[lbo-talk] Avnery: no attack on Iran

Michael Pollak mpollak at panix.com
Mon Jul 14 13:27:05 PDT 2008


On Mon, 14 Jul 2008, Shane Mage wrote:


> For the USrael to attack Iran would be sheer, stupid, insanity. But
> is it even possible to underestimate the stupidity and insanity of
> Bush and Cheney?

FWIW, Avnery evocatively says the same thing at the end of his article:

http://counterpunch.org/avnery07142008.html

<begin excerpt>

ON THE basis of all these considerations, I dare to predict that there

will be no military attack on Iran this year - not by the Americans,

not by the Israelis.

As I write these lines, a little red light turns on in my head. It is

related to a memory: in my youth I was an avid reader of Vladimir

Jabotinsky's weekly articles, which impressed me with their cold logic

and clear style. In August 1939, Jabotinsky wrote an article in which

he asserted categorically that no war would break out, in spite of all

the rumors to the contrary. His reasoning: modern weapons are so

terrible, that no country would dare to start a war.

A few days later Germany invaded Poland, starting the most terrible war

in human history (until now), which ended with the Americans dropping

atom bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Since then, for 63 years, nobody

has used nuclear weapons in a war.

President Bush is about to end his career in disgrace. The same fate is

waiting impatiently for Ehud Olmert. For politicians of this kind, it

is easy to be tempted by a last adventure, a last chance for a decent

place in history after all.

All the same, I stick to my prognosis: it will not happen.

<end excerpt>

Michael



More information about the lbo-talk mailing list