SPECIAL TO WORLD TRIBUNE.COM
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
ABU DHABI — Iran may pose a greater security threat to the strategic Persian Gulf than does Al Qaida, warned the U.S. Fifth Fleet commander at a news conference in Bahrain.
“We consider this moment in time unprecedented in terms of the amount of insecurity and instability that is in the region,” U.S. Fifth Fleet commander Vice Adm. Patrick Walsh said.
“Although our presence in the Arabian Gulf is for defensive and not offensive purposes, the U.S. will take military action if ships are attacked or if countries in the region are targeted or U.S. troops come under direct attack,” Walsh added.
Read on if you have the courage.
—snip—
Walsh’s assertion represented the clearest signal of U.S. alarm concerning Iran’s threat to the region. Only two weeks earlier, leading U.S. naval commanders said the Iran Navy was acting with caution and seeking to avoid a conflict with the United States.
Officials said the United States has begun to highlight the Iranian threat as Teheran continues to test and deploy a range of medium- and intermediate-range missiles. They said the U.S. military was countering this by sending two carrier strike groups to the Gulf, ready to assure shipping through the Straits of Hormuz.
“An increasingly belligerent Iran thinks it can control, threaten and intimidate,” U.S. Deputy Assistant Defense Secretary for the Middle East Mark Kimmitt said.
Officials said the Defense Department has been quietly preparing for confrontation with Iran that would focus on control of the Gulf. They said naval commanders, including Walsh, were being promoted to senior positions in Central Command and the Pentagon.
“There is a historic tension between Iran and the region and we recognize that,” Walsh said. “Iran is the concern that we all have at the moment.”
—snip—
“It is not as if we are out looking for a fight, we are not patrolling Iranian waters,” Walsh said. “We have assumed a defensive posture here to reassure our friends and provide stability in the region. We have not experienced the targeting of U.S. troops.
—snip—
How much clearer need it be said?
Despite the ongoing “diplomatic” processes, despite the clearly voiced preferences of the American people, despite the posturing and political tacticizing going on in Congress, they believe that they can run their usual cry wolf game and stampede the people of the US into the acceptance of a wider war.
And y’know what?
They are probably correct, if they run their game well.
“Remember the Maine!!!“
It worked then.
“Remember Pearl Harbor!!!“
It worked then.
“Remember the Gulf of Tonkin Incident!!! “
It worked then.
“Remember 9/11!!!“
It worked then.
They will work it until it DOESN’T work.
Only…in a nuclear age, when it doesn’t work, it doesn’t work BIG TIME.
Watch.
Watch for a “provocation” of some sort.
“Remember the Straits of Hormuz!!!“
Watch.
(If of course the Israelis’ nukes are not used first.)
Watch.
It’s all you can do.
AG
Watch.
AG
Tips & Recs… It’s the least I can do.
Local Press out here in the gulf is portraying US as a mad dog, GCC countries are signing weapons system procurement contracts with the russians (biggest US stick over the gulf states is a threat to cut off the supply of spare parts). Iranian ambassadors are getting better photo ops with the local big wigs, etc.
We might find ourselves in a dust up without convenient port access.
Also, I was chatting with a fellow connected to US forces in the region and he said something about being in Iran soon enough. I said yeah- but it seems all we could do is try to grab the coastal regions to secure the gulf from land launched anti-ship missiles. He ended the chat immediately.
Guess that’s the plan- 20-30K men on a whole lot of coastline.
WOnder if we’re going to give up a carrier to get this going (hey- someone will have to build a new one, right?!)
Fools.
All of them.
Murderous, thieving fools.
And they are going to take us down with their greed and stupidity.
In the immortal pre-epitaph for the developed world written by William S. Burroughs in his piece “THE LAST BROADCAST” well over 35 years ago:
“Here lived stupid vulgar sons of bitches. Who thought they could hire DEATH as a company cop… empty newspapers in the wind, frayed sounds of a distant city… DEATH, Johnny, come and took over… distant hand couldn’t time guesses to the last broadcast… a rustle of darkness and wires…”
Fools, one and all.
AG
The Iranians have surely war-gamed the ‘beachhead’ gambit. I wouldn’t want to be on the LST or helicopters making the first landing. And it’s not like we have a huge reserve to back them up if they get pinned down.
But instead of the UK civillian flotilla coming to the rescue, we’ll have… pissed off Arabs?
We better not loose transit and basing rights mid-conflict.
Ack.
Now…what ELSE can we do about it?
Before, as the esteemed 08istoolatetowait’s sig would have it, it’s too late.
Even in ’07.
Damned if I know.
AG
play the blues…
refresh the logos…
i love it when you wail, arthur..
best jazz-political writing in blogistan
Can anyone tell me what those spiffy looking little red [!] marks mean next to so many diaries?
I’m mystified.
AG
shame on you
march on the pentagon: 3.17.07
Oh.
Duh.
AG
You crack me up, AG. 🙂
Glad to be of service.
AG
Iran will force the US to make the first move, and will take the hit to ensure that the US leadership commits a clear war crime. This is the nation that took down the Roman Empire. They play the long game. The Bush Game goes only 18 months out, at the most.
In a war of nerves, I would not put much trust in the American nerve.
Maybe…
Seems like there are ALREADY so many war crimes available…
Why take a nuke to the nuts to prove THAT point?
AG
er, because they have an excess of unemployed, frustrated, belligerent males they don’t mind losing this generation to make a point that might last millennia…
in keeping with a culture where suicidal ideology sprouts relentlessly, it costs so little, human life, when you have nothing to lose, and 72 virgins to gain…
or was it 82?
lemme see that contract again!
bloody night, however you count it…
But…everywhere has an excess of unemployed, frustrated, belligerent males.
Except for those places that have an an excess of employed, frustrated, belligerent males.
I have traveled all over the world, lived on every economic level from the street scene in places like the South Bronx and Caracas right on up…or is it down…to the parties and hotels of the rich, famous and powerful.
Frustrated, belligerent males is what RUNS the joint.
So it goes.
Apes with nukes.
On BOTH sides, now.
Go figure what will result from THAT situation.
AG
Terror shall not prevail ( 2002)
Nowhere to hide, no place to run
People everywhere living under the gun
All I know is how I feel
Fear is a lie, only love is real
Might want to holler, might want to wail
But terror shall not prevail
I wonder what’s happening so I turn on the news
Brand new channel, same old blues
Why’s it so hard just to get along?
People and belief-systems tangled up wrong
Peace on the planet’s like the holy grail
But terror shall not prevail
*Someone gets a payoff just to keep me afraid
It’s just their agenda, it’s not how I’m made
Existential panic is not my style
We’re only here for a while
Why’s it so hard just to get along?
People and belief-systems tangled up strong
They take young minds and they mold them like clay
Stroking their machine-guns, teaching them to pray
Sometimes I wonder what’s not for sale
But terror shall not prevail
God’s on our side, we hate the enemy
He’s on the other side, it’s simple you see
Written in the holy books in black and white
The more you struggle, the more you’re right
You got the tiger so you tweak his tail
But terror shall not prevail
*
The government says to believe what they say
If you wanna survive you got to play it that way
I take my medication regular like the shrink said I should
You ask me how I feel, I say ‘I think I feel good’
Joined the religion of the frustrated male
But terror shall not prevail
I see the double-dealing demon deep inside of me
Potatochips, dictatorships, dig that anarchy
Forever searching for a better way through
Scylla and Charybdis, me and you
Civilisation’s like a train off the rails
But terror shall not prevail
*
Life gave us brains for to see the light
Life gave us hands to be tender, not fight
Life gave us hearts just to keep it all real
Life gave us everything, pretty sweet deal
We come in fresh, but we let it get stale
But terror shall not prevail
My soul believes it’ll all work out fine
It’s bound for glory, drinking mystic wine
My mind can’t believe what I see with my eyes
I pray for understanding, pray to be wise
Sometimes I get it, mostly I fail
But terror shall not prevail
*
set to a n’awlins funk-shuffle
God. Our admirals sound like gangsters now.
Nothing new.
by Smedley Darlington Butler
* Major General – United States Marine Corps
* Awarded two congressional medals of honor, for capture of Vera Cruz, Mexico, 1914
* and for capture of Ft. Riviere, Haiti, 1917
* Distinguished service medal, 1919
* Retired Oct. 1, 1931
* Republican Candidate for Senate, 1932
1: War is a Racket
WAR is a racket. It always has been.
It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives.
A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of the people. Only a small “inside” group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few, at the expense of the very many. Out of war a few people make huge fortunes.
—snip—
Read the rest.
Nothing new.
Awakening is a bitch, ain’t it?
AG
It’s funny how the word “racket” has gone out of common use. Judging from movies, it was still used quite commonly in the 50s and 60s, as in, referring to a law-abiding middle-class person, “What racket is he in to now?” Do you have any ideas about why it’s disappeared?
My sense is that the explanation is that rackets have become the norm, so that people don’t even think about them as rackets any more. Not just war, but the military-industrial complex itself is a racket. The US auto industry, pushing SUVs on consumers like some hard drug, is a racket. The pharmaceutical industry is a racket. Medical insurance is a racket. Microsoft is a racket: they push an expensive, unreliable product on people, when you can get a better product off of the Internet for free.
Thank you.
Even better that kleptocracy.
Yup.
Precisely.
AG
Democrackets vs. Rackpublicans.
Yup.
AG
goes with the repug proclivity for tennis, huh?
Sin net, anyone?
AG
Not only have we sent 2 aircraft carriers to the region but they are accompanied by an array of cruisers, destroyers and submarines plus several US and British naval minesweepers…and I can’t remember where I read this information. There’s barely enough room for all this military hardware in this small area and that doesn’t count the Iranian navy vessels in the water there…who have every right to be there.
This is just begging for some some of ‘accidental’ incident.
The public here keeps hearing that Iran is isolated and that all our allies agree with this show of force counter to all real reports that show we are the ones isolated with our idiotic stance on Iran..and yes we can keep blaming our bought and paid for press for this freaken propaganda. The blood on their hands is worse than on bushco’s as far as I’m concerned.
Do Americans know any history at all? The Maine was not blown up by the Spanish! It was either an accident (per two commissions) or for those with tinfoil hats, it was arranged by Hearst himself! Tonkin was a total put up job. There’s a good deal of evidence that clues to Pearl Harbor were ignored–and what can we say about the information leading to 9/ll.
So putting all these incidents on the same list is a statement in itself!
Precisely my point.
AG
This is standard American strategy. Whether it was the Mexican War or the Civil War or the Vietnam War or any number of lesser conflicts, the time-tested American approach is to mass troops or ships adjacent to or right in disputed territory until the other side has no choice but to fire the first shot to avoid ending up in a strategically untenable position.
Americans don’t fire the first shot; they place a little cannon fodder where it will inevitably attract fire and then claim to be victims of an unprovoked attack.
It’s bullshit, of course, but as the old saying goes, truth is the first casualty of war. By the time the blood starts flowing, no one will be asking what the US would have done if Iran had invaded Mexico and then massed the bulk of its naval assets off the Gulf Coast.
The wild card is all that advanced Russian and Chinese hardware. How long does the Bush Administration think it will last if we end up with a stranded army and no navy before the sun sets on the first day of combat?
How long does the Bush Administration think it will last if does not make this move.
The Bush Administration and the interests in which it acts.
And the answer is currently blowin’ in the wind.
Bet on it.
Backs against the wall…even the crudest, most stupid adversaries are dangerous.
Crude, stupid, relatively incompetent and armed with nukes?
I am frightened.
Really.
I am currently more frightened than I EVER was when 9/11 went down 15 miles away from me.
Much more.
AG
I think it would be a huge blunder, not only for obvious military/diplomatic reasons, but politically.
To stop them would require a stong offense by Democrats, and NOT ON THE ISSUE OF IRAN, but on some other issue to KEEP THEM OFF THE ISSUE OF IRAN.
That will happen when pigs fly.
I believe the blogosphere has increased the “Nader problem”, I never liked Nader, long before 2000, but still you know what I mean… I know I have never had any less faith in Democrats than I do right now.