Easter Surprise: Attack on Iran, New 9/11… or Worse
“There’s an old saying in Tennessee — I know it’s in Texas, probably in Tennessee — that says, fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can’t get fooled again.” – George W. Bush, September 2002
“This notion that the United States is getting ready to attack Iran is simply ridiculous… Having said that, all options are on the table.” – George W. Bush, February 2005
The Bush administration continues moving closer to a nuclear attack on Iran, and we ignore the obvious buildup at our peril.
Russian media is sounding alarms. In February, ultra-nationalist leader Vladimir Shirinovsky warned that the US would launch a strike against Tehran at the end of this month. Then last week, the Russian News and Information Agency Novosti (RIA-Novosti) quoted military experts predicting the US will attack Iran on April 6th, Good Friday. According to RIA-Novosti, the imminent assault will target Iranian air and naval defense capabilities, armed forces headquarters as well as key economic assets and administration headquarters. Massive air strikes will be deployed, possibly tactical nuclear weapons as well, and the Bush administration will attempt to exploit the resulting chaos and political unrest by installing a pro-US government.
Sound familiar? It’s Iraq déjà vu all over again, and we know how well that war has gone.
Seymour Hersh has published numerous articles in The New Yorker detailing the Bush administration’s plans to invade Iran. His latest, “The Redirection,” discusses participation in Iran-based clandestine operations, the kidnapping of hundreds of Iranians (including many “humanitarian and aid workers”) by US forces and the shocking revelation that an Iran-Contra-type scandal has been run out of Vice President Dick Cheney’s office with some of the illicit funds going to groups “sympathetic to al-Qaeda.”
“The Redirection” also reports that the Pentagon has been planning to bomb Iran for a year and that a recently-established group connected to the Joint Chiefs of Staff is formulating an assault strategy to be implemented “upon orders from the President, within twenty-four hours.” Hersh notes that current capabilities “allow for an attack order this spring,” possibly when four US aircraft-carrier battle groups are scheduled to be in the Persian Gulf simultaneously.
Meanwhile, the Democratic Congress busies itself with non-binding, timid resolutions on Iraq and recently altered a military-funding bill to make it easier for Bush to invade Iran. As Rep. Shelley Berkley (D-NV) explained, language demanding that Bush seek congressional approval before attacking Iran “would take away perhaps the most important negotiating tool that the U.S. has when it comes to Iran.”
Such sheer ignorance and blind denial would be laughable if it weren’t marching us into Armageddon.
But with this Administration (and this Congress, apparently) diplomacy be damned.
It’s now widely known that Iran had broached peace talks with the US in 2003 - Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice admitted as much in 2006 when she said, “what the Iranians wanted earlier was to be one-on-one with the United States.” Yet the White House rejected Tehran’s overture outright and Rice has since developed selective amnesia, later saying of the Iranian proposal, ” I don’t remember seeing any such thing. “
For its part, the UN Security Council recently tightened sanctions aimed at pressuring Iran to cease uranium enrichment, and in response, Iran announced it would cooperate less with the International Atomic Energy Agency.
It’s worth noting that Iran is a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and says that its program falls under the legally permitted right to “peacefully use nuclear technology.” In contrast, Israel has neither signed nor ratified the NPT and the US would breach the Treaty by conducting a nuclear attack against Iran.
Besides, the Bush administration’s message to its enemies has been very clear: if you possess WMD you’re safe, and if you don’t, you’re fair game. Iraq had no nuclear weapons and was invaded, Iran doesn’t as well and risks attack, yet that other “Axis of Evil” country, North Korea, reportedly does have nuclear weapons and is left alone. When considering that India and Pakistan (and presumably Israel) developed secret nuclear weapons programs yet remain on good terms with Washington, the case for war becomes even more tenuous.
What consequences would arise from a US attack on Iran? Retaliation, for one. Tehran promised a “crushing response” to any US or Israeli assault, and while the country - ironically - doesn’t possess nuclear weapons to scare off attackers, it does have other options. Iran boasts a standing army estimated at 450,000 personnel, as well as long-range missiles that could hit Israel and possibly even Europe. In addition, much of the world’s oil supply is transported through the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow stretch of water which Iran borders to the north. In 1997, Iran’s deputy foreign minister warned that the country might close off that shipping route if ever threatened, and it wouldn’t be difficult. Just a few missiles or gunboats could bring down vessels and block the Strait, thereby threatening the global oil supply and shooting the price of crude oil to over $100 a barrel,with untold negative consequences for the world economy.
An attack on Iran would also inflame tensions in the Middle East, and could tip the scales towards a new geopolitical balance, one in which the US finds itself shut out by Russia, China, Iran, Muslim countries and the many others Bush has managed to alienate during his period in office.
The most horrific impact of a US assault on Iran, of course, would be the potentially catastrophic number of casualties. The Oxford Research Group predicted that up to 10,000 people would die if the US bombed Iran’s nuclear sites, and that an attack on the Bushehr nuclear reactor could send a radioactive cloud over the Gulf. If the US uses nuclear weapons, such as earth-penetrating “bunker buster” bombs, radioactive fallout would become even more disastrous.
The devastating implications of a US strike on Iran are clear. And that begs the question: how could the US public be convinced to enter another potentially ugly and protracted war?
Former CIA Officer Philip Giraldi chillingly noted that the Pentagon’s plans to attack Iran were drawn up “to be employed in response to another 9/11-type terrorist attack on the United States.” Writing in The American Conservative in August 2005, Giraldi added, “The plan includes a large-scale air assault on Iran employing both conventional and tactical nuclear weapons. Within Iran there are more than 450 major strategic targets, including numerous suspected nuclear-weapons-program development sites … As in the case of Iraq, the response is not conditional on Iran actually being involved in the act of terrorism directed against the United States.”
Chew on that one a minute. The Pentagon’s plan would be in response to a terrorist attack on the US, but not contingent upon Iran actually having been responsible. How outlandish is this scenario: another 9/11 hits the US, the administration says it has secret information implicating Iran, the US population demands retribution and bombs start dropping on Tehran.
While even contemplating another 9/11 brings shudders, it’s worth noting that last year, Congress quietly approved provisions making it easier for the President to declare federal martial law after a domestic terrorist incident. And recall that in late 2003, General Tommy Franks openly speculated on how a new 9/11 could lead to a military form of government: “a terrorist, massive, casualty-producing event somewhere in the Western world – it may be in the United States of America – that causes our population to question our own Constitution and to begin to militarize our country in order to avoid a repeat of another mass, casualty-producing event. Which in fact, then begins to unravel the fabric of our Constitution.”
Meanwhile, Iran conducted wargames in the Persian Gulf last week and just yesterday, the US Navy began its largest maneuvers in the region since the 2003 Iraq invasion, complete with over 100 US warplanes and 10,000 personnel.
The clock is ticking, and there’s far too much at stake.
If you’re from the US, contact your Senators today and ask them to support the Webb amendment prohibiting the Administration from attacking Iran without congressional approval. Tell them to support the Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Sen. Kit Bond (R-Mo.) bill making it harder for Bush to declare martial law and take over the National Guard, and while you’re at it, tell your Senators to only fund troop withdrawal and to bring the troops home. Thank those Congress members who voted against more war funding.
We could be looking at WWIII. The time for positive action is now.
Heather Wokusch is the author of The Progressives’ Handbook: Get the Facts and Make a Difference Now, Volumes I and II. She can be reached via www.heatherwokusch.com and seen at www.youtube.com/heatherwokusch
How frightening that America has devolved into a shameless monster. Why don’t our news media tell us these facts? Who keeps such a tight lid on the news?
Can anyone in the media tell me how they accomplish such uniformity in our news? Are journalists required to stay within certain preestablished perameters?
I am not proud to be an American at this point in history.
If we bomb Iran, I may relocate and revoke my US citizenship. A change sounds good anyway.
I am already planning to abstain from voting in this nation’s elections until they recall the electronic voting machines with no paper trails.
History repeats itself in the most dispicable manners. Here we go again.
It should terrify us that Bush and the neocon junta have everything to gain and nothing to lose by attacking Iran and declaring martial law. Another reichstag fire is indeed possible, those of us that pay attention know what they are capable of. We need to do what we can to reach out to other nations asking for internation intervention to stop this.
Given the inexcusable spineless jelly-fish nature of our congressional representatives, my question is: How much longer is the rest of the world going to sit on the sidelines and allow this errant ideologue’s aspirations towards empire to continue its brutal and savage momentum forward? When are Russia, China, Latin America et al, going to bring sanctions against this Oligarchy’s, invasion happy military beast?
Best wishes and hope
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tk1vEuhBuEU
This is a very disgusting display of misappropriated power, the epitome of prideful heart, seduced by power run amuck. village dwellers need to get they’re clubs and march en mass upon this Frankenstein’s castle before it get completely out of hand!
What does the the commercial news media have to say about it? They’re still looking to find Anna Nicole’s father to her baby. Maybe in the next episode we’ll get to watch as they dig her body up in effort to obtain additional DNA samples.
Best wishes and hope
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tk1vEuhBuEU
Don’t people realize that cowering before a bully is useless? I have been wishing that the rest of the world would unite and threaten the US with sanctions if we don’t stop invading and terrorizing other countries. Those of us inside our borders are too few and too ignored. Our media has behaved like an echo chamber for this administration. When we march and demonstrate, the media reports the size of the crowds divided by ten and avoids showing pictures.
When people say we aren’t in a police state yet, I think when it starts feeling like a police state, it’s a police state. If all you ever do is go to work, watch TV, and eat BBQ, you can be fat, happy and dumb in a police state.
Bush has turned Iraq from a dictatorship into a living Hell and now he has Iran in his sights. I don’t think this Congress is so much spineless as it is political. It’s using this war for political gain in the next election. In that regard, they don’t care any more than Bush about our troops or dead Iraqis.
Thanks for your post Steve. I remember reading a report, following a test for the mother of all bunker busters in the Florida pan handle, during Jeb Bush’s reign over that region. Of course the language used in the description of its effects was woven into all sorts of pleasantries in order to garner the required support.
Is there any public record for the total number of Bunker Busters utilized, while looking for caves, and vaporizing the Afghani mountain ranges in the process? If you’ll remember the incessant enormity in the dispersal of these dirty munitions, statements were made that the Afghani Mountains had become a test-bed for the future deployment into Iraq, and now Iran.
It is my understanding that the Iraqi country side has been turned into a nuclear cesspool, a nightmare that will continue to haunt many generations to come, resulting from the unhindered use of these dirty munitions, all throughout Gulf War Part I and Part II.
Check the date on this CNN World News report, in which the Neocon Oligarchy is thumping its chest over the new and improved weapons which the U.S. can utilize in a ‘possible’ future U.S. confrontation with Iraq. The date is 1998!
http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/9802/06/bunker.buster.bomb/index.html
It’s pornographically obscene in how these weapons of mass destruction are advertised! It amazes me that the Military Industrial Complex hasn’t thought to open an account on eBay yet!
Here is another good link describing the effects upon areas where the military has used it as nuclear waste dumping site, in the form of munitions:
http://www.apfn.org/apfn/DU.htm
Best wishes and hope
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tk1vEuhBuEU
Like many Americans, andrew.herman asks, “Why don’t our news media tell us these facts? …Can anyone in the media tell me how they accomplish such uniformity in our news?”
The news media are not at all what they present themselves as being, ie, “impartial sources of information,” that presumably strive to tell “the truth.” They are exceedingly political institutions. They are giant corporations, so they look at the world from the corporatist perspective. They have a partnership with government: they function to create a public mindset agreeable to government, & government in turn does many reciprocal favors for them, in terms of tax law & regulatory approval.
This has been going on for decades, though of course it’s become more blatant in recent years. Anyone who today reads Chomsky’s “Manufacturing Consent” or Michael Parenti’s media studies, which were all written years before GW Bush stole the ‘00 election, has to be impressed by how prescient those analyses turned out to be.
Dont insult jellyfish by comparing them to Congress.
As Twain observed:
“man is the only animal that blushes…
or needs to.”
The US built up the largest, most sophisticated war machine the world has ever seen. It had to be used. Made stretegic economic sense to use it, for what it’s designed for, i.e. killing. The so-called freedom-loving, God-worshiping men who now command this war machine have decided to use it all. In raw monetary terms, hundreds of billions of dollars had been spent “investing” in this armed-to-the-teeth monolith, “let’s go git our money’s worth, ‘fore ev’rythang turns all rusty and outta shape.”
Right now everybody’s got their eyes on the 2008 election. But be very careful - the ‘Great Decider’ might just decide to declare martial law, then world war, and the suspension of the American elections until further notice. And, oh by the way, curfew is 9:00 pm, after that time anyone caught outside will be shot. And their families will be invoiced for damages and costs associated with the removal of body parts.
I’ve read Senator Webb’s amendment proposal, from the above link, requiring Congressional approval prior to any possible strike being launched against Iran. Sounds to me like the same rhetoric, mincing of words. Where in the hell was Congress when the Bush neocon oligarchy decided to invade the sovereignty of Iraq.
Senator Webb’s parting shot in the concluding sentence of the article is, “My hope is we can calm this issue down a bit,” he said. “[A]nd hopefully over a period of time bring Iran into the world community. That should be our goal.” One needs to ponder what the definition for a ‘world community’ is to the neocon mindset. Remember their motto: if you’re not with us, you’re a terrorist. Saddam was a bad business partner who dared to stray from their strategy. Iran may not want to be part of the world corporate agenda and wish only to develop its own culture, in its own way. Here in rubs the thorn in the side of the neocon strategy.
We must shed this xenophobic attitude that our form of government must be force fed upon everyone we come in contact with. Putin’s recent response to Cheney, after Cheney criticized his progress on Russian democracy, resonates clearly, “who in the hell wishes to have a democracy imposed on them such as that which Bush wants to export?” He’s right! We ceased being a democracy with the murder of Kennedy, when a handful of thugs decided to hold a private election with a rifle and a bullet. Today, rifles and bullets are what we export best. By political definition, we live in an Oligarchy. Chomsky defines it as: “the need to defend the opulence of the minority, against the desires of the majority.” The façade of democracy is only that, a media fabricated façade to placate the masses.
Escalation is the desire and intent of this crusading administration. It is looking for the next flashpoint to exploit and I’m afraid if none were to materialize, one would be ignited. When a rabid dog has a bloody arm in the grip of its foaming jaws, it will not let go. So too, I’m afraid, will an errantly fanatical ideologue.
Best wishes and hope
Impeach them now!
http://www.apfn.org/apfn/DU.htm
kathyodat March 28th, 2007 2:25 pm
“I don’t think this Congress is so much spineless as it is political. It’s using this war for political gain in the next election. In that regard, they don’t care any more than Bush about our troops or dead Iraqis.”
I agree with you. They only play these games because the duopoly that runs this country figures you have no choice. It would certainly be nice to see a lot of third party candidates get elected in 08.
Lobo Gris
It’s going to happen.
The notion that Bush is not very smart, educated, wise or competent is ridiculous. Having said that, all options are on the table.
i wont be surprised at anything,however why are we to believe this quote:
“ultra-nationalist leader Vladimir Shirinovsky warned that the US would launch a strike against Tehran at the end of this month. Then last week, the Russian News and Information Agency Novosti (RIA-Novosti) quoted military experts predicting the US will attack Iran on April 6th, Good Friday”
..isn’t this coming from a rather self-serving source-as was pointed out to me from a right-wing buddy?
Don’t we all agree, the powers that be are in cahoots to a certain degree? Should’ve been a poet.
It makes sense to me that the Pentagon would “leak” the most serious plans through our allies first to feel out the hostile ripples in our reaction(s), so to speak. That way they can adjust their phoney PR talking points for the day when the bombs actually begin to drop. Be a good Guinea pig now and react!
Right now, as “We the People” chat about the inevitable, there are thousands of PR experts working for Master Bush who are reading us like a book with our own tax dollars. How ironic that they use our money to study us and then conveniently fix all of the facts fit to print to counter any reality we might find unpalatable.
The bastards use our passions against us without us ever knowing it. (If you ever saw/read The Green Mile) “They’re killing us with our love.”
The whole American political system needs purged.
Glaucus
I am concerned with my own growing cynicism.
Lately I have developed the impression that capitalism and communism are literally left and right of the same corps. Six in one, half dozen in the other.
The right hand beats down the people with lies about God-laws, man-laws, and a freedom that must be won with hard work. But only one out a hundred actually wins in this system. Corruption is inherent in the system because pride and greed are the foundation of the system. When “we the people” learn the truth, we are sorely dissillusioned.
The other one beats down the people with lies about social equality, man-laws, and some meaningful togetherness that is supposed to be better than freedom. But, then, only the greatest champions of the social-equality theory get to make decisions and they must enforce it upon everyone to make sure that everyone is equal. How ironic is it that the very champions of social equality are the very ones who make it impossible? The common people are terribly dissillusioned with the thought police.
Humanity needs a new system that tames the powers of all champions, whether capitalist or communist. The new system must be anti-political, if that is even possible. How can we go back? Ghandi showed us the way.
Thomas Jefferson suggested an agrarian paradise with free philosophy academies where able-minded folks could advance the social wisodom of the land.
Greed and power. Pride and nationalism. How can these political beasts be tamed? They are the real enemies of humanity, regardless of left or right or centrist status.
Wisdom education is the only hope left for humanity. Isn’t that what religion fails to do? And what about the “fools” who choose to ignore wisdom. It is unwise to force people in any way.
Somehow anti-political consciousness must grow. Not anarchy, but vast networks of commonsense people who solve problems rather than create them.
Could the April 6th date be an intentional leak to get Iran to make the first move? After all, isn’t it just past a full moon on April 5th in that part of the world? Why would US planes attack when there is light - it’s counter intuitive to Pentagon offensive plans.
On another note, any action would be disastrous for thw world. Impeachment is not enough for this moron - he must be tried for war crimes!
Great job here, Cassandra! Right on!
Write on! I hope, however, that you never get the satisfaction of writing, “I told you so.”
Experiencing the cataract of bad news from writers like you in books, blogs,websites and Free Speech TV since 9/l1 has been like watching the Twin Towers collapse–except that it is the image of “America the Beautiful” that is collapsing.
Americans Watched TV
Television, and most of our Newspapers are owned, and controlled by Big Business, who push things that are good for their business. Whoever controls the media, control everything. Our founding fathers warned us of this long ago. “Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost.” “Whenever the people are well informed, they can be trusted with their own government; that whenever things get so far wrong as to attract their notice, they may be relied on to set them to rights.”
Thomas Jefferson
The events of 9/11 were shown on TV over and over again. They told everyone exactly what happened. The problem is, many things we were being told didn’t make any logical sense. What really happened? I don’t have a clue. By the time the Scientists,and Experts started to question the governments stories, the TV watching public had already made up their minds, and anyone who questioned the TV’s official story were labeled conspiracy nuts.
The events that followed 9/11 pose a far greater threat to us than Communism ever did, and as far as Television goes everything in this country is just hunky-dory. Bush is treated by the American Media as if he was a decent good, legitimately elected president, who is trying to do the best he can for our country. Only in the rest of the world do they see Butcher Bush as he really is.
During the Ford, Reagan and Bush Sr. administrations, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, and others were developing strategies for world domination. In the 1990s as members of The Project for a New American Century they decided that we needed to invade Iraq and establish permanent military bases, to control and police the Middle East and its vast oil reserves. It was said at one of the meetings, that the only way that could happen would be if we had a New Pearl Harbor. The Supreme Court installed G.W. Bush as our president, and they got their New Pearl Harbor. The big question about 9/11 is, (Was it an inside job). One thing for sure is that the governments explanation of what accrued does not make any sense. At best, the government was aware of what was about to happen and let it happen. In convincing the people we were under attack the government has been able to invade Afghanistan, and Iraq. We have been striped of our liberty’s, and the appointed president has been elevated to dictator. It was the the same way that fascism was introduced to Germany. The Reichstag fire was a fire which many historians believe the Nazis set, and than blamed on the Communists. Germans believing they were under attack gave away their democracy to Adolf Hitler. Of course that smirking idiot with the cowboy hat is not Hitler. Dumb Ass George is but a puppet on a string. Look at the faces of the people who are pulling the string. Open your eyes and realize that our United States of America, land of the free,is gone. The people presently in charge are more dangerous than Hitler. Hitler didn’t have the Bomb. They do. It seems that they may be planing to use it, on Iran. “All options are open,” (George Bush). Our pathetic Congress is worthless, and the media know longer is able to distinguish its ass from its elbow.
Our Nation has turned into a fascist state and, most people could give a shit. “If it doesn’t affect me, I don’t want to know about it”.” I am not interested in politics.” “I have more important things to think about.” “There isn’t anything that I can do.” All Good Germans, and all Good Americans, believe what they are told,and don’t ask questions.
The next three steps are as follows, Attacking Iran, World War 3, and The Nuclear Destruction of Planet Earth. Nero fiddled while Rome burned, and Americans watched TV as the world was vaporized. OVER AND OUT!
John J.Coghlan…..
!!!!!!!!!!!AMEN!!!!!!!!!!!