If you thought the supposed Iran crisis sprung up suddenly because our leaders now see them as a threat to the American people, think again.

Politicians always have other motives, and they are never for the good of the people they pretend to serve.

Read this enlightening expose about the Secret History of the Impending War with Iran, and you’ll learn that yes, the Bush Administration, with a fully complicit Republican and Democratic establishment, has been jonesing to kill some Persians for a long time.

Indeed, there is nothing new under the sun. Empires always desire to act violently toward their former vassal states.

The article focuses primarily on Flynt Leverett and Hillary Mann, who both used to be Middle-East policy experts on the National Security Council, one conducting secret negotiations with Iran, and the other traveling as adviser both to Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice.

And they have some interesting things to say.

But when they left the White House, they left with a growing sense of alarm — not only was the Bush administration headed straight for war with Iran, it had been set on this course for years. That was what people didn’t realize. It was just like Iraq, when the White House was so eager for war it couldn’t wait for the UN inspectors to leave.

Iran was very cooperative in our war against the Taliban.

Meeting in a light-filled conference room at the old UN building in Geneva, they hammered out plans for Iranian help in the war against the Taliban. The Iranians agreed to provide assistance if any American was shot down near their territory, agreed to let the U.S. send food in through their border, and even agreed to restrain some “really bad Afghanis,” like a rabidly anti-American warlord named Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, quietly putting him under house arrest in Tehran. These were significant concessions.

…And the Iranians seemed eager to help in more tactical ways as well. They had intimate knowledge of Taliban strategic capabilities and they wanted to share it with the Americans.

When Bush lumped Iran in with Iraq and North Korea as the “Axis-of-Evil” in his 2002 State of the Union, it came as a complete shock to advisers and top Iranian diplomats. They had been nothing but cooperative and had agreed to talk unconditionally.

The Iranians had been engaging in high-level diplomacy with the American government for more than a year, so the phrase was shocking and profound.

We also get some insight into why Colin Powell was so quick to leave after the first term. This is in regards to his talks with Arafat and a ‘political horizon’, or peaceful future.

Then the phone rang. It was Stephen Hadley on the phone from the White House. “Tell Powell he is not authorized to talk about a political horizon,” he said. “Those are formal instructions.”

“This is a bad idea,” Leverett remembers saying. “It’s bad policy and it’s also humiliating for Powell, who has been talking to heads of state about this very issue for the last ten days.”

Powell was furious, Leverett remembers. “What is it they’re afraid of?” he demanded. “Who the hell are they afraid of?”

Plus another great example of our ridiculous love affair with Israel. Breaking explicit promises, the administration backed off of a road map for peace and a Palestinian state.

On Monday, Leverett went straight to Rice’s office for an explanation. She told him that Ariel Sharon had called early elections in Israel and asked Bush to shelve any Palestinian plan. This time Leverett couldn’t hide his exasperation. “You told the whole world you were going to put this out before Christmas,” he said. “Because one Israeli politician told you it’s going to make things politically difficult for him, you don’t put it out? Do you realize how hard that makes things for all our Arab partners?”

Rice sat impassively behind her broad desk. “If we put the road map out,” she said, “it will interfere with Israeli elections.”

“You are interfering with Israeli elections, just in another way.”

And then the real kicker. Iran has already agreed to all of our demands before. Why did we reject it? Because someone wants to go to war, no matter the reasons or the cost.

A two-page summary was attached. Scanning it, Mann was startled by one dramatic concession after another — “decisive action” against all terrorists in Iran, an end of support for Hamas and the Islamic Jihad, a promise to cease its nuclear program, and also an agreement to recognize Israel.

This was huge. Mann sat down and drafted a quick memo to her boss, Richard Haass. It was important to send a swift and positive response.

Then she heard that the White House had already made up its mind — it was going to ignore the offer. Its only response was to lodge a formal complaint with the Swiss government about their ambassador’s meddling.

The whole article is a must-read, so do it now.

One of the people involved, trying to get the word out:

“We’re tired,” Mann says. “Nobody listens.”

We are listening, and thank you for your courage.

Do not let the efforts of these individuals go to waste.

The only thing in the article I don’t quite agree with is the statement that the current White House feels its their “moral duty to deal with Iran before the Democrats take over American foreign policy”. I can’t see the Democrats stance being much different.

Have we forgotten the Clinton years already?

Isn’t President Bush getting a receptive ear when advising the top Democratic candidates?

Let’s face it. The typical politician today is happy to be up to their necks in special interests and mutual political back-patting. And obviously these people in power have something to gain for their imperialistic wars and continued presence in the Middle East, no matter what arbitrary label they give themselves.

And let’s not forget one of the main expounders of this Neoconservative philosophy of preemptive and aggressive war is a former Democrat!

By trying to create a false sense of urgency, the current administration is just playing the political game correctly by pretending that the Democrats are opposed to their policies. But don’t expect much change just because a Democrat is in office. They come from the same pool of power-addicted liars.

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