[Marxism] Speculation about a U.S. strike against Iran

[Joaquin Bustelo]

Bob Hopson writes: "Since the military forces are in place, and Congress has
given Bush a blank check, I'm not sure I understand your point that any
decision he makes to launch a new war will be rejected by the real decision
makers of U.S. imperialism. "

I obviously left the wrong impression with the way I formulated my point. I
consider Bush one of the real decision makers of U.S. imperialism right now,
in fact, the central one. The idea that there's some committee somewhere
pulling the strings is one I reject. 

Bush isn't the ONLY one, however, both formally and informally. Formally
they include the top Pentagon leadership, the vice-president, the national
security advisor, other cabinet members (to a lesser degree), the top/more
influential senators on armed services, foreign policy, budget and
intelligence committees, and informally a number of people who have held
such posts over the years, like Kissinger, the elder Bush and so on. All
those folks, or substantial subsets of them, will influence this kind of
decision, and may even cause a tentative go ahead, or a decision to proceed
towards a war, to be reversed.

I think the evidence shows the U.S. has positioned itself militarily and is
trying to position itself politically to wage war on Iran. I think it is
entirely *possible* that this may happen, but because of the inability of
the U.S. to come up with a mechanism  to clinch the POLITICAL victory in
such a war, I also think it is possible that Bush and his inner circle will
be dissuaded from this course, or decide that it is necessary to wait for
better conditions. 

I do not consider either course adopted/rejected at the moment. Either one
is possible. 

Joaquin