You will not invade Iran

[imomus]

I just want to say one thing very firmly and clearly to the newly re-inaugurated President Bush.

You will not invade Iran. Is that clear? You will not turn the square above into a 'green zone' for stooge politicians of your choosing and a restricted, embedded international press corps. You will not impose by force your conception of 'freedom'. You will not occupy Teheran and Ispahan, after a brief but terrible aerial bombing campaign, with your fucking jeeps, your mercenary 'contractors', your torture squads. You will not kill hundreds of thousands of Iranians now alive. You have no right even to be thinking about such a thing, let alone threatening it. Who the fuck do you think you are to go round the world invading countries one by one?

Hopefully the intelligence squads supposedly preparing a feasibility report on an invasion of Iran at this very moment will tell you the same thing I'm telling you. You (and Tony Blair) will not do this. If you do, I and millions like me will feel an intense revulsion not felt since the Spanish Civil War or Vietnam. We will make life a misery for you, and we will actively resist you every step of the way. I'm talking about individuals, governments, nations. You will become the black sheep of the entire world. You will excommunicate a great nation, your own, from all compassionate consideration. You will become a symbol of the problem, not the solution.

I'm hoping you will continue to be bogged down in the bloody morass of ever-worsening violence you have already perpetrated in Iraq and will not have the resources to commit any more crimes against international law. The violence in Iraq is appalling (it is your fault, and it was predictable). It seems callous to wish that violence to continue, but I can't help agreeing with this analysis in Hong Kong's Wen Wei Po newspaper:

'The main international issue to be faced during President Bush's second term in office will be an Iran war. The US' main attention will focus on West Asia. If the US can quite smoothly realize the goal of transforming Iran, then the US' main strategic direction will shift to East Asia in future, and China will face direct US pressure; if the US' war and political reform in Iraq is not smooth, then this shift will be delayed for a number of years.'

For the sake not just of Iran, but of the far east, we can only hope that the Iraq debacle keeps you tied up for years to come. Of course that's the second-best solution. The best solution is that you simply mind your own business for the next four years. Why not bring 'freedom and democracy' to your own nation first? Why not fight tyranny there? You could start by resigning.

Comments

[w-e-quimby.livejournal.com]

I wholeheartedly agree with you, Momus. But I can't help but feel sorry for the infantry men stationed in Iraq who are as helpless and as victimized by the American government as the Iraqis.

[thebestweapon.livejournal.com]

Nice work. Have you read that Seymour Hersh article in the New Yorker? As an American of draft-able age, and a student whose taking the next semester off, it's scary stuff to take in.

[imomus.livejournal.com]

One of the most appalling things I read this month was a LiveJournal by a soldier called Mike (http://www.livejournal.com/users/wolfmoon98/) who died just a couple of weeks ago in Iraq. He died pointlessly, and he died because of Bush. And Bush is preparing more tragedies of exactly this kind as we speak. Other 'Mikes' will die in other countries. Pointlessly.

Interactive resistance

[instant-c.livejournal.com]

It seems to me that the most difficult and most important step in actively changing the current attrocities is to create new forms of protest that do not follow current methods. We need to be creative in how and why we protest. It seems many traditional forms are deemed acceptable, or are passed off as an impotent display. What are peaceful and unexpected ways to create change? In what ways can community change itself so it is no longer dependent on the govt. for survival?

[nina-blomquist.livejournal.com]

thanks momus, i will pass it on.

[scottbateman.livejournal.com]

If he's not already on your Friends list, you might want to check out habibi. His parents were born in Iraq; he currently lives in Chicago and is a film-maker. He and his American wife went to Iraq a year ago with his dad to see what was left of the home they's left twenty-plus years ago. He's a great guy; I think you'd like him.

[oracolodeifont.livejournal.com]

I'm a rather un-political person. I have my ideas, sure, but I'm not an activist of any kind. I don't like talking about politics.
The most political act I have made in my life is to move my ass and go to vote.
These days I have the clear sensation that I am the centre of a worldwide plot aimed at making an hardcore activist out of me.
The prime minister of my country (Italy.. sigh - sighing because of the prime minister, not for Italy), every day says something that offends my intelligence, not just my political views.
Bush is re-elected and in no time is babbling even more awful and idiotic plans for future wars.
I'm beginning to understand a lot of things about history.

Your piece is beautifully thought and written, momus, thank you.

[trickybrkn.livejournal.com]

best way to stop the monkey curse is for you to advocate the British to vote for Lib Dems. As long as Blair cow tails to the cowboy monkey he will feel as if he has an international mandate. I know my English wife who lives in NYC will be voting for Kennedy. Fony Bliar OUT.

[loosechanj.livejournal.com]

Please don't take this as any sort of endorsement on my part but...

It's bloody inevitable.

My crystal ball says it like this: Iraqi elections, Bush declares victory and then proceeds to start trumping up Iran. This will allow him to keep troops in Iraq, "just in case" action needs to be taken against Iran. Nevermind those troops will be busy as hell keeping Iraq from descending into civil war. We won't think about that. But it'll give Bush & Friends some breathing time, during which they'll be making their case for dealing with Iran. It'll be an easy sell, maybe even easier than Iraq, because hey, remember that hostage thing 25 years ago? Yeah, the ignorant hate is already there.

And by now, *everyone* knows Bush doesn't give a pair of fetid dingo's kidneys what anyone thinks.

Yes, it will turn out badly. Seriously, you lot outside the U.S. of Jesus really need to whup us upside the head. Please.

Iran and hide

[hulegu.livejournal.com]

I know another gas-rich, Central Asian, beautiful, history-laden country governed by a despicable authoritarian regime that Dubya might want to consider invading in order to spread 'freedom and democracy'.

Uzbekistan.

But oh, bugger! Uzbekistan is a partner in the 'Coalition of the Willing', so reports of human rights abuses, corruption, official complicity in the drugs trade and slavery are conveniently sidelined.

Very possibly (and hopefully) the 'conservative' regime in Tehran will shortly crumble in the face of a serious and determined popular uprising - the Iranians are generally quite good at that sort of thing - and the USA will NOT feel the need to intervene. Furthermore, I'm not a fan of any project involving the restoration of those Cossack usurpers, the Pahlavis, who frankly got their comeuppance in '79 (before the 'Islamic' was put into 'Revolution').

At least, please Dubya, put off the war until AFTER I've been to Iran.

[imomus.livejournal.com]

One risk we run, even in formulating our revulsion against current developments, is just being on the same page as the current US administration. Not necessarily the page they're really on (because after all, it's hard to imagine them in all honesty saying, amongst themselves, 'Hey, this Iraq war has gone so well, let's start another one!') but the page they want us to be on.

There's a famous report by Ron Suskind of an encounter with a Bush aide:

'The aide said that guys like me were ''in what we call the reality-based community,'' which he defined as people who ''believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality.'' I nodded and murmured something about enlightenment principles and empiricism. He cut me off. ''That's not the way the world really works anymore,'' he continued. ''We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality -- judiciously, as you will -- we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors . . . and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.'''

If that's the case, this blog entry is already a defeat. Instead of promoting my own view of reality, primarily an aesthetic-utopian one, I'm getting on board the Bush Perception Wagon. Even if I'm disagreeing profoundly with what it says, I'm on the same page, letting them set the agenda. And that's already a concession, a small victory for the other side.

Now, I want to know Bush's views on 'disorienteering'. Whaddya mean 'you don't have any opinion'? Everybody has an opinion about disorienteering!

[azzy23.livejournal.com]

Yes, actually, all signs point to yes. Apparently we *will* invade Iran. I can't say anything else about this, I'm so disgusted.


It won't just be Iran. You know that, right? Bush wants to spread Democracy throughout the oil having countries Middle East. For humanitarian reasons, you know.

My quote: "If Haiti had anything to export besides aids, the US might help them too."

[(Anonymous)]

Of course they won't invade Iran.

Unlike Iraq, Iran actually DOES have "weapons of mass destruction" and though they might be arrogant pricks, the Bush administration is not foolish enough to risk getting themselves nuked.

Hideous design, by the way.

[risk1911.livejournal.com]

I and millions like me will feel an intense revulsion not felt since the Spanish Civil War or Vietnam. We will make life a misery for you, and we will actively resist you every step of the way. I'm talking about individuals, governments, nations. You will become the black sheep of the entire world. You will excommunicate a great nation, your own, from all compassionate consideration. You will become a symbol of the problem, not the solution.

i highly doubt any protest outside of the U.S. by anyone or any nation or any nations for that matter would stop this agenda. this administration wants to permanently change threatening regimes and democratize the world by whatever means necessary. and from a military point of view, they definitely have the means to carry this out. they expect casualties but view this course of action as forever benefiting the future generations of those nations and the world.

i don't agree with it, i don't like it, but if they can actually succeed(and i don't think they will) then some good can come out of it.

[oracolodeifont.livejournal.com]

very clever. and dangerously near the truth.
the only smart way to face things - apart from a bloodbath world revolution - seems to get involved in politics and fight them on their playground, using the same weapons and the same tricks, but hopefully not the same goals.

(ps: have you ever seen the video 'what barry says'? - it's quite famous and you can find it here (http://www.knife-party.net/flash/barry.html), and it's something that - being a graphic designer - appears to me as a great way to make political 'activism' without marching in the streets. it's beautiful and clear, they should be showing it in schools. especially in graphic design schools)

I would rather be terrorized

[(Anonymous)]

Momus I sadly agree with you, but sadder still The vast majority of the American public does not. Personally, I would rather be supposedly "terrorized" then live in this 1984 excuse for a country. This war is political campaign that is only doing good by making hundreds of shameless people in The US and abroad rich off of defense contracts and oil theft.
The saddest part is that people like my surrounding neighbors and family totally buy into The Bush Administration's idea of "freedom" and the popular vote in America is to keep pushing until every brown person in the world is under our boot. Americans won't stand up because they spend their days in front of the tube ignoring the fact that their new shiny Chevy Tahoe is part of a systematic death warrant against any resource rich nation and believing that a nearly illiterate Prep school flunky is our safest bet for leadership. America isn't going to change until the American media and the populous changes drastically. The entire American asthetic and value system needs a face lift.
I hope You have open arms for some new American Ex-Pats.

USA!
Kim

bad guys

[(Anonymous)]

I think the most important thing for Americans to come to terms with right now is that they are seen internationally as the bad guys: aggressors, invading other people's countries, killing people, torturing them. This isn't about covert imperialism any more. In any argument, as everyone knows, the first one to mention the Nazis loses, but liberal American citizens are in the same position as liberal germans in the 1930s: there is a hegemony that is mainstream, and coercive, and ugly, and violent, but it's not violent against you yet, and before it goes off invading people, interning them, and hurting them, you have a chance to act definitively, and if you don't fight it then you are part of the problem. And, er, the same goes for the British. Rant over, I guess, but fuck, isn't it weird how you don't even feel like you have the right to the rhetoric to discuss this kind of unfamiliarly grave situation without sounding a bit Hollywood?

Re: bad guys

[dr--ben.livejournal.com]

when momus steps outside of knowing ironic oblique pop critique you know you've accidentally stumbled into morally unambiguous territory...

Re: bad guys

[ciphergoth.livejournal.com]

The Reichstag fire parallels alone make me think that Germany 1933 is the best frame of reference against which to understand what is happening in the USA now.

Re: bad guys

[risk1911.livejournal.com]

the problem is this administration and its team of civilian policy makers have applied the Christian religion into their banner as they ride off into war, and as we all know, you can't change the minds of the religious which is what liberals are saying about the war in Iraq.

there is a stern side to me who knows this "democratization" must happen for mankind to progress. the means is what's questionable.

there is a hegemony that is mainstream, and coercive, and ugly, and violent, but it's not violent against you yet, and before it goes off invading people, interning them, and hurting them, you have a chance to act definitively, and if you don't fight it then you are part of the problem.

that reads a bit dramatic in an "us against them" sort of way. what occured in Germany resembles 9/11 and the policy changes the U.S. has undergone but one must keep in mind that the United States is the only Superpower at the moment. China is the only other nation that stands formidable. presently the U.S. government has swung to one side but the American Constitution is designed in a way to bring balance back eventually. the American people will find a way to bring balance back.

but fuck, isn't it weird how you don't even feel like you have the right to the rhetoric to discuss this kind of unfamiliarly grave situation without sounding a bit Hollywood?

LOL.

[babyalive.livejournal.com]

I don't have anything to add, but wanted to say how beautifully written this was. Thank you.

It's our fault.

[flyonawndshield.livejournal.com]

We elected him, so it's our fault. Don't blame George W. Bush for doing what he believes in, because we elected him to do what he believes in doing. We can criticize all we want, but we have to let the president do his job. Otherwise, we'd have a powerless leader being swayed by the loud voices of the few and not the ballots of the many.
My advice to the worried: Ride it out, it'll be okay. Don't get upset when nothing is for certain. And afterall, if the worst possible thing happened and our society changed forever, some tough skin asshole would still crawl out from under a rock and keep on living. Ain't it grand?

[biseinen.livejournal.com]

Beautiful. Thank you Nick. I'm passing this one on.
eD

Conspiracy Theory Psycho

[flyonawndshield.livejournal.com]

Momus, I apologize for the following angry post, but I can't resist.

Kim, get out of our country already then.
Christ, if you think this is 1984, go back to 8th grade and reread the damn thing. There is no police state. There isn't any organization keeping you from posting this crap (I guess there should be though, grrarg.).
And if you're trying to condemn consumer culture in the same breath as decisions made by the Bush administration, you fail to see that there isn't any connection between the two. American's arent glued to their TV like mindless slugs. They don't drive Chevy Tahoes to feel better about buying McDonalds burgers that are destroying the rainforest. You act like you're some kind of superior to us poor little Americans but then spout some kind of bleeding heart wash about minority oppression. Get real! If that's what you think it's about, you're missing the entire point. Corporatations may be profitting from what they see as an opportunity, but the common person has NOTHING to do with this. They don't want people to die, no one does. Leave the common man out of it, and send complaints to Rumsfeld and the other goons.
But yes, if you want to leave our country so badly, get the hell out of it and don't come back. Thanks!

Re: Conspiracy Theory Psycho

[(Anonymous)]

The "common persons", at least a massive number of them, re-elected this administration. Where were you last November 2nd? The "common persons" thought they could get away with it as long as the world kept thinking Bush was acting illegitimately, as an only criminal, but not anymore, not after the majority of Americans *explicity* supported Bush's agenda. YOUR COUNTRY AS A WHOLE NEEDS TO ASSUME RESPONSIBILITY FOR ONCE IN YOUR FUCKING HISTORY.