FIRST IRAN, NOW I'M POOPED

A number of commentators seem to feel the president is preparing the path to yet another war by saying that Iran is supplying weapons to Iraqi Shiites, some of which are used to kill American soldiers. Of course for my money, if the administration says it’s true, that’s reason enough to doubt it (see: Scooter Libby and Douglas J. Feith). But true or false, going to go to war with Iran is not the next obvious step.

First of all, the administration's sudden alarm is highly suspect. Iran’s involvement is not news; they have been helping Iraqi Shiites from the beginning. Secondly, since the U S is the largest weapons purveyor in the world, supplying more arms to more armies than all other nations combined, we have all but ceded the moral high ground in this argument.

Finally, President Bush continually proffers the image of the barbarians at the gate. But to most of the world, the gate is Iran’s, and the barbarians are us. All other considerations aside, they are not in our backyard, we are in theirs. If Iran invaded Canada (just go with the image), you can be damn sure you’d find American weapons on the battlefield.

American soldiers have fought in this war, as always, with courage and honor. The way to avoid having them killed by Iranian weapons is to get them off the battlefield. It’s time to bring the troops home!

a foot on either side

Bart Braverman