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Danger of wider war
U.S. targets Iran, blames Iraq
By
Sara Flounders
Published Oct 10, 2007 11:54 PM
The Pentagon’s plans for a massive attack on Iran are hardly a secret.
For months the major corporate media in the U.S., Britain, France and other
countries have described the ominous plans, the thousands of bombing targets
already selected, and the hundreds of ships, warplanes and missiles arrayed
just offshore. Half the ships in the U.S. Navy are now off the coast of
Iran.
While the threat of war is growing, it is important to take note of a shift in
the stated U.S rational or justification for an unprovoked, criminal
attack.
During the late summer a whole series of articles in the U.S. media described
Vice President Dick Cheney as “urging strikes on Iran.” The media
coverage reached a fever pitch of demonization and insult in September during
the visit of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to New York to address the
United Nations.
But the carefully choreographed propaganda hype about the threat of Iran
developing a nuclear weapon suffered a severe blow when the International
Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) concluded that Iran’s nuclear program was of
a civilian nature and that Iran has neither the intention nor the capabilities
to develop nuclear weapons. On Aug. 21, Iran finalized a work plan with the
IAEA to provide answers to a number of outstanding questions regarding its past
nuclear activities.
Iran’s research and development of nuclear energy is clearly allowed
under international law. It is at such an early stage of development that all
efforts to claim that Iran poses a nuclear threat have been refuted. Iran has
insisted that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes. Despite its
constant clarifications, however, the U.S. government has continued to openly
threaten a massive strike against the Islamic republic’s nuclear research
facilities and its entire industrial base.
Another WMD scam
Mohamed ElBaradei, the head of the IAEA, says Iran does not currently pose a
threat to the international community and has called for more efforts to push
forward dialogue.
ElBaridei has also gone public with his warnings against the Pentagon’s
war plans: “I would hope that everybody would have gotten the lesson
after the Iraq situation, where 700,000 innocent civilians have lost their
lives on the suspicion that a country has nuclear weapons.”
An article in the London Guardian on Sept. 18 headlined: “Drift into war
with Iran out of control, says U.N.,” said, “The U.N.’s chief
weapon’s inspector yesterday warned against the use of force against Iran
in what U.N. officials said was an attempt to halt an ‘out of
control’ drift to war.” Other publications around the world ran
headlines that ElBaradei warned against a showdown with Iran on the nuclear
issue
Since these statements the U.S. corporate media has tried to vilify ElBaradei
as pro-Tehran and accused him of overstepping his authority.
The IAEA’s work with Iran also blocked U.S. efforts to impose far more
injurious sanctions through the U.N. Security Council. Many feared that a new
U.N. resolution would be utilized as authorization for military action.
Russia and China opposed additional sanctions, claiming that such measures
could place in jeopardy Iran’s cooperation with the IAEA. Washington was
forced to postpone any action in the U.N. Security Council against Iran until
at least November.
Nevertheless, Washington continues to line up its imperialist allies. An Oct. 1
article in the London Independent was headlined: “U.S. plan for air
strikes on Iran ‘backed by Brown.’” Gordon Brown is
Britain’s new prime minister.
On Sept. 16 Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner of France declared: “We
have to prepare for the worst—the worst is war.” Last month the new
French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, said after visiting Bush that the world had
“a catastrophic alternative: an Iranian bomb or the bombing of
Iran.”
The setback for the Bush administration on the U.N. front has not stopped the
Pentagon’s plans. Instead it has changed the script.
New rationale for an attack
The New Yorker magazine ran a long article in its issue dated Oct. 8 headlined
“Shifting Targets: The Administration’s Plan for Iran,” by
journalist Seymour Hersh, well-known for his foreign policy articles containing
“insider information,” including Pentagon and White House leaks.
Hersh describes how the Bush administration has redefined the war in Iraq as a
“strategic battle between the United States and Iran.”
Every problem that the U.S. occupation forces face in Iraq is blamed on
Iran.
There is wide speculation that the reason Gen. Peter Pace was replaced as chair
of the Joint Chiefs of Staff was based on his publicly stated view in February
that he saw no firm evidence of Tehran supplying weapons to Shiite militias
inside Iraq.
Pace was replaced by Adm. Michael Mullen, formerly U.S. chief of naval
operations. Mullen was in charge of coordinating naval war games in 2006 and
2007 off the Iranian coastline. Mullen said he considers it “unacceptable
that Iran is providing U.S. enemies in Iraq and Afghanistan with capabilities
that are hurting and killing U.S. troops.” (Inside the Pentagon, June
21)
Gen. David Petraeus, the top commander in Iraq, is always willing to repeat the
White House’s line on the U.S. occupation’s “success”
in Iraq while blaming Iran for its catastrophic failure. Speaking to a group of
reporters on Oct. 5 at a U.S. military base 20 miles from the Iranian border,
Petraeus once again claimed that Iran was giving Iraqi militia groups advanced
weaponry and guidance: “They are responsible for providing the weapons,
the training, the funding and in some cases the direction for operations that
have indeed killed U.S. soldiers.”
U.S. military officers have repeatedly presented what they say as evidence of
Iranian-produced arms, including a new concave design in improved explosive
devices. The latest generation of IEDs is called explosively formed projectile
bombs. The key components of these EFPs are copper discs, rolls of electrical
wire, plastic pipes for casings, ball-bearings and batteries. These simple
projectiles are capable of penetrating the armor of 60-ton Abrams tanks.
IEDs account for 70 to 80 percent of the U.S. deaths in Iraq. Instructions on
building IEDs are readily and widely available, even on the internet. Iraq has
tens of thousands of highly educated engineers, technicians, scientists and
machinists. The idea that Iraqis lack technical expertise or that Iraqi
resistance fighters would need to import these weapons from Iran is ridiculous.
Every resistance struggle is able to develop effective low-tech weapons. As a
popular insurgency grows, so does the wide application of useful
technology.
But to acknowledge that there is overwhelming opposition to the U.S. occupation
in Iraq is to acknowledge that the U.S. war is not winnable.
The real danger is that U.S. imperialism, unwilling to accept the inevitable,
will escalate the war to other countries. The insatiable hunger of the
capitalist class to control the rich resources of the entire region drives them
recklessly forward. The international movement that has organized wide
opposition to the horrendous devastation of U.S. war in Iraq must more
seriously mobilize opposition to the growing danger of a far wider war against
Iran.
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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