|
1,200 Targets in 3 Days?
MARJORIE COHN
Counterpunch
Tuesday September 4, 2007
The Sunday Times of London is reporting that the Pentagon has
plans for three days of massive air strikes against 1,200 targets
in Iran. Last week, Alexis Debat, director of terrorism and national
security at the Nixon Center, told a meeting of The National Interest,
a conservative foreign policy journal, that the military did not
intend to carry out "pinprick strikes" against Iranian
nuclear facilities. He said, "They're about taking out the
entire Iranian military."
Bush has already set the wheels in motion. With Rovian timing,
Alberto Gonzales' resignation was sandwiched between two Bush
screeds - one aimed at ensuring Congress scares up $50 billion
more for the occupation of Iraq, the other designed to scare us
into supporting war on Iran. As Gonzales rides off into the sunset,
the significant questions are who will take his place and how
that choice will facilitate Bush's occupation of Iraq and attack
on Iran.
One name that's been floated for Bush's third attorney general
is Joe Lieberman, the "independent" senator from Connecticut.
Lieberman, who advocates the use of military force against Iran,
was the only person Bush quoted in his August 28 speech to the
American Legion. Bush called Iran "the world's leading state
sponsor of terrorism" and pledged to "confront Tehran's
murderous activities."
(Article continues below)
Gonzales greased the Bush/Cheney wheels for torturing in violation
of the Geneva Conventions, illegally spying on Americans, and
purging disloyal Bushies.
Similarly, Lieberman would ensure the Justice Department mounts
a vigorous defense of a war of aggression against Iran. And Bush
would get a two-fer: Connecticut's Republican governor would appoint
a Republican to fill Lieberman's seat, returning control of the
Senate to the GOP. A Republican-controlled Senate would direct
the agenda, thereby furthering the Bush/Cheney plan.
Lieberman is closely affiliated with American Israeli Public
Affairs Committee. "AIPAC leverages its power by an alliance
with the Christian Right, which has adopted a bizarre ideology
of 'Christian Zionism,'" according to University of Michigan
professor Juan Cole. "It holds that the sooner the Palestinians
are ethnically cleansed, the sooner Christ will come back. Without
millions of these Christian Zionist allies," Cole added,
"AIPAC would be much less influential and effective."
During the 2004 election, a 100% "AIPAC voting record"
was Lieberman's litmus test for an acceptable presidential candidate.
As the House of Representatives was on the verge of passing a
resolution that would've required Bush to consult Congress before
attacking Iran, the AIPAC lobby stopped it in its tracks.
Bush's WMD-hyping against Iran is déja vu in the run-up
to Operation Iraqi Disaster, where he played loose and fast with
the truth about Iraq's alleged WMDs. His statement that a nuclear
Iran could put the region "under the shadow of a nuclear
holocaust" conjures up his images of a "mushroom cloud"
in the hype-up to Iraq.
How inconvenient for Bush that the UN International Atomic Energy
Agency (IAEA) just found Iran's uranium enrichment program is
operating well below capacity and is nowhere near producing significant
amounts of nuclear fuel. The IAEA report says Iran "has been
providing the agency with access to declared nuclear materials,
and has provided the required nuclear material accountancy reports
in connection with declared nuclear material and facilities."
Iran and IAEA agreed on a plan with a step-by-step timetable
of cooperation to settle unresolved issues. The agreement said
there were "no other remaining issues and ambiguities regarding
Iran's past nuclear program and activities," and characterized
the accord as "a significant step forward."
"This is the first time Iran is ready to discuss all the
outstanding issues which triggered the crisis in confidence,"
said IAEA director general Mohamed ElBaradei. "I'm clear
at this stage you need to give Iran a chance to prove its stated
goodwill. Sanctions alone, I know for sure, are not going to lead
to a durable solution"
In 2003, when Dr. ElBaradei reported there was no evidence that
Iraq was reconstituting its nuclear program, the White House was
not pleased. And as Saddam Hussein became more cooperative with
the weapons inspector, Bush became "infuriated," according
to Bob Woodward.
Bush's vow, "We will confront this danger before it is too
late," is the Iran incarnation of his illegal preemptive
war doctrine, which he inaugurated in Iraq. In a clear signal
he is seeking regime change in Iran, Bush called for "an
Iran whose government is accountable to its people, instead of
leaders who promote terror and pursue the technology that could
be used to develop nuclear weapons."
Barnett Rubin reported on Global Affairs blog that one of the
leading neo-conservative institutions has "instructions"
from Dick Cheney's office to "roll out a campaign for war
with Iran in the week after Labor Day; it will be coordinated
with the American Enterprise Institute, the Wall Street Journal,
the Weekly Standard, Commentary, Fox, and the usual suspects.
It will be heavy sustained assault on the airwaves, designed to
knock public sentiment into a position from which a war can be
maintained. Evidently they don't think they'll ever get majority
support for this - they want something like 35-40 percent support,
which in their book is 'plenty.'"
Bush/Cheney created the White House Iraq Group (WHIG) to lead
a propaganda campaign to bolster public support for war with Iraq.
The White House decided to wait until after Labor Day of 2002
to kick off WHIG's mission. Chief of staff Andrew Card explained,
"From a marketing point of view, you don't introduce new
products in August." Five years later, they're marketing
a new and even more dangerous product - war with Iran. British
military historian Corelli Barnett says "an attack on Iran
would effectively launch World War III."
Our military spending has reached $1 billion every 2-1/2 days
and we are borrowing $2-1/2 billion per day. Bush is mortgaging
our children's future security and wealth. We have lost more than
3,700 soldiers in Iraq and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis have
died.
We have already seen how easily Congress caves in to AIPAC. It's
up to the people. As Noam Chomsky said, "The most effective
barrier to a White House decision to launch a war [on Iran] is
the kind of organized popular opposition that frightened the political-military
leadership enough in 1968 that they were reluctant to send more
troops to Vietnam."
|
INFOWARS:
BECAUSE THERE'S A WAR ON FOR YOUR MIND
|
|
