Here We Go. Iran War

By Will Bunch

The Web is buzzing tonight with new tough talk on Iran and a possible attack by the United States and/or Israel. The latest bombshell, so to speak, comes from the Jerusalem Post and is highlighted on the Drudge Report:

A high-ranking American military officer told the Post that senior officers in the US armed forces had thrown their support behind Bush and believed that additional steps needed to be taken to stop Iran.

Predictions within the US military are that Bush will do what is needed to stop Teheran before he leaves office in 2009, including possibly launching a military strike against its nuclear facilities.

Uh...hey look, everybody, it's Paris Hilton!

Seriously, this is all starting to look very much like the worst case scenario when it was announced on Friday that Gen. Peter Pace would not be renominated for another term as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, an announcement that was, indeed, made at the very hour that the cable news networks had stategically deployed their fleets of reporters to cover Hilton's court hearing.

The official explanation for why Pace would not be asked to serve another term were patently ridiculous. Here is how Defense Secretary Robert Gates explained the move to replace Pace with Admiral Michael Mullen:
"I think that the events of the last several months have simply created an environment in which I think there would be a confirmation process that would not be in the best interests of the country,'' Gates said. ``I wish it were not necessary to make a decision like this. But I think it's a realistic appraisal of where we are.''

This is an administration that is currently holding onto an attorney general who just received a "no confidence" vote from a majority of the U.S. Senate, including six Republicans, and has sent that very same Alberto Gonzales to Capitol Hill to testify under these brutal conditions. So, can anyone believe they really care about a few tough questions for Peter Pace?

It's getting harder to believe that Pace's dismissal was about anything else other than the Cheney administration's agenda for war with Iran. It's been increasingly acknowledged that the Joint Chiefs, with Pace at the helm, had been a leader in steering Bush away from half-baked Iran attack schemes.

In April 2006, Seymour Hersh reported in the New Yorker:

[A] Pentagon adviser on the war on terror…confirmed that some senior officers and officials were considering resigning over the {Iran] issue. “There are very strong sentiments within the military against brandishing nuclear weapons against other countries,” the adviser told me. “This goes to high levels.” The matter may soon reach a decisive point, he said, because the Joint Chiefs had agreed to give President Bush a formal recommendation stating that they are strongly opposed to considering the nuclear option for Iran.

This March, Pace embarassed the Bush White House by knocking down an administration claim about Iranian weapons shipments into Iraq:

Marine Corps Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joints Chiefs of Staff, said today he has no evidence the Iranian government has been sending military equipment and personnel into neighboring Iraq.

That came just a couple of weeks after award-winning journalist Robert Parry reported this on his Web site:

One intelligence source told me that Joint Chiefs chairman, Gen. Peter Pace, has explored the possibility of resigning if Bush presses forward with air attacks against Iran, a war strategy that might be done in coordination with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

Now Pace doesn't have to resign..he's out, unexpectly, in a move that was announced at an hour that was guaranteed to receive as little media scrutiny as possible. The Navy man who's replacing him, Mullen, hasn't made his views on Iran completely clear, but he may take a harder line than Pace apparently did.

When {Adm. William] Fallon was appointed in January to lead CentCom, analysts noted the choice of a Navy officer reflected “a greater emphasis on countering Iranian power, a mission that relies heavily on naval forces and combat airpower to project American influence in the Persian Gulf.” In announcing the nomination of Mullen this afternoon, CNN Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr said that Mullen “watches Iran closely.”

That was on Friday, an eternity ago.

Yesterday, Sen. Joe Lieberman went on CBS' "Face the Nation" to declare: “I think we have to be prepared to take aggressive military action against the Iranians to stop them from killing Americans in Iraq." And now, we have another round of harsh words, including this new report in the Jerusalem Post.

This is pretty alarming stuff. So when is the war with Iran actually going to begin? What day is Paris going to be released again?

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The Nazis, Fascists and Communists were political parties before they became enemies of liberty and mass murderers.

More Lies from Grand PooBahs at the Pentagon.

How the hell can we possibly be expected to believe a word these people say. Does Gates honestly expect anyone to believe that there are no plans for an attack on Iran? The NeoCons have been planning this for over 6 years, since before 9/11/01.

By LOLITA BALDOR, Associated Press

WASHINGTON - The extra troops that Iraq promised to send into Baghdad in a new U.S.-Iraqi military buildup are arriving on schedule but in inadequate numbers, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Friday.

Gates was asked at a news conference about Senate testimony on Thursday by the outgoing U.S. commander in Baghdad, Gen. George Casey, who said the arriving Iraqi units have only 55 to 65 percent of their intended troops.

"Fifty-five percent probably isn't good enough," Gates said, but he left open the possibility that by the time the Baghdad crackdown begins in earnest the Iraqi combat units will be at full strength.

(No, 55% probably isn't good enough, Geeze. These guys really are the masters of understatement!)

Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who sat beside Gates in fielding questions at the Pentagon' estimated that the arriving Iraqi units are at about 60 percent of their assigned strength.

"It needs to be stronger than that," Pace said.

Administration officials have said they expect Iraq to meet the pledges it made, as the troop buildup proceeds, but they have not said explicitly what would happen if the Iraqis fall substantially short on troop contributions.

"Partly it will depend on how quickly they get back up to strength," Gates said.

(How many times have we heard that in the last three years? I wouldn't be betting the farm on it!)

The defense secretary has publicly held out the possibility of slowing or stopping the flow of additional U.S. troops if the Iraqis fall short, as they have in the past; the Pentagon has announced plans to send five additional Army brigades, totaling 17,500 troops, to Baghdad by May. In addition, about 4,000 Marines are to be sent to western Anbar province.

At his news conference, Gates also said that the decision announced in January to send a second U.S. aircraft carrier to the Persian Gulf region does not mean the United States is planning for a war with Iran.

He said the purpose was to underscore to U.S. allies as well as potential adversaries that the Gulf is a vital interest to the United States.

(Who the hell doesn't already know that? Does it take two Carrier battle groups to get that message across?)

"Nobody is planning, we are not planning for a war with Iran," Gates said.

( Did he change from "Nobody" is planning to "we" are not planning? Ok We get it; Israel is planning to strike Iran. We just plan to back them up, eh, Mr Gates?)

Gates said the United States' main aim with regard to Iranian influence inside Iraq is to counter what he called networks providing explosives used to make roadside bombs that are powerful enough to destroy a U.S. tank.

"Because we are acting against the Iranians' activities in Iraq, it has given rise to some of these talks" of U.S. intentions to attack Iran, he said, adding that there is no such plan.

(Yeah, right....and Saddam purchased tellowcake from Niger and the moon is made of green cheese.)

Pace said that over the past month or so, raids against those bomb-supplying networks had netted two Iranians.

Gates said it was too soon to say with confidence whether Iranians were involved in the ambush last week in Karbala, in southern Iraq, that left five American soldiers dead. U.S. officials have said in recent days that they are investigating possible Iranian links.

"The information that I've seen is ambiguous," he said. (No Shit)

Gates also said that U.S. military officers in Baghdad were planning to brief reporters on what is known about Iranian involvement in Iraq but that he and other senior administration officials had intervened to delay the briefing in order to assure that the information to be provided is accurate.

Gates opened his news conference by announcing that he has recommended to
President Bush that he nominate Navy Adm. Timothy Keating, currently the commander of U.S. Northern Command, to be the next commander of U.S. Pacific Command, replacing Adm. William Fallon, who has been selected as the next commander of U.S. Central Command.
Gates said he also recommended that his senior military aide, Lt. Gen. Victor "Gene" Renuart, be nominated to replace Keating at Northern Command.

The Nazis, Fascists and Communists were political parties before they became enemies of liberty and mass murderers.