The Drumbeat for war quickens
Alt Tv/Fleet FM Breakfast News Comment
The Drumbeat for war quickens
The United States Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, said yesterday the US would cut off Iran's "malignant" activities in Iraq and was working urgently to impose more punitive measures against Tehran. Speaking to the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee, Rice said Washington was looking closely at "new designations" against Tehran, which the US accuses of fomenting violence in Iraq and pursuing an atomic bomb. The continued demands by America seem to be about creating a justification now for a war rather than genuine dialogue. The Military seem resistant to the idea when you listen to them talk, but it is the politicians like Cheney and Bush who seem to be leaving diplomacy to declare things like ‘World War 3’ if Iran continues building a nuke. The 20th of January 2009 when Bush stands down as President just can’t come quick enough.
posted by Bomber @ 7:19 am
14 comments
14 Comments:
History of U.S./Iran diplomacy:
http://www.esquire.com/features/iranbriefing1107
A possible tan for the U.S.:
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article7147.htm
America hasn't been complying with their international obligations in years. The NPT states that any nation who has nuclear weapons must be making moves towards total disarmament. It is safe to say that under the current Bush administration this has not been the case. Infact the US has been finding new roles for nukes with bunker busters and ICBMs. I would go as far as to say that if anyone is aiding in proliferation it is the United States, if not aiding directly then certainly making it more acceptable for certain states to have nukes while denying others. China has recently modernized their missile fleet and the Bush administration claims it has "no problem" with such actions, Israel now has nukes, as does India and Pakistan (all whom are growing their arsenal) and the Bush administration recently cut funding to Russian dismantlement programs. Soon the US will leave the NPT and then all hell will break loose.
Is this the right thread for Iranian loving circle jerkers.
Sounds like it is. Who wants to show me their mohammad first?
This comment has been removed by the author.
Here 'tis
http://www.lucasgray.com/video/peacetrain.html
Nah they don't have to invade. They'll just have to target Iranian water, electricity, communications and infrastructure then sit back and watch them squirm.
Speaking to Al Jazeera, Hans Blix, the former head of the UN weapons inspection team in Iraq, drew a parallel between the current crisis and the situation in Iraq prior to the US invasion in 2003.
He said: "[The US] hasn't found anything that implicates a will on the part of Iran to have nuclear weapons.
...
"[The] accusations against Iran remind us about Iraq. They say the Iranians are supporting various guerilla groups and militias in Iraq.
"I'd like to see evidence. Accusations don't amount to much."
From Brewers second link above:
With regard to Iran, the International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA’s) recent report (September 2004) ... repudiates facile claims by the US and Israel that Iran is building bombs. While the report is highly critical of Tehran for its ambiguities and its grudging release of documents, it affirms that IAEA inspectors have been admitted to every nuclear site in the country to which they have sought access, without exception. ... And the IAEA has found no hard evidence, to date, either that bombs exist or that Iran has made a decision to build them.
Still, no reason not to decimate another country.
Expect to hear a lot more about Iran in the coming weeks and months. More and more stories will appear in newspapers as diverse as the Sun to the Telegraph. Iran will be propelled into public discourse from the pub to the office to the living room. And do not think for an instant that this is an issue that will not affect us in this corner of the world. The public are being primed for a war that could be of catastrophic proportions.
If the deranged cabal who occupy the White House get their way we will be panicked into believing that bombing Iran - even though it threatens a conflagration across the Middle East and beyond - is a necessary evil to safeguard the free world.
I have no illusions about the nature of the Iranian regime, nor how internally repressive it may be. But if you think that unleashing air strikes on that country is about thwarting its nuclear ambitions, here are some revision notes: Remember the dodgy dossier? Remember us being 45 minutes from destruction by Saddam's WMD? Remember that he too used to be the New Hitler? Or how George Bush threatened to collapse the United Nations unless it surrendered to his will? And look at what has resulted.
http://www.thisiscornwall.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=144143&command=displayContent&sourceNode=144131&contentPK=18790299&moduleName=InternalSearch&formname=sidebarsearch
"I have no illusions about the nature of the Iranian regime, nor how internally repressive it may be."
But that still doesn't stop you from getting down on your knees and opening you mouth does it?
I like the picture of Uncle Sam rolling up the sleeve Bomber ..
Do you think that after the Christian starts the new war, that Hillary will be like Nixon,
damned if you do, and damned if you don't.
peter quixote
The war could start sooner than we think:
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article18614.htm
10/24/07 - - - WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Some Democratic lawmakers questioned on Wednesday whether a new Bush administration request for $88 million to fit "bunker-busting" bombs to B-2 stealth bombers was part of preparations for an attack on Iran.
...
"My assumption is that it is Iran, because you wouldn't use them in Iraq, and I don't know where you would use them in Afghanistan, it doesn't have any weapons facilities underground that we know of," said Rep. Jim Moran, a Virginia Democrat who is on the House defense spending committee and intends to argue against the request.
The Big Lie: ‘Iran Is a Threat’
by Scott Ritter
On every point, the case made against Iran collapses upon closer scrutiny. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), mandated to investigate Iran’s nuclear programs, has concluded that there is no evidence that Iran is pursuing a nuclear weapons program. Furthermore, the IAEA has concluded that it is capable of monitoring the Iranian nuclear program to ensure that it does not deviate from the permitted nuclear energy program Iran states to be the exclusive objective of its endeavors. Iran’s support of the Hezbollah Party in Lebanon - Iranian protestors shown here supporting Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah during an anti-Israel rally - while a source of concern for the State of Israel, does not constitute a threat to American national security primarily because the support provided is primarily defensive in nature, designed to assist Hezbollah in deterring and repelling an Israeli assault of sovereign Lebanese territory. Similarly, the bulk of the data used by the United States to substantiate the claims that Iran is a state sponsor of terror is derived from the aforementioned support provided to Hezbollah. Other arguments presented are either grossly out of date (going back to the early 1980’s when Iran was in fact exporting Islamic fundamentalism) or unsubstantiated by fact.
The US claims concerning Iranian interference in both Iraq and Afghanistan ignore the reality that both nations border Iran, both nations were invaded and occupied by the United States, not Iran, and that Iran has a history of conflict with both nations that dictates a keen interest concerning the internal domestic affairs of both nations. The United States continues to exaggerate the nature of Iranian involvement in Iraq, arresting “intelligence operatives” who later turned out to be economic and diplomatic officials invited to Iraq by the Iraqi government itself. Most if not all the claims made by the United States concerning Iranian military involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan have not been backed up with anything stronger than rhetoric, and more often than not are subsequently contradicted by other military and governmental officials, citing a lack of specific evidence
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/10/08/4404/
Iran: The Road to Armageddon?
"The increasingly hysterical claims regarding Iran, the latest threat to life as we know it, is being brought to you by the very same warmongers who wrought the duplicity that resulted in Iraq's murderous decimation, the hawks' nest which is the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) and their friends.
A glance at the AEI website lists those including:
Paul Wolfowitz (“entrepreneurship and development”),
Michael Rubin (“Arab democracy”),
Richard Perle (“defence ...intelligence”),
Joshua Muravchik (“global democracy”),
John Bolton (“foreign policy”),
Lynne Cheney, whose husband, as ever, is believed a driving force behind the attack plan (“culture and education”),
Michael Ledeen (latest book: “The Iranian Time Bomb: The Mullah Zealots Quest for Destruction”),
Daniell Pletka (“Vice President for foreign and defence policy studies”) who, writing in the “Wall Street Journal” (28th September 2007) referred to Iran's “illegal nuclear weapons ... Washington's impotence” and “clear information of a link to a weapons of mass destruction programme”. This in spite of the International Atomic Energy Authority finding no indication of such programmes.
It all sounds chillingly familiar.
Interestingly, an item on the Institute's list of “Research Projects” is “Global Investment in Iran”. Surely a matter for Iran - or does the AEI already regard Iran's oil fields and assets as their fiscal frolic zone?
Orchestration is continuing apace:
“Even as we are succeeding in Iraq” (really?) “Iran is working against us ... we will not achieve peace in the region if we ignore this threat”, writes Ledeen. Further, there are clear plans to liberate Iran's women, Afghan style: “Since 1979, Iran has changed from a society where women could attend university and have careers, to one where they are second class citizens ... sold as slaves ...”. writes Diana Furchgott-Roth in the New York Sun (14th September 2007.)
There must be two Irans: “Literacy is well over ninety percent, even in the rural areas and in 2005, more than sixty five percent of students entering university were women. The voices that come through most strongly on the Iranian blogosphere are those of this educated, young generation.” Over sixty five percent of this country of seventy million are under thirty years old.
“I feel cold when I think about a possible war against my homeland”, wrote one blogger: “My picture of war hasn't come from Hollywood movies, I have seen the pain, the kids tears, bloody streets ...” In a picture showing a meeting of the Tehran Photographers Association, the venue is packed with vibrantly dressed women - and one man. (See : Inside Iran, New Internationalist, March 2007: www.newint.org ) "
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=7193
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