Two ominous developments have complicated Bush's plans to nuke Iran. One is a warning from Putin. The other --a dramatic demonstration by China. In their wake, Bush has now said he is committed to resolving the "crisis" diplomatically. But the new line was not forthcoming until after Vladimir "Pooty Poot" Putin, stated flatly and without emotion: an attack on Iran will be considered an attack on Russia. "Pooty Poot" has nukes and will use them. High-level diplomatic sources in Tehran were reported to have told the Asia Times Online that Putin and Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had agreed on a plan that would nullify Bush's campaign to strike Iran preemptively with a nuclear weapon.China, likewise, warned America's rogue psychopath. As if to underscore the point, a Chinese submarine popped up --undetected --in the middle of a Pacific Ocean exercise. The Sub was said to be "dangerously close" to the USS Kitty Hawk, having slipped past a US "shield" of a dozen warships and two US subs. US brass are "dumbfounded"!
We can only speculate about US ability to detect "subs". One would have assumed advances since the making of the early 90's film --"The Hunt for Red October". Even so -- that China has a sub that slips so effortlessly, silently past vaunted US detection technology confirms that the sub was of advanced design and equipped with advanced stealth technology. Just recently, in the comments section, I stated that China had the ability to put a nuclear sub undetected just off the US East Coast. China exceeded my prediction. I had not expected to be confirmed so quickly by events. [See: Submarine Detection]
The US Navy Fifth Fleet is headquartered in the Gulf State of Bahrain which is responsible for patrolling the Persian Gulf, Arabian Sea, Suez Canal and parts of the Indian Ocean. The Fifth Fleet currently comprises a carrier group and two helicopter carrier ships. Its size peaked at five aircraft carrier groups and six helicopter carriers in 2003 during the invasion of Iraq. Presently, it is led by the USS Enterprise (CVN-65), the first nuclear powered aircraft carrier commissioned in 1961, and on November 2, began participating in a Naval exercise in the Persian Gulf.Bush downplays the vulnerability of the Fifth Fleet. Nevertheless, Iran, itself, has the ability to wipe out the US Fifth Fleet, currently within range of Iran's Russian-made mobile missile launchers situated strategically in mountainous terrain overlooking the Persian Gulf. Iran is not Iraq.
The Fifth Fleet's base in Bahrain, is only 150 miles away from the Iranian coast, and would itself be in range of Iran's new generation of anti-ship cruise missiles. Also, any Naval ships in the confined terrain of the Persian Gulf would have difficulty in manoeuvring and would be within range of Iran's rugged coastline which extends all along the Persian Gulf to the Arabian sea.Michael E. Salla, M.A., Ph.D, The US neoconservative agenda to Sacrifice the Fifth Fleet - The New Pearl Harbor
The most sophisticated of Iran's cruise missiles are the 'Sunburn' and 'Yakhonts'. These are missiles against which US military experts conclude modern warships have no effective defense [emphasis mine, LH]. By deliberately provoking an Iranian retaliation to US military actions, the neoconservatives will knowingly sacrifice much or all of the Fifth Fleet. This will culminate in a new Pearl Harbor that will create the right political environment for total war against Iran, and expanded military actions in the Persian Gulf region.A new Pearl Harbor may be precisely what the Neocon mentality desires. They would be willing to go back to the well. Bush logic, meanwhile, defies logic. Just recently [video below] Bush warned that WWIII is imminent. Therefore, he says, we must strike pre-emptively to prevent WWIII. Never mind that the pre-emptive strike will precipitate it. You can't make this stuff up!Michael E. Salla, M.A., Ph.D, The US neoconservative agenda to Sacrifice the Fifth Fleet - The New Pearl Harbor
The US continues to fall for Bush's idiocy!
So --who's the bigger idiot?
Intent on war, it is not surprising that Bush tries to cover up dissenting opinions and dangers. Bush is a "man" who has proven himself impervious to logic, common sense and empathy.
He will ignore the Pentagon's Millennium Challenge war games that resulted in the US loss of the fleet. Neoconservative kiss ups to Bush simply ignore the advise of experts. It is the nature of ideology that nothing is learned from experience.Millions of lives were ruined by the back to back debacles of three idiots: Reagan, Bush Sr. and now a twisted twig. Millions of lives were ruined by Reagan who almost single handedly broke both the US labor movement and the US economy forever. Bush Sr was content merely to preside over the ruins while launching murderous and unjustified attacks on Panama and luring Saddam Hussein into Kuwait. Once a spook always a spook.
In the meantime, a veteran speaks out:
Additional ResourcesIraq war is a betrayal of American democracy
November 11, 2007By MATT HOWARD
Editor's note: Matt Howard gave this statement at a recent protest at the Statehouse.
In 2003 I illegally invaded the sovereign nation of Iraq with 1st Tank battalion 1st Marine Division. My commander in chief unleashed the world's fiercest fighting force upon the country and people of Iraq, and now those of us used and betrayed by him are demanding justice.
Four and a half years after our opening "shock and awe" Bush's lies are known throughout the world, and yet he continues to act with impunity. Four and a half years later the Bush regime has unleashed a hell upon the country of Iraq that only those who have been there can truly understand.
As a two-tour combat veteran of this brutal war, I have a responsibility to speak honestly and openly about what has been done and what continues to be done in our name. We veterans know that this war is not the one being sanitized on the nightly news. It has nothing to do with the liberation of the people of Iraq; instead it has everything to do with the subjugation and domination of these people in the name of US imperial economic and strategic interests.
We did not go to war with the country of Iraq, we went to war with the people of Iraq. During the initial invasion we killed women. We killed children. We senselessly killed farm animals. We were the United States Marine Corps, not the Peace Corps, and we left a swath of death and destruction in our wake all the way to Baghdad.
Let me say again so that there is no misunderstanding. I stand here today as a former US Marine saying we are killing women and children in Iraq. This is the true nature of war. War lends itself to atrocities. Don't think you can use an organization designed to kill other human beings for anything humanitarian. That has never been our mission. That was crystal clear from the moment I was forced to bury the crate of humanitarian food given to me in Kuwait.
Four and a half years later we as soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines are done. We are done being told under threat of court martial to run over children that get in the way of our speeding convoys.
We are done raiding and destroying the homes of innocent Iraqis on a nightly basis.
We are done abusing and torturing prisoners.
We are done being hired thugs for the 160,000 contractors and US corporate interests in Iraq.
We are done being poisoned by depleted uranium, the unspoken Agent Orange of this war.
We are done coming home broken, from two, three, four tours of duty – only to find our commander in chief has actually tried to CUT funding to the Department of Veterans Affairs. To find our doctors being told to diagnose us with pre-existing personality disorders instead of post traumatic stress syndrome.
We are done killing for lies.
So Iraq Veterans Against the War is taking back our history – the history that has been robbed from us. We are dispelling the myth that the Vietnam war ended when the Democrats started voting against it. Instead we are spreading the truth about how the American War in Vietnam ended.
The Vietnam War ended when soldiers put down their weapons and refused to fight; when pilots dropped their bombs in the ocean.
We are re-educating the public to let them know that the power ultimately lies with the people. Just take a look at the thousands of pages of internal documents from the Department of Defense explicitly detailing how at the end of the Vietnam war the military had collapsed. It was literally in a state of mutiny. And that movement is slowly starting again. Because ultimately in every war waged throughout human history, those forced to fight quickly realize they have much more in common with those they are being told to kill than with those telling them to do the killing.
And we are re-educating the public about the true nature of sectarian violence. No, the middle east is NOT inherently violent. In fact, in the 1,400-year schism between Sunnis and Shias – there has NEVER been a civil war fought. They have always lived in the same neighborhoods and even intermarried. The United States has caused this civil war using the classic colonial techniques of divide and conquer.
George Bush is a war criminal who has violated international law, the Geneva convention and the Nuremberg standards and needs to tried accordingly for crimes against humanity.
I ask every red-blooded American today: What would you do if your homeland was savagely invaded and occupied by another country? The Iraqis will continue to resist and fight until the last American has left their homeland. Period. End the violence in Iraq? End the occupation.
We veterans are speaking out to stop the violence being perpetrated in our name. When we voted in the Democrats on an anti-war mandate, the Bush regime expanded the war. As we are marching against further occupation, the Bush regime is making threats against Iran.
And we will not continue to be silenced by the mainstream media. Top generals and bottom privates are all speaking in unison now. We know the truth about the slaughter of upwards of one million Iraqis. Why is no one listening? We will not stand by as this regime tricks the country into thinking that if you oppose the war you do not support the troops. We ARE the troops and we have never felt support from this administration. Stop mindlessly supporting the troops. Start demanding that we come home – and maybe think about apologizing to us when we get back.
Matt Howard attained the rank of corporal in the United States Marine Corps. He is head of the Vermont chapter for Iraq Veterans Against the War.
- The Generalist: Michael Horovitz' The New Wasteland
- Strategies and Strategists
- Jeremy Scahill - US war of conquest in Iraq
- Retro: Mailer and McLuhan
- Mission Accomplished
- Shakespeare (for Leonard)
- Ahmad Jamal - Ahmad's Blues
- Chain Reactions
- Cannonball & Nat Adderley - Work Song
Iran
Nuclear War
Terrorism
Indict Bush
Bush Lies
Iraq
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18 comments:
Well written, Len. I think I need to link this up on my own site.
On this Monday, the observed Veteran's Day, I think we need to remember, and be thankful that Veterans of this war are coming home and prove brave enough to speak out, and speak the truth about what is happening to our world.
I just hope its not lost on the general public.
Thanks, anok. Link up as you like. Interesting that you mentioned returning "vets". I scanned an article today about those vets who are opposed to the war. They were met with jeers. This country seems to have learned nothing.
Matt Howard’s moving and eloquent statement deserves to be read over and over.
And how true it is that “………….those forced to fight quickly realize they have much more in common with those they are being told to kill than with those telling them to do the killing………….”.
Yes, the true enemy of the soldier on the battlefield is not the supposed enemy, but the men who put him there.
I’d stated in a comment to one of your earlier pieces that 52% of Americans now support an attack on Iran. I was quoting from a couple of articles I’d read, in which their authors gave out this figure.
But I saw the results of a recent poll - I think a CNN poll - which said 70% of Americans oppose an attack on Iran. This makes better sense, for surely even Americans recognize the lunacy of a pre-emptive war against Iran.
Given what you said in your posting about Russia and China vis a vis Iran, as well as the recent public opinion polls, a US attack on Iran may now be only a very remote possibility.
While we everywhere are counting the days and hours to when George Bush finally vacates the Oval Office, I’m wondering whether we won’t wish for a Bush restoration should Hillary or Rudy become president.
Each seem to me as frightening, and as bought, as George and Dick.
Christopher said...
a CNN poll - which said 70% of Americans oppose an attack on Iran. This makes better sense, for surely even Americans recognize the lunacy of a pre-emptive war against Iran.
Thanks for that poll result and I hope it's correct. Bush seems completely oblivious to public opinion and reality. This "disconnect", I would think, is a symptom of psychosis.
Given what you said in your posting about Russia and China vis a vis Iran, as well as the recent public opinion polls, a US attack on Iran may now be only a very remote possibility.
Again --I hope you are correct. Having read some very abstruse pieces about "cascading chaos", I don't think the world will survive for very long once the nuclear volleys begin. One strike will precipitate a response and that still another and another...well, you get the picture.
...I’m wondering whether we won’t wish for a Bush restoration should Hillary or Rudy become president.
Good point! Maybe Bush gets away with it because voters know the other choices are little better. What Democracy!! The "front runners" are the least attractive. How did we get here? What sin damned us to this hell?
This is a great post, Len. You've covered all the bases. I'd prepared some notes of my own to try to get some letters into the Aussie press whenever attacks upon Iran are raised. I'll include some of your details here.
Condoleeza Rice recently "renewed an offer of reconciliation talks if the Islamic republic renounces its nuclear drive."
She's telling the Iranains they can hold talks if they first publicly agree to everything the US wants BEFORE the talks even commence. That's a sham. Iran is legally entitled to develop a civil nuclear program under the NPT to which they are signatories. The IAEA has found no evidence of any nuclear weapons program. And a US National Intelligence Estimate (a detailed assesment carried out by all US intelligence agencies) published in 2005 says that any covert Iranian weapons program would take ten years to complete. The Bush admin has held back on releasing an updated NIE because the Intelligence officials are all essentially re-affirming the 2005 findings of no Iranian nuclear threat -- certainly no near term threat.
Christopher, you have some good points but I'd disagree with this:
Given what you said in your posting about Russia and China vis a vis Iran, as well as the recent public opinion polls, a US attack on Iran may now be only a very remote possibility.
Thats's not the view of two former high-ranking policy experts from the Bush Adminstration who say the US has been gearing up for a war with Iran for years, despite claiming otherwise, and that it will be Iraq all over again:
In the years after 9/11, Flynt Leverett and Hillary Mann worked at the highest levels of the Bush administration as Middle East policy experts for the National Security Council. Mann conducted secret negotiations with Iran. Leverett traveled with Colin Powell and advised Condoleezza Rice. They each played crucial roles in formulating policy for the region leading up to the war in Iraq. But when they left the White House, they left with a growing sense of alarm -- not only was the Bush administration headed straight for war with Iran, it had been set on this course for years.
In a must-read article, Leverett and Mann also detail systematic efforts by the US leadership to defeat dialogue offers from Iran. The US leadership fully intends war against Iran and that likely means the first half of 2008.
Remember, the US has been supporting Iranian terrorist groups that have killed over 4,000 Iranians in six months (unreported by US press). And (sorry, I've lost the link) the US has recently taken to torturing captured insurgents in Iraq in order to get admissions from them that they are Iranian agents attacking US forces. The US leadership is still angling for an attack on Iran.
damien said...
In a must-read article, Leverett and Mann also detail systematic efforts by the US leadership to defeat dialogue offers from Iran.
That's a must read. Thanks.
Remember, the US has been supporting Iranian terrorist groups that have killed over 4,000 Iranians in six months (unreported by US press). And (sorry, I've lost the link) the US has recently taken to torturing captured insurgents in Iraq in order to get admissions from them that they are Iranian agents attacking US forces.
Les Etats-Unis sont le plus grand terroriste!
I should thank Anok for posting a link to this fine article on our blog.
Would you care to join your name to
our collective blog?
Now back to pooty poot boy! Iran is paying a HEAVY price for this: Oil-Rich Caspian shores!
I am sure Americans have been busy with their provocation games. They tried to drag Iran into a war during the first Desert storm operation as well, Remember the passenger Airbus?
What I fear most is that the neocons would recruit "al-quaeda-like" Iranians who WOULD respond to provocation!
sometimes we wonder if Ahmadinejad himself is not on neo-cons payroll!
It's pretty grotesque when we are hoping that China and Russia will save us from the madness of our leaders.
To Damien: I read the Esquire article you had hyperlinked. It is indeed a must-read article which says in so many words that since 2003 Iran has offered major and significant concessions to get an agreement with the US over all the areas of contention.
But the US by its actions and words has shown it’s not interested in negotiating seriously. This disinclination to negotiate would appear also to be shared by the leadership of the Democratic Party.
My take on this is the baleful influence of the powerful all-pervasive influence of the Israel Lobby in Washington – and on both political parties - that takes its orders from the government of Israel, which wants an attack on Iran to destroy its nuclear facilities and bring about “regime change”.
It’s my understanding that, thanks to Nancy Pelosi, George Bush already has the implicit authority of the Democratic-controlled congress to attack Iran.
So the question is: If US public opinion is 70% against an attack on Iran, will the congress heed this and do something meaningful to thwart such an attack? Or will its members decide that the Israel Lobby must be appeased, no matter what, and find a face-saving way to endorse an attack, should it come?
George Bush could of course save face, and simply look the other way should Israel itself attack Iran. 2008 promises to be a fateful year.
As to the 4,000 Iranians allegedly killed by terrorist groups, we should remember it was Amadinajad who claimed this. While the US media unsurprisingly didn’t follow this up, did any of the foreign media do so, like, for instance, Al Jazeera?
The destruction of the Fifth fleet would fit in nicely with Naomi Klein's Shock Doctrine, which, while it may not be the whole story, does explain a helluva lot.
Bush and nem'' are just plain arrogant and stupid. The US is in no position to fight another war let alone WWIII. This is really really stupid. I wonder if 'Bush and nem' realize what the hell thy are saying to the world. Th people in this world already don't trust us because we are still the only nation to drop nuclear bombs on defenseless people. Then again its kinda stupid to be bluffing as Sadam reportedly found out. Putin and the rest of the world ain't playing.
http://urbanblackops.blogspot.com/
Christopher, thanks for your views.
So the question is: If US public opinion is 70% against an attack on Iran, will the congress heed this and do something meaningful to thwart such an attack?
Nothing that would really stand in the way if Bush decided to attack.
George Bush could of course save face, and simply look the other way should Israel itself attack Iran.
The issue is far too serious for Israel to attack a non-existent weapons program without US approval. The recent attack against a purported (seems it may have been) Syrian nuclear processing site is worth noting. Neither Israel nor the US went to the UN or the IAEA over this. That's a declaration that they don't intend to make the same mistake with Iran that they made with Iraq. There will be no international consensus.
..re the 4,000 dead Iranians. I mentioned it only to note it's lack of reporting by the US press. The number may be inflated but deaths due to the MEK and Jundallah have been reported. Note that the US is still doing U2 overflights over Iran, actively supports Iranian insurgent groups, has sent in US special forces inside Iran and still - as far as I can tell - holds Iranian diplomatic staff captured in Iraq last year. All these actions are acts of war.
Finally, I'd like to recommend another article by Chris Floyd quoting a Guardian article:
Moscow believes it came close to defusing the crisis last month but that delicate talks with Tehran were torpedoed by unilateral US sanctions, the Guardian has learned. The Russian president, Vladimir Putin's, fury at the US sanctions was heightened by the fact he had consulted the US president, George Bush, before visiting Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in Tehran in mid-October. In a telephone conversation prior to the Putin visit to Iran, Bush reassured Putin that the US was prepared to enter into comprehensive talks with Iran's leaders if they agreed to suspend uranium enrichment, according to European and Russian officials.
Bush also restated his backing for a Russian proposal for Iran's uranium to be enriched on Russian soil, as a way around the impasse that has triggered two waves of UN sanctions and speculation about US military action. But in return he demanded Russian backing for tougher sanctions if the offers were rejected.
This carrot and stick strategy had been in play for some time. Moscow had first put forward its enrichment proposal in 2005, but Russian officials say that when Putin put it back on the table in Tehran on October 16, Khamenei asked for time to consider the issue.
However, nine days later, the US announced new unilateral economic sanctions targeted at senior members of Iran's Revolutionary Guard. The announcement took Moscow by surprise, entrenched hardliners in Tehran and derailed the Putin initiative, Russian officials say.
Bush's program for derailing any Iranian peace initiatives is not due to incompetence -- it's systematic and planned. An attack upon Iran may still not happen if political circumstances conspire against it. But it won't be for want of trying.
Great comments...
fillip said...
It's pretty grotesque when we are hoping that China and Russia will save us from the madness of our leaders.
America's biggest enemy is the enemy within. His policies are a threat to our lives, our well-being, and world peace.
Christopher said...
f US public opinion is 70% against an attack on Iran, will the congress heed this and do something meaningful to thwart such an attack?
I've given up on Congress to do anything other than the will of powerful lobbies. War is a racket. Check out the link to Noami Klein from ..
daveawayfromhome said...
The destruction of the Fifth fleet would fit in nicely with Naomi Klein's Shock Doctrine
Indeed!
keymaker said...
its kinda stupid to be bluffing as Sadam reportedly found out. Putin and the rest of the world ain't playing.
Putin has plenty of oil. There's nothing in a "conspiracy" with Bush for Putin. And I don't think Putin is stupid enough to tolerate a permanent US military presence along Russia's "soft underbelly". The US in Iran would pose a permanent threat to Russia. Putin won't buy that.
damien said...
Bush's program for derailing any Iranian peace initiatives is not due to incompetence -- it's systematic and planned.
We now know that Hitler could not have moved on Poland had he not concluded his deal with Stalin. Sure makes you sleep well at night knowing that America's future may be in the hands of Putin and arch-capitalists in Beijing. Sheesh!
Fuzzflash sez... Brilliant post, Len, and comments,all. As an ex catholic I feel so freakin' guilty not being able to participate more fully. In exactly 10 days the people of Oz will dispatch The Imbecile's Downunder poodle to electoral oblivion. Sorry I can't do a direct link but a cut and paste will surely provide a few bellylaughs for habitues of a joint like this. You don't have to know the dramatis personnae in the clip to get the general drift. Adios comrades, see yez soon.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjKBf1N2Wls
Wow, fuzz...
I swear --some of that footage had to have been shot in Houston! Brilliant vid! Did you make it?
I was wrong (so what's new?). Apparently the bombed Syrian site did NOT house nuclear materials. Larissa explains. And new claims that the Israelis really ARE preparing to take out Iranian nuclear facilities:
With no alternative but to fight fire with fire, [does this crap never end] the Israel Air Force is training for a tactical nuclear strike on Iranian nuclear production facilities. As hope fades for a diplomatic solution to Iran's development of enriched uranium for production of weapons with the primary purpose of destroying Israel [more does this crap never end], the IAF is practicing for a mission to destroy key Iranian facilities, at least one with low-yield nuclear munitions.
Fuzz sez... no, mate, thanks for taking a peek and thinking I could have. It was the work of talented youngsters.
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