NEO-CONS LOOK TO DEMONIZE AND ATTACK IRAN

Sometimes articles appear that cause me the reader astonishment. Such is the article by Richard Cohen in today's The Washington Post. Called "Bush's Legacy of Cynicism," it starts out bemoaning Bush's policies which have cause the lack of credence put in government many of us share.

So far so good. But then Cohen goes on to say how real the "threat" is from Iran and from the Revolutionary Guard. So Cohen's article is not about the duplicity of George Bush and Dick Cheney and their minions. It is really a call to arms against Iran. Here's Cohen:

"But the true realism is that Iran is a menace -- potentially a great one -- and that its Revolutionary Guard is engaged in the dirty business of killing Americans and others. The fact that the Bush administration says so does not make it otherwise."

Cohen apparently was gung-ho for the war against Iraq. Now he is breathless for a war against Iran. He says we have "evidence."

"As the resolution states, the American military has "evidence" -- the word is Gen. David Petraeus's -- of Iranian activity. "This is not intelligence," the general told Congress. "This is evidence, off computers that we captured, documents and so forth." Petraeus didn't get his stars for nothing. He knows the level of well-earned cynicism that the word "intelligence" now engenders in Congress. Evidence! He's talking evidence."

Mr. Cohen, you talk about "the true realism . . . that Iran is a menace." And then you talk about "evidence." If Bush, Cheney or Petraeus had hard evidence, they would be besieging the news media morning, noon and night with it. There is no "evidence" that Iran is supplying IEDS or EFPs. Any garage in Baghdad is capable of fashioning these explosives, and probably do. Just because Petraeus says we have "evidence" does not make it so, any more than Bush, Cheney and Rice claiming Saddam had WMD.

You would take us to war with Iran over non-existent evidence? You would have the U.S. Senate endorse a resolution saying that Iran is killing American soldiers solely on the basis of what some Bush loyalist says or claims?

No thanks, Mr. Cohen. This time, I for one am not buying into your pie-in-the-sky demonization of Iran and Iranians. Instead of attacking or bombing Iran, let's sit down and begin to talk with them. I remind you, this is the year 2007, not 1007.