Reply #165: As long as Admiral Mullen

[Palladin]

and the US Navy are against this, it won't happen. In Gulf War I, Israel wanted to fly retaliatory missions against Saddam Hussein after a few Scuds plunked down in Israel. Cheney, then Secretary of Defense, would not release the "friend-or-foe" aircraft identification codes to the IAF, despite their raucous appeal. This meant that if the IAF tried to penetrate Iraqi airspace, they would be blown up in the air by "over the horizon" American antiaircraft missiles.

These days Israel would similarly have to secure US technological permission, in advance, to do any flying anywhere near Iraq and the Gulf. And, with an orderly chain of command, and Admiral Mullen and the US Navy in control of the military decision, the Israelis will be appropriately restrained. That's probably what the Admiral is telling them right now, on his visit to Israel and the MidEast.

Too bad these Israelis and neocon soi-disant americans have such big brazen mouths. Not cunning or intelligent in the slightest. With this kind of float story, they have gone over the edge and really blown a hole in the foot. Everybody, most especially the craven and corrupt politicians of both parties, will know exactly who to blame if disaster comes. A commentator in the Forward recognized this back in December 2007 when the NIE came out.

I don't think it will, because even Bush and Cheney and the neocon chorus do not have the actual power to order Admiral Mullen to start Armageddon. The Admiral and the rest of the sane military are against it, and they hold the cards. Ray McGovern recently stated that a handful of senior US military commanders are all that's holding back an aggressive preemptive attack on Iran, an actual treasonous betrayal of our own interests on behalf of an alien state. When the danger is past, we should all be grateful for these remaining honorable and loyal US senior commanders, and somebody should write their chronicle. Go Navy!