Diamond writes:

“Iran’s oil reserves are bigger than Iraq’s and America wants them and Israel
doesn’t want any other country in the region to be able to defend itself or to
possess a nuclear deterrent.”

Only the second half of this statement reflects a plausible explanation for the
prospect of a US war on Iran. This is one hundred percent about Israel’s
interests and its power in the American political system.

Just look at Venezuela. Venezuela has plenty of oil and it’s much closer to
home. There is not the slightest prospect of the US invading, destroying, and
occupying Venezuela in order to grab its oil. That is because it makes no
economic sense whatsoever to attack, destroy, and occupy countries to get
their oil. What makes economic sense is to make deals with oil-producing
countries, even countries like Venezuela whose governments don’t like us very
much. And there is no Israel lobby to compel the US to act against its own
interests by going to war against Venezuela for the oil that can be accessed at
much lower cost otherwise.

It is only because of Israel that the US can’t simply cultivate the usual
arrangements for gaining access to Iran’s oil. Israel forces the US to maintain
relations with Iran in a deep freeze of hostility, so that others, like the Chinese,
make the deals that the Israel lobby won’t allow us to make, and get the oil
access that we don’t get.

You know as well as I do nefesh that Israel and their friends in the US political culture are working assiduously to attack Iran. You don’t have to tell me what a brainless beast the military is. You’ve actually confirmed what I’m saying: the Congress is rotten to the core and will do what they’re told and can Obama hold out against them without coming to grief, either as the subject of some whipped up scandal by the lap dogs of the media or leaving politics in a much more permanent way? And can the military, who know that attacking Iran will be a complete disaster for America and the world, refuse to follow orders?

In January 1998 the neo cons sent Bill Clinton the infamous ‘January Letter’ demanding that he attack Iraq, with or without UN approval. Clinton refused. Remember what they did to Clinton? And in ‘The Shock Doctrine’ Naomi Klein writes this:

‘When the idea of invading an Arab country and turning it into a model (free market) state first gained currency…the names of several possible countries were floated – Iraq, Syria, Egypt and Michael Ledeen (leading neo con’s) preference, Iran’ (p. 329, Klein). 

It’s no use pretending that any of this Iran mania has anything whatsoever to do with defending America or even Israel. It’s all to do with the same old plan that saw the neo cons send the ‘January Letter’ to Clinton. Iran’s oil reserves are bigger than Iraq’s and America wants them and Israel doesn’t want any other country in the region to be able to defend itself or to possess a nuclear deterrent. Rico certainly let the cat out of the bag with his, ‘America has plans to attack every country in the world, that’s their job’ mini manifesto. This is straight out neo con ideology and will eventually lead to America’s complete ruination.

Nefesh, it’s not a venting of “irrational hatred” to point out that a US war against
Iran would be exclusively for Israel’s purposes. Even Hillary Clinton has slipped
and admitted that Iran is no threat to the US, even if it gets nuclear weapons
someday. AIPAC and the rest of the Israel lobby are quite openly obsessed with
the desire for war against Iran. The passion is coming overwhelmingly from
Israel and its “American” supporters. How can Israel at one and the same time
openly and loudly scream for war against Iran and at the same time complain
that those who point to Israel as the instigator here are imagining things,
because of their “irrational hatred”? 

Furthermore, some of Israel’s own leaders have also slipped and admitted that
Iran is not and will never be an existential threat to Israel. So this isn’t even
about preventing Israel from being nuked by some eventual Iranian bomb. This
is about enhancing Israel’s strategic position, not protecting it from
annihilation. It’s not about self-preservation or self-defense, and so it’s a
completely unnecessary war. And the Israelis know that this will cost the lives
of many American soldiers and Iranian non-combatants, and very possibly
deliver a death blow to the US economy.

What can we conclude but that the Israelis are a bunch of selfish racists who
project their racism onto others? To Israeli Jews and their “American” allies, a
“racist” is someone who fails to share their belief that Jews are better than mere
people.

****************

By nefesh, August 3 at 10:24 am

Ah, yes. Always with the expert assumptions. Not hard to spot an
izraeli shill trying everything to make people think how wise and
benevolent that sorry ass country is and how much this country
needs izrael, poppycock. The shame and pity is that all those
jews that object to what those fundamentalist leaders do in their
name are just as persecuted as the poor gazans are. Really am
impressed with that netandyahoo character who is shoving all
those 5 year old kids out into the cold or is it heat right now? He
has the incredible ability to make the KKK look like angels.

I have read from real historians of the hebrew tribes and their
blood thirst and underhanded ways going back to the
beginnings of judaism and that doesn’t count what is in the ot or
nt. And things just really haven’t changed and most likely never
will. I just hope those jews who just so happen NOT to see
things the way netandcoocoo does don’t come to harm.

I have several friends who are jewish and they are fine people
but, what goes on in izrael is something else. You won’t change
my mind and you really don’t know jackshit about my
disposition so as some close acquaintance once said: bugger off!

omygodnotagain, August 2 at 6:59:

What Israel wants is to be the top dog in the neighborhood. But as she has only 6 million citizens in a region of 300 Arabs, Egyptians and Persians, it relies on its pal the US to do the dirty work.
It is becoming clearer to Americans everyday, that Congress and the Government’s Foreign Policy is run by Israel, that policy directive is Goyem die for Israel
What bastards

The substance to this article is not the fear-mongering and misleading headline, but that Mullen reiterated the military’s aversion to the force option in dealing with Iran.  The military has a duty to create and update all sorts of contingency plans. Always has, always will. Anyone think the editors here don’t know that? And then we get the Jew-baiting bigots like the one quoted above, for whom no fact or reality is good enough to break the grip of irrational hatred. Anyone ever wonder why Truthdig is a place where the radical left converges with the extremist right when it comes to hatred of Jews? There is a pathology here.

re:By omygodnotagain, August 2 at 6:59 pm

Omygodnotagain writes:

“It is becoming clearer to Americans everyday, that Congress and the
Government’s Foreign Policy is run by Israel, that policy directive is Goyem die for
Israel…”

How bitterly true.

By rico, suave, August 3 at 9:08:

diamond:

Don’t conflate “having a plan to attack” with “deciding to attack”. It’s the President and Congress who decide to attack, not the military. It’s the military’s responsibility to be ready.

Why is it that those who have no concept of contingency planning (and thus no grasp of how the world really works) feel no shame in broadcasting their ignorance? Makes me laugh.

By samosamo, August 2 at 6:32 pm:

By nefesh, August 2 at 4:37 pm

Thanks, looks as if IZRAEL has been extra busy!

Do you happen to carry one of those bar codes on your shoulder
to help you ID yourself?

Your incoherent response is no surprise, and your comments are motivated by blind hatred.

diamond:

Don’t conflate “having a plan to attack” with “deciding to attack”. It’s the President and Congress who decide to attack, not the military. It’s the military’s responsibility to be ready. Nothing wrong with that. That law passed in 1789.

Rico suave what the hell are you talking about? America has plans to attack every country in the world and it’s their job? Who decided it’s their fucking job to attack anyone? Who made America God almighty? When did that law pass? If you were any stupider, as stupid as Sarah Palin or George W. Bush, for example, and could get yourself elected you’d be as dangerous to the human race as the Republican Party, their neo con brethren, the Troglodytes of the Tea Party and Fucks News.

GOP Blank Check for War? (cont’d)
by Patrick J. Buchanan, August 03, 2010
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...The House Republican resolution supports Israel’s use of “all means necessary” to “eliminate nuclear threats” that represent an “immediate and existential threat to the State of Israel.”

What “immediate and existential threat” are they talking about?

It is Israel that has hundreds of atomic bombs. Iran has no atom bombs, has tested no atomic device, has diverted none of its low-enriched uranium out of the sight of U.N. inspectors and has offered to ship half of its LEU to Turkey in exchange for fuel rods for a U.S.-built reactor that makes medical isotopes. And half of the centrifuges at Natanz have broken down.

Undeniably, Iran is gaining knowledge of how to build a bomb. But such a decision would seem idiotic from Iran’s standpoint, risking Israeli or U.S. nuclear strikes and provoking Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt to follow suit and acquire the bomb, leaving Iran even more isolated and vulnerable.

Three years ago, 16 U.S. intelligence agencies reached a consensus that Iran had given up on the project of building a bomb. Do these Republicans have hard evidence Iran is diverting its enriched uranium to such a bomb? If so, where is it?

Have these Republicans forgotten what happened to their colleagues in 2006, who voted Bush that blank check for war on Iraq in 2002?

Why, with all the issues going for them, House Republicans would announce full-throated support for a preemptive war on Iran that Americans would have to fight and finish, escapes me.

But if this is where a Republican House would take America, into yet another war, best that we know it before voting this fall.

GOP Blank Check for War?
by Patrick J. Buchanan, August 03, 2010
Email This | Print This | Share This | Antiwar Forum

High among the blunders of history was the “blank cheque” Kaiser Wilhelm gave Vienna, after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, to deal with the Serbs as they saw fit.

Five weeks later, Vienna cashed the check and declared war, after Belgrade refused to submit to all 10 demands of an ultimatum. Russia mobilized; Germany and France followed. And war came, the bloodiest in all of European history, with 9 million soldiers in their graves.

Since June 1914, a “blank check” given by one nation to another for war has been regarded as strategic folly.

Thus it is startling to learn 47 House Republicans just signed on to H.R. 1553 declaring unequivocal “support for Israel’s right to use all means necessary to confront and eliminate nuclear threats posed by Iran … including the use of military force.”

These Republicans have just given Tel Aviv a blank check for a preemptive war that Israel, unless it uses its nuclear weapons, can start but not finish. Fighting and finishing that war would fall to the armed forces of the United States.

Whom do these Republicans represent?

The Pentagon has made clear that with two wars of nearly a decade’s duration bleeding us, we do not want a third war with Iran. For while easy to predict how such a war begins, with air and missile strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities, no one can know how it ends.

Indeed, how would Israel reach its targets in Iran?

Turkey would not allow Israeli over-flights. The route over Jordan and Iraq would require U.S. military complicity, for we control Iraqi air space. Would Riyadh permit Israel to use its airspace to attack Iran, knowing Tehran could create havoc in the Gulf states and oil patch of northeastern Arabia?

The Israeli air force could destroy the nuclear power plant at Bushehr, the heavy water reactor at Arak, and the uranium enrichment facility at Natanz. But Israel cannot follow up and destroy all the dispersed nuclear facilities and missile sites of Iran. And no one knows what would follow.

How would Iran retaliate? Missile strikes on Tel Aviv? A missile barrage form Hezbollah igniting another Israeli-Lebanon war? How long could the United States stand by and watch Israel bombarded?

Indeed, the principal purpose and result of an Israeli preemptive war on Iran, bringing retaliation on Israel, would be to drag America in to fight and finish a war Israel had begun.

In whose interest is that? And who dreamed this resolution up?

If America joined the attack, we would have to complete the destruction of Iran’s nuclear facilities and destroy its missile sites, coastal defenses, navy, air force, and hundreds of speedboats to prevent attacks on U.S. warships and tankers transiting the Strait of Hormuz.

We would have to strike all the Republican Guard bases near Iraq and Afghanistan to protect our troops. We would have to kill thousands of Iranians.

Would Iran retaliate by inciting the Mahdi Army to kill our men in Iraq? Would it set Hezbollah to kidnap or kill Americans in Lebanon? Would Iran retaliate for its civilian dead by activating agents to commit terrorism in the United States? No one knows.

In 1986, Ronald Reagan ordered air strikes on Libya to retaliate for Qaddafi’s bombing of the Berlin discotheque. In 1989, in retaliation, Qaddafi blew up Pan Am 103. Death toll: 270 men, women, and children. It’s called blowback….

The US military has plans to attack just about every country in the world. So what? It’s their job. But plans are just plans. And so far in the entire history of the United States, the US military has never attacked another country without a nod from the President. Hard to say that about most countries in the world.

What Israel wants is to be the top dog in the neighborhood. But as she has only 6 million citizens in a region of 300 Arabs, Egyptians and Persians, it relies on its pal the US to do the dirty work.
It is becoming clearer to Americans everyday, that Congress and the Government’s Foreign Policy is run by Israel, that policy directive is Goyem die for Israel
What bastards

****************

By nefesh, August 2 at 4:37 pm

Thanks, looks as if IZRAEL has been extra busy!

Do you happen to carry one of those bar codes on your shoulder
to help you ID yourself?

By samosamo, August 2 at 9:48 am:

What with this incredibly ‘unstable’ part of the world? That
wouldn’t in anyway be because of izrael would it?

Riiiiight.

Egyptian oppression of the Copts is the fault of Israel.

Christians vs. Muslims in Lebanon is the fault of Israel.

Arab genocide of black-skinned Darfurian Muslims is the fault of Israel.

The Turkish oppression of the Kurds is the fault of Israel.

Sunni vs. Shia in Iraq is the fault of Israel.

Saudi mistreatment of women and minorities is the fault of Israel.

Iranian regime’s oppression of Zoroastrians and Bahai is the fault of Israel.

The war in Yemen was the fault of Israel.

Turkey’s occupation of Cyprus is the fault of Israel.

==>rico suave, THIS is a prime example of IDS.

Israel’s plan has always been to start the war and then count on the political
power of “American” Zionists to force the US to finish it.

Probably the only reason Israel hasn’t already started the ball rolling is that it
wants to be extra sure that the Obama administration will be forced by the
Israel lobby to join the war that Israel starts.

Recently Congress passed a resolution praising Israel in advance for any
military attack it might undertake against Iran; and of course, the upcoming
elections also have the effect of making Congress and the President doubly
fearful of the Israel lobby’s power. It’s hard to know how much assurance of US
obedience Israel considers necessary before doing something so dangerously
crazy, but it’s difficult to imagine Israel’s prospects being better than they are
now.

What are the Israelis waiting for? Maybe they are trying to get some extra
blackmail leverage over a few more senators? Is the Mossad trying to collect a
few more compromising sex photos or financial records?

Senate   99 - 0
  House 408 - 8

passed Iran Sanctions and Disinvestment Act.

part of the plan, notice ,  Sanders, Feingold, Whithouse
Boxer, et.al.

Well, if having nuclear weapons is an acceptable
criterion for attacking, invading and occupying a
sovereign nation, then the US better be prepared to be
attacked.

****************

Well, where is the proof that Iran is developing nuclear weapons?
That is besides what comes out of your mouth.

What with this incredibly ‘unstable’ part of the world? That
wouldn’t in anyway be because of izrael would it?

Surely there cannot be any unintended consequences? You
already have the plan and which is just another invasion of a
sovereign country based on a pack of lies which are specifically
INTENDED CONSEQUENCES and any info the mossad creates is
their excuse to perpetually wage war with any and all islamic
nations; guess indonesia will be next because they are
developing particle beam matter disrupter beam AND nuclear
weapons.

Poor poor misunderstood izrael, just can’t get no respect,
sympathy or kindness from anyone. Well, izrael, the eskimo
would be a great secondary target for you.

Iran’s response: annoyed shock

Iran’s response: annoyed shock

This is news to people? We’ve probably had blueprints for attacking Iran that have been evolving and changing since the Islamic Revolution began in 1979. This was probably just more psychological warfare aimed at twisting Tehran’s arm. In the wider strategic view of things, it is more likely the Israelis will hit Lebanon before any US/Israeli assault against Iran begins.

Governments have these plans ready at all times. There is no doubt a plan for a Colombia-led assault on Venezuela.

What Mullen is actually saying is that America attacking Iran would be a complete fucking disaster. ‘Downside’? I think he used that word because he can’t say Armageddon. And I’m assuming Gregory is David Gregory, a man with all the charm of a sweaty armpit, the brain of a tadpole and a robotic supporter of anything Israel wants America to do.

And Aaron Ortiz how exactly is Iran going to ‘respond’? Fly over to America and drop bombs on it? Fly to Israel and drop bombs on it? And then, in the event of this impossible and ridiculous scenario, presumably be wiped off the face of the earth by either America or Israel’s nuclear weapons.This is the purest 24 carat bullshit. It has all the startling veracity of the endless lies told about Iraq and Afghanistan pre-invasion. Naturally enough, since the idea of invading Iran was always part of the neo con project.

How incredibly the editor put together the headline for maximum negative effect.

I am sure this will bait poor misunderstood Ahmadinejad to respond to such unprovoked belligerent rhetoric. (sarcasm).