"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.