"Governments constantly choose between telling lies and fighting wars, with the end result always being the same. One will always lead to the other." --Thomas Jefferson, (1743-1826), 3rd US President

"The United States no longer bothers about low intensity conflict. It no longer sees any point in being reticent or even devious. It puts its cards on the table without fear or favour. It quite simply doesn't give a damn about the United Nations, international law or critical dissent, which it regards as impotent and irrelevant." --Harold Pinter, 2005 Nobel Laureate for Literature, acceptance speech

I have believed for quite some time now that once the Bush-Cheney tandem reached a dead-end in Iraq, as was amply predictable, they would try to save face and camouflage their failure by raising the ante and launching a new war of aggression against Iran, all the while wrapping themselves in the flag. For that, see my article of April 16, 2006, where I wrote (after the disaster in Iraq): "Bush may thus be tempted to raise the ante and go after Iran to reclaim his 'Commander-in-Chief' mantle."

I would add now that the Bush-Cheney duo want to complete what they started in Iraq during the few years they have left before them. Most military experts believe that Iran can be contained militarily. But, make no mistake about it; the main rationale behind the pressures being exerted upon Iran at this time has little to do with concerns about weapons of mass destruction, but a lot to do (as in 1953 when Mossadegh was overthrown) with this country's oil reservesand how it uses them. Regime change in Tehran; that's what the Bush-Cheney administration is after.

As to war preparations, the current situation resembles what prevailed during the fall of 2002, when lies and misinformation were used all over the place (by the administration and by the neocon press) to stir up passions against Saddam Hussein and Iraq. Today, the objectives are the same and the tactics used are also the same. Indeed, the same forces are at work in the same two countries -- the U.S. and Israel -- to exaggerate the military threats posed by Iran and to attempt to link Iran to the al-Qaida terrorist network in order to justify an attack. There is something very pathetic about the rage with which the pro-war lobby is beating the drum for military action against Iran, and the Bush-Cheney administration's musings about using nuclear weapons of mass destruction. It is political madness in action. But why is such madness occurring seemingly only in these two countries?

The first thing to be understood is that all these wars in the Middle East have been planned for more than 10 years by a small group of Washington neocons who penned a document, in 1996, calling for such wars, in order to balkanize the Middle East for Israel's sake and to allow American companies to take control of the enormous oil reserves present in that part of the world. In 1996, in a report on strategy prepared by the Institute for Advanced Strategic and Political Studies (a think-tank created by AIPAC) and titled "A Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm," future advisors to the Bush-Cheney administration (Perle, Feith, Wurmser, etc.) proposed "removing Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq," and then to go on "engaging Hizballah, Syria, and Iran."

The Clinton administration refused to embrace fully this incendiary strategy, but large campaign contributions behind the scheme and promises of an oil bonanza persuaded oilmen Bush II and Cheney that American military power could be used profitably to implement the neocon plan. That is why, after 9/11, the Bush-Cheney administration requested a blanket approval resolutionfrom the American Congress to take control militarily and reorganize politically the entire Middle East. The senators reduced this mandate to Iraq, but the Bush-Cheney intentions were crystal clear: Total domination of the entire Middle East

The second overlooked reality is the tight grip the pro-Israel neocon establishment holds over the Bush-Cheney White House, both sides of Congress and the American corporate media. For years now, not only the American neocons but also the Israeli government itself has demanded that the U.S. attack Iran. Its Lobby has spearheaded the campaign.In Colin Powell's words, the 'JINSA crowd' at the Defense Department, which is full of transferees from the neocon Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs (JINSA), has been most active and effective. What's more, we have been warned: Israel's Deputy Prime Minister Shaul Mofaz said it: "2007(will be)the decisive year,� to deal with Iran. He might be proven right. He made this comment just after he talked, on January 21, with visiting U.S. Under Secretary of State Nicholas Burns. Besides, the Israeli government has usually gotten what it wanted from the Bush-Cheney administration, even if it meant committing the United States to a disastrous policy.

Just as for the Iraq war, the coming Iran war will be orchestrated by the same neocons, and will also be a product of a campaign led by theIsraeli government and its all powerful fifth column in America. On November 15, 2006, for example, Israel's outgoing ambassador to the U.S., Danny Ayalon, seemed to have been privy to Bush's intentions: "U.S. President George W. Bush will not hesitate to use force against Iran in order to halt its nuclear program."On January 21, chief neocon and former director of the U.S. Defense Policy Board Advisory Committee, Richard Perle, made it very clear when he said: "If all options were exhausted in the attempt to stop the Iranian nuclear project, and US military involvement was needed for a successful strike on Tehran, President George Bush would give the green light for the operation."

American politicians of both major political parties also seem to trip over each other in their rush to go to Israel and declare that their country, the USA, should attack Iran. In the last two months, a host of presidential candidates did just that, from John McCain, to Hillary Clinton, to Mitt Romney, to John Edwards, all pledging allegiance to a preemptive defense of Israel with a war of aggression against Iran. The last in line is former Senator John Edwards, a Democratic presidential candidate, who, in a mid-January trip to Israel, also established his own credentials for becoming president by declaring: "Americans can be educated [sic] to come along with what needs to be done with Iran." And, to be sure he is well understood, he added: "All options are on the table to ensure that Iran will never get a nuclear weapon."

And third, less we forget, a war against Iran has also been promoted by Bush's Christian fundamentalist supporters. The latter meet frequently in the White House to discuss foreign policy, and some are openly praying for a coming Armageddon that they see happening soon.

And that is where we stand today, after the disastrous 2003 American-led war against Iraq, the murderous, American-supported Israeli war against Lebanon in 2006, and now, with the table being set for an American-initiated war of aggression against Iran, possibly involving the use of nuclear weapons. This is all part of a grand Middle East neocon plan that we see slowly unfolding under our very eyes.

We may ask, who is happy with all these successive illegal and immoral wars of aggression? Answer: the Israeli government, its sycophants in the U.S. and certain big oil interests who have already mapped their foray in the region, plus George Bush's wild-eyed fundamentalist supporters, for whom an attack on Iran is just what God has ordered.

Who is unhappy? The young Americans who are sent half way around the world to die or be maimed, and their families left behind; the people in the Middle East, who are bombed and massacred and who see their countries destroyed and their resources stolen; the American taxpayers, who are footing the obscene bill for these whimsical and imperialistic wars; and the entire world population who look on, unbelievingly, to this return to calculated barbarism and lawlessness, and who witness, powerless, the destruction of the United Nations.

Rodrigue Tremblay lives in Montreal and can be reached at rodrigue.tremblay@yahoo.com. He is the author of the book 'The New American Empire'.' Visit his blog site at thenewamericanempire.com/blog.