by Philip Greenspan
(Swans - January 29, 2007) The curtain has risen on the final act, the last two years of the Bush administration's eight-year era spanning the rise and likely demise of the neocon war plans. Much of the public and even some of the establishment, most of whom enthusiastically supported those plans at the start of the era, are now calling for an end to the Iraqi misadventure. But the decider and his remaining loyalists are not only rejecting those calls but deciding to expand the war. The pundits are guessing what and where his next move will be and what his motives are. Some think he is trying to finish his term with wars still brewing so that the next president will bear the disgrace of losing the war. Imagine that! The LOSING team will run out the clock! Such thoughts assume that the dummy actually realizes that the war has been lost. Would the ideologues who intensively applied pressures, lies, deceits, and covert activities to get their neocon war plans underway believe that they backed a lost cause? And would they scrap their plans while they still have executive power?
For some time the administration has been agitating against their next neocon war quarry, the Iranians. Spurious charges of the building and existence of nuclear weapons in Iran have been refuted by the appropriate UN inspection agency, the IAEA and also by the CIA. No evidence has been found that Iran is working on a bomb and experts and intelligence sources assert that they are years away from developing one. Those refutations, however, never get prominent space in the obsequious press. With the fervent cooperation of the Israelis, Iran has been singled out as a rogue state. It is claimed that their leader, Ahmadinejad, threatened to wipe Israel off the map. He is another "Hitler."
Ever since WWII, any country that the U.S. decides to attack is a country led by another "Hitler." If Adolf were to see the bums who are considered his equivalents, he'd sue for defamation of character. Accumulate the evil deeds of all of them and they are a fraction of Adolf's résumé. Third-World dictators, as evil and sadistic as they can be, do not have the requisite clout. Only superpowers whose activities stretch across international barriers can murder, maim, rape, plunder, and torture in sufficient quantity to be admitted into the big leagues. Uncle Sam, for his overt and covert actions -- via the CIA and his Third-World puppets, some of whom the U.S. slapped with the "Hitler" label for actions they had previously taken on behalf of their master -- would be a most appropriate recipient of the "Hitler" designation! There was one of those Third-World scoundrels, however, who could make varsity: Pol Pot. This monster rode to power during and as a result of Nixon's incursion into Cambodia, and after the Vietnamese defeated the Khmer Rouge to liberate Cambodia he was supported by -- guess who -- the U.S.
The administration and the media have provided Ahmadinejad with the necessary accessories for the "Hitler" stand-in part, but that supposed threat to wipe Israel off the map is a mistranslation of the Farsi language. Juan Cole, a scholar fluent in Farsi and the choice of a Yale search committee for a top Middle East studies professor, claims that a more meaningful translation would be "This occupation regime over Jerusalem must vanish from the page of time." Other knowledgeable authorities agree with Cole, including The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), an organization founded by two Israelis, Yigal Carmon, a retired Colonel from Israeli intelligence, and Dr. Meyrav Wurmser, the wife of the neocon David Wurmser, which translates items in Arabic and Farsi that are picked up by the media.
Cole, by the way, did not get the Yale position. His rejection was most unusual. The strong opposition to his appointment by pro-Zionist forces was certainly a major factor. Their numerous instances of unwarranted pressure to censor, reject, and defame critics of Israeli policies are producing a negative blowback. A recent international online survey of 25,903 consumers found that Israel has the worst "brand name" of any country in the world. The advertising firm of Saatchi and Saatchi has therefore embarked on a public relations campaign to improve that image.
Seymour Hersh and Scott Ritter, two very knowledgeable sources with contacts on the inside who have been calling the shots correctly, are predicting an attack against Iran. The public is being set up with justifications for that upcoming attack. In addition to exploiting the "Hitler" bogeyman and accusing Iran of developing weapons of mass destruction they are also accused of supporting Islamic terrorists. Look no further than the US activities in the Middle East for the factor that is creating and recruiting terrorists.
The stage is being set. By early February, two carrier strike forces will be positioned in the Persian Gulf. Israel and the U.S., possibly dropping tactical nuclear bombs, may then deliver a one-two punch against Iran. The world's number one and number four military powers against a Third-World state would seem to be pushover, but recent history tells otherwise.
Scott Ritter predicts that when Iran is attacked it will target Middle East oil supplies. It will stop its own production and cut off shipments of other Middle East producers that proceed through the Strait of Hormuz. The resulting major shortages of that indispensable commodity will cripple the economies of the world.
Should such a scenario result and should the Bush regime survive the remainder of its term, the next president, by ending the war, would not be disgraced but would be hailed as a hero and a savior!
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