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Obama Administration Escalates Confrontation With Iran: Why?
The Obama administration announced two weeks ago that a bumbling Iranian-American used car salesman had conspired with a U.S. government agent posing as a representative of Mexican drug cartels, to assassinate the Saudi ambassador in Washington. This brought highly skeptical reactionsfrom experts here across the political spectrum.
But even if some of this tale turns out to be true, the handling of such accusations is inherently political. For example, the U.S. government’s 9/11 commission investigated the links between the attackers and the Saudi ruling family, but refused to make public the results of that investigation. The reason is obvious: there is dirt there and Washington doesn’t want to create friction with a key ally. And keep in mind that this is about complicity with an attack on American soil that killed 3000 people.
By contrast, the Obama administration seized upon the rather dubious speculation that “the highest levels of the Iranian government” were involved in this alleged plot. President Obama announced that “all options are on the table,” which is well-known code for possible military action. This is extremist and dangerous rhetoric.
University of Michigan professor Juan Cole, a leading Mideast scholar,offered that Obama may be “wagging the dog” – looking for a military confrontation to help his re-election in the face of a stagnant economy and high unemployment. This is certainly possible. Recall that George W. Bushused the build-up to the Iraq war to secure both houses of Congress in the 2002 election. He didn’t even have to go to war. The run-up to war worked perfectly to achieve his main goal: all of the issues that most voters cared about and were threatening to cost Republicans one or both chambers of Congress – the jobless recovery, Social Security, corporate scandals – disappeared from the news during the election season between August and November. President Obama’s advisers certainly understand these things.
Of course the latest saber-rattling could also just be part of a long-term preparation for war with Iran, just asPresident Clinton spent years preparing the ground for the Iraq warlaunched by Bush. Once this is done,war is difficult to stop; and once these wars are launched, they are even more difficult to end, as 10 years of useless, bloody war in Afghanistan show.
That is why international initiatives to roll back the march toward war, like thenuclear fuel-swap proposal brought forth by Brazil and Turkey in May 2010, are so important. The Iranian government has recently offered to stop enriching uranium if the United States would provide uranium for Iran’s medical research reactor – which it needs for hundreds of thousands of cancer patients. This uranium would not be usable for weapons. The proposal was endorsed by leaders of the American Federation of Scientists.
Brazil is one of the few countries with the international stature, independence, neutrality and respect to help defuse this confrontation. We can only hope that it will make further attempts to save the world from another horrible war.
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136 Comments so far
Show AllThe reason for going after Iran is that they are selling thier oil on the Euro and not the dollar. This takes billions of dollars out of the pockets of the oil companies, and they dony like it. The real culprit in most of our wars has been the corporations going into other counties and steeling thier resorces. Then when the locals stand up to the orporate invaders, our govt goes to war, and send our young men and women to die for the corporate greed. Of couse, we go in and destroy the country, giving the corporations free riegn and further degrading the lives of the public. Our sons and daughters that do come home are tramatised and many missing limbs etc. They sacrificed not for country, but for corporation. Truly sad.
quipzone, your post is fine after the first 2 sentences, which are just incredibly silly. sorry.
Greg, Quip's post is a short version of General Butler's memoirs. You know, the guy who said that war is a racket. It's not his posts that are incredibly silly...
Gadfry, here we go again. Quip's post a la Butler was fine. I specifically said so. I said his first 2 sentences were silly. They had zero to do with Gen. Butler or his ideas. It seems reading and comprehension are a dying art.
Greg You are the one with the comprehension problem - have you ever heard of petro-dollars - or have you heard of the fact that the saudis agreed with the usa to sell oil only in usa dollars?
Considering that iran has the 2nd or 3rd largest oil reservesin the world - iran agreeing to sell oil in other currencies undermines the us dollar -
Whether an all-out currency war will occur is still to be decided but his sentence made perfect sense.
Once again trot out some FACTS Before throwing out insults - and bragging about your supposed lefty leanings and books you've read offer us Zero facts.
Sorry, but you have zero understanding of world currencies and their interactions. The fact that the dollar is the world's reserve currency is of value, but the 'reward' to the US is actually quite small. Having extra currency floating around the world is like a free loan. That is really the only benefit. If someone does not wish to hold dollars they can exchange them for something else.
Greg @1:48pm says "Ok, I have other stuff to do so this is my last post to you."
Ouch, that hurt. You got me.
You're the last person who should condemn the reading and comprehension skills of others.
1) Gadfry, I do believe you meant to use the word 'gadfly'. I could be wrong, but gadfry is not a word I'm familiar with. For that matter, neither is my spellcheck. You could claim a typo, but really the 'r' key is usually hit with the fingers of the left hand if you're using a qwerty keyboard, and the 'l' key is hit with the right hand's fingers.
Godfry would have been the best choice, as in "Godfry Daniels!" (W.C. Fields). My sensitive hearing finds the Godfry spelling to be a bit too close to The Devil's Work (just kidding). Anyway, my humble apologies to all. I will do penance later.
Why Iran?
The BO (Bank/Oil) Empire always attacks any nation that dares to sell cheap petroleum on world markets which would bring world oil prices crashing. That was the only reason for my war Desert Storm against Iraq. We didn't know it at the time, but we were fighting to raise fuel and energy prices on ourselves in the US so that the One Percent could put us into abject poverty.
In Venezuela, diesel was just seventeen cents a gallon, while in the US it was over two dollars. OPEC is by their own admission a Cartel. The definition of a Cartel is a body that eliminates competition in order to artificially fix prices. For all the talk Wall Street does about free markets, it's my experience that they never allow one. All the Fortune 500 is, is a collection of Monopolies and Oligopolies hellbent on destroying Democracy here and abroad.
TJ
Why now? That should be blindingly obvious for two reasons.
1) Israel
2) The MIC won't stand for a war being ramped down without another to replace it.
The only real power the president of the united states has is that which the president can usurp under the cover of war. The Obama administration may be using this current round of sabre rattling in order to further its domestic agenda while having no intention of engaging Iran in a direct conflict, however these things take on a life of their own.
It should be noted the US Empire is very close to becoming engaged in warfare with the Pakistani government, whereas it's already waging war against the Pakistani people. In Iran, Khameni recently floated the idea of instituting a parliamentary system. How serious he is I don't know. But it would be a positive change for Iran's political dynamic by being more inclusive and perhaps mollify the underlying causes of "Iran's Spring," which came before the Arab. As mentioned, sanctions drive up oil and NatGas prices because they restrict Iranian production and export. The Peace Pipeline going from Iran to India via Pakistan is being constructed, and it will probably be extended to Bangladesh and China.
I think war with Iran unlikely. It would be the US Empire's Waterloo were it to attack Iran. The scene is shifting to Africa as the pickin's seem easier. And the domestic scene is filled with an active and growing dissent.
Obama is a neocon. All neocons want to invade Iran.
Sure, go right ahead and attack Iran. Just as long as the first 538 troops to invade are the 535 members of both houses of congress, President Oblahblah, Madam Hillary and Leon Panetta. Then we will see exactly how serious a threat Iran is to us! Sorry kiddies, no excuses, like flat feet or a bum knee from jump school. You guys and gals are the first ones to get your asses booted out of the back of the plane. Just remember to count to 1,000,000,000 then pull the rip cord. Not to worry, we support each and every one of you! Good riddance. See, we don't have to wait for 2012!
+1
“..all of the issues that most voters cared about and were threatening to cost Republicans one or both chambers of Congress – the jobless recovery, Social Security, corporate scandals – disappeared from the news during the election season between August and November.”
And these highly important issues right now for Americans definitely threaten Barack Obama.. so what does he do? Escalates and summons conflict?
Vote no for BO and many others who would ignore our needs. We need SS and we don’t need wars.
A modern capitalist economy requires priming the pump by the state when the capitalists refuse to invest in the real economy because the rate of return on their investments are too low. This priming has been going on for decades now by way of the military-industrial complex. The war manufacturers have made sure to disperse their activities across the US, so that many states get jobs through these activities. It makes it difficult for politicians to reverse this situation and many are outright owned by the war manufacturers. To keep the wheels turning it is important that the USA always finds new enemies to confront and new wars to unleash. It's the way the system works. The only option left is to change the system.
Umm...Let's see,...besides China, it is the wealthiest NON-privatized Central Bank on Earth sitting on an Oil based economy? Could that be why the Bankers will send their American, (they care not which country allows itself to be used as the bankers army, as long as one does), taxpayer funded Private Security Force peopled by our sons and daughters into harms way. Make no mistake, it has nothing to do with politics or WMD. The Iranian people want the right to self-determine, that is all. They don't need the Rothschild's Private Security, (same as US Military), to do that. That's not why they'll be sent to slaughter and be slaughtered, it will be for the most obvious answer of all, that we've been brainwashed to overlook. Wealth. It's greed, pure, simple, unadulterated.
the timing of the announcement of this Iranian "plot" coincides with congressional hearings into the "fast and furious" guns to Mexican drug cartels operation of the ATF--and I believe the Republicans have Eric Holder in their sights. For once I'd like to see Issa or one of those Repubs take on Holder and bring him down. This "plot" conveniently stymies any serious looking-into Holder's involvement in the misconceived guns to Mexico plot. Holder's been a disaster from top to bottom for "Justice" in post-Bush America.