We, and by ‘we’ I mean the world, wait as our country and those of Great Britain and Iran taunt and flex muscle and bang war drums.
US Navy starts war games in Gulf
The US Navy has begun its most extensive manoeuvres in the Gulf region since the 2003 invasion of Iraq, but denies sabre-rattling aimed at Iran.
Two aircraft carriers, plus their strike groups, have sailed to the region and have begun war games involving as many as 100 US war planes.BBC
Positions are approximate
USS Dwight D Eisenhower in the Gulf, supporting operations in Iraq
USS John C Stennis in the northern Arabian Sea, flying missions over Afghanistan
French carrier Charles de Gaulle also supporting Nato’s Afghan operation from the Arabian Sea
PM warns Iran over Navy captives
“…These people have to be released,” the prime minister [Tony Blair] told GMTV.
“What we are trying to do at the moment is to pursue this through the diplomatic channels and make the Iranian government understand these people have to be released and that there is absolutely no justification whatever for holding them.
“I hope we manage to get them to realise they have to release them. If not, then this will move into a different phase.”
BBC
Code named by US military planners as TIRANNT, “Theater Iran Near Term” has identified several thousand targets inside Iran as part of a “Shock and Awe” Blitzkrieg, which is now in its final planning stages.
According to the Kuwait-based Arab Times, an attack on Iran under TIRANNT could occur any time between late February and the end of April. This assessment, however, does not take into account the disarray of US ground forces in Iraq as well as the untimely withdrawal of several thousand British troops from the Iraq war theater, many of whom were stationed in Southern Iraq on the immediate border with Iran.
“In early 2003, even as U.S. forces were on the brink of war with Iraq, the Army had already begun conducting an analysis for a full-scale war with Iran. The analysis, called TIRANNT, for “theater Iran near term,” was coupled with a mock scenario for a Marine Corps invasion and a simulation of the Iranian missile force. U.S. and British planners conducted a Caspian Sea war game around the same time. And Bush directed the U.S. Strategic Command to draw up a global strike war plan for an attack against Iranian weapons of mass destruction. All of this will ultimately feed into a new war plan for “major combat operations” against Iran that military sources confirm now exists in draft form. [This contingency plan entitled CONPLAN 8022 would be activated in the eventuality of a Second 9/11, on the presumption that Iran would be behind it]
… Under TIRANNT, Army and U.S. Central Command planners have been examining both near-term and out-year scenarios for war with Iran, including all aspects of a major combat operation, from mobilization and deployment of forces through postwar stability operations after regime change.” (William Arkin, Washington Post, 16 April 2006)
globalresearch.ca
Interesting comments: Can UK and Iran resolve their difference?
March 27th, 2007 at 11:05 am
Tell me that the now captured British sailors and marines were not where they were as provocation to ignite the spark of justification for an attack on Iran.
If not intentional, then their reckless actions in the intensity of scrutinity of Iran’s nuclear program is one more huge blunder.
March 27th, 2007 at 11:27 am
Everything I hear says April, 2007 is da’ month Little Boots will bomb Tehran.
Curious how 15 British sailors just happened to be loitering in Iranian waters and now picked up and held by the Iranian government???
In politics, as in international affairs, there are no coincidences.
March 27th, 2007 at 11:35 am
Hi Christopher, intentional or blunder hardly matters now.
The incident will cause what Blair and Bush are salivating for.
March 27th, 2007 at 1:12 pm
Are you sure Blair is salivating for this? He appears to want to disengage from BushWar. I don’t think it was necessarily planned. The dispute between Iraq and Iran over that stretch of water predates Bush’s attempt to conquer Iraq, so for both sides to think it’s theirs is reasonable. Nevertheless, I’m very concerned about this. As fast as the neocon/theocon ship is sinking, as scandal after scandal holes its hull, Bush would love a new war to generate pseudo-patriotism. :glurps_tb:
March 27th, 2007 at 2:25 pm
An attack would rouse Bu$hcon’s 30%er base into a feeding frenzy, but I don’t think it would make the other 70% too glad.
In fact, I think it would be the straw that finally brings the people into the street away from American Idol.
March 27th, 2007 at 3:44 pm
TomCat, Blair has been trying to appease his critics (aka the majority population of Britain) with separation from Bush, but he’s still a fundie and believes he is doing God’s work.
dad: I agree that if an attack is launched on Iran the majority in the US and England and throughout Europe will be screaming…but these Neos have a plan, their time to implement it is drawing to a close and, frankly, I don’t think they care what repercussions follow.
March 27th, 2007 at 4:08 pm
I agree daddio. The ONLY thing bushcorp could possibly do to make his standing in this country worse is the unprovoked attack (nookyuler OR conventional) attack on Iran. The, well, I call them quarters because I personally think thirty percent is stretching it a bit, would be singing his praises if he attacked the VATICAN. A recent Pew poll indicates that he AND the GOP has lost the vital middle. While they aren’t necessarily jamming the phone lines at county Democratic party headquarters across the country, they WILL if he does do something this stupid. IF rove is as smart as they SAY he is, he knows this. Max Factor doesn’t make enough lipstick for this pig.
All that being said, there is NO rat as dangerous as a cornered rat.bush is a cornered rat. He is a bully and thinks he’s entitled to do anything he wants. If the war and the attack on our soil on HIS watch got his polls to eighty percent, he probably thinks he can do it again by making up a bunch of shit and launching planes. The only problem with THAT plan is that we’re ON to him. IF an attack is to happen, April around good Friday would make sense, as the Russians claim.Why the HELL do we have to get our news from foreign sources?
March 27th, 2007 at 4:23 pm
For the DJ.
I am at MS right now. Using two comps with IE 6 on them. Mirth’s post titled “waiting to happen” has a HUGE gap between the title and the rating stars. I have to scroll down half the page before i see the stars and then the text of the post. I saw this happen once before.
Firefox works just fine.
March 27th, 2007 at 5:35 pm
Sick! I agree with everyone that the Brits going into Iranian waters was a taunt to provoke a war with Iran. Sick, sick, sick. Double sick.
I wonder what bullshit the Bush Regime will come up with for their reason to attack Iran?
March 27th, 2007 at 5:36 pm
I read on Ablog that gas/oil went up $5.00 because of a rumor that the Iranians actually launched a rocket or something like that at the Brits today in the Persian Gulf. If I can find the link, I will post it.
March 27th, 2007 at 5:39 pm
Here’s the link:
http://today.reuters.com/news/articleinvesting.aspx?type=hotStocksNews&storyID=2007-03-27T222425Z_01_SP116282_RTRUKOC_0_US-MARKETS-OIL.xml
March 27th, 2007 at 6:44 pm
Kay, the reason given (and given and given and given and…) will be that we are aiding our ally in recovering their captured soldiers, and when that whole story is debunked the reason will be that we had to cripple Iran’s WMD.
March 27th, 2007 at 7:43 pm
So true Mirth! My heart can’t take another unjust and fake war to line the pockets of the greedy Oil Maggots! I’m tired of them all.
Nite nite my love!
March 27th, 2007 at 8:34 pm
Mirth this is going to be ONE WAR too far for the Bushco criminal empire.
Iran has three times as many people as Iraq did, and has not suffered the sanctions or military desecration Iraq has since the beginning of Desert Storm.
Their military is much more robust and includes quite a few special forces which we call Revolutionary Guards.
They are masters of guerrilla warfare, who has been instrumental in both Hezbollah and The Sadr Corps training in Iraq, which means they have studied a fourth generation style attack by small guerrilla bands against a much larger occupation force.
They have a very intelligently styled navy which has numerous small watercraft which can be employed in mass attacks to disrupt the self defense systems of our naval warships, which would leave them vulnerable to the most dangerous anti ship missile on the planet, “The Sunburn” a Russian designed supersonic missile antiship missile;
The Sunburn - Iran’s Awesome Nuclear Anti-Ship Missile
The Weapon That Could Defeat The US In The Gulf
However, when I think about how Iran has had it’s surrogates fight a war, they never attack the enemy directly, instead they attack the enemies weak points and technologies, NOT their stronger military head on.
I wonder of the Iranians plan on firing some of their missiles to sink supertankers instead of US Naval Warships. That would hurt the ability of the Western Countries who were either directly attacking Iran or backing them in the UN. It would also make navigating the Straights of Hormuz much harder, and complicate the delivery of Oil from the middle east to the rest of the world.
At the same time the Iranians will attempt to stir up the Shiites in southern Iraq which would mean attacks on US Military supply convoys for Baghdad and Balad(where the main supply base is located).
If the supplies for the troops were slowed down or severely impacted, the ability to continue the current tempo of operations would become impossible which would put many more troops in a perilous situation where they had to conserve ammo and supplies for their own protection.
Also expect Hezbullah and Hamas to react against Israel which could explode the entire region into a full scale war. With the civil war in Iraq exploding , and the US attacks on Iran emboldening the Kurds in Iran which would incite Turkey to react to stop their indigenous Kurds from revolting, at the same time invading the Kurdish regions of Iraq to attack the Kurdish rebels who use it as a sanctuary.
We could be in the very impossible situation of fighting three wars, while one ally is getting attacked from inside and Lebanon, and a NATO ally is fighting against part of the Iraqi government which we support.
All this happening as the price of oil goes through the roof, the dollar drops and our economy is falling into recession at least at first.
The war against the Taliban in Afghanistan I understood, and even supported.
The Invasion of Iraq I did not but understood even if it went bad the repercussions could be contained if Bush ET Al used any sense at all (which they didn’t).
But this war Bush is chomping at the bit to get against Iran, is very dangerous and alarming, because the blowback from it would be immediate and very destructive to the fabric of this country as well as the fabric of ther middle east for decades.
This war I fear.
March 28th, 2007 at 1:20 pm
RESET COORDINATES (Friday, March 17, 2006) TO ZERO HOUR:
The birds have thus gone silent in the gray sky,
Nothing flies between this life and this death;
Solid ground and space and breathing flesh;
Naught hovers now but the murderous device.
Latitude 33 modify to latitude 35.
20 minutes north alter to 45.
Horror fails even our most tested imagination,
Thus we’ll not sense our own fluttering demise
Caught then, perched, set to firmly plunge
The feet, landing unhappily, upon the blade.
Longitude 44 change to 51.
24 minutes east to 45.
Only in catastrophe does hush go unnoticed,
As the smallest gasp of the smallest possible breath,
Only in the inescapable horror-show do they enter
Exhaling through our dreadful sinking exactness.
Lock and load! Goddamnit! Now drop that shell!
Let’s bang some brown flesh to everlasting hell!
Over a billion barrels of bobbing death await
Silent in the gray sky, zero hour knell!
March 28th, 2007 at 3:30 pm
See why apoeticjustice is one of my top thinking sites?
Thepoetryman’s gift expresses the rage and fear and hope and fire we all feel, but in a new way that charges us beyond our capability with mere words.
He also has at least 10 irons in the fire at any given time, so it is especially wonderful that he leaves us this stunning poem.
Thank you, Mark. I always tell you ‘this is my favorite one.’ Still, this is my favorite one. Perhaps because right now I, like everyone, am holding my breath.
March 28th, 2007 at 6:07 pm
Russian intelligence is reporting a US military buildup on Iran’s border.
http://en.rian.ru/russia/20070327/62697703.html