Top Source Says Bush To Strike Iran By August

I ran into this several hours ago in the Asia Times, but no other outlet has reported it. Apparently its an exclusive.

Asia Times says Senator Diane Feinstein, Democrat of California, and Senator Richard Lugar, Republican of Indiana, were informed of the attack plan.

The Bush administration is planning to carry out air strikes against Iran by August and two U.S. Senators have already been briefed on the attack according to a report in the highly respected Asia Times, which cites a former assistant secretary of state and U.S. career diplomat as its source. [emphasis mine and I agree]

Muhammad Cohen's article claims that Senator Diane Feinstein, Democrat of California, and Senator Richard Lugar, Republican of Indiana, were informed of the attack plan and planned to voice their opposition to it in a New York Times editorial in an attempt to offset the air strike. The editorial is yet to materialize.

According to Cohen' source, the Neo-Cons believe that they can perpetrate a "limited" air strike aimed more at sending a message than destroying Iran's supposed nuclear program, but the consequences of such a move are likely to provoke a massive Iranian retaliation, as President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has consistently warned.

For the time being, lets say its true. Don't ya just love how the neocons are willing to take a gamble on not starting WWIII? Just asking.

The fact is, no neocons or their families will be involved. If a total conflagration breaks out, and it will, it'll be your children, brothers, sisters, neighbors who go to the Mid-East to die. And, based on my almost non-existent expertise on warfare, I would think boots on the ground (as they say) will be necessary eventually.

Note: Headline links to source.

Bush, think for once in your life

Some things Bush should contemplate before attacking Iran, but won't:

1. It will be far worse than Iraq which hasn't turned out well at all.

2. You will demonstrate to the world the US is no longer a super power.

3. Such an attack will ruin what little respect any country has for the US.

4. Iran will attack world-wide on a scale you won't believe.

5. You can't destroy all of Iran's offensive capabilities fast enough to prevent retaliation.

6. Ten dollar per gallon oil? Oh yeah, that's not a bad thing. I forgot.

7. Obviously Israel, Syria, Lebanon and others will join in.

8. You will wreck what's left of the US military.

9. Even Iranians deserve to live. You will kill civilians in obscene numbers.

10. You will be personally responsible for the deaths of millions of people throughout the Mid-East.

11. People around the world will revile you until the day you die and probably long after. What a great fucking legacy.

12. Your father may finally disown you. Oh, I forgot, you don't really care.

13. Everyone will finally realize just how psychotic you actually are.

14. Your balls will shrivel up and most likely fall off.

15. No doubt almost everyone will see your foreign policy was shit.

16. Paraguay may be too close to the US for you.

17. Because Iran can retaliate, Lebanon is viable, the PA is viable, Syria is viable, you may well trigger the destruction of Israel.

18. You will no longer be able to vacation in the Persian Gulf.

19. Quite possibly you'll see the sinking of one or more US warships.

20. Most likely many of the US's allies will lose thousands of people.

21. You will postpone and guarantee Iran's having nuclear weapons.

22. Its probable Iran won't be the last to develop nuclear weapons as that's the only way to keep you from attacking them.

23. You will prove beyond a doubt you are the most stupid fucker to ever lead a country...period.

24. The 23% approval rate you have may fall down to just members of the US Congress.

25. You will single handedly destroy what's left of the GOP. OK, that could be a good thing.

26. If you're lucky (we're all lucky?) this won't incite a world war.

27. Can you say military coup d’état? They've happened for lesser reasons.

28. You will crush the US economy which you've already decimated.

29. Billions of dollars in military aircraft will be lost. You don't think the Iranians won't fight back, do you?

30. Russia and China are nearby. They may decide its in their best interests to stop you. And China doesn't even have to intervene militarily. It could just call in its US debt. Huge fucking oops!

31. Then there are the American lives to be lost. Can't have enough of those can you, Bush?

This is a partial list. Its a start. Feel free to add to it in comments.

Cross posted at Brilliant at Breakfast.

CENTCOM Team To Perfect Secret Strike Plan On Iran

Sometimes the addition to the story is just lobbed into my lap, so to speak.

A highly confidential strategic planning group? How "highly confidential" is something being bandied about on the the World Wide Web? Hahaha.

This also isn't really news. Preparation, although not part of Bush's style is essential as a contingency.

THE United States Air Force has set up a highly confidential strategic planning group tasked with “fighting the next war” as tensions rise with Iran.

Project Checkmate, a successor to the group that planned the 1991 Gulf War’s air campaign, was quietly reestablished at the Pentagon in June.

It reports directly to General Michael Moseley, the US Air Force chief, and consists of 20-30 top air force officers and defence and cyberspace experts with ready access to the White House, the CIA and other intelligence agencies.

Detailed contingency planning for a possible attack on Iran has been carried out for more than two years by Centcom (US central command), according to defence sources. [emphasis mine]

You guys need to be much more careful. No wonder you get hacked.

Via BlackListedNews.

Iran: The Next Quagmire

Some on the internets tubes are doubting this story, but check out these five details.

1: Air strikes
2: 1,200 targets
3: Pentagon plan
4: Destroy Iran's military
5: Three days

With a series of airstrikes aimed at 1,200 targets, the Pentagon reportedly has plans to destroy Iran's military capability in three days.

I've noticed every story, regardless of source, reiterates these five details. The words around the details change, but not the details themselves.

So this a very disciplined urban legend* or true.

Via AlterNet.

* urban legend
–noun
a modern story of obscure origin and with little or no supporting evidence that spreads spontaneously in varying forms and often has elements of humor, moralizing, or horror. (source)

Can we (you) stop this?

Maybe if most Americans write, phone, email, snail mail, SMS, shout at, visit their Congress critters, Bush/Cheney can be stopped.

Almost everyone, including the media, thanks to Bush's PR, "know" Iran is in the cross-hairs. Well it doesn't have to happen. It shouldn't happen. To sit back and say, "Oh well, there was no way to stop it." is fucking lame.

Do everything you can to stop it NOW!

You really won't like the results of an attack on Iran.

And, if the attack does happen, don't fucking vote for your current Congress critter. Send their ass packing. Because you don't need such incompetents in office. They're there to protect you and they will be abysmal failures.

Do you, did you, let your child play with knives, scissors, fireworks? Well, OK, probably in the southern US.

Sorry cheap southern US redneck joke. Couldn't help myself and I apologize.

Anyway, back to the issue. Don't let Bush play with the "toys" he has. They're much more dangerous. Just imagine nukular dust drifting over the Mid-East, Russia, Europe. The toll will be enormous.

War: Terror label 'paves way for air strikes'

The American empire as envisioned by Bush

Déja vu all over again. Your assignment, should you choose to accept it, is to compare and contrast the rhetoric about Iran to the rhetoric surrounding Iraq in the run up to what many consider one of America's greatest fuck-ups.

You'll never get honesty out of the Bush administration. That's a given. They say they have no intention of attacking Iran. Yeah, right. Just like they had no intention of attacking Iraq.

If you live in Lichtenstein, you might well feel nervous too. Empires are not built overnight and Bush has limited time to build his.

The White House's plans to designate Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps as a terrorist organisation are intended to give the Bush administration cover if it launches military strikes o­n the Islamic republic, according to a prominent former CIA officer.

Robert Baer, who was a high-ranking operative in the Middle East, said last week that senior government officials had told him the administration was preparing for air strikes o­n the guards' bases and probably also o­n Iran's nuclear facilities within the next six months.

The US is expected to list the guards as a terror group in the coming weeks. Washington accuses them of backing attacks o­n American and British forces in Iraq, as well as supporting the Hezbollah faction in Lebanon and Hamas in the Palestinian territories.

The designation will make it easier to target international financial transactions by the guards' lucrative business operations, which The Sunday Telegraph disclosed last week had made multi-millionaires of many senior commanders. It will also bolster American calls for tougher sanctions o­n Iran over its illicit nuclear programme at the United Nations next month.

But among President George W Bush's closest advisers, there is a fierce debate about whether to take unilateral military action independently of any UN security council moves.

While Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is set o­n diplomacy, Vice-President Dick Cheney is understood to favour air strikes.

The justification for any attack, according to Mr Baer, would be claims - denied by Iran - that the guards are responsible for the sophisticated armour-penetrating improvised explosive devices that are exacting a heavy toll o­n US forces in Iraq.

Mr Baer said: "The feeling in the administration is that we should have taken care of the guards a long, long time ago. We won't see American troops cross the border. If this is going to happen, it is going to happen very quickly and it is going to surprise a lot of people."

The White House has publicly insisted there are no preparations for military action against Iran. [emphasis mine]

No preparations for military action against Iran? What a crock of shit. That would be total incompetency if true. Come to think of it, perhaps they aren't drawing up plans. It fits their style.

Courtesy link to Intellectual Thought (whole article reproduced here).

Perhaps people are wising up

This from a from a report from several British groups.

A military attack on Iran could unleash disastrous consequences for the Middle East and the wider world, a coalition of unions, faith groups and think tanks warned in a report released Monday.

The document, "Time to Talk," said a military strike, which many believe is being planned by the United States, could further destabilize neighboring Iraq, undermine hopes for Israeli-Palestinian peace and embolden hard-liners in Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's government. It said an attack on oil-rich Iran could also drive up fuel prices, harming economies around the world.

"The possible consequences of military action could be so serious that governments have a responsibility to ensure that all diplomatic options have been exhausted," the report said. "At present, this is not the case."

Maybe if enough people speak out about the horrors attacking Iran will cause it won't happen. Of course, with a psychopath running the US, you never know.

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