According to a poll conducted a week after the arrest of 24 Brits of Pakistani origin suspected of being involved in an alleged plot to blow up American airliners in-flight, by a margin of more than five to one the Brits want Prime Minister Tony Blair to "split" with President George Bush over his conduct of the War on Terror.
Even though Bush made it clear in his declaration of a War on Terror – at which Blair was present – that "Every nation, in every region, now has a decision to make. Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists."
Why split?
Apparently because, since making his "declaration of war" and anointing himself "commander in chief" of the world, Bush has used – or, more accurately, misused – every resource at his command, and by any measure the terrorist threat to us and to those "with us" is greater now than ever.
Bush and Blair first launched – after trying and failing to get authorization from the UN Security Council – a war of aggression against Iraq.
What a hornet’s nest Iraq turned out to be – for Bush and Blair.
Now, just as he did with Iraq, Bush has been claiming he has "intelligence" that Iran has a secret nuclear weapons program and has been trying to get the Security Council to pass a resolution that he can improperly use to "justify" a preemptive attack on Iran.
However, just as they did in Iraq, those pesky International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors keep reporting to the Security Council that they can find no indication – much less evidence – that Iran has a nuclear weapons program.
Enter Hezbollah.
Hezbollah is a powerful political party, as well as a spiritual-economic support group for the Islamic community, in Lebanon.
Iran supports Hezbollah.
But Hezbollah also supports a militia, which the Israelis rediscovered to be a formidable foe in their recent long-planned re-invasion of southern Lebanon.
Both Bush and Blair secretly encouraged that re-invasion.
Bush, at least, reckoned the resistance by Hezbollah to the Israeli re-invasion would give him an excuse to launch a preemptive attack on Iran for supporting Hezbollah, which he claims is a terrorist organization.
So Bush had his stooge – Bonkers Bolton – veto the Security Council resolution offered by Qatar calling for an immediate cease-fire in Israel’s war of aggression against Lebanon last month, while strong-arming Resolution 1696 though the Council, with only Qatar voting against it.
Once UNSCR 1696 passed, Bolton falsely claimed that "Iran has consistently and brazenly defied the international community by continuing its pursuit of nuclear weapons, and the continued intransigence and defiance of the Iranian leadership demands a strong response from this Council."
Since all the evidence before the Security Council was that Iran’s nuclear programs had been verified by the IAEA to be for peaceful purposes and were, therefore, of no concern to the Council, the Iranian leadership can hardly be guilty of defiance.
But Bolton claimed UNSCR 1696
"[A]lso calls upon Member States to do what they can to prevent the transfer of resources to Iran’s nuclear and missile programs, and Iran should understand that the United States and others will ensure that the financial transactions associated with its proliferant activities will be impeded as well.
"The United States expects that Iran and all other UN Member States will immediately act in accordance with the mandatory obligations of this resolution passed by the Security Council."
In other words, Bush expects everyone to immediately impose illegal economic sanctions on Iran and join his posse of international pirates (AKA the Proliferation Security Initiative).
Iran’s UN representative, Javad Zarif, had this, inter alia, to say in rebuttal:
"Iran’s peaceful nuclear program poses no threat to international peace and security, and therefore dealing with this issue in the Security Council is unwarranted and void of any legal basis or practical utility. …
"Today we are witness to an extremely dangerous trend; while members of the NPT are denied their rights and are punished, those who defy the NPT, particularly the perpetrators of [the] current carnage in Lebanon and Palestine, are rewarded by generous nuclear cooperation agreements. This goes so far that, when it suits the U.S., even the acquisition of nuclear weapons for non-NPT members becomes ‘legitimate’ – to quote the U.S. ambassador [Bolton]."
Apparently, then, India’s nukes are “legitimate," but Pakistan’s aren’t.
Next, Bush declared Jamaat-ud-Dawa, a Sunni Muslim organization active in Brit mosques and in relief of earthquake victims in Pakistan, a "terrorist" organization.
There are more than a million Brit Sunni Muslims of Pakistani origin.
No wonder the Brits want Blair to split with Bush.
