According to the New Statesman the plans to attack Iran are not only complete but are the result of a deliberate policy that was instituted immediately after the Iraq invasion.
If, as seems highly likely, this is true then it raises even more questions about how Bush has prosecuted the Iraq war and his culpability for the ongoing chaos and the loss of US lives; there was no focus on Iraq at all.
It seems likely that this is Bush's Iraq solution: gamble on defeating Iran, installing 'freedom' and thus solving the Iraq problem by:
a) shifting Iraq to an irrelevant side issue in the light of a far more serious major war (which in this view he believes the US will win),
b) creating a 'greater Iraq' - ie Iran and Iraq - with the US in successful occupation of the Iran part
c) having completed this then relegating the Iraq problem to an ongoing issue that can be dealt with over time from a position of power as the US occupy Iran and have Iraq in a pincer-movement.
The problem with this plan is that the US cannot pacify the Iraqi insurgents - although this may be, as the article suggests, due to a deliberate switch of focus - the US dead and Iraqi debacle may well be seen by Bush as a strategic sacrifice of minor expendable pawns.
The plan seems to be for a lightening strike:
This is not possible - it is possible to have grateful populations who have been liberated from oppression but Bush does not seem to have this knack.
Possibly it is to do with the chosen methods and stunning hypocrisy and lies that are re-branded as 'freedom':
First mistake right there - repeating exactly the Iraq core mistake: to fall into the trap of believing that the propaganda that is so effective on the sheep at home (because it is designed for them) will also work on people in the region being lied about who can see a different truth.
The sheep and wingers of course will never believe the US is funding terror groups on the ground. The people of Iran can see for themselves that they are; very stupid to let them catch you in a lie - makes them think (rightly) that the US can't be trusted.
There is another article in the magazine which is quite interesting by Rageh Omar - not the most objective of reporters and something of a stooge but still, he has this to say:
As he goes on to say, all this will be wiped out in a moment by Bush...infrastructure, people, organizations - all dead. Crushed beneath the relentless automaton that is US 'freedom' - the uncaring and unknowing juggernaut of 'democracy' that is primed to kill and destroy all that does not measure up to the sick and evil blueprint it demands the world accept is 'good, moral and free'.
It is sad that in Iran - just like in Iraq before - there are desperate and naive people who really do long for freedom; real freedom.
These simple souls even believe that the US believes in this freedom too. Of course they believe this because they have no knowledge (yet) of Western duplicity and even the atrocities in Iraq are too hideous for these simple men to contemplate.
It happened in Iraq too - Omar quotes a heart-rending case:
Like an excited schoolboy this poor man had convinced himself he was hours away from what he had dreamt of forever; freedom. he had allowed himself to believe that the US were going to make it happen.
He is probably dead now.
Maybe in the shock and awe, maybe a bunker-buster or just another faceless victim of the chaos the US have engendered as they turned their backs on Iraq in search of new lands to plunder and rape.
Maybe there are still some desperate people now in Iran asking the same "what time America?"
What time to I die? What time does my culture disappear for ever?
Me, I am asking the same: what time does the evil stop? And who can stop it?
Maybe, just maybe, it will stop soon. The Iraqis could not stop the evil, could not stop the juggernaut. Now it is the Iranians turn to have a go.
For all the other countries on the list - and all the people at home who dissent and will very soon be on a quite different list - it's time to ask the question: what time freedom lovers?
When do we start to stop the madmen?
Quote:
British military sources told the New Statesman, on condition of anonymity, that "the US military switched its whole focus to Iran" as soon as Saddam Hussein was kicked out of Baghdad. It continued this strategy, even though it had American infantry bogged down in fighting the insurgency in Iraq.
If, as seems highly likely, this is true then it raises even more questions about how Bush has prosecuted the Iraq war and his culpability for the ongoing chaos and the loss of US lives; there was no focus on Iraq at all.
Quote:
The US army, navy, air force and marines have all prepared battle plans and spent four years building bases and training for "Operation Iranian Freedom". Admiral Fallon, the new head of US Central Command, has inherited computerised plans under the name TIRANNT (Theatre Iran Near Term).
It seems likely that this is Bush's Iraq solution: gamble on defeating Iran, installing 'freedom' and thus solving the Iraq problem by:
a) shifting Iraq to an irrelevant side issue in the light of a far more serious major war (which in this view he believes the US will win),
b) creating a 'greater Iraq' - ie Iran and Iraq - with the US in successful occupation of the Iran part
c) having completed this then relegating the Iraq problem to an ongoing issue that can be dealt with over time from a position of power as the US occupy Iran and have Iraq in a pincer-movement.
The problem with this plan is that the US cannot pacify the Iraqi insurgents - although this may be, as the article suggests, due to a deliberate switch of focus - the US dead and Iraqi debacle may well be seen by Bush as a strategic sacrifice of minor expendable pawns.
The plan seems to be for a lightening strike:
Quote:
Two carriers in the region, the USS John C Stennis and the USS Dwight D Eisenhower, could quickly be joined by three more now at sea: USS Ronald Reagan, USS Harry S Truman and USS Theodore Roosevelt, as well as by USS Nimitz. Each carrier force includes hundreds of cruise missiles.
Then there are the marines, who are not tied down fighting in Iraq. Several marine forces are assembling, each with its own aircraft carrier. These carrier forces can each conduct a version of the D-Day landings. They come with landing craft, tanks, jump-jets, thousands of troops and, yes, hundreds more cruise missiles. Their task is to destroy Iranian forces able to attack oil tankers and to secure oilfields and installations.
Today, marines have the USS Boxer and USS Bataan carrier forces in the Gulf and probably also the USS Kearsarge and USS Bonhomme Richard. Three others, the USS Peleliu, USS Wasp and USS Iwo Jima, are ready to join them. Earlier this year, HQ staff to manage these forces were moved from Virginia to Bahrain.
The whole of Iran is now less than an hour's flying time from some American base or carrier. Sources in the region as well as trade journals confirm that the US has built three bases in Azerbaijan that could be transit points for troops and with facilities equal to its best in Europe.
Most of the Iranian army is positioned along the border with Iraq, facing US army missiles that can reach 150km over the border. But it is in the flat, sandy oilfields east and south of Basra where the temptation will be to launch a tank attack and hope that a disaffected population will be grateful.
Then there are the marines, who are not tied down fighting in Iraq. Several marine forces are assembling, each with its own aircraft carrier. These carrier forces can each conduct a version of the D-Day landings. They come with landing craft, tanks, jump-jets, thousands of troops and, yes, hundreds more cruise missiles. Their task is to destroy Iranian forces able to attack oil tankers and to secure oilfields and installations.
Today, marines have the USS Boxer and USS Bataan carrier forces in the Gulf and probably also the USS Kearsarge and USS Bonhomme Richard. Three others, the USS Peleliu, USS Wasp and USS Iwo Jima, are ready to join them. Earlier this year, HQ staff to manage these forces were moved from Virginia to Bahrain.
The whole of Iran is now less than an hour's flying time from some American base or carrier. Sources in the region as well as trade journals confirm that the US has built three bases in Azerbaijan that could be transit points for troops and with facilities equal to its best in Europe.
Most of the Iranian army is positioned along the border with Iraq, facing US army missiles that can reach 150km over the border. But it is in the flat, sandy oilfields east and south of Basra where the temptation will be to launch a tank attack and hope that a disaffected population will be grateful.
This is not possible - it is possible to have grateful populations who have been liberated from oppression but Bush does not seem to have this knack.
Possibly it is to do with the chosen methods and stunning hypocrisy and lies that are re-branded as 'freedom':
Quote:
Tehran has already complained of US- and UK-inspired terror attacks in several Iranian regions where the population opposes the ayatollahs' fanatical policies.
Such reports corroborate the American journalist Seymour Hersh's claim that the US military is already engaged in a low-level war with Iran.
Such reports corroborate the American journalist Seymour Hersh's claim that the US military is already engaged in a low-level war with Iran.
First mistake right there - repeating exactly the Iraq core mistake: to fall into the trap of believing that the propaganda that is so effective on the sheep at home (because it is designed for them) will also work on people in the region being lied about who can see a different truth.
The sheep and wingers of course will never believe the US is funding terror groups on the ground. The people of Iran can see for themselves that they are; very stupid to let them catch you in a lie - makes them think (rightly) that the US can't be trusted.
There is another article in the magazine which is quite interesting by Rageh Omar - not the most objective of reporters and something of a stooge but still, he has this to say:
Quote:
Most foreign news coverage of Iran has focused on political and military developments. But delve deeper into society, and it is not hard to find myriad vivid snapshots of life.
These give the lie to the stereotype of the dark, forbidding and hostile society. Consider: more plastic surgery operations are carried out in Tehran than in Los Angeles, and drug addiction is openly recognised (a taboo in other Middle Eastern Muslim countries). There are two million heroin addicts in Iran and a large number of independent drug rehab charities helping them. There is a similar story with HIV. Iran has one of the largest non-governmental networks of charities and aid agencies in the Middle East, working beyond state control on anything from child labour to girls' education.
These give the lie to the stereotype of the dark, forbidding and hostile society. Consider: more plastic surgery operations are carried out in Tehran than in Los Angeles, and drug addiction is openly recognised (a taboo in other Middle Eastern Muslim countries). There are two million heroin addicts in Iran and a large number of independent drug rehab charities helping them. There is a similar story with HIV. Iran has one of the largest non-governmental networks of charities and aid agencies in the Middle East, working beyond state control on anything from child labour to girls' education.
As he goes on to say, all this will be wiped out in a moment by Bush...infrastructure, people, organizations - all dead. Crushed beneath the relentless automaton that is US 'freedom' - the uncaring and unknowing juggernaut of 'democracy' that is primed to kill and destroy all that does not measure up to the sick and evil blueprint it demands the world accept is 'good, moral and free'.
It is sad that in Iran - just like in Iraq before - there are desperate and naive people who really do long for freedom; real freedom.
These simple souls even believe that the US believes in this freedom too. Of course they believe this because they have no knowledge (yet) of Western duplicity and even the atrocities in Iraq are too hideous for these simple men to contemplate.
It happened in Iraq too - Omar quotes a heart-rending case:
Quote:
The night before the 2003 invasion of Iraq started, an American colleague was pulled aside by an Iraqi who wanted the US and UK to overthrow Saddam Hussein's regime. Even though the war to overthrow Saddam was only hours away, the man was still frightened to speak openly, so he communicated in code. He pointed excitedly at his watch and asked my American colleague, "What time America?"
What the man meant was: when was America going to begin its attack, and couldn't it hurry up.
What the man meant was: when was America going to begin its attack, and couldn't it hurry up.
Like an excited schoolboy this poor man had convinced himself he was hours away from what he had dreamt of forever; freedom. he had allowed himself to believe that the US were going to make it happen.
He is probably dead now.
Maybe in the shock and awe, maybe a bunker-buster or just another faceless victim of the chaos the US have engendered as they turned their backs on Iraq in search of new lands to plunder and rape.
Maybe there are still some desperate people now in Iran asking the same "what time America?"
What time to I die? What time does my culture disappear for ever?
Me, I am asking the same: what time does the evil stop? And who can stop it?
Maybe, just maybe, it will stop soon. The Iraqis could not stop the evil, could not stop the juggernaut. Now it is the Iranians turn to have a go.
For all the other countries on the list - and all the people at home who dissent and will very soon be on a quite different list - it's time to ask the question: what time freedom lovers?
When do we start to stop the madmen?
What is Faith? When your good deed pleases you and your evil deed grieves you, you are a believer. What is Sin? When a thing disturbs the peace of your heart, give it up - Prophet Muhammad
What is Faith? When your good deed pleases you and your evil deed grieves you, you are a believer. What is Sin? When a thing disturbs the peace of your heart, give it up - Prophet Muhammad
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Dude, one of the reasons the Iranians took the Embassy hostage was because of the 1953 coup! Also, the Middle East in particular have held grudges with each other for thousands of years. Including the USA...and don't forget England and France. 
