The Clock is Ticking for an Attack on Iran by Dave Lindorff

[Joanne98]

www.smirkingchimp.com
April 27, 2008

I admit to feeling a little like the weatherman who keeps saying it’s going to rain, and who eventually is proven correct. I feel certain that the Bush/Cheney regime is going to launch a disastrous attack on Iran, but have made several calls, which have been proved wrong, beginning back in October 2006, when I wrote that it looked like several aircraft carrier battle groups were being put in position for the assault, but then it was called off.

Now it looks like the attack is coming soon.

The Washington Post’s Ann Scott Tyson is today reporting in an article headlined, Joint Chiefs Chairman Says US Preparing Military Options Against Iran, that Admiral Michael Mullen, the nation’s top military officer, thinks the US military is not stretched too thin to take on Iran, and that Iran is becoming an “increasingly lethal and malign influence” in Iraq.

This article comes only a day after a US civilian ship under contract to the US military to deliver supplies to Iraq fired on Iranian boats in the Persian Gulf–just the kind of aggressive action that could lead to an Iranian reaction and trigger a full-blown US response.

The Persian Gulf is now crammed full of US attack ships, ranging from a missile-armed nuclear sub to aircraft carriers packed with tomahawk cruise missiles and fleets of attack aircraft larger than most nation’s entire air forces (and also with nuclear weapons).

Other things also point to an attack, most significantly the pushing out of Adm. William Fallon as Central Command chief, and now his replacement by Gen. David Petraeus, who is widely seen as a “political” general who is essentially a yes-man for Bush and Cheney.

I would say the die is cast, and that it awaits only the pretext.

There would be no melodramatic Congressional debate over the reasons for going to war against yet a third nation this time around. Thanks to the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) passed by Congress in October 2001 to authorize the attack on the Taliban and Al Qaeda in Iraq, which Bush and Cheney have illegally and outrageously interpreted as a declaration of a global and unending “War on Terror,” the administration is claiming it has the right to attack any nation it defines as “terrorist” at any time, without authorization. Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton helped promote war against Iran a few months ago by backing a Senate resolution authored by Sens. Joe Lieberman and Jon Kyle that defined the Iranian Revolutionary Guard as a “global terrorist” organization. That was all Bush and Cheney needed, as Clinton, Lieberman and Kyle clearly knew.
http://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/2008/04/27/the-clock-is-ticking-for-an-attack-on-iran-by-dave-lindorff/

[judasdisney]

1. Scott Ritter's comments this week

Scott Ritter was interviewed on Stephanie Miller's morning show this week.

You can download the interview segment at iTunes (search for "Stephanie Miller" under podcasts).

Ritter says that war with Iran is "INEVITABLE" and apparently imminent.

Here are some quotes (I'm transcribing) from the interview:

Ritter: "...Emergency defense appropriations to acquire "Massive Ordinance Penetrators," a bomb specifically designed by the U.S. Air Force for an attack on Iran -- the delivery date is APRIL. That's this month. Modification of the B-2 and B-1 bombers to carry the "Massive Ordinance Penetrator" -- delivery date, this month. Modification of handling facilities in the Middle East and elsewhere to handle the bombers with the new bombs -- delivery date, this month. And now you've got ---" (interrupted by Stephanie, never finished his ongoing litany of reasons).

ALSO: suspicious military exercises scheduled for May 1-8, with "optimum attack New Moon" on May 5. Details HERE:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x3214635

[no_hypocrisy]

2. Say the dates are pretty accurate. May 5/New Moon.

Jenna's getting married on May 10.

Bush is going to start another war and then walk his daughter down the aisle five days later.

Anyone else, I'd say improbable. But this IS * we discussing.

[MNBrewer]

3. Expect another Authorization for Use of Military Force

Resolution to go sailing through the Democrat controlled Congress.