Bush Purging Air Force of Dissident Officers before Attacking Iran?
by Jeff Davis
It looks very much like George Bush and Dick Cheney are purging the armed forces of any dissident officers who might object to a last-minute surprise attack on Iran. The Army has been under the neocons’ thumb since the neocon puppet General David Petraeus took over last year. The Navy came under the chopping block when Admiral Fallon was relieved as Centcom commander some months ago, after voicing private opposition to Bush’s insane escalating confrontation with Iran. Now it’s the turn of the Air Force, the arm of the service which would bear the brunt of any assault against the Persians.
A recent news article reports that the top chiefs of the Air Force have resigned in an unprecedented move. No doubt some careerist Pentagon suck-ups approved by the necoons will replace them. The same article tried to blame the men currently resigning their top positions as being responsible for the “misplaced” nuke incident in which a B52 supposedly flew to the wrong base with six nuclear weapons last year. This is bull. The nuclear weapons were en route to the Persian Gulf in preparation for an attack on Iran, but somebody leaked word of their presence to the media and so the government had to make up this “it was all a mistake” fairytale.
It is entirely likely that whoever becomes President in November is going to have a red-hot shooting war land right in his lap the moment he walks into the Oval Office, along with $8.00 per gallon gas prices, food shortages, a worsening subprime mortgage crisis, massive homelessness due to foreclosures and completely uncontrolled open borders. More and more, I am starting to wonder who the hell would want to be the next President.
In a way these resignations may be a good sign that a large portion of the military elite does not want America to launch another unjustified war of aggression. There are still secret whistle-blowers, who didn’t let Bush get away with that nuclear bomb transfer last year. Add to this, a news article about an announcement by a Senate panel today that said Bush lied us into the Iraq War. The timing of this Senate announcement suggests that an effort is being made to discourage a second war of aggression by exposing the lies that led to the last one.
Three years ago, a Zogby poll showed that 53 percent of Americans wanted George Bush impeached if he lied us into the Iraq War. Well, we finally have official confirmation of that from our own government. The United States is a Republic and the will of the people is supposed to be represented. And don’t forget the Constitution says that a president or high official who commits a serious crime “shall be impeached.” It doesn’t say “may be impeached depending on how cowardly or complicit Congress happens to be.”
Impeachment isn’t the only thing hanging over Bush’s head. George Bush and Dick Cheney could theoretically be tried and executed under the 1996 War Crimes Act because their policies resulted in the torture-killings of prisoners of war. One internet article explains “The War Crimes Act of 1996 was passed with overwhelming majorities by the United States Congress and signed into law by President Bill Clinton. The law defines a war crime to include a ‘grave breach of the Geneva Conventions’ …all the Conventions share the following text in common: ‘…willful killing, torture or inhumane treatment…’ The law applies if either the victim or the perpetrator is a national of the United States or a member of the U.S. armed forces. The penalty may be life imprisonment or death. The death penalty is only invoked if the conduct resulted in the death of one or more victims.” The law applies to US politicians, who might change the rules on torture, as well as soldiers in the field.
I don’t suppose we would ever seriously consider some kind of Nuremberg-style tribunal to put Bush, Cheney, Condoleezza and all the other neocons on trial for war crimes and crimes against humanity? Maybe even with a gallows or two thrown in? If only the law were applied to everyone equally!!