Interesting precedent

Associated Press reported in this morning's paper that the Bush Administration is seeking to blacklist the Iranian Revolutionary Guard as a "terrorist organization." They stopped short of naming Iran as a government to be a terrorist organization.

If they finally decide to name some factions of or all of the Iranian Guard under President Bush's 2001 executive order (AP reports they are still debating it), then other nations could consider pressing for blacklisting CIA black ops groups that kidnap and then conduct extreme rendition, permanent incarceration, and torture of the kidnapped.

Maybe some would look at our occupying forces in Iraq as "terrorist organizations" based on their charging into civilian homes in the middle of the night seeking "insurgents" and "al Quaida" fighters based on skimpy and ineffective intelligence, frequently finding no one but terrorizing the families in the process.

Maybe that's why this Administration has not pushed to go all the way to calling Iran a terrorist organization. That would open the world to the option of naming the United States as a terrorist organization.

Or worse . . . , it would reopen the old argument against the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and their treatment of Palestinians as "state-sponsored terrorism." Heaven forbid that we allow anyone to look upon Israel that way. . . . I mean so what if their home guard (settlers who carry guns and shoot Palestinians on sight) terrorizes Arab workers and students walking past their settlements. So what if huge armored Caterpiller bulldozers crush Palestinian homes, schools, vineyards, olive groves, and businesses because they stand where Israel wants to build its wall or its highway system which chops Palestinian settlements into little pieces.

Maybe we should applaud the President for taking this step to further antagonize the Iranians. This Administration just might set a precedent that frees the rest of the world to do their own blacklisting.