Letter to the Editor

'Power tends to corrupt' says concerned citizen

Friday, May 16, 2008

To the editor:

The Council on Foreign Relations house organ, Foreign Affairs, in 1974 proposed that the Constitution could not be attacked head-on, but their purpose could be accomplished by end runs around it. Rep. Henry Hyde said on Oct. 3, 2003 that a congressional declaration of war was one of the things in the Constitution that had been overtaken by events.

If this were true, we have a procedure to amend the Constitution that insures it would be done with adequate thought and openness to the public, which our Congress pretends to serve.

The United Nations has said Iran must allow inspection of its nuclear enrichment facilities. Such UN directives were used as the excuse for our pre-emptive war on Iraq, and the weapons of mass destruction excuse proved to be untrue. Even if Iraq had WMD, it was no threat to us, nor would be a WMD capability on the part of Iran. In fact, it would not even be a threat to Israel, for as Israel's Minister Ben-Eliezer said recently, Israel would respond to the attack and destroy the Iranian nation (and it has the nuclear weaponry to do so).

Not a good trade for Iran.

There are credible sources that President Bush contemplates taking us into another pre-emptive war, with Iran, under the presumed (sovereign?) authority of the UN, including that on April 10 he referred to Iran and al-Qaida as the greatest threats to America. Another source is the recent resignation of Admiral William Fallon, commander of U.S. forces in the Middle East, perhaps a protest to a pre-emotive war on Iran.

A U.S. strike on Iran would probably be limited to air and sea power, with a few casualties, and that is how it started in Iraq. A probable result, however, would be that Iran would sink a couple of shops in the Strait of Hormuz, thus preventing the passage of 16 million barrels of oil per day -- about 20 percent of the world's daily use. In the present delicate state of the world economy (including the judgment of U.S. Comptroller Gen. David Walker that considering government commitments versus possible revenues we are essentially bankrupt), the constraint on world oil supply could crash the world economy (how about gas at $10 a gallon … if you could find it?).

And it would all start with a Congress, which once again would grant its constitutional authority to a president who pretends that such sovereign power rests in the UN. In effect, this is one more step, as was the European Union and the proposed North American Union, and its intended consolidation with the EU (by end runs), to bring on the absolute power, which would rest in One World Government.

"Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely …"

Dale Dunn, Danville