-Submitted by David Drumm (Nal), Guest Blogger
Possible nuclear weapons capability, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspections, a threat to Israel, economic sanctions, fears of links to al Qaeda, and a compliant news media. Sounds like the hype leading up to war with Iraq, but this time it’s Iran.
Israel has been threatening to strike Iran’s nuclear enrichment plants unilaterally. Obama dispatched General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to tell the Israelis that the US wouldn’t participate in a war against Iran begun by Israel unless Washington had given its prior agreement.
On the map on the left, each star indicates the location of a US airbase.
The fear mongering about Iran building nuclear weapons may not work this time. From McClatchy, “The 16 U.S. intelligence agencies believe that Iran’s covert nuclear weapons work remains suspended for now, but could be restarted if the Iranian regime decides to do so.” Bloomberg is reporting that Gill Tudor, spokesman for the IAEA, said “All nuclear material in the [Fordo Fuel Enrichment Plant] remains under the agency’s containment and surveillance.” According to the AP, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta says Iran “is not yet building a bomb.”
The Wall Street Journal is playing up some new freedoms given to five “top” al Qaeda operative who have been under house arrest in Iran. The trouble is that al Qaeda just doesn’t generate the same fear it once did. The Washington Post is pushing the plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador by a used-car salesman with a conviction of passing bad checks as an indication that Iranian terrorists are operating inside the US. Of course the Washington Post would not consider the assassination of Iranian scientists, by either Israeli or US operatives, as an act of terrorism.
It also appears that intelligence analysts are not going to be pushed around this time. A retired senior intelligence officer said “the guys working on this are good analysts, and their bosses are backing them up.” A Defense Intelligence Agency analyst summed it up by saying “if Iran is not a nuclear threat, then the Israelis have no reason to threaten imminent military action.”
The logic of using economic sanctions to force Iran to stop a nuclear-weapons program that does not exist eludes me. The real reason for sanctions appears to cause, illegally, the collapse of the current Iranian regime. Such was the initial report from the Washington Post before a sharp sequence of phone calls compelled a “revision” to the article.
I’m the last person who wants to see anyone live under religious tyrants, but these wars seldom help those who need it the most.
H/T: Glenn Greenwald, Juan Cole, IPS News, Seymour M. Hersh, Hamid Serri, Juan Cole.
@eniobob –
I’m sure Berlin was just as beautiful in ’36, and its people just as unaware of what their government was planning.
Speaking of “seasons”, I am off to a Super Bowl party and have a whole quarter wagered on the Patriots (Tex chose the Giants before I had a chance to speak up and since the bet is between us … )
At any rate, thank you to all our Guest Bloggers this weekend … the topics were stimulating and informative … I don’t say it often, but please know that I greatly appreciate your efforts and look forward to every weekend with great anticipation.
Here is my favorite anti-war poem. It was written by Nobel Laureate Wislawa Szymborska. You can find it at the Poetry 180 website.
http://www.loc.gov/poetry/180/141.html
The End and the Beginning
After every war
someone has to clean up.
Things won’t
straighten themselves up, after all.
Someone has to push the rubble
to the side of the road,
so the corpse-filled wagons
can pass.
Someone has to get mired
in scum and ashes,
sofa springs,
splintered glass,
and bloody rags.
Someone has to drag in a girder
to prop up a wall,
Someone has to glaze a window,
rehang a door.
Photogenic it’s not,
and takes years.
All the cameras have left
for another war.
We’ll need the bridges back,
and new railway stations.
Sleeves will go ragged
from rolling them up.
Someone, broom in hand,
still recalls the way it was.
Someone else listens
and nods with unsevered head.
But already there are those nearby
starting to mill about
who will find it dull.
From out of the bushes
sometimes someone still unearths
rusted-out arguments
and carries them to the garbage pile.
Those who knew
what was going on here
must make way for
those who know little.
And less than little.
And finally as little as nothing.
In the grass that has overgrown
causes and effects,
someone must be stretched out
blade of grass in his mouth
gazing at the clouds.
Eddie Vedder – No More (video)
I was sent a similar video awhile back,FYI:
Blouise 1, February 5, 2012 at 12:23 pm
…
The fighting season fast approaches …
=====================================
Dear Blouise … glad tidings unto you.
Climate change for “fighting season” is here.
When I was passing through Texas as a young fellow, once upon a time, I noticed a old cowboy with skin that looked like leather. Tough, old, and weathered.
So, I thought to ask him, “Sir, what kind of climate do you have here?”
His eyes turned to mine, whereupon he said “Boy”, as he spat some “bakkie juice” upon the ground, “I don’t reckon we got any kind of climate around here, alls we got is weather” …
And that is the way it is now that our government is a Wartocracy.
The Rolling Stones put it quite well: “War, children, it’s just a shot away“
Thank you David, good post and great topic for discussion.I’d like to make two points on this that make sense to me at least.
1. This is not about Iran’s “nuclear threat” it is about Iran’s oil, just as it was about Iraq’s oil. If it was about nuclear threats N. Korea already has the capability, S.Korea’s got a good army and the N.Korean leadership makes the Iranians look sane by comparison. N.Korea though has no oil.
2. Netanyahu is a creature of the Republican Party. He has stated publicly that he doesn’t understand why Americans elect Democrats. He is closely intertwined with US Republican neocons controlling AIPAC. Since Obama’s election Netanyahu has continually worked against Obama, at times trying to embarrass him. While he may personally love the idea of attacking Iran, he knows that he can’t do it alone. All of this is to help a Republican President get elected and little more. Ron Paul is not getting nominated, but all of the others running are pro an Iran war. The problem is that a Iran war would be an exercise in stupidity, but then I never saw Netanyahu as intelligent. Sadly, he is a willing puppet whose strings are pulled in the US by our MI Complex, which includes big oil.
Just look at the placement of the airfields, especially those in Iraq and then consider Russia/China’s latest veto at the U N regarding Syria.
The fighting season fast approaches and if Russia/China don’t drop their objections, then Iran will pay the price.
The partnership between the U S, Israel, and Saudi Arabia continues to move forward … this latest threat is a note to Russia/China. (Check out the previous and very similar notes sent at crucial points in the oil game.)
Of course Russia/China know that once Syria is taken care of, Iran is toast … but the longer they can put that off, the more oil they can get out of Iran. The big boys are playing games and the little ones will die … now or later.
Whenever talk of the Middle East comes up I hearken back to President Boy George’s certainty that history would vindicate his preemptive war in Iraq. We are watching that history unfold.
Off Topic–An article written by Glenn Greenwald:
U.S. drones targeting rescuers and mourners
Salon, 2/5/12
http://www.salon.com/2012/02/05/u_s_drones_targeting_rescuers_and_mourners/
Excerpt:
On December 30 of last year, ABC News reported on a 16-year-old Pakistani boy, Tariq Khan, who was killed with his 12-year-old cousin when a car in which he was riding was hit with a missile fired by a U.S. drone. As I noted at the time, the report contained this extraordinary passage buried in the middle:
Asked for documentation of Tariq and Waheed’s deaths, Akbar did not provide pictures of the missile strike scene. Virtually none exist, since drones often target people who show up at the scene of an attack.
What made that sentence so amazing was that it basically amounts to a report that the U.S. first kills people with drones, then fires on the rescuers and others who arrive at the scene where the new corpses and injured victims lie.
In a just-released, richly documented report, the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, on behalf of the Sunday Times, documents that this is exactly what the U.S. is doing — and worse:
The CIA’s drone campaign in Pakistan has killed dozens of civilians who had gone to help rescue victims or were attending funerals, an investigation by the Bureau for the Sunday Times has revealed.
The findings are published just days after President Obama claimed that the drone campaign in Pakistan was a “targeted, focused effort” that “has not caused a huge number of civilian casualties”. . . .
A three month investigation including eye witness reports has found evidence that at least 50 civilians were killed in follow-up strikes when they had gone to help victims. More than 20 civilians have also been attacked in deliberate strikes on funerals and mourners. The tactics have been condemned by leading legal experts.
Although the drone attacks were started under the Bush administration in 2004, they have been stepped up enormously under Obama.
There have been 260 attacks by unmanned Predators or Reapers in Pakistan by Obama’s administration – averaging one every four days.
As I indicated, there have been scattered, mostly buried indications in the American media that drones have been targeting and killing rescuers. As the Bureau put it: “Between May 2009 and June 2011, at least fifteen attacks on rescuers were reported by credible news media, including the New York Times, CNN,Associated Press, ABC News and Al Jazeera.” Killing civilians attending the funerals of drone victims is also well-documented by the Bureau’s new report…
Dredd,
I have to agree with nal….that is classic…truthful….but classic…
Good one, Dredd.
If they want to hide WMD from big brother’s eyes, all they have to do is hide them in nations that have no oil.
They won’t be found there, you figure out why.
I’d say that many of the weapons of mass destruction are the minds of our political leaders.
TalkinDog–“The evidence that they are not making a bomb is overwhelmed by the evidence that they are.”
You should contact the IAEA immediately and provide them with your evidence.
oops … The Universal Smedley …
“I’m the last person who wants to see anyone live under religious tyrants, but these wars seldom help those who need it the most.”
Many times “religious tyrant” is in the eye of the beholder:
(Wikipedia). The problem seems to be The Universal Smedley it would seem.
I can imagine it now in the classified ads:
For Sale: 200 Acre glass parking lots. Location, Iran. Cheap.
Recipe for Tragedy
2 parts zealous religious and political ideology
2 parts nuclear weapons
1 part doctrine of preemptive warfare
Shake until radioactive
If they are not building a bomb then they can abide by their treaty obligations and let the inspectors into their facilities all over Iran (such as their underground bunkers) and do the inspections. The evidence that they are not making a bomb is overwhelmed by the evidence that they are.
Israel’s life is on the line and they are not making this threat up out of Iranian bluster. What does Iran have to lose by abiding by the treaty of non proliferation. They need a nuclear power plant like they need a catholic cathedral. They send missles into Israel from the Gaza strip every day. If you do not believe that then ask the Gaza peasants where they got the missles. Hamas is not joke and neither is Iran. If they were lobbing missles into South Florida from Cuba and the Soviets were installing missles in Cuba I think that we would be bombing Cuba.
On televsion yesterday, some Iyatoldya said that it was Irans duty to irradicate Israel. Iran’s bite is soon to be worse than their bark.
I am not barkin, just talkin.
What does melted sand look like? It is unfortunate but this is the realities of the situation that exists here and abroad….