According to a recent extended TIME article, 'The Path To War' (March 11, p. 20) it is only a matter of time before the Obama administration launches an all out attack - and presumably - war, against Iran. According to a senior official quoted (p. 25):"One way or the other we are entering the final stages of this drama".
All I can say then, is that if wiser heads prevail, there can be NO war! Not unless this nation wishes to single-handedly send the entire global economic system down a real shit pile while adding nearly fifty million terrorists! Mainly currently normal, American-loving Iranians who will as quickly turn against us in the bat of an eye if we are foolish enough to strike their homeland, no matter what the excuse.
Is Obama really stupid enough to send the world economy back two decades over some tiff with Iran using their nuclear facilities? I cannot believe so! Is he so weak to stand up to the Military-Industrial complex? I hope to hell not! (Though I do hear disturbing news that a bill will soon arrive at his desk to protect the Pentagon from the sequester cuts and add the $46b to the domestic side. And he is unsure whether to veto them or not? Hello, Mr. Prez, you VETO them! This deal was made for both sides, domestic and miltary to feel the pain, and the one saving grace to the domestic cuts was knowing the Pentagon would also have its purse strings cut!)
Anyway, according to the TIME piece, the Federation of American Scientists estimates the cost of open war with Iran to be "$1 trillion to $1.7 trillion". Pardon me, but with oil prices consequently going through the roof, and all the deaths, injuries from thousands of terror attacks incepted around the globe, plus the destroyed infrastructure, it will be more like double that. If the Russians get involved - since they have interests there- you can perhaps even double that $3.4 trillion.
Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates, said in a 2012 appearance:
http://news.antiwar.com/2012/10/04/robert-gates-war-on-iran-would-be-catastrophic-and-make-a-nuclear-iran-inevitable/
"Neither the
Adding:
"Such an attack would make a nuclear-armed Iran inevitable. They would just bury the program deeper and make it more covert. Not only would Iran be likely to reconstitute its defunct nuclear weapons program, but Tehran might also respond by disrupting world oil traffic in the Persian Gulf and launching a wave of terrorism across the region."
And:
" The results of an American or Israeli military strike on
So why the fuck do it! Macho-ism? To show who's the 'Boss' of the world? Because the Israeli warmonger Netanyahu insists on it? How about putting a muzzle on him and his war mongering ilk? Because some dildo-brained morons in the Pentagon want it? Stand up to them like JFK would! Tell them where to get off! Let them do a serious cost-benefit analysis, that is if anyone in D.C. has the I.Q. to pull it off!
Even leave out for the moment the report in an issue of The Economist ('Smart Concrete', March 3rd, 2012, p. 89) that recently developed U.S. "bunker buster", 30,000 lb. bombs may not be able to penetrate Iranian underground facilities, fortified as they are now with "ultra-high performance concrete" (UHPC) . It's still a terrible idea!
In other words, attacking Iranian facilities using these Massive Ordinance Penetrators ("MOPS' ), which can break through 60 m of ordinary concrete, will not necessarily be a walk in the park. And if not for the U.S., it won't be for Israel either, unless they do something truly reckless like using tactical nukes - the basis for the horrific nuclear war flick, 'Threads', e.g.
http://brane-space.blogspot.com/2012/03/anxious-to-start-war-with-iran-see-this.html
There is also a major fault in the logic that if Iran goes nuclear it'll set off a nuclear arms race in the region. We have examples that counter such reasoning. When North Korea went nuclear, neither Korea or Japan followed suit. And when Israel went nuclear, neither Egypt or Saudi Arabia followed suit. Iran wants a few nukes for a simple reason: self-protection from an arrant, aggressive invasion such as done under the "Bush doctrine" to Iraq in March, 2003! We already showed we didn't respect national sovereignty by that "Shock and Awe" Nazi- style, Blitzkrieg invasion - which btw, violated Principle IV against pre-emptive war, under the Nuremberg laws. (First incepted with Nazi Germany's violations of international law) That Principle states:
"The crimes hereinafter set out are punishable as crimes under international law: (a) Crimes against peace: (i) Planning, preparation, initiation or waging of a war of aggression or a war in violation of international treaties, agreements or assurances; (ii) Participation in a common plan or conspiracy for the accomplishment of any of the acts mentioned under (i). "
In other words, one can argue that the Iranians are obtaining insurance against pre-emptive strikes or war such as the U.S. has already wantonly demonstrated 10 years ago. They reason, I believe correctly, that once they have x nukes, they will be less likely to be bombed or invaded, just as the N. Koreans have reasoned. (Recall both were placed on idiot Bush's "Axis of Evil" list with Iraq back in 2002 - and they saw what transpired with Iraq)
Neither does the argument that any nukes "might fall into the hands" of terrorists make sense. After all Iran has endured, including massive sanctions (the worst being cut off from the international electronic banking SWIFT system) how or why would they be so cavalier in allowing their hard won attainments to be usurped by loonies? It is all scare tactics.
Finally, the (mainly) Israeli argument that Iranians are "prepared to commit mass suicide if it means the extermination of Israel" is hyperbolic babble. (This was the claim of the Israeli Ambassador on a Bill Maher show back in March, 2012). A truer take was offered by Gen. Martin Dempsey when he referred to Iran as a "rational actor" - which is ultimately invested in survival not self-extermination for a manic, irrational cause. Again, Iran sees the U.S. as the threat, given how it used a reckless 'bomb, burn and slash' invasion back in 2003, which by World Health Organization estimates, killed over 600,000 Iraqis, perhaps 200 of whom were "al Qaeda" operatives - if that. IN the end it was all a ruse instigated by an Iraqi nut nicknamed "curve ball" who invented the bullshit about WMD.
The only rational response of the U.S.? Tell Israel and Benji Netanyu to shove it, and stop Biden and others from blustering on with war talk!
The last thing this planet needs right now is another war, especially instigated from a nation that already has 5,000 nuke warheads of its own, and a smaller nation (Israel) that has at least 100. We need now Obama to stand up like a man, face down the warhawks and tell them to fuck themselves like JFK would. We need him to inveigh against the odious myth of "Pax Americana" - of the U.S. being the policeman of the world - and imposing peace by resort to American weapons of war. We need him to stand tall now as never before and aspire to steely spine, as John Kennedy would have (at the peak of the Cuban Missile crisis in 1962) instead of expediting what will be the worst mistake this nation's ever made!
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