War With Iran Is Coming

The rally for what could be World War III is in full swing.

In what amounts to a grotesque instance of outright pandering, Department of Defense head Leon Panetta recently spoke [13] at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s annual conference and assured the audience that “we will keep all options – including military action – on the table to prevent (Iran) from obtaining a nuclear weapon.” You know you live in a kleptocracy when one of the heads of the federal government openly appeases perhaps the most influential and financially flush lobbying groups in the country.

Panetta’s assurance confirmed what the majority of Americans have long feared- that their government stands ready and willing to involve itself in another war despite public opinion being in opposition [14] of such an excursion.

If the Republican presidential primary has proven anything, besides the propensity for politicians to offer only vague pronouncements and crowd pleasing sound bites on complex issues, it’s that the bloodthirsty urges of the GOP are incapable of being quenched. For years, the neoconservatives who make up the Republican establishment have been pounding the war drums over Iran. About 33,000 American military deaths [15] in Iraq and over 1 million Iraqi casualties [16] have done nothing to dissuade the warmongering rhetoric of the candidates (with the exception of Ron Paul).

On the same day as Panetta’s address to AIPAC, presidential candidate Mitt Romney laid out a “comprehensive” plan to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon in a Washington Post [17] editorial. What does this “comprehensive” plan entail the reader may ask? Simple; just throw more money at a defense department already blowing through its coffers at a sum higher than the top 14 military spenders in the world combined [18]. Armed with political theorist Frederic Bastiat’s invaluable concept of the “unseen [19],” one can only begin to imagine the technological breakthroughs and consumer satisfying goods such money could have been invested towards if not being pilfered into nation building, military contractor boondoggles, and supporting imperial aggression abroad.

While Romney is busy trumpeting the image of a towering, maniacal Iran on the precipice of waging world war, as syndicated columnist Eric Margolis points out [20], Iran’s military, in actuality, is quite weak and utilizes dated equipment.

More