Cross posted from Kos, where it generated a lively discussion.
It looks like Dick Cheney is up to his old tricks.
Pat Buchanan and that other guy were talking on MSNBC today about the Lebanon situation and how Iran plays into it. They touched on an issue I brought up last week in Lebanon Blowback.
Hezbollah is going around south Lebanon handing out Iranian supplied money to Lebanese displaced by the recent fighting, making Hezbollah and Iran even bigger heroes in that country and in the Muslim world.
As Hezbollah walked the neighborhoods spreading goodwill, Israeli commandos raided a Hezbollah stronghold deep inside Lebanon, creating more bad will for Israel and its American ally. Lebanese Defense Minister Elias Murr threatened to halt deployment of his troops to south Lebanon unless the UN takes up the issue of the Israeli raid. From cable news reports, it seems that everyone who volunteered to contribute to the UN peacekeeping force is now threatening to pull out of the commitment unless Israel backs off.
If the peace deal falls through, Dick Cheney and his chamberlains will try to blame Hezbollah, but only the true neo-conned believers will fall for that one.
Meanwhile, Iran marches closer to its self imposed August 22 deadline to accept incentives to halt its uranium enrichment program. Pat Buchanan doesn’t think Iran will give up it’s “inalienable right” to develop nuclear technology for peaceful purposes, and I agree with him. They’ll probably turn down the incentives.
If the UN Security Council then votes for sanctions against Iran, it will hinder in essence be cutting off Iran’s aid to the victims of southern Lebanon, and that will make bad guys of the Security Council. For that reason, China and Russia–already favorably inclined toward Iran–may well vote against sanctions.
At that point, Cheney will have his “See, we tried diplomacy and it didn’t work” ticket punched, and consider that he has a green light to bomb Iran. Never mind that Iran has claimed loudly and at length that it has no intention of developing a nuclear weapons program, and Cheney has no proof to the contrary.
Iran launched a major military exercise designed to test its new defense doctrine. Cheney’s children will declare the exercise to be a belligerent act, but everyone else will see the exercise for what it really is: a prudent preparation for U.S. attacks on Iran.
If Mad Dog Dick convinces young Mister Bush to launch offensive military actions against Iran based on the basis of even less justification than the Iraq invasion, anything Iran does in retaliation will be entirely sanctioned under international law. And Iran can do some mighty embarrassing things to U.S. forces in the region, especially naval units currently patrolling the Arabian Gulf.
In that eventuality, Cheney would use Iran’s justifiable reactions to justify any further military destruction of Iran he cares to conduct, and the United States will be alone in the world.
We can’t say for sure if that’s what Cheney has been driving America to all along, but given his track record as both Rasputin and Machiavelli of the Bush administration, it sure looks that way.
Larisa Alexandrovna of Raw Story reported yesterday that Cheney has once again formed his own private intelligence directorate to independently analyze (i.e., cherry pick/cook) the information on Iran’s nuclear program.
Stand by for an encore performance.
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Commander Jeff Huber, U.S. Navy (Retired) writes from Virginia Beach, Virginia. Read his commentaries at ePluribus Media and Pen and Sword.
