Bush administration readying for 2004 invasion of Iran

Bush administration readying for 2004 invasion of Iran

By John Stanton
Online Journal Contributing Writer

March 24, 2003While the slaughter continues in Iraq,
the United States has its sights set on the real
prize: the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Even though Syria is next on the chopping block
according to the authors of A Clean Break: A New
Strategy for Securing the Realmchief among them
Richard Perle and Douglas Feithit is Iran that they
covet.

In their view, it's payback time for the 1970s
overthrow of the Shah and subsequent takeover by
Khomeni (then exiled in France), the occupation of the
US Embassy, the ensuing hostage crisis, the botched
rescue attempt that sullied America's military
reputation, and tit-for-tat terrorist actions over the
years between the US and Iran (US Navy shoot down of
Iranian airliner, Iranian backed terrorist attacks on
US troops, etc). Never mind that in 1953, US, UK and
Israeli intelligence were responsible for a coup which
ousted the nationalistic Iranian prime minister,
Mohammed Mossadegh and would ultimately lead to
regional conflict with Iraq and hatred of the US to
this day.

The same stupidity was repeated in 1963 in Iraq, when
US, UK and Israeli intelligence whipped up a coup
decapitating prime minister Abdul-Karim Qassim (a 25
year-old named Saddam Hussein played a key role in
that effort) which would ultimately lead to regional
conflict with Iran and Kuwait and hatred of the US to
this day.

The bottom line has not changed in 2003. It is all
about economics. In the 1950s and 1960s, the US and UK
were worried about the nationalization of oil
production by Iran and Iraq. In 2003, it is the same.

The US consumes roughly 30 percent of the world's
energy production (as measured in British Thermal
Units) yet has only 5 percent of its population. "We
have 50 percent of the world's wealth but only 6.3
percent of its population. In this situation, our real
job . . . is to devise a series of relationships which
permit us to maintain this position of disparity. To
do so we have to dispense with sentimentality . . . we
should cease thinking about human rights, the raising
of living standards and democratization," according to
US diplomat and historian George Kennan in 1948 (see
Richard Heinberg's The US and Eurasia: End game for
the industrial era?).

The United States and Western Europe have unwaveringly
adhered to Kennan's advice and have only themselves to
blame for the madness currently underway in Middle
East and Persian Gulf. For over 50 years, through
coups, preemptive air strikes and vicious propaganda,
the US, UK, France, Israel and other European nations
have long been engaged in "preemption" by attacking
and decapitating the legitimate leaders of the nations
that makeup that region.

And so many still ask the silly question, "Why do they
hate us?"

US War Criminals in Action

Dick Cheney, Paul Wolfowitz, Donnie Rumsfeld, Richard
Armitage, Elliot Abrams, Zalmay Khalilzad and other up
and coming war criminals are anxious to set things
right with Iran. It is Iran's turn to be subjected to
the 21st Century version of Nazi Germany's Blitzkrieg,
that being the murderous American "shock and awe"
campaign created by leading War Criminal Harlan
Ullman. Ullman writes a column for the Reverend Moon's
Washington Times and is a senior associate with the
Center for Strategic and International Studies, in
which the Department of Homeland Security was
initially conceived.

From March 21 to March 23, Iranian air-space had been
violated with impunity by US aircraft. The US attacked
the oil-industry communities of Khorramshahr, Abadan
and Manyuhi in Iran not far from the US-UK-Kuwaiti
controlled Faw Peninsula and Umm al Qasrcontrol
points for the Shatt al Arb through which billions of
gallons of crude oil have passed to the US, UK and
Japan. The oil refinery and depots in Abadan were the
primary targets. The were casualties but no deaths. US
and UK bombers have also circled over Arvand-Kenar in
Iran on their way into Iraq. Iranian officials have
protested these violations of international law, but
to no avail. Pentagon officials declared the cause of
the attacks to be "stray" cruise missiles and bombs.
That is improbable.

These attacks (and overflights), it seems, were part
of the preprogrammed target packages planned early on
by US military commanders to test, or light up,
Iranian air defenses for the invasion of Iran which is
likely to take place if George Bush II takes the US
presidency in 2004. They serve as a stark warning to
Iran not to meddle in what has now become the
American, British and Kuwaiti sphere-of-influence in
the southeastern sector of Iraq.

Iran Attack Plans

Between April of 2003 and November 2004, the US, UK
and Israel will accelerate instability operations in
Iran and engage in global disinformation campaigns to
belittle the political and military leadership there.
They will take to the airwaves to portray to Americans
a country beset by internal strife and dissension.
Corporate media will revisit the Iranian Hostage
Crisis and display for war-hungry Americans footage
from the 197880 timeframe. That will include images
of Khomeni's henchmen hanging and executing the Shah's
secret police. Movies such as Sally Field's Not
Without My Child portraying many Iranians as "evil
doers" will be broadcast by all the networks. Reza
Pahlavi, son of the former Shah of Iran, will be
featured with greater frequency on CNN, Fox, ABC, NBC,
CBS and PBS.

Images from the 1983 bombing of the US Marine Barracks
in Lebanon allegedly by Iranian backed Hezbollah will
be aired and printed. Coincidently, in Washington, DC,
on March 17, 2003, relatives of US Marines killed in
Lebanon were allowed to proceed with a lawsuit to
collect $2 billion in damages from the Iranian
government. According to the sometimes reliable
Washington Post, "U.S. District Judge Royce C.
Lamberth has ruled that survivors and family members
can sue Iran under the provisions of a 1996 law that
allows U.S. citizens to take legal action against
nations that sponsor terrorism. 'The U.S. military
force . . . embodies everything that is resented by
the enemies of this country,' Lamberth wrote. 'Failure
to permit military service member [lawsuits] would
create a perverse incentive for state sponsors of
terrorism to target noncombatant U.S. military
personnel.' Hundreds of family members turned out for
the first day of what is expected to be two days of
testimony and evidence designed to document Iran's
role in the bombing. Iran did not send a
representative to the trial." Once Iraq is
successfully occupied, the media will turn its
attention to Iran and that lawsuit.

No Way Out

Already, sources report that elements of the CIA are
busy in and around Iran, and that US-UK-Australian
special operations teams operating out of Afghanistan
and Kuwaitand the US Province of Iraqhave been
surreptitiously setting up shop in Iran for months.
Iran now finds itself pinned on all sides by pro-US,
UK forces. Operation Liberate Iran will take place
using the same strategy and tactics employed in the
Massacre of Iraq. Iran has few options. One, is the
accelation of its nuclear program and a successful
test or demonstration of a nuclear device. That may
slow a US-led invasion. A second option would be
become part of a new counter-US alliance that would
include Russia, India, France, Germany and China. The
last, of course, is to "disarm" or go into
"exile".

Twenty-First Century Crusader's George Bush II and
Michael Leedon (Benador Associates, AEI, Bush advisor)
believe in their Judeo-Christian quest to crush Islam
as they view it as an illegitimate and insidious
religion that has gotten in the way of oil extraction.
The current campaign in the region is nothing less
than an extension of the Crusades dating back to 1096.
Leeden played his God card by indicating prior to the
US assault on Iraq that "God willing, Judgment Day is
coming to the Middle East and the long-suffering
people of Iraq, Syria, Iran and Saudi Arabia will get
their chance to be free." But as Ahmad Faruqui,
writing in the Asia Times, pointed out, this is just
another replay of history.

"The Arab world remembers well the words that British
General Allenby, a descendent of the English
Crusaders, uttered when he entered Jerusalem on
December 9, 1917, "The Crusades have ended now!"
Similarly, it has not forgotten either the content or
the tone of the statements made by French General
Henri Gouraud when he entered Damascus in July 1920.
Striding to Saladin's tomb next to the Grand Mosque,
Gouraud kicked it and exclaimed, "Awake Saladin, we
have returned. My presence here consecrates the
victory of the Cross over the Crescent."

Nor will it forget the proclamations of George Bush II
and Tony Blair 100 years hence.

John Stanton is a Virginia Based writer specializing
in national security matters.

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~"Arabic is the language of Revelation, Persian is the language of REVOLUTION!"~