Will President Bush bomb Iran?
In a nondescript room, two blocks from the American Capitol building, a group of Bush administration staffers is gathered to consider the gravest threat their government has faced this century: the testing of a nuclear weapon by Iran.
The United States, no longer prepared to tolerate the risk that Iranian nuclear weapons will be used against Israel, or passed to terrorists, has already launched a bombing campaign to destroy known Iranian nuclear sites, air bases and air defence sites. Iran has retaliated by cutting off oil to America and its allies, blockading the Straits of Hormuz, the Persian Gulf bottleneck, and sanctioned an uprising by Shia militias in southern Iraq that has shut down 60 per cent of Iraq’s oil exports.
The job of the officials from the Pentagon, the State Department, and the Departments of Homeland Security and Energy, who have gathered in an office just off Massachusetts Avenue, behind the rail terminus, Union Station, is to prevent a spike in oil prices that will pitch the world’s economy into a catastrophic spin.
The good news is that this was a war game; for those who fear war with Iran, the less happy news is that the officials were real. The simulation, which took four months, was run by the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank with close links to the White House. Its conclusions, drawn up last month and seen by The Sunday Telegraph, have been passed on to military and civilian planners charged with drawing up plans for confronting Iran.
In a speech to war veterans, Mr Bush said: “Iran’s active pursuit of technology that could lead to nuclear weapons threatens to put a region already known for instability and violence under the shadow of a nuclear holocaust.”
He went on to condemn Iranian meddling in Iraq, where America increasingly blames the deaths of its soldiers on Iranian bombs and missiles. Mr Bush made clear that he had authorised military commanders to confront “Iran’s murderous activities”.
This was widely taken to mean that he is set on a confrontation with Iran that will culminate in a bombing campaign to destroy Iranian nuclear facilities …
The president’s intervention came just weeks after leaks from a White House meeting suggested that Vice-President Dick Cheney, who is understood to favour the use of force, has regained the upper hand over the Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defence Secretary Robert Gates, who both advocate diplomacy and sanctions to isolate Iran. Mr Cheney reacted with fury when the State Department suggested that negotiations might continue past January 2009, when Mr Bush leaves the White House.
So the question is: did Mr Bush last week set America inexorably on a path to the next war?
European observers, and some in the American government, believe that Mr Bush has resolved to “do something” about Iran before he leaves office. A State Department source said: “If we get closer to the end of this administration and we are not seeing suitably tough diplomatic action at the UN, and other members of the P5 [the five permanent members of the Security Council] are still resistant to anything amounting to more than a slap on the wrist to the Iranians, then people will start asking the question: how do we stop our legacy being a nuclear-armed Iran?”
Mr Bush’s escalation of the rhetoric was deliberate.
“By using that word ‘holocaust’, Mr Bush has provided a moral reason to allow the Jewish state to do what it needs to do,” said the former aide. “He is reinvoking the notion of ‘never again’.
How many analogies does Bush need to justify his destruction of this country? We know he is up to no good, but ‘the sum of our fears’ is that he is stupid enough to pull the trigger, leave office, and go hide in his bright and shiny new bunker, probably designed by Cheney. The more horrible a nightmare scenario is painted for him, it seems he gets more determined to make it happen.
A Pentagon source said: “We have a targeting list and there are plans, but then there are also plans for repelling an invasion from Canada. We don’t know where everything is but we do know where enough is to cause them enough damage to set back the programme.”
Look out Canada! They’re expecting you to send terrorists over the border, too. The height of paranoia is approaching the executive branch at a break neck speed … doesn’t Bush realize that the whole world may as well invade America, just to stop the insanity. Tom Clancy, we need one of your heroes!
Original article: Nightmare of Bush War Games – Curtain Call For Iran
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