Here we go again! Another episode of huff and puff, this time to work up to an Iran invasion. But make no mistake, going into Iran for whatever reason would be the very definition of insanity. And it also would not turn into another 'regime change" such as when Bush II invaded Iraq and reduced Saddam's army to rubble using 'shock and awe'. Let's repeat this a hundred times: Iran is NOT Iraq. As the website 'breakingdefense.com' has pointed out:
"Iran is spatially large and mountainous with an enormous, fiercely nationalist population. Make no mistake, U.S. military occupation of the Islamic Republic would make the Iraq War, for once, actually look like the “cakewalk” it was billed to be.
So where are the troops available to topple Tehran? They don’t exist. The U.S. military is already running at full throttle, and the American people won’t be flocking to recruiters to stave off an overhyped, distant Iranian threat. The polling data is clear: Americans don’t want another war."
These are not minor considerations. Hence, the Trumpie warhawks - especially John 'Nutso' Bolton- fanning the flames, need to tone it down. Much has been made of alleged Iranian sabotage of oil tankers near the Strait of Hormuz, but as yet there is no iron clad evidence. Besides, even if true it is not a reason to start a war or launch an ill -conceived invasion in which tens of thousands of U.S. troops may lose their lives.
Never mind, the Trumpie propagandists have also called for evacuation of the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad - asserting nebulous "threats" by Iranian "proxies" - whatever the hell that means. What it means for me and other critical thinkers is simply another ruse to bait Iran into a misguided conflict - that will be as bad or worse for us as it would for them. (And again bear in mind Iran is not Iraq!)
And if that fails, Trump, Bolton and their criminal cabal can pull the "nuke threat" out of their hats. Oh wow, Iran now ready to go straight ahead to processing nuclear materials for warheads on missiles. Well, whose fault was that anyway? After all, it wasn't Iran that sundered the deal that the Obama administration and many allies had patiently forged! It was traitor Trump and his retinue of loons. See e.g.
Brane Space: Iran Deal Is The Best The World Could Get: So Critics ...
brane-space.blogspot.com/2015/07/iran-deal-is-best-world-could-get-so.html
.Fortunately, one military voice of sanity has spoken out on this concocted Iranian "threat" propaganda, set up by U.S. Neocons. That would be Major General Chris Ghika - a Brit senior officer in the coalition fighting ISIS. Maj. Ghika, speaking in a video two days ago from coalition headquarters in Baghdad, told reporters the coalition monitors any hostile activity, i.e. of Iranian -backed forces. And to the point:
"We do not see any increased threat from any of them at this stage."
Who could contest such a clear synopsis? Well U.S. Central Command ("Centcom") did, claiming Ghika's sober assessment "runs counter to the identified credible threats from Iranian-backed forces in the Middle east." Which is absolute balderdash.
Besides, why in hell should I believe this claptrap retort from a source (Pentagon) that up to now has not been able to account for $6.5 TRILLION in military expenditures? This as documented in the July 2016, Dept. of Defense (DOD) Inspector General study. So now, get this, these weasels are gaming for another couple trillion of American taxpayer dollars to set fire to in another useless military excursion.
Let's also not forget that in December, 2016 a Washington Post article published its own account of a "buried" DOD report which had found "$125 billion in administrative waste" in Pentagon business operations. What happened to all those taxpayer dollars? Where is the rest of the $6.375 trillion, what did these wastrels do with that? And now they want to over extend for another war, indicted by contradicting the assessment of Maj. Gen. Ghiza?
All smoke and mirrors? Maybe not. The NY Times already reported on the potential deployment of 120,000 U.S. troops to the Middle East - but which was dismissed as only a "rumor" by Pompeo. Well, pardon me but one might consult history here.
On October 18, 1913, after Serbia's occupation of Albania - a Balkan state also under the dominance of Austria-Hungary- the latter dispatched an ultimatum for withdrawal by all Serbian forces within 8 days.. Rumors of war circulated and the German Kaiser, grasping the 'genie' might be out of the bottle, penned a letter to Austria stating "every reason for war is removed"- after a Serbian reply agreed.
The letter of conciliatory support was too late, however, and barely an hour after the Kaiser penned those words Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia. The match igniting the conflagration known as World War I had been tossed, and eight months later my great grandfather Anton was conscripted into the army of Austria-Hungary, e.g.
My Great-grandfather, left, after conscription into the Austro-Hungarian Army some eight months after the onset of World War I. An Austrian officer stands next to him in this 1915 photo.
The confusion with the Kaiser's letter directly led to 11 million military dead and 7 million civilians in World War I. But you can be sure a misguided and misdirected Iranian conflict could be vastly worse, even conceivably leading to a thermonuclear war. This is because - while the media hasn't mentioned it - the Russians do have strategic interests in Iran, as they do in Syria. Hence, any misstep could have catastrophic consequences. All of which attests even more to the folly of Trump recklessly pulling out of the Iran nuclear deal.
Will Maj. Gen. Ghika's comments be too late to stave off a rash move by the U.S. into an Iran invasion? Let's hope so, because recall the Brit 1983 movie 'Threads' depicted a rapid escalation starting with an initial strike on a Russian nuclear reactor at Isfahan, leading to global war. This also was ignited by reckless moves into Iran by the U.S. and a "coalition" of allies.
Let me pause here to interject that although none of us except the Japanese have experienced an atomic bomb attack, you can get a very good inkling of what happens to humans by watching it in this clip from the movie 'Threads', e.g.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MrHoMSRZOS4
Watch it then watch again- especially the last 2 minutes of the clip- to see what we may be in for if cooler heads do not prevail now and if congress again allows crazies to usurp its war making powers.
See also:
And:
Bolton in Wonderland
by John Feffer | May 15, 2019 - 6:05am
Excerpt:
"Of all the places where John Bolton would like to go to war, Iran is currently in the lead position.
The national security advisor was in office for less than two months before Trump announced that he was pulling the United States out of the nuclear deal with Iran, a key Bolton objective. Since then, Bolton has been part of the team that has put the squeeze not only on Iran (with additional economic sanctions) but any country with the temerity to continue any kind of economic engagement with Tehran (with the threat of secondary sanctions). Last year, Bolton also asked the Pentagon to prepare a menu of military options for striking Iran, scaring even some seasoned administration officials.
But it was earlier this month that Bolton upped the ante considerably. On May 5, he assumed the prerogative of the commander-in-chief by issuing a direct threat to Iran.
In response to a number of troubling and escalatory indications and warnings, the United States is deploying the USS Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group and a bomber task force to the U.S. Central Command region to send a clear and unmistakable message to the Iranian regime that any attack on United States interests or on those of our allies will be met with unrelenting force. The United States is not seeking war with the Iranian regime, but we are fully prepared to respond to any attack, whether by proxy, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, or regular Iranian forces.
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