Bomb, Bomb Iran
If you know the dingbat vice president is agitating for a conflict with Iran, if you know that Condi is chasing after Cheney with a butterfly net on Iran and Syria, if you know you can’t believe anything this administration says, why vote to give them more backing on their dysfunctional Middle East policy?

The schism in the administration is deepening in a way that should alarm Hillary. Mark Mazzetti and Helene Cooper report in today’s Times that Cheney and his hawks are arguing that the Israeli intelligence about Syria’s nascent nuclear capabilities that led to last month’s Israeli strike on Syria was credible and should dictate a harsher policy toward Syria and North Korea, while Condi, Bob Gates and calmer heads “did not believe the intelligence presented so far merits any change in the American diplomatic approach.”

Burnin' for you, Iran

Well it seems that the US government and our military is still itching for a war with Iran. Now General Patraeus is reminding us (no doubt at the prompting of idiots in the administration) that Iran is still "fueling" war against the U.S. in Iraq.

Here is a momentary reality check --- OF COURSE they are fueling a war against us in Iraq. Duh. Let's see... we illegally invaded and occupied their neighbor... we have branded Iran as a part of an "Axis of Evil"... we have taken it upon ourselves to dictate whether or not Iran may possess nuclear technology despite our utter silence on this issue as it relates to Israel, Pakistan, and India. .. we have declared a portion of their military as a terrorist organization, thus leading to the next concern... we have threatened military action against Iran and in all likelihood appear willing to strike them whenever it is deemed politically expedient to do so.

Now let me ask you, what would you do if you were in Iran's position?

The United States has engaged in this type of warfare for decades, yet we wish to call others out for utilizing the same tactics. Anyone remember Iran-Contra? The hypocrisy of our government is absolutely staggering, and our endless ability to tell others how to conduct their affairs while we not-so-secretly fail to walk our own talk is hypocrisy at its height.

Thanks to Bush

"It means that the mission of the Revolutionary Guard is to interfere more than before in the country's internal affairs and get involved in the repression against political, social, and cultural activists, and to intervene more in everything," he says.

The fallout from an attack on Iran would be devastating


The administration is increasingly convinced that it will be far easier to convince the American public of the case for war on Iran if it's seen as being about the protection of US troops rather than nuclear scaremongering from the people who brought you Saddam Hussein's WMD. So the focus of the military plans has changed accordingly: from a wide-ranging bombing assault on Iran's known and suspected nuclear sites to "surgical" strikes on the Revolutionary Guards, who the US claims are backing armed attacks on its occupation forces.

"If they have evidence," Abedin says of the U.S. military, "they've certainly not made it public."
Not everyone is convinced Iran's role in Iraq is as direct as U.S. officials suggest. Mahan Abedin, director of research for the London-based Center for the Study of Terrorism, told RFE/RL that allegations of a direct link between the Quds Force and dead American soldiers are "essentially political." "If they have evidence," Abedin says of the U.S. military, "they've certainly not made it public." Gen. Bergner, speaking with reporters in September 2007 to announce the capture of suspected weapons smuggler Mahmudi Farhadi, declined to discuss evidence.

Others question what sanctions against the Revolutionary Guards or its foreign counterparts would accomplish. The U.S. State Department has included Iran on its list of state sponsors of terrorism since 1984. But efforts to slap sanctions on the country's military forces could prove problematic, some analysts predict. Writing in the Financial Times, CFR's Takeyh says proposed sanctions illustrate the Bush administration's misunderstanding of Iranian politics. "At a time when the administration professes a desire for a negotiated settlement with Tehran," Takeyh concludes, "coercing a pillar of the theocratic regime erodes the possibility of a diplomatic resolution." Reidel is equally skeptical. "We're not going to put them out of business." Yet others say the move is long overdue. Because the unit's financial holdings bleed so far into the Iranian economy, Sazegara predicts sanctions on the Revolutionary Guards "would be fairly effective on Iran as well."

What a War on Iran Might Look Like [photo essay]



The Lebanon War of 2006 between Israel and Hezbollah lasted 34 days, and according to veteran war correspondent Scott Anderson, author of Double Blind, was noteworthy for its "sheer senselessness." AlterNet is pleased to host the above slideshow of images from Double Blind by photographer Paolo Pellegrin and an interview with author Scott Anderson, conducted by AlterNet's Nina Berman.

Bush's Agenda in Iran

By Reese Erlich, AlterNet. Posted October 3, 2007.



For years Iran has given political, economic and military support to Shia and Kurdish militias, but the administration has never proven that Iran is intentionally targeting U.S. soldiers.

Iran does not plan, nor does it have the capability of "wiping Israel off the map." If Iran is such an immediate threat to Israel, why hasn't it already launched a conventional missile attack? Such aggression would invite immediate destruction of Iran by both Israel and the United States. So if Iran hasn't started a conventional attack in 28 years, why would it possibly launch an atomic attack, even assuming it could develop a few such weapons years from now? The Iranian leaders are angry; they are not crazy.

Iran does support Hizbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Palestine, but such support does not constitute a threat of Jewish annihilation. The U.S. and Israeli governments consciously distort and exaggerate Iran's threat in order to justify immediate military action.

For two years the United States has helped splinter groups among Iran's ethnic minorities to blow up buildings, assassinate Revolutionary Guards and kill civilians in an effort to destabilize the Tehran regime. In short, the United States does to Iran what it accuses Iran of doing in Iraq.