Paul Craig Roberts: If You Think Bush Is Evil Now, Wait Until He Nukes Iran

[bananas]

http://www.ichblog.eu/content/view/1620/1/

If You Think Bush Is Evil Now, Wait Until He Nukes Iran

By Paul Craig Roberts

06/06/07 "ICH " -- -- The war in Iraq is lost. This fact is widely recognized by American military officers and has been recently expressed forcefully by Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, the commander of US forces in Iraq during the first year of the attempted occupation. Winning is no longer an option. Our best hope, Gen. Sanchez says, is “to stave off defeat,” and that requires more intelligence and leadership than Gen. Sanchez sees in the entirety of our national political leadership: “I am absolutely convinced that America has a crisis in leadership at this time.”

More evidence that the war is lost arrived June 4 with headlines reporting: “U.S.-led soldiers control only about a third of Baghdad, the military said on Monday.” After five years of war the US controls one-third of one city and nothing else.

<snip>

The neocons think that by bombing Iran the US will provoke Iran to arm the Shiite militias in Iraq with armor-piercing rocket propelled grenades and with surface to air missiles and unleash the militias against US troops. These weapons would neutralize US tanks and helicopter gunships and destroy the US military edge, leaving divided and isolated US forces subject to being cut off from supplies and retreat routes. With America on the verge of losing most of its troops in Iraq, the cry would go up to “save the troops” by nuking Iran.

<snip>

The American electorate decided last November that they must do something about the failed war and gave the Democrats control of both houses of Congress. However, the Democrats have decided that it is easier to be complicit in war crimes than to represent the wishes of the electorate and hold a rogue president accountable. If Cheney again prevails, America will supplant the Third Reich as the most reviled country in recorded history.

[roamer65]

1. Man has this guy had an epiphany or what???

For a Reagan-era buraeucrat, he's hitting the nail right on the head.

[pocoloco]

2. The "crisis in leadership" became all too evident

the second that impeachment was declared "off the table"!

[illinoisprogressive]

3. Crises of Leadership is definitely what is happening now. awful.

[BeHereNow]

4. This, from a person who knows all too well.

Batten down the hatches people.
There is a major shit storm headed our way.
Katrina was nothing compared to the mother of all storms heading
for WE, the people.

BHN

[Double T]

5. This is what should be expected when the antichrist is elected president........

http://www.bushisantichrist.com

[LynnTheDem]

6. America will supplant the Third Reich as the most reviled country in recorded history

Is that enough "legacy" for ya, bush?

[seemslikeadream]

9. "Ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Fuhrer, ein Volk"

"Ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Fuhrer, ein Volk"



One Hope, One people, One country, One leader.
One Hope, One people, One country, One destiny.

Stand up be brave my people we're here to stay, for a thousand years.
An oath you've spoken, can never be broken, you'll pay, in blood and tears
Never tire, never doubt, never falter, never slacken, Just believe in me.
Stand up, shout loud, stand proud, in what we will we will achieve.

One Hope, One people, One country, One leader will set you free
One Hope, One people, One country, One destiny for a thousand years

Ein Volk, Ein Reich, Ein Furher, Ein Volk,
Ein Volk, Ein Reich, Ein Furher, Ein Volk,
Ein Volk, Ein Reich, Ein Furher, Ein Volk,
Ein Volk, Ein Reich, Ein Furher, Ein Volk.

It's not enough just to say you love your country, its not enough.
It's not enough to get down on your knees and pray, it's just not enough.

The price is high, the price you have to pay is your freedom, surrender yourselves.
Mothers send me your blue-eyed blonde-haired boys and let me see them, blue-eyed blonde-haired boys.

One Hope, One people, One country, One leader will set you free.
One Hope, One people, One country, One destiny for a thousand years.

Ein Volk, Ein Reich, Ein Furher, Ein Volk,
Ein Volk, Ein Reich, Ein Furher, Ein Volk,
Ein Volk, Ein Reich, Ein Furher, Ein Volk,
Ein Volk, Ein Reich, Ein Furher, Ein Volk,
Ein Volk, Ein Reich, Ein Furher, Ein Volk,
Ein Volk, Ein Reich, Ein Furher, Ein Volk,
Ein Volk, Ein Reich, Ein Furher, Ein Volk,
Ein Volk, Ein Reich, Ein Furher, Ein Volk.

One Hope, One people, One country, One leader will set you free
One Hope, One people, One country, One destiny for a thousand years.

[necso]

7. "Où est la masse de manoeuvre?" /nt

[seemslikeadream]

8. Countdown to War on Iran US Foments Unrest and Spurns Overtures

http://www.counterpunch.org/gresh06062007.html

By ALAIN GRESH

Silently, stealthily, unseen by cameras, the war on Iran has already begun. Many sources confirm that the United States, bent on destabilising the Islamic Republic, has increased its aid to armed movements among the Azeri, Baluchi, Arab and Kurdish ethnic minorities that make up about 40% of the Iranian population. ABC News reported in April that the US had secretly assisted the Baluchi group Jund al-Islam (Soldiers of Islam), responsible for a recent attack in which some 20 members of the Revolutionary Guard were killed. According to an American Foundation report (1), US commandos have operated inside Iran since 2004.

President George Bush categorised Iran, along with North Korea and Iraq, as the "axis of evil" in his State of the Union address in January 2002. Then in June 2003 he said the US and its allies should make it clear that they "would not tolerate" the construction of a nuclear weapon in Iran.

It is worth recalling the context in which these statements were made. President Mohammed Khatami had repeatedly called for "dialogue among civilisations". Tehran had actively supported the US in Afghanistan, providing many contacts that Washington had used to facilitate the overthrow of the Taliban regime. At a meeting in Geneva on 2 May 2003 between Javad Zaraf, the Iranian ambassador, and Zalmay Khalilzad, Bush's special envoy to Afghanistan, the Tehran government submitted a proposal to the White House for general negotiations on weapons of mass destruction, terrorism and security, and economic cooperation (2). The Islamic Republic said it was ready to support the Arab peace initiative tabled at the Beirut summit in 2002 and help to transform the Lebanese Hizbullah into a political party. Tehran signed the Additional Protocol to the Non-Proliferation Treaty on 18 December 2003, which considerably strengthens the supervisory powers of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) but which only a few countries have ratified.

The US administration swept all these overtures aside since its only objective is to overthrow the mullahs. To create the conditions for military intervention, it constantly brandishes "the nuclear threat". Year after year US administrations have produced alarmist reports, always proved wrong. In January 1995 the director of the US Arms Control and Disarmament Agency said Iran could have the bomb by 2003, while the US defence secretary, William Perry, predicted it would have the bomb by 2000. These forecasts were repeated by Israel's Shimon Peres a year later. Yet last month, despite Iran's progress in uranium enrichment, the IAEA considered that it would be four to six years before Tehran had the capability to produce the bomb.

[seemslikeadream]

10. Bush sanctions 'black ops' against Iran

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/05/27/wiran27.xml


By Tim Shipman in Washington, Sunday Telegraph
Last Updated: 1:24am BST 28/05/2007



President George W Bush has given the CIA approval to launch covert "black" operations to achieve regime change in Iran, intelligence sources have revealed.


Iran was sold defective parts on the black market


Mr Bush has signed an official document endorsing CIA plans for a propaganda and disinformation campaign intended to destabilise, and eventually topple, the theocratic rule of the mullahs.

Under the plan, pressure will be brought to bear on the Iranian economy by manipulating the country's currency and international financial transactions.

Details have also emerged of a covert scheme to sabotage the Iranian nuclear programme, which United Nations nuclear watchdogs said last week could lead to a bomb within three years.

Security officials in Washington have disclosed that Teheran has been sold defective parts on the black market in a bid to delay and disrupt its uranium enrichment programme, the precursor to building a nuclear weapon.



http://youtube.com/watch?v=OnUWcjXvdlo




http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x989580
reprehensor (1000+ posts) Mon May-28-07 08:29 PM
Original message
Fighting, or Funding, "Terror".
Edited on Mon May-28-07 08:58 PM by reprehensor
Leave behind, for a moment, if you will, the absurdity of fighting a noun, and accept that 'Merika is fighting the "War on Terror". Just for grins.

If this is so, then why is the CIA "giving arms-length support, supplying money and weapons, to an Iranian militant group, Jundullah, which has conducted raids into Iran from bases in Pakistan"? (This is what Seymour Hersh has been pointing to, his reports apparently ignored by Congress.)

Jundullah operatives in Iran are allegedly led by a fellow named Abd el Malik Regi;


The leader, Regi, claims to have personally executed some of the Iranians.

"He used to fight with the Taliban. He's part drug smuggler, part Taliban, part Sunni activist," said Alexis Debat, a senior fellow on counterterrorism at the Nixon Center and an ABC News consultant who recently met with Pakistani officials and tribal members.

"Regi is essentially commanding a force of several hundred guerrilla fighters that stage attacks across the border into Iran on Iranian military officers, Iranian intelligence officers, kidnapping them, executing them on camera," Debat said.


Executing them on camera, dang that rings a bell. I mean, that really rings a bell. Can't place it just now, but...

Anyhow, according to this Pakistani report from 2004, Jundullah is closely associated with Al Qaeda;


Coming from a similar middle-class ground, Attaur Rehman is yet another face of the new Islamic militancy in Pakistan. A graduate from Karachi University, he was arrested in June for masterminding a series of terrorist attacks in Karachi. A tall and heavily built man in his early 30s, Rehman was associated with Islami Jamiat-Talba, the student wing of the Jamaat-i-Islami. He later broke away from the Jamaat to form his own militant group, Jundullah (Army of God), which draws its cadres mainly from the educated and professional classes.

According to police, Rehman is closely associated with Al-Qaeda's network in Pakistan, which has grown in strength despite the capture of hundreds of its operatives over the last few years. A well-knit cell comprising some 20 militants, most of them in their 20s and 30s, Jundullah is one of the new and, perhaps, the most fierce of the militant groups behind the recent spate of violence in Karachi. The group hit the headlines after a daring attack last month on the motorcade of Karachi's Corps Commander. The general narrowly escaped death, but 11 people, including eight soldiers were killed. It was the most serious terrorist action targeting the military since the two failed assassination attempts on President Musharraf in Rawalpindi in December last year. Jundullah has also been involved in attacks on rangers, police stations, as well as the twin car bombings outside the Pakistan-US Cultural Center last month.


Apparently we are are to be reassured by the fact that it's actually the ISI that is supporting Jundullah directly, but the ISI denies this. The Telegraph article drops this pretension, but somehow I'm not comforted by the fact that it's the ISI. The ISI is a well-known proxy for US covert operations, dating from activities in Afghanistan in the 80s. The ISI is reportedly linked to supplying money to alleged 9/11 hijacker, Mohamed Atta. However, President Musharaf, in an attempt to distance himself from this report, has claimed that the operative who sent money to Atta, was a long time MI6 agent. Never heard of this? There are reports that Pakistan lobbied the 9/11 Commission to purge these stories from the 9/11 Commission Final Report. So who to believe?

Note that Regi, the alleged leader of Jundullah conducting operations in Iran, is identified as "part drug smuggler, part Taliban, part Sunni activist". I think they forgot, "all intelligence operative".

This guy is a criminal, being maneuvered by Western Intelligence, into doing their dirty work. The question is, when the dollars are being passed around, who is making sure that none of these dollars are being used to mangle and murder our friends and relatives in the military, on the ground, in Iraq? Who is making sure that none of these beheading videos don't include Americans? Where does propaganda stop, and reality begin?

I've documented the unhealthy relationship between US covert operations and the Afghan opium trade here. This is only the tip of the iceberg. Agents working for the advancement of US strategic goals have been facilitating Al Qaeda for nearly two decades now, crossing administrations, as documented by British author, Nafeez Mossadeq Ahmed.

Where does the madness end?

[Rydz777]

11. Paul Craig Roberts is not only a reformed Reaganite on issues

of foreign policy, but also on globalization. He has demonstrated that the 18th century Recardian theories about "free trade" no longer apply in a broad-band age. He and Chuck Schumer have appeared together to discuss the implications of this.

[Zorro]

12. This is the underlying reason for "the surge"

We're adding boots on the ground in Iraq in preparation for the attack on Iran.

ABC News reported intercepting arms convoys from Iran inside Afghanistan heading to resupply the Taliban.

Bush wants to take Iran on before he leaves office. If the Republicans are going to get trampled in the 2008 elections anyway, he has nothing to lose in attacking Iran in the last months of his presidency, either before or after the election.

He embraces the notion of a coming Armageddon, and believes he's the agent of God. Helping fulfill end-times prophecies makes perfect sense to him.

God help us all.

[Flatulo]

16. Do you really believe that an additional 30K Americans is a realistic

invasion force for a country of 65,000,000 people? No military man will send his brigades into a certain meat-grinder, regardles of what the CiC orders.

They do have the right to refuse suicide missions.

There will be black ops, alright, but no land invasion and no nuclear attack.

[MLFerrell]

17. "They do have the right to refuse suicide missions."

Nope. They have the right (and DUTY) to refuse illegal orders, but that's about it.

[WinkyDink]

21. No soldier can refuse a mission because he thinks he will die.

Unless, of course, he's being asked to jump off a ten-story cliff or something.

Also, since when has Bushco shown any military competence?

[Flatulo]

25. I think orders to invade Iran would be more like being told

to jump off a *20* story cliff.

I have got to believe that US commanders would refuse such orders.

[HCE SuiGeneris]

13. The Dicktater waiting in the wings, willing to sacrifice what is left

of Amurika, to save face in his psychopathic, frenzied mind.

[Flatulo]

14. There will be no war with Iran.

I'll make a prediction right now - Iran will develop a nuke and we will do nothing about it. Nor should we. The US military leadership would not allow a depleted and exhausted US Army and Marine Corp to invade a country 5X larger than Iraq.

I say this because for years we huffed and puffed about how we would not allow N. Korea to have a nuke, and then did nothing when they went ahead and developed one anyway.

There is no way to prevent a country with a large scientific and engineering community from developing nuclear weapons. That particular Pandora's box has been open for some time.

While I am not thrilled by the prospect of a religious theocracy having nukes, Iran has as much right to nuclear weapons as we do.

MAD worked with the Russians for 50 years. It will have to work with the Iranian regime as well.

[WinkyDink]

22. We're living in Bush's psycho-reality now, not the real reality of pre-9/11.

[provis99]

15. why is Jundullah called a militant group, while Hezbollah are terrorists?

it seems the violent clowns we support are "freedom fighters" or at worst, militants, but when a group the US doesn't support does it, they are "terrorists". The hypocricy of foreign policy sickens me.x(

[Edweird]

19. I think it's related to how fundies can bomb clinics and not be called terrorists.

[Norquist Nemesis]

18. Bush is multi-tasking

Keeping and eye out for the first opportunity to begin 'Operation Freedom Birth March' in Iran (or some crazy name) while simultaneously poking sticks in Russia's eyes.

How soon before Putin announces proposing putting a Missile Shield in Cuba?

[Javaman]

20. Imagine how quickly the escalation would be in the middle east if

moron* nuked Iran. Good lord. It makes me shutter down to my very soul.

It would become one of those very rare moments in history that could be termed as an "all bets are off" era's.

that kind of thought makes me weak in the knees.

[Bandit]

24. Imagine a Republican running for President saying he would do just that

Tom Tancredo said in the last debate he thought we should nuke Iran to get their centrifuges. Made me shudder..

[Blackhatjack]

23. Says it all "After five years of war the US controls one-third of one city and nothing else"

The threat of using tactical nuclear weapons has always been about changing the outcome of a conflict rather than such use was absolutely required to knock out deep buried bunkers.

We are always in more danger of using nukes when we are weaker militarily in a fight using conventional weapons.

We definitely do not have military control of the country, and a 'surge' of 30K troops is not going to change that.