From This Can’t Be Happening
By Dave Lindorff

Over a quarter of a century ago, a group of students, with the backing of the religious government of Iran, invaded and took over the U.S. embassy in Tehran, holding Americans there hostage for months. It was an action so violative of international law (embassies and consulates are considered to be the terrority of the nation that occupies them) that the U.S. has never forgiven Iran, and never restored relations.

How ironic then, to learn that our president, the loony George W. Bush, personally ordered our troops in “sovereign” Iraq to attack and overrun the Iranian consulate in Irbil, arrest and take as hostages six Iranians there, and confiscate consular equipment such as computers, as well as documents.

How predictable that days later, the U.S. embassy in Greece was hit with a rocket-fired grenade–an action which was immediately denounced by the U.S. as an “act of terror,” though thankfully no one was hurt.

We don’t know who fired the RPG at the U.S. embassy, but if it was the Iranians, or if it was a Greek leftist acting on behalf of the Iranians, they’d be well within their rights, under the internation rules of war, which include the doctrine of reciprocity. It would be, not terrorism, but an act of war.

In authorizing the attack on Iran’s consulate in Irbil, President Bush was okaying an act of war–an attack on the sovereign territory of Iran. What did he expect to happen? What’s war for the goose is war for the gander.

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