Igniting Armageddon In The Middle East
By DR. Elias Akleh
10 August , 2010
Countercurrents.org
Aggressive rhetoric and a push for Israel to attack Iran have been, lately, intensified in the American media. While senators are trying to get President Obama to officially support an Israeli attack on Iran , reporters of the mainstream media are trying to convince the average American that Iran 's (non-existent) nuclear weapons program, half the globe away, is a threat to America , and the only viable way to stop Iran is through an Israeli “preventive” attack. They claim that the consequences of such an attack, warned by some military strategists as devastating, are “overblown”.
Many Zionist-bought Senators assert that the Congress strongly rejects nuclear Iran and supports the use of all means to keep Iran from acquiring a bomb including through military actions. Reiterating this assertion during their visit to Israel last July, Senators McCain, Lieberman and Graham hinted that Israel could spearhead such an attack that would definitely draw American forces in the conflict to finish the job.
Ignoring the dire consequences of such a war specifically on the US, Israel, and the Middle East, and the whole world in general, 47 House Republicans had introduced and signed onto a resolution (HR 1553) declaring “support for Israel's right to use all means necessary to confront and eliminate nuclear threats posed by Iran … including the use of military force.” It is understood that nuclear “tactical bombs” are to be used for such a military force to be effective. This resolution is now on its way through the Congress and Senators are under pressure to endorse it.
The mainstream media is doing its part to sell this war to the American citizens. Major articles about the subject were published by leading pro-Zionist, pro-war neoconservatives such as previous CIA agent Reuel Marc Gerecht, who published his exceptionally very long article “Should Israel Bomb Iran? –Better Safe than Sorry” . Steven Simon and Ray Takeyh from Washington Post had also published their long article "A Nuclear Iran: Would America Strike to Prevent It?” Bill Kristol, the editor of The Weekly Standard and commentator on Fox News Channel published his article “A Period of Consequences; Our Dangerous Iran policy”.
The common theme with these writers is their addressing of the alleged Iranian nuclear “threat” to the American people although half the globe afar. They claim that economic sanctions and the American diplomacy are ineffective and insist that a military action by the US , or perhaps Israel , would be a better solution than mere talks. The danger of these articles is that they greatly downplay Iranians' ability to defend themselves and to counter-attack effectively.
The writers encourage nuking of Iran as the only solution to “curtail its ambitions” . Gerecht asserts “an Israeli bombardment remains the only conceivable means of derailing or seriously delaying Iran's nuclear program and –equally important –traumatizing Tehran … (an Israeli) preventive strike remains the most effective answer to (Iran) having nuclear weapons.”
Drawing the American forces in the conflict the writers misleadingly assert that US military, although engaged in two ongoing wars, is still fully capable of “carrying out such a mission.” They dangerously and extremely minimize the effect of such an attack as “limited” , as if the Iranians would stand by and let the US or Israel obliterates their country and their citizens.
Similar to pre-2003 Iraqi situation, the US and Israel are using the threat of” non-existent” Iranian nuclear weapons to rally international support for a regime change in Iran . They are accusing Iran with the same grave violations that they themselves (US & Israel ) possess. Iran is being punished by severe economic sanctions based on Israeli and American unfounded accusation that Iran , a member of the NPT, is building an atomic bomb despite the November 2007 assertion of the National Intelligence Estimate (NIE), summarizing the unanimous opinion of all 16 secret services, that Iran had stopped its nuclear weapons program. The assertion stated: “We judge with high confidence that in fall of 2003 Tehran halted its nuclear weapons program … We assess with moderate confidence Tehran has not restarted its nuclear program as of mid 2007.”
IAEA's reports confirm that there is no evidence that Iran is currently pursuing an atomic weapon program. Iran is criticized and is sanctioned for what the US and Israel think Iran would do, rather than for what Iran is doing. Iran is exercising its legitimate right, as per the NPT, of acquiring peaceful atomic technology.
The US itself possesses thousands of nuclear bombs, and although a member of the NPT, is still working on what is called nuclear tactical bombs. Israel on the other hand is not a member of the NPT, yet it is very well known that Israel has between 200-300 nuclear bombs as exposed by Mordechai Venunu , an Israeli atomic technician, who used to work in the Israeli atomic facility in Dimona. Former President Jimmy Carter mentioned in May 2008 that Israel has 150 nuclear bombs .
Although having democratic elections Iran is demonized as a religious dictatorship. Similarly, Israel , although having democratic elections, is a religiously dominated society aiming at fulfilling their religious prophesy of Greater Jewish Israel. The American foreign policy is greatly tainted by influential religious groups such as the Jewish AIPAC and Zionist Evangelican Christians. This influence can be easily seen in Bush's description of his wars as “crusades”, and in the use, by main media, of terms such as “Islamofascist”, “Islamic terrorists”, “Islamic extremist” and other religiously pejorative words to describe the wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, and Iran.
While giving themselves the right to invade, occupy, destroy and devastate Iraq and Afghanistan under the accusations that such countries are threatening the US half the globe across, the American administration and Israel deny Iranians same right to defend its borders when its neighboring country is occupied by another country that keeps threatening to nuke their country, and accuse them of supporting terrorists in Iraq.
Iranian president Ahmadinejad is labeled as a new Hitler with a mad pathologically terror-stricken anti-Semitic Jew-hating Islamofascist regime intending on expanding its authority over the Middle East . Israel is playing the role of always the victim in a self-defense mode rather than the instigator of hostilities, and considers any criticism of its terror as anti-Semitic. Israeli leaders are worst than Hitler for what they had done to the Palestinians. Their government is a Zio-Nazi regime based on religious superiority complex, and intent on wiping off all Arabs and Moslems in between the Nile and Euphrates, as they had done in Palestine, in order to build their Greater Jewish Israel to spread its authority not only on the Middle East but also on the whole world. Israel is anti-Arab (anti-Semitic), anti-Moslems, and, as will eventually become apparent, anti-Christian.
The American administration is the worst of them all. Since its establishment until the present day the US has been in a state of perpetual wars and genocide against other nations. Its military bases are spread all over the globe to control and to manipulate other countries under the guise of spreading freedom and democracy.
Iranian Ahmadinejad is falsely accused of denying the Jewish Holocaust and of threatening to wipe off Israel, when in reality all what he had suggested was a serious and open historical study of the Holocaust similar to any other historical event, and had stated that the Zionist regime in Israel would bring an end to itself due to its terrorist actions against others. Iran had never threatened to strike any other country, including Israel , unless it was attacked first. Israel , on the other hand, denies the Palestinian Nakba and Palestinian pogroms perpetrated by the Israeli army and by Israeli terrorist settlers. Besides wiping Palestine off the map Israel , backed by the American administration, is threatening to nuke Iran and wipe off Iranian cities and citizens in mass. The US is also denying it's genocidal and war crimes against other nations, the least of them is the annihilation of millions of indigenous American Indians and the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki wiping off hundreds of thousands of people within few seconds. The Administration is still using the threat of nuclear strike against non-nuclear countries to force them to follow the American dictate.
The real goal of all these accusations is a regime change in Iran , similar to the Shah regime, that would allow the flocking of foreign corporations to exploit Iran 's natural resources especially oil and gas. Since Israel has been complaining that one or two Iranian nuclear bombs pause an existential threat to its citizens, one would expect Israeli leaders and the American administration to be satisfied with the Iranian low enriched uranium swap tripartite deal, brokered by Iran , Turkey and Brazil .
Many political analysts fear that Israel might attack Iran before the end of this month (August). Israel has been preparing long for such an attack. Last July 2009 Israeli air forces had been training on bombing raids at Nellis Air Force base in Nevada , while the Israeli missile defense shield program was tested off the shores of the Pacific Ocean . Also in June 2009 two Israeli missile class warships and a German made Dolphin Israeli submarine with cruise missiles equipped with the most sophisticated nuclear warheads in the Israeli arsenal, had passed through the Suez Canal to be stationed in the Persian Gulf off the Iranian coast. Since the Israeli air forces need to fly through Iraqi air space the attack needs to happen before the US turns security control to the Iraqi forces end of August, and before Iran defuses the tension by swapping its nuclear fuel early September.
An Israeli strike would have a devastating effect on the whole world. Iran is a powerful country and has just added to its arsenal many domestically-built weapons such as Mersad anti-aircraft missile, Ghadir class mini-submarines, and the lethal Noor anti-ship missiles. There is a rumor that Iran had just acquired four S-300 anti-aircraft missile systems .
The Iranians are expected to counter attack with long range missiles against Israel . All the American aircraft-carriers in the Gulf are sitting ducks for the Iranian missiles. Iranians would also target all the American military bases in the Gulf. They would start supplying surface-to-air missiles to Taleban that would jeopardize American war in Afghanistan. Having a defense treaty with Iran, Syria and Turkey may be drawn into the conflict. Hezbollah and Hamas would hit Israel from North and South. The Iranians would definitely close the Strait of Hermuz blocking all the oil shipments. Blocking, for even few weeks, Iran's 7% of internationally traded oil plus another 40% of global oil exports from the Arab Gulf States would cripple the whole international economy.
An Israeli strike would ignite Armageddon in the Middle East, and it would spread to the rest of the world. The question that poses itself is: Is the American Congress really crazy to support such an Israeli strike?
