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.

=====

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