The deployment of two aircraft carrier task forces to the Persian Gulf is a direct and deliberate challenge to Iran. As newly minted Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said recently:
the addition of another aircraft carrier
task force to the Persian Gulf is both to show the level of American
commitment to the region, and to remind Iran just how much firepower
sits off it’s southern coast.
That my friends is called sabre rattling. We also have news that Bush authorized capture/kill operations against Iranians inside Iraq, which came on the heels of a U.S. raid on an Iranian diplomatic mission in northeast Iraq and resulted in the capture of five Iranians awaiting their diplomatic credentials. If you are Iran you take these as more than mere emtpy symbolic gestures.
The war of words towards Iran is heating up as well. We are now hearing on almost a daily basis some dire warning about Iran and the threat it poses to the region. Reuters reported that John Negroponte, the nominee to be Deputy Secretary of State:
told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that an
emboldened Iran presented new difficulties for U.S. interests in Iraq,
the Gulf region, Lebanon and in Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking,
And here’s the messages the American people are hearing in the last couple of days:
Iran giving weapons to militias
Iraq has become a proxy battleground between Washington and Tehran
Iran involvement suspected in Karbala compound attack
Gee, sort of makes you long for the good old days when our major concern was “Al Qaeda” in Iraq under the malevolent leadership of Zarqawi. Al Qaeda has been pushed down on the priority hit list. Oh sure, they get mentioned once and awhile, but our new villain is Iran and its squirrely leader, Ahmadinejad. Face it. Al Qaeda is so yesterday.
Ignore the fact that most of the U.S. casualties are caused by Sunni insurgents, and most of these in the Al Anbar province. Get with the new mantra. “Iran, terrorism; Iran, terrorism; Iran, terrorism”. Did I forget to mention “Axis of Evil”? If we say it enough we will believe it is so. Watch for this in the coming days as the media, mainstream and peripheral, pick up the drumbeat and join the chant. The American people are being conditioned for a new war.
Unfortunately, Iran has a 25 year track record of backing terrorist attacks against U.S. interests and is doing little to act conciliatory. This high stakes game of chicken is headed towards an inevitable collision. We are being propagandized to believe that bombing Iran is our only option. We are being told that there is no room for negotiations. Ignoring areas of common interest–the rise of the Taliban and the Kurds–that could be a basis for negotiations. Nope, we’re singing a song:
Bomb, bomb, bomb
bomb bomb Iran.
Bomb, bomb, bomb
bomb bomb Iran.
Bomb Iran
Because we can.
Bomb Iran
We’ll be rocking and rolling
rocking and reeling
Bomb Iran.
ran a story in the last couple of days on Imad Mugniyah.
When you see HIS name start showing up in mainstream media again, it certainly tells me that the “Iran-Terror” threat noise machine is in overdrive.
.
…
During Imad’s childhood, his family moved to the Bir al-Abed section of Beirut and he was barely a teenager of 13 years when Lebanon’s civil war broke out in 1975 (The Jerusalem Report, August 22, 1991). The crucible of the war transformed Imad Mugniyah into an effective terrorist. He apparently joined Fatah in 1975 (where he served until 1982) and shortly thereafter was recruited by Fatah’s Force 17 (Asharq al-Awsat, August 11). Due to his young age, the opportunities in Force 17 were necessarily limited but it was probably around this time that Mugniyah had his initial exposure to bomb construction through his later brother-in-law, Mustafa Badr al-Din.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."Iran hasn’t been acting conciliatory? Except for when they’re helping us in Afghanistan, and repeatedly offering to compromise on their nuclear program, and much else that doesn’t get reported.
The last “terrorist” incident which was attributed to Iran was the bombing of the US Marine barracks in Lebanon. How long ago was that?
And was bombing an armed, uniformed, foreign military presence the same as a “terrorist” attack? Especially when that foreign military force as inserted itself into a civil war? The definition of terrorism is an attack on civilians, not US Marines in the middle of a war zone.
Now, compare that to the US’s historical support for terrorist groups – from nun-raping death squads in Latin America to the Taliban in Afghanistan to Saddam in Iraq…
It seemed that for a nanosecond we weren’t taking sides in the sectarian violence in Iraq. Then it looked like we were siding with the Shi’ites. The Saudis started objecting. Could this have anything to do with our escalating saber rattling against Iran?
I think that summons cheney got to Saudi Arabia at Thanksgiving(wasn’t it?)has a lot to do with this drumbeat about Iran and our seemingly starting to take sides.
During the buildup to Gulf Wars I and II I recall a lot of “analysis” positing that there was definitely going to be a war regardless of the pseudo-diplomatic rhetoric and denials of hostile intent. The reason? The military buildup. You simply don’t do that unless you intend to use them or you honestly think that the sabre-rattling will bring the hoped for resolution. We’ve got the military buildup, the half-hearted denials of intention to attack and the rest. What we don’t have is any hope of a resolution acceptable to the administration. Therefore…..keep your gas tank topped off.
Bomb Bomb bomb
bomb bomb Iran
Bomb bomb bomb
bomb bomb Iran
Let’s bomb Iran
And take a stand
we’ll have em rocking and a reelin
the Ayatollahs leavin
bomb Iran.