Thursday, September 13, 2007

Iran...Pull the Trigger Already

Let us consider the developments over the last few weeks in the forthcoming Iranian/Syrian war:

* August 15, 2007 -
The United States has decided to designate Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps, the country's 125,000-strong military branch, as a "specially designated global terrorist," according to U.S. officials, a move that allows Washington to target the group's business operations and finances.

* August 30, 2007 - NY Times -
A B-52 bomber took off from Minot Air Force base in North Dakota with six nuclear warheads. They were supposed to be detached from cruise missiles before the flight.

Larry Johnson raises the possibility that the nukes were headed to the Mideast via Barksdale Air Force Base.

*September 4, 2007 - Infowars reports -
Dick Cheney has ordered top Neo-Con media outlets, including Fox News and the Wall Street Journal, to unleash a PR blitz to sell a war with Iran from today, according to Barnett Rubin, the highly respected Afghanistan expert at New York University.
* Septemer 6, 2007 -According to the UK Independent, Israel has found nuke sites in Syria
Israel believes that North Korea has been supplying Syria and Iran with nuclear materials, a Washington defense official told the New York Times. “The Israelis think North Korea is selling to Iran and Syria what little they have left,” he said.
In addition -
Israeli jets "bombed a Syrian-Iranian missile base in northern Syria that was financed by Iran... It appears that the base was completely destroyed."
* September 7, 2007 - Fox News - Iran fined
Iran must pay $2.65 billion to the families of the 241 U.S. service members killed in the 1983 bombing of the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut, a federal judge declared Friday.
* September 9, 2007 -
U.S. General David Pratreus testifies to Congress of a "proxy war" in Iraq against Iran. He strongly implied that it would soon be necessary to obtain authorisation to take action against Iran within its own borders, rather than just inside Iraq.

* September 10, 2007 - According to the Wall Street Journal -
The Pentagon is preparing to build a military base near the Iraq-Iran border to try to curtail the flow of advanced Iranian weaponry to Shiite militants across Iraq

Quoting Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, the commander of the Army's 3rd Infantry Division, the Journal said the Pentagon also plans to build fortified checkpoints on major highways leading from the Iranian border to Baghdad, and install X-ray machines and explosives-detecting sensors at the only formal border crossing between the two countries.

"We've got a major problem with Iranian munitions streaming into Iraq. This Iranian interference is troubling and we have to stop it."
*September 12, 2007 - Again, the UK Independent, we are sending British troops to the Iraqi/Irani border -
The UK operation, in which up to 350 troops are involved, has come at the request of the Americans, who say that elements close to the Iranian regime have stepped up supplies of weapons to Shia militias in recent weeks in preparation for attacks inside Iraq.

The mission will include the King's Royal Hussars battle group, 250 of whom were told at the weekend that they would be returning to the UK as part of a drawdown of forces in Iraq.

The Iranians have threatened military action in response to attacks launched from Iraqi territory while the Pentagon has announced the building of a US base and fortified checkpoints at the frontier.
Fox News -

Political and military officers, as well as weapons of mass destruction specialists at the State Department, are now advising Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that the diplomatic approach favored by (Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Nicholas) Burns has failed and the administration must actively prepare for military intervention of some kind.
Consequently, according to a well-placed Bush administration source, "everyone in town" is now participating in a broad discussion about the costs and benefits of military action against Iran, with the likely timeframe for any such course of action being over the next eight to 10 months, after the presidential primaries have probably been decided, but well before the November 2008 elections.
The Real Effect
Could we be going into Iran? Nah... Fox News and the Wall Street Journal are pushing a war? Nah...

I believe that it is likely that the U.S. is asking the U.K. to get closer to the action so they'll get shot at, stay in Iraq and help with Iran.

I am close to amazed that it is taking as long as it is for the U.S. to go after Iran. I started researching the topic in early 1997, predicted an attack on Iran by 2005 in 1999 and for the last 2 years have been listening to the shrill cries of how we should invade, but it has not seemed that we have had the political guts to back up our rhetoric.

I have said and will say again that this is escalation warfare designed to destroy the American will and ultimately the United States itself. With the logical progression being: Afghanistan -> Iraq -> Iran/Syria -> North Korea -> China/Russia(Japan?)

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