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While blaming Tehran
Massive U.S. war exercises threaten Iran
By
Deirdre Griswold
Published Mar 29, 2007 8:57 PM
On March 27, the Associated Press reported that the U.S. had launched its
largest naval exercises in the Persian Gulf since the invasion of Iraq.
Two immense aircraft carriers, the USS Eisenhower and the USS Stennis, were
steaming off the coast of Iran, each one accompanied by a carrier strike group
of vessels and planes. All together, more than 100 planes were involved in this
obvious attempt to intimidate the Iranian people with a show of military
might.
The magnitude of the operation was sketched by the AP: “Each carrier
hosts an air wing of F/A-18 Hornet and Superhornet fighter-bombers, EA-6B
Prowler electronic warfare aircraft, S-3 Viking anti-submarine and refuelers,
and E-2C Hawkeye airborne command-and-control craft. Also taking part were
guided-missile destroyers USS Anzio, USS Ramage, USS O’Kane, USS Mason,
USS Preble and USS Nitze; and minesweepers USS Scout, USS Gladiator and USS
Ardent.”
The Eisenhower had moved to the Gulf from the coast of Somalia, where in
December it provided cover for an invasion of that country by thousands of
Ethiopian troops, coordinated by U.S. special forces. Washington’s
objective was to break the political power of the popular Islamic Courts Union
and firm up a “transitional government” of discredited
“warlords” who had lost control of the country. As usual, the
public relations flacks in Washington explained this outright aggression with
one pat phrase: the “war on terror.”
British sailors, marines detained
Iran must have known that the current exercises were about to take place when
on March 23 its navy stopped a vessel in the Shatt al-Arab waterway between
Iraq and Iran and detained 15 British sailors and marines.
There are two accounts of why this happened. The U.S.-British account is that
the British sailors were in Iraqi waters inspecting civilian ships suspected of
smuggling and that the Iranians had no right to detain them.
The Iranian account is that the British had entered Iranian waters. It says the
15 detained sailors and marines have not been harmed but are being questioned
to determine whether their violation of Iran’s sea boundaries was
“intentional or unintentional.”
Meanwhile, the media in both Britain and the U.S. are pumping up an
international crisis over the seizure of the 15. If they report at all on the
huge war exercises going on, it is to give the impression that the U.S. is just
responding to the “evil bully,” Iran.
How low can the monopolized corporate media go—especially the television
“news” programs aimed at a mass audience? Lower than a
snake’s belly.
They won’t ask the most elementary questions about this preposterous
story, even though the whole world knows by now that the residents of both the
White House and Downing Street are a pack of liars.
However, independent-minded people in the West should be able to figure this
all out. There is plenty of historical precedent to understand what is going
on.
First of all, it makes no sense that Iran would deliberately enter Iraqi waters
and seize British naval personnel just as U.S. carriers were bearing down on
its coast to carry out war maneuvers. The Iranians know very well that the U.S.
is the world’s superpower when it comes to military might and would not
help it create a pretext for aggression.
Second, the U.S. and Britain have long been in a partnership to dominate the
oil-rich Middle East; it should be remembered that the Anglo-Iranian Oil Co.
once controlled most of Iran’s oil. It DOES make sense that they would
concoct a provocation just before the U.S. war maneuvers began.
Third, isn’t it suspicious that the charge against Iran came from London
and Washington, not from Baghdad? Didn’t this allegedly happen in Iraqi
waters?
Fourth, even though several accounts have appeared in the Western
media—including in the series on U.S. military threats against Iran by
Seymour Hersh in the New Yorker magazine—about U.S. special forces
operating clandestinely inside Iran, promoting secessionist groups and
gathering intelligence, the Iranian government has so far taken no action that
might inflame its already tense relationship with Washington.
Finally, the penetration of a country’s territorial waters by U.S.
warships or spying vessels has happened before.
Gulf of Tonkin, USS Pueblo
In August 1964, Congress passed a resolution that was later cited by President
Lyndon Johnson as his authority to escalate the war in Vietnam. The so-called
Gulf of Tonkin Resolution was based on a supposed “attack” by North
Vietnamese patrol boats on U.S. warships in international waters. Later, with
the publication of the Pentagon Papers, this pretext for the war was shown to
be totally false.
In January 1968, the ship USS Pueblo and its crew of 83 men were captured by
the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea after entering the DPRK’s
waters. The U.S. claimed the ship was on an innocent mission—until its
captain apologized to the Koreans and admitted publicly that it had been
intercepting the Koreans’ electronic communications.
No one outside the U.S./British high command knows where the present crisis is
leading. It must not be allowed to become the excuse for an escalation of the
imperialist military intervention in the Middle East, which has already brought
so much misery and destruction to the region and to the soldiers coerced and
tricked into going there.
Articles copyright 1995-2012 Workers World.
Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article is permitted in any medium without royalty provided this notice is preserved.
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