September,' wrote the experienced foreign correspondent Martin Sieff in the Washington Times. 'Full-scale war between the U.S. and Iran may be far closer than the [distracted] American public might imagine.' Iranian defense Minister Ali Shamkhani’s recent bombshell threatened to retaliate should the U.S. or its Israeli partner target nuclear facilities. 'Believe him,' said Sieff, ominously.
"September or not, and given the fact that U.S. troops are currently tied down in Iraq and more than 130 other places around the world, it’s still 'a serious confrontation,' said Iran expert Cliff Kupchan of the Nixon Center. And who is promoting the notion of another preemptive attack and if need be wasting yet another generation of American men and women in war? None other than our neocons, who always remind me of Charles Edward Montague’s delicious put down of British hawks in World War I when 8 million soldiers were killed and millions of others perished in an entirely unnecessary war. 'War,' said Montague, 'hath no fury like a non-combatant.' Don’t hold your breath waiting for news that members of the clan will be sending their kids to recruiting stations.
"Leading the charge on the government side is Under Secretary of State John Bolton, their point man and ultra hawk in Colin Powell’s reticent and pusillanimous State Department. Bolton recently told his fellow true believers at the Hudson Institute that Iran has hidden a vast nuclear arms program for nearly two decades. 'We cannot let Iran, a leading sponsor of international terrorism, acquire nuclear weapons and the means to deliver them to Europe, most of Central Asia and the Middle East, or beyond' – meaning New York, Washington and Los Angeles, I imagine. The same bellicose talk has emanated from Condaleeza Rice and the usual hard line pundits, the identical people who brought us the daily casualty lists but whose caskets we are not allowed to photograph or see. They can’t come right out before the election and admit Iran is next on their imperial agenda, but it’s very much on their minds.
"Here’s a nightmarish scenario: U.S. and Israelis bomb Iran, its nuclear facilities and even more (or vice versa) and Iran counterattacks against Israel’s Dimona nuclear facilities and maybe Israel proper. A draft is reinstated to provide hundreds of thousands of additional cannon fodder to fight 70 million non-Arab Iranians who in the 1980s absorbed 500,000 deaths in a savage war against Sadam’s Iraq. More Middle Eastern terrorists are created and American college campuses erupt in fury. Sixties redux, only worse.
"But possibly this is just a replay of the hoary Dulles-Nixon 'madman' theory to keep adversaries guessing. Or maybe there will be secret talks aimed at settling the problem? Or that Washington’s neocons have learned a painful lesson after Iraq and rue all those American and Iraqi deaths, not to mention the badly wounded. Frankly, I wouldn’t bet on it."
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