We need to wake our country to the extreme danger we’re in. We are being sleep-walked into a war with Iran that can have infinitely more grave consequences for us all than the war with Iraq.

We need to sound the alarm, to rouse those sleeping in the house where the fire is now crackling, so we can jump from bed and stop it before it gets out of control. The plan for waking the dozing household is below. First, some quick background.

On February 5th, a friend and I met for a half-hour with our US congressman in his hometown office. We voiced our concerns about Iran, including the likelihood of a spreading nuclear war, involving the US, Israel, Pakistan, Syria, Iran and Iraq, with airborne radiation killing millions and circling the planet. We outlined some likely consequences: skyrocketing oil prices causing food, gas, heating oil and electricity shortages here at home; severe disruption of the world’s economies; outrage, opposition and fear everywhere, possibly leading to a declaration of martial law here in the US, with dissent silenced by military force and “disappearances” sanctioned by laws already on the books.

As we spoke, the congressman leaned forward, taking notes, nodding emphatically, saying “right, you’re right,” and once interjecting that “yes, a general just briefed us on that in Washington,” and – significantly – never disputing any of the dangers we were outlining. At the end we urged him to join with his allies in Congress quickly prohibit any US funding an American (or Israeli) war with Iran until a full Congressional investigation determines the actual threats presented by Iran’s government, and the likely consequences of war with Iran. We added that he’d have huge public support and gratitude he’d find if he and his colleagues gathered their courage and made this move. He said he’d watch events closely, and keep all this in mind.

But will he and a majority in Congress have the courage to go against the forces that are pushing for this war?

Not likely.

There is, however, one chance: an unprecedented outburst of public noise demanding that they -- and all of us -- awake to the dangers this new war presents, and take swift and effective action.

Here’s the plan.

Pots and pans, friends, pots and pans.

It’s likely we all, in the backs of our minds, know what’s going on – that our government’s is now run by men determined to shape and dominate the world by military force. And that they’ve thrown morals, laws, treaties, alliances, truth, and “the decent opinion of mankind” out the window in an grab for global control, using the “war on terror” and “the clash of civilizations” as window-dressing. Powerful interests support them, saying, if effect, that the US now has the opportunity to militarily grab the dwindling resources of the world, and should.

We Americans have to wake, and wake quickly, to what we already know – that this is a very bad, very dangerous idea. Why? Look what happened to the Japanese and Germans -- and the world -- the last time someone tried to grab global control through military force.

Those of us who are awake have to rouse those who are still dozing. We ordinary Americans are now the only humans on earth that can stop this unfolding catastrophe before it starts, before we’re over the cliff and in free-fall. The US Congress won’t stop it, nor will the US military, the UN, or the rest of the world. No one else can.

OK – so how do we do it?

Big peace demonstrations don’t work anymore. Civil disobedience is too big a step, too risky for more than a few of us, and won’t attract the millions of us who see the danger, but don’t know what to do.

So here it is, friends: pots and pans.

Call a few like-minded friends and gather across the street from the post office at twelve noon Monday, Tuesday, each day this coming week. Bring pots and pans, and beat on them. No signs, no buttons, no funny clothes – we don’t want to be the stereotyped anti-war protestors everyone’s seen already, and that the press and public have learned to ignore. When people ask what we’re doing, we tell them we’re trying to prevent a war that will have catastrophic consequences for our way of life here in the US, kill millions of innocents elsewhere, and spread radiation around the world. We have an article or two (maybe something printed out from the links below) to hand to folks who are just rubbing the sleep from their eyes, but haven’t quite focused on what’s going on.

We make our noise for just five minutes. If the police come, we move on. This is not about confrontation, it’s about awakening. (The police have kids, they need food and electricity and a decent future, too. Deep in their hearts they, like us, know what’s going on. They, too, need to wake and act on what they know.)

If our busy schedules won’t let us gather at a public place, let’s rattle our trays in the cafeteria, bang our spatulas in the Burger King, tap the partition-walls of our office cubicles, clink our water-glasses in the Senate dining-room. Let’s step outside our front doors in the suburbs, open the windows of our apartments, step down from our truck cabs, open the windows of our cars in the mall parking lot, and bang our pots. Let’s tap our mikes if we’re radio DJs, tap our pulpits if we’re clergy. Let’s take our kids out front of the preschool and clap blocks together. Let’s toot our horns. Let’s rattle our jewelry. All together, at the same time. Let’s sound the alarm, five minutes each day at noon, to let the world know – to let each other know – that we’re here, we’re awake, and we intend to wake others to the danger we’re in.

If we’re asked to stop, let’s move somewhere else and keep sounding the alarm. If people yell at us, let’s smile back and keep tapping. We don’t want a fight, we want people to wake, to see how many of us there are, and to join us in waking others. It’s legal and a moral duty to sound the alarm if a fire is starting.

Let’s spread this idea around to our friends. Noon, Monday. And then the next day, at noon again. Just five minutes a day. Hopefully, each day there will be more noise, as more Americans wake and join us.

It will be in the news. It will be on the internet. People will be talking about it, looking up from their daily lives, looking at the likely consequences of this war, realizing that this is a very dangerous idea which affects us all. We may be able to stop it. But only if there are enough of us.

They may launch the attack anyway. This may push them into doing it more quickly than planned. But there’s a chance that a huge demonstration of public alarm may give Congress, as well as the cooler heads in the government and the military, the courage they need to pull us back from the edge of the cliff the Administration is leading us off.

We’re not lemmings.

Pots and pans, friends. Pots and pans!

Eric Herter was the AP Television producer in Vietnam in the mid-90s. He’s now a writer and video-producer in Brunswick, Maine.

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