US Bombs Iran
Hawks Readying For 2004 Invasion
By J. Stanton
26 March 2003
While the slaughter continues in Iraq, the United States has its sights set on the real prize: the Islamic
Republic of Iran. Even though Syria is next on the chopping block according to the authors of A Clean
Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm -chief among them Richard Perle and Douglas Feith- it is
Iran that Bush and his team of hawks covet.
In their view, it's payback time for the 1970's overthrow of the Shah and subsequent takeover by Khomeni,
the occupation of the US Embassy, the ensuing hostage crisis, the botched rescue attempt that sullied
America's military reputation, and tit-for-tat terrorist actions over the years between the US and Iran (US
Navy shoot down of Iranian airliner, Iranian backed terrorist attacks on US troops, etc).
Nevermind that in 1953, the US, UK and Israeli intelligence were responsible for a coup which ousted the
nationalistic Iranian prime minister Mossadegh and would ultimately lead to regional conflict with Iraq and
hatred of the US to this day. The same stupidity was repeated in 1963 in Iraq, when US, UK and Israeli
intelligence whipped up a coup decapitating prime minister Assem (a 25 year-old named Saddam Hussein
played a key role in that effort) which would ultimately lead to regional conflict with Iran and Kuwait and
hatred of the US to this day.
The bottom line has not changed in 2003. It is all about economics. In the 1950's and 1960's, the US and UK
were worried about the nationalization of oil production by Iran and Iraq. In 2003 it is the same. The US
consumes roughly 30 percent of the world's energy production (as measured in British Thermal Units) yet has
only 5 percent of its population. "We have 50 percent of the world's wealth but only 6.3 percent of its
population. In this situation, our real job...is to devise a series of relationships which permit us to maintain
this position of disparity. To do so we have to dispense with sentimentality...we should cease thinking about
human rights, the raising of living standards and democratization." That according to George Kennan in 1948
(see Richard Heinberg's fine article at www.onlinejournal.com for more on US and Eurasia).
The United States and Western Europe have unwaveringly adhered to Kennan's advice and have only
themselves to blame for the madness currently underway in Middle East and Persian Gulf. For over 50 years,
through coups, preemptive air strikes and vicious propaganda, the US, UK, France, Israel and other European
nations have long been engaged in "preemption" by attacking and decapitating the legitimate leaders of the
nations that makeup that region. And so many still ask the silly question, "Why do they hate us?"
US war criminals in action
Dick Cheney, Paul Wolfowitz, Donnie Rumsfeld, Richard Armitage, Elliot Abrams, Zalmay Khalilzad and other
up and coming War Criminals are anxious to set things right with Iran. It is Iran's turn to be subjected to the
21st Century version of Nazi Germany's Blitzkrieg, that being the murderous American Shock and Awe
campaign created by leading War Criminal Harlan Ullman. Ullman writes a column for the Reverend Moon's
Washington Times and is a senior associate with the Center for Strategic and International Studies, in which
the Department of Homeland Security was initially conceived.
From March 21 to March 24, 2003, Iranian air-space had been violated with impunity by US aircraft. The US
attacked the oil-industry communities of Khorramshahr, Abadan and Manyuhi in Iran not far from the
US-UK-Kuwaiti controlled Faw Peninsula and Umm al Qasr -control points for the Shatt al Arb through which
billions of gallons of crude oil have passed to the US, UK and Japan. The oil refinery and depots in Abadan
were the primary targets. The were casualties but no deaths. US and UK bombers have also circled over
Arvand-Kenar in Iran on their way into Iraq. Iranian officials have protested these violations of International
Law, but to no avail. Pentagon officials declared the cause of the attacks to be "stray" cruise missiles and
bombs. That is improbable.
These attacks (and over-flights), it seems, were part of the preprogrammed target packages planned early
on by US military commanders to test, or light up, Iranian air defenses for the invasion of Iran which is likely
to take place if George Bush II takes the US presidency in 2004. They serve as a stark warning to Iran not to
meddle in what has now become the American, British and Kuwaiti sphere-of-influence in the southeastern
sector of Iraq.
Iran attack plans
Between April of 2003 and November 2004, the US, UK and Israel will accelerate instability operations in Iran
and engage in global disinformation campaigns to belittle the political and military leadership there. They will
take to the airwaves to portray to Americans a country beset by internal strife and dissension. Corporate
media will revisit the Iranian Hostage Crisis and display for war-hungry Americans footage from the 1978-80
timeframe. That will include images of Khomeni's henchmen hanging and executing the Shah's secret police.
Movies such as Sally Field's Not Without My Child portraying many Iranians as "evil doers" will be broadcast
by all the networks. Reza Pahlavi, son of the former Shah of Iran, will be featured with greater frequency on
CNN, Fox, ABC, NBC, CBS and PBS.
Images from the 1983 bombing of the US Marine Barracks in Lebanon allegedly by Iranian backed Hezbollah
will be aired and printed. Coincidently, in Washington, DC, on March 17, 2003, relatives of US Marines killed
in Lebanon were allowed to proceed with a lawsuit to collect $2 billion in damages from the Iranian
government. According to the sometimes reliable Washington Post, "U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth
has ruled that survivors and family members can sue Iran under the provisions of a 1996 law that allows U.S.
citizens to take legal action against nations that sponsor terrorism. 'The U.S. military force . . . embodies
everything that is resented by the enemies of this country,' Lamberth wrote. 'Failure to permit military service
member [lawsuits] would create a perverse incentive for state sponsors of terrorism to target noncombatant
U.S. military personnel.' Hundreds of family members turned out for the first day of what is expected to be
two days of testimony and evidence designed to document Iran's role in the bombing. Iran did not send a
representative to the trial." Once Iraq is successfully occupied, the media will turn its attention to Iran and
that lawsuit.
No way out
Already, sources report that elements of the CIA are busy in and around Iran, and that US-UK-Australian
special operations teams operating out of Afghanistan and Kuwait--and the US Province of Iraq--have been
surreptitiously setting up shop in Iran for months. Iran now finds itself pinned on all sides by pro-US, UK
forces.
Operation Liberate Iran will take place using the same strategy and tactics employed in the Massacre of Iraq.
Iran has few options. One, is the acceleration of their nuclear program and a successful test or demonstration
of a nuclear device. That may slow a US led invasion. A second option would be become part of a new
counter-US alliance that would include Russia, India, France, Germany and China. The last, of course, is to
"disarm" or go into "exile". 21st Century Crusader's George Bush II and Michael Leedon (Benador Associates,
AEI, Bush advisor) believe in their Judeo-Christian quest to crush Islam as they view it as an illegitimate and
insidious religion that has gotten in the way of oil extraction. The current campaign in the region is nothing
less than an extension of the Crusades dating back to 1096.
Leeden played his God card by indicating prior to the US assault on Iraq that, "God willing, Judgment Day is
coming to the Middle East and the long-suffering people of Iraq, Syria, Iran and Saudi Arabia will get their
chance to be free." But as Ahmad Faruqui, writing in the Asia Times, pointed out, this is just another replay of
history.
"The Arab world remembers well the words that British General Allenby, a descendent of the English
Crusaders, uttered when he entered Jerusalem on December 9, 1917, "The Crusades have ended now!"
Similarly, it has not forgotten either the content or the tone of the statements made by French General Henri
Gouraud when he entered Damascus in July 1920. Striding to Saladin's tomb next to the Grand Mosque,
Gouraud kicked it and exclaimed, "Awake Saladin, we have returned. My presence here consecrates the
victory of the Cross over the Crescent." Nor will it forget the proclamations of George Bush II and Tony Blair
100 years hence.
Copyright © 2003 by the News Insider and John Stanton |
