Colonel, it would be very interesting if you posted this directly the the WH blog. I suspect Cheney has set up the spam filter to reject it...
Posted by tempus at February 17, 2007 10:26 AMYou know Bush/Cheney are just itching to take on Iran. And as Congress seems incapable of heading them off at the pass, Bush/Cheney have a large window of opportunity -- anytime between now and Jan 2009.
Posted by Marie at February 17, 2007 11:26 AMAs we approach a war with Iran, it is time to force out the tacit assumptions underlying the purpose of the war and the liklihood of success.
One of the underlying assumptions must be that military action will be effective in establishing a US friendly situation in Iran.
Amother assumption must be that the US has the military capability to win where winning is defined as establishing a US friendly situation in Iran and in the related war zone.
If either of these assumption is false, then a war with Iran would be irrational.
The problem is that both assumptions are false. It is my opinion that under the current facts on the ground in the Middle East, military power cannot be effective without a flagrant disregard for humanity and a genocide of the Iranian people. It is also my opinion that the US, while it has the capacity to kill all of the Iranians and thereby effectively use military power, it cannot exercise that power effectively because the American body politic will not consent to the use of the nuclear force necessary to win in Iran and will not support a genocide. That being the
case, US military might is insufficient to be effective.
As I see it, the lessons of the American war in Vietnam and the Russian War in Afghanistan is that an imperial power cannot win against an indiginous people without liquidating the indiginous population and that imperial populations will not consent to the use of genocidal power by their leaders--hence, if attempted, any military agression against Iran will fail. Furthermore, it would be a crime to begin the misadventure.
While Bush, Cheney, and some delusional neocons may believe that the US might is sufficient, it is not. No matter how much conventional force is applied, the Iranian people will be successful in thwarting American control over Iran. The only way to terminate Iranian resistance, huge numbers of Iranians must be murdered. That cannot be acomplished with conventional weapons. It will take nukes and total war against Iran.
Bush should be asked upon his commencement of his attack on Iran if he intends to commit the genocide necessary to win. If he say no, he should be impeached for wasting human life for naught. If he says yes, he should be arrested as a war criminal or hospitalized as a lunatic.
It is time for the hard questions to be made a part of the national psyche and for the false underlying assumptions to be exposed.
The reality is that unless we are willing to nuke to death the Iranian populace and become a criminal nation, no attack on Iran can ever be effective. The reality is that any attack on Iran will result in either the criminalization of the US or its defeat. No good purpose can come from any attack on Iran.
The real question before the nation is how soon we can peacibly stop Bush/Cheney without destroying our Republican form of government.
It is time for the Democrats to stop fooling around making useless no confidence votes in the surge and make a no confidence resolution in both houses asking Bush&Co to resign as a group before they destroy our nation and a large part of the planet too.
Posted by Nobody at February 17, 2007 12:30 PMI learned something recently that I hadn't known, when I happened to pick up and read a thirty-year-old book about the CIA written by a former agent. It is this: The majority of the CIA's budget and the majority of its people are not involved in gathering intelligence, rather they are actively involved in clandestine activities such as assassinations, sabotage, and even conducting wars such as in Laos and Nicaragua, and of course the aborted invasion of Cuba. The CIA doesn't free-lance these things, they are done on direct orders of the president in complete secrecy and without any oversight. I doubt that things have changed in thirty years, probably they're worse.
Posted by Don Bacon at February 17, 2007 01:34 PMSam,
Thanks for that. Lots of outrage news this week but this post is real intel, of which there hasn't been much lately, way too quiet for my taste. It seems to me that the CIA boys, or maybe Special Ops, or both, are on a campaign to provoke a response and they seem to be about to get one. Maybe we should replace Uncle Sam with Liberty Valance. In the John Ford movie, Lee Marvin was fond of provoking greenhorns to go for their guns so's he could kill 'em in "self-defense." Not my America, I must say.
Posted by John Shreffler at February 17, 2007 01:42 PMOf course I'm a believer that the "Salvador Option" is being exercised by the US in Iraq (with a "q") to include the bombing of the Samarra mosque a year ago, assassination squads and street bombings--so now we see it extended to Iran. The Empire thrives on turmoil and peace is to be avoided.
General Pace said recently that the reason that the US couldn't reduce the troop level in Iraq last year was because of the Sammarra mosque bombing--how convenient.
Posted by Don Bacon at February 17, 2007 01:43 PMThe more things change, the more they remain the same. Targeted assassinations and terrorism sponsored by the US has been going on for over 60 years to ensure US economic hegemony and corporate dominance. All the while, the citizens of this country continue in their corporate news reinforced delusion that we are always the good guys and would never target innocents.
Empires require atrocities to be perpetuated. Democratic governments and those that seek to be empires cannot co-exist. The Republic is going the way of Rome and it seems to me it is going to be an ugly, ugly trip to the bottom.
Nobody, I believe you are quite correct. The moment we use nukes, we open Pandora's Box and it will never be closed again, leaving the way for others to also use nukes. Perhaps the Word is correct, the last great war will take place in the middle east, and mankind will be destroyed.
Posted by Judith at February 17, 2007 03:02 PMThe clock is a ticking and Bushco is running out of time to start a war against Iran.
It's up to the Congress to stop him -- if they can muster the cajones to do it.
Time will tell.
Posted by Christopher at February 17, 2007 03:07 PMImpeach Cheney first.
Posted by angryspittle at February 17, 2007 03:22 PMNews report:
An explosive-laden car exploded Wednesday morning as a bus, belonging to ground forces of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, passed by, killing at least 11 people.
More suspects have been arrested in Iran's southeastern city of Zahedan, the official IRNA news agency reported on Thursday. "Some key members linked with the Jundallah terrorist group were arrested last night," said Brigardier General Mohammad Gaffari, a senior police official in Sistan-Baluchestan province.
Jundallah has claimed responsibility for the Wednesday attack, which killed 11 members of the Revolutionary Guards and injured 31 others. Gaffari said that so far, a total of 65 suspects in addition to the three people responsible for the attack have been arrested, adding that "One of the main bombers has been killed (in the car bomb attack)." The detainees were suspected of being linked to opposition groups and U.S. and British intelligence services, he said.
Sistan-Baluchestan and its close province of Kerman have been hit by a string of attacks and kidnappings in the past years,
which the Iranian authorities blamed on a Sunni group called Jundallah. Earlier this year, four members of Iranian security forces were killed in Zahedan when armed men opened fire at their vehicle.
http://www.iranian.ws/iran_news/publish/article_20630.shtml
US organizations that are involved in covert operations are very good about not leaving signatures that can be traced.
unless they wanted them to be traced, huh? i'm just sayin
Posted by benjoya at February 17, 2007 05:28 PMThis may have something to do with the MEK, a terrorist organization who practice the kind of terror that Bushco likes. They may be operating, with our support in arms & money; or at minimum our knowledge & consent, in parts of Iraq bordering Iran.
it is more than a guess that operatives of the commonwealth SAS have been operating in iran for many months. in concert with seconded israeli idf[mossad, shin bet] personnel.
they have adopted the MEK as their vehicle for destabilizing iran. and it wouldn't surprise me if they have created new terrorist orgs as well. after all, this was how the KLA was created and operated. and going back further into time, how the taliban was created and operated.
and though often forgotten, this was how the israeli imperialists created hamas.
if any doubt that this is the way empires create the fictions of conflict, i recommend daniele ganser's book to you.
NATO'S SECRET ARMIES: OPERATION GLADIO AND TERRORISM IN WESTERN EUROPE.
Posted by albertchampion at February 17, 2007 06:36 PMC'mn Krnl, rl mn r n hnrbl n wldn't frt th lttl kdds wth bdwttr stml.
[Editor: ignore=off]C'mon Kernel, a real man or an honorable one wouldn't fret the little kiddies with bedwetter stimuli.
Damn, bendito. How can a decorated Keyboard Kommando of the 101st Fighting Ctrl-Alt-Deletes, such as yourself, stand the dishonor inherent in Sam Gardiner's statements? I mean, what has he done that even begins to equate to the sacrifices you have made for the cause? How does his advising the Executive Branch compare to your Cheesy-Poof stained fingers? How does his teaching at the War College equate to the innumerable tubes of Bottle Caps you consumed late at night? How can his contacts in the government of Iran compare to your long hours in your mother's basement? How can his knowledge and years of experience compare to you never having had a date with a real woman? You know, all of the sacrifices you made that allow you to call Sam Gardiner dishonorable.
Posted by phidpides at February 17, 2007 07:08 PMNews report:
2nd blast in 3 days hits Iranian city
TEHRAN, Iran (CNN) -- A bomb went off Friday night at a girls school in the southeastern Iranian border city of Zahedan, according to the semi-official FARS News Agency.
No one was hurt or killed in the 10 p.m. (1:30 p.m. ET) blast, a military spokesman told the Web site of Iran's state television, Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting.
The spokesman, identified as Col. Goodarzi, told IRIB that based on initial information from the scene, a number of militants exploded a percussion bomb in the city and fired at an electricity plant before running away and hiding at a nearby house.Security forces have surrounded the building in an attempt to arrest them, he said.
According to FARS, the leader of the Jondollah group, Abdolmalek Rigy, claimed responsibility for the bombing on MKO-TV. The group also claimed responsibility for a car bomb in the same area Wednesday.
The small terrorist group Jondollah claimed responsibility for Wednesday's attack, FARS reported. The group has a history of launching attacks at Iranian border posts. IRNA reported that five people, including a failed suicide bomber, were arrested after the attack.
According to FARS, Iranian officials said the explosives used in that attack were manufactured in the United States.
http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/meast/02/16/iran.bombing/index.html
Do you have a link to the Chinese newswire report? It'd be handy to be able to cite the source, rather than passing on hearsay.
Posted by EarBucket at February 18, 2007 10:02 AMVirtually all of this is being instigated by the head of the snake - David Rockefeller and his CFR (and other countless "think tanks") - on Israel's behalf. These are all foreign agents in my book. GHW Bush is the one being blackmailed - and we are ALL suffering the consequences.
Israel is blackmailing the US leadership into this suicidal offensive nuclear strike - the unintended consequences of which are incalculable...to the great delight of the Armageddonists.
The entire concept of a "tactical nuclear strike" presupposes that no other nuclear actor will respond.
Only the most arrrogant nation on earth would invent something called a "tactical nuke."
Posted by at February 18, 2007 10:15 AMOnly the most arrrogant nation on earth would invent something called a "tactical nuke."
Are you referring to the tactical use of nukes or tactical nukes? There is a big difference.
Posted by phidipides at February 18, 2007 04:21 PM"US organizations that are involved in covert operations are very good about not leaving signatures that can be traced."
Sam that is why when this same forces last time tried to invade Iran in TABASback in hostage crises they did not leave any traces (humm) you could have been involved in that operation yourself . Dear Sam we are all Nationalist but who are you trying to fool? your own people for what.