Amen

Lawrence Martin sums it up well in his Globe and Mail comment from yesterday. The NDP is the voice of progressive activists in Canada, not the Liberals.

In the 1970s, the activists, their views vindicated on Vietnam, were in the vanguard. In this decade, the activists, their views vindicated on Iraq, not to mention global warming, have no such standing.

Speak out back then and you were cool. Speak out today and some fount of wisdom with a Fox News mentality will come down on you -- to borrow a phrase from Hunter S. Thompson -- "like a million pound sh-thammer."

Speak out today and, as silly as it sounds, you'll be accused of Bush-bashing -- as if it isn't warranted. In the last election campaign, Paul Martin's Liberals found out what the atmosphere was like when they underwent a media pounding for taking on the United States on certain questions.

That campaign has had a lingering effect, silencing Liberal voices, who kept Canada out of Iraq, on the big American questions of today. The Conservatives, former supporters of that war, are more inclined to join hands with the administration than pursue what Andrew Caddell, one of our United Nations officials, calls innovative multilateralism.

Among the few who challenge Washington are the NDP's Jack Layton and groups such as the Council of Canadians and the Centre for Policy Alternatives. They stick their necks out, only to get either ignored or berated by conservative media elites who would be more convincing if their track record on such matters as Iraq and the green file wasn't so dismal by comparison.

See:

Harpers Fascism

nd blog posts, photos, events and more off-site about:
politics, election, Conservatives,
Jack Layton, Liberals, Dion, NDP, election2007

Military Humour

Whenever I hear Human Rights I reach for my gun.

Torture coverup alleged
















Also See:

Kandahar

Afghanistan

O'Connor





Find blog posts, photos, events and more off-site about:
NDP, Layton, TroopsOut, Afghanistan, War, Harper, Conservatives, Liberals, Canada, politics, military, NATO, peacekeeping, Karzai,, Graham, Liberals, Canada, Soldiers, Death, Injury, Afghanistan, Government, Politics, values,
Injury, Government,Canada, parliament,

Harper the Warlock

The commonly accepted etymology derives warlock from the Old English "oathbreaker".

The Conservative Governments rejection of its international obligations under Kyoto are driven by its ideological messaging that this was a Liberal policy, when in fact it is an international Accord signed by the government of Canada, regardless of the party in power it is binding on the Canadian State.

Not unlike the Geneva Conventions, which the Harper government is now in violation of and is ignoring. Harper defends actions on Afghan detainees

But unlike Kyoto they cannot blame the Liberals for signing that accord. Canadian Politics: Canada Ignores Geneva Convention In Afghanistan

Instead Harper like Bush is ignoring Canada's international obligations by deliberately confusing sovereignty with isolationism. Since the Bush regime has ignored both Kyoto and the rule of International law in regards to war by refusing to recognize the ICC. But the US is not signatory to either accord, while the Canadian Government is.

This must be what is 'new' about the Harper government, that it believes it can ignore international commitments made by previous governments.


Also See:

Kandahar

Afghanistan

O'Connor





Find blog posts, photos, events and more off-site about:
NDP, Layton, TroopsOut, Afghanistan, War, Harper, Conservatives, Liberals, Canada, politics, military, NATO, peacekeeping, Karzai,, Graham, Liberals, Canada, Soldiers, Death, Injury, Afghanistan, Government, Politics, values,
Injury, Government,Canada, parliament,
Conservatives, green, environment, energy, coal, green house gas, Kyoto,

India Not Iran The Nuclear Threat

India is not a signatory to the Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty (NPT) but Iran is. Making India a far more dangerous nuclear power.

An Indonesian passenger jet was forced to turn around over Indian airspace after a nuclear-capable ballistic missile streaked across the sky, the Foreign Ministry said Friday, demanding an explanation from New Delhi.

But the outrage will be muted since India is America's new nuclear ally.

And amongst the conspiracy mongers in the Middle East this will be seen as a covert threat against Muslims by Hindus.

And like North Korea these tests show that India's ability to deliver nuclear weapons is still limited.

New Delhi: India's showpiece nuclear capability, the Agni-III was successfully test fired on Thursday. But behind the glitter of this success lies a money-guzzling missile programme which has dragged on for 24 years and still counting.

After a national investment of Rs 1,700 crore over a period of 24 years, the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) has the Prithvi, the Agni and other missile celebrities to flaunt.

What the organisation set out to do and promised to develop by 1995 also included the Akash, the Nag and the Trishul.

Despite a time overrun of 12 years and a cost overrun of almost Rs 1,400 crore, completion of these projects is still nowhere in sight.

The success of the nuclear-capable Prithvi and the Agni series has created a semblance of assurance in the face of technology denials. But there's a worry here as well: insufficient testing

Major powers have tested their strategic missile hundreds of times to demonstrate their reliability. But the Agni series of missiles - the mainstay of India's nuclear deterrence - have been declared operational on the basis of just three tests each.

So, should the world believe that India has a reliable delivery system for its nuclear weapons? Opinion is divided.

See:

No Nukes

Did Nuke Cause Earth Quake

North Korea Discovers TNT

Nyah, Nyah

Find blog posts, photos, events and more off-site about:
nuclear,, nuclear, weapons,, WMD,, Iran,, Bush,, USA,, India,, Indonesia,,

Criminal Capitalism: Office Romance

Another neo-con from the Bush White House bites the dust. Shades of the Lewinsky affair.

World Bank pledges action on Wolfowitz

The controversy relates to Mr Wolfowitz’s personal involvement in securing a promotion and a pay rise far in excess of the normal maximum associated with such a promotion for Ms Riza, a bank official with whom he was romantically involved...


ind blog posts, photos, events and more off-site about:
criminology, corporate-crime, white-collar-crime, sociology, accounting, scandal, criminal-capitalism, World Bank, employees,
Wolfowitz, fatcats, rich, superrich, America,

A Surge in Terrorism

The war in Iraq is a failure as is the White Houses so called war on terror. In the fourth year of the war in Iraq all that has been done is that Iraq has created the conditions for a surge in asymmetrical warfare in the region. Not exactly what was supposed to happen.Qaeda claims responsibility for Algeria blasts

Algiers Blast Follows Casablanca Raids

Although there was no apparent connection between the events in Morocco and Algeria they illustrate how North African countries are struggling to deal with Islamic extremists. Steinberg is convinced that there is a new organized Jihadist scene in North Africa. "One has to expect further attacks in the region," he said.

'This is an incentive to pursue the war on terrorism without respite,' Communication Minister Nabil Benabdallah told Reuters, adding the incident was 'in the framework of horrendous terrorist acts in Morocco and other Maghreb countries'.

Governments in North Africa fear violence may spill over from Algeria after the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat renamed itself Al Qaeda Organisation in the Islamic Maghreb with the aim of fusing similar Islamist groups together.

Al-Qaeda's beliefs are those of Salafism, which originates in the Saudi Arabia as the State religion.

The movements of Islamic fundamentalism are those of America's client state in the region; Saudi Arabia, attempting to subvert its neighbours in order to keep its own house stable.

Like Bush who tells Americans it is better that Iraqis die in the war on terror to keep America from being attacked, the House of Saud declares better to export its own terror abroad than to have it come home.

See:

Sadr Surge

Surge In Iraq

Vietnamization of Iraq

Calling A Spade A Shovel

Find blog posts, photos, events and more off-site about:
al-Sadr, USA, insurgency, Kurds,
Iraq, Bush, surge, Police, Sunni, Shia, baghdad, ethnic cleansing,
war, terror, terrorism, imperialism,

Sadr Surge

What was under reported in the news was al-Sadr's call to end armed struggle back in January, before the U.S. declared its surge. It was a ceasefire, one sided, that was ignored by the Iraqi government and the Americans. Now that the surge is on in earnest, well so is the surge in Iraqi resistance.

But the surge itself is based on a "pox on both houses" approach. The general idea is that there are Sunni extremists and Shia extremists (including Al-Sadr). So the U.S. military is pressing the Iraqi government to fight both. And U.S. military operations are explicitly directed against both Sunni inusurgents and Shia radicals.

The problem with this approach is that many Iraqi Shia (including many in the government) believe one side in Iraq is right and the other side is wrong. The Iraqis on the street who share this view are the people most vulnerable to Al-Sadr's incendiary message.

Al-Sadr Calls for Resistance Against the US

Thousands of Shiites heed al-Sadr call, march to Najaf

Iraqi Shiites burn US flags on regime fall anniversary
New Straits Times - 6 hours ago
Hundreds of thousands of Iraqi Shiites burned and trampled on US flags in the holy city of Najaf on Monday at an anti-American rally called by firebrand cleric Moqtada al-Sadr on the fourth anniversary of the fall of Saddam Hussein.

See:

Surge In Iraq

Vietnamization of Iraq

Calling A Spade A Shovel

Find blog posts, photos, events and more off-site about:
al-Sadr, USA, insurgency, Kurds,
Iraq, Bush, surge, Police, Sunni, Shia, baghdad, ethnic cleansing,
war, terror, terrorism, imperialism,

Look In Your Own Backyard

The recent American propaganda campaign about Iran providing IED weapons to Iraqi insurgents must be seen as suspect in light of last weeks revelations by the Government Accounting Office (GAO).

"Not securing these conventional munitions storage site has been costly, as government reports indicated that looted munitions are being used to make improvised explosive devices (IED) that have killed or maimed many people, and will likely continue to support terrorist attacks in the region," the GAO report summary reads.

Reports says the U.S. military does not know the scope of theft from prewar stockpiles and how many caches are at risk.

WASHINGTON — Four years after invading Iraq, the U.S. military still does not know how many tons of explosives were stolen from the country's massive prewar stockpiles or how many weapons caches remain unsecured, according to a government audit made public Thursday.

Many of the looted munitions have since made their way into the roadside bombs and other improvised explosive devices responsible for the bulk of U.S. troop deaths in Iraq.

The Government Accountability Office report cites a lack of manpower, inadequate planning and misplaced priorities in the military's failure to account for and immediately secure weapons during and after the U.S.-led invasion in 2003. The number of unaccounted-for munitions "could range significantly from thousands to millions of tons," says an unclassified version of the report released at a congressional hearing.

The report warns that some weapons stockpiles still may be vulnerable to looting and could fall into the hands of insurgents and terrorists. As recently as October, government investigators could not confirm that all weapons sites had been physically secured, and said that there apparently had been no nationwide tally by the Defense Department.

WASHINGTON -- A newly declassified government report says that half of American troop deaths in Iraq have been caused by explosives left over from Saddam Hussein's regime and that even four years after the war began the US military has failed to conduct an adequate inventory of Hussein's weapons depots.

The assessment by the Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress, found that Iraq remains awash in unsecured mortar rounds, shells, and grenades left over from the former regime and that "the looted munitions will likely continue to support terrorist attacks throughout the region."

In one case, insurgents repeatedly stole explosives from a well-known depot while the Iraqi government was supposed to be disposing of the arms, according to the report, which was written in December and based on field reports and secret intelligence.

See:

Iraq Inspector General

Another Privatization Failure

Conservative Nanny State

Another Privatization Myth Busted

Halliburton

Privatization of War

Privatization

Find blog posts, photos, events and more off-site about:
Inspector-General, USA, Iraq, insurgency, Iran, IED, GAO, crony-capitalism, subsidies, war-profiteering, taxpayers,

Kettle Pot Pace

Onward Christian Soldiers.

Gen. Pace Calls Homosexuality Immoral

And killing people is moral?

And it gets better;

Marine Gen. Peter Pace likened homosexuality to adultery, which he said was also immoral,

So I guess that leaves Newt out of the army. And Karl Rove.

"I do not believe the United States is well served by a policy that says it is OK to be immoral in any way," Pace told the newspaper in a wide-ranging interview. The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said Monday he considers homosexuality to be immoral and the military should not condone it by allowing gay soldiers to serve openly, the Chicago Tribune reported.

Heck I guess that means the U.S. military won't accept any divorced folks in their ranks. Nope that ain't true.

The Pentagon Thursday sought support for Defense Secretary William S. Cohen's choice to head the Joint Chiefs of Staff - a general officer who has admitted committing adultery - but the battle quickly widened into an effort to convince the public that the military was not applying a double-standard on sexual infractions. One day after the Pentagon's disclosure that Air Force Gen. Joseph W. Ralston conducted an adulterous affair more than a decade ago, officials sought to explain how in different circumstances such relationships could put some service members in jail and others in retirement while not eliminating one - Ralston - from candidacy for the armed forces' most coveted post.
Los Angeles Times June 6, 1997.

Or folks who have stolen post it notes from the office supplies.

I thought the U.S. Military swore to uphold the Constitution of the United States not the Ten Commandments. Wait a minute there is no condemnation of homosexuality in the Ten Commandments.....


Find blog posts, photos, events and more off-site about:
Pace, Iraq, US, homosexuality, gay

Corn Crisis

Once again the State interferes in the marketplace and prices jump on commodities exchanges.

In the U.S. George Bush announced subsidies for bio-fuels not once but twice in State of the Union addresses.

And while he talked about switchgrass and other waste material based biomass, no funding opportunities have been created to subsidize this.

Instead bio-fuel announcements have fed the monopoly agribusiness oligopolies like ADM, who specialize in corn and wheat based ethanol production.

In Canada part of the Governments Green Plan and its efforts to undermine the Wheat Board was to announce subsidies for ethanol production.

While the only existing wheat straw based bio-fuel company in the world with new technology, remember that new technology that the government talks about is going to solve the global warming crisis, can't find anywhere to pedal its technology in Canada and is looking for investors. Just as its American counterparts are.

Meanwhile in Mexico tortilla prices have skyrocketed on ethanol speculation as corn is transformed from a basic food stuff into a fuel for financial speculation.

In Canada and the United States the increase in corn speculation has led to higher costs for pig farmers.

Bio-fuels are not a green solution, in fact they are not ecological at all, but a way to subsidize big Agribusiness like ADM and the financial markets. The only green about them is greenbacks.

And their impact on climate change and global warming will be minimal since they only blend with existing fossil fuels not replace their use.

Last year Mexico had the largest corn harvest in its history – more than twice as much as in 1980. Yet the price of tortillas has doubled and in some regions tripled over the past few months.

Corn is a key ingredient in poultry feed because of its high energy yield and increasing demand for ethanol has nearly doubled the price of corn over the past year. Corn futures on the Chicago Board of Trade traded in the $2.20-per-bushel range one year ago; now they go for over $4.00. Corn is also an important component in hog feed. However, Hormel was able to keep costs in check in this area because it uses outside farmers to raise hogs, unlike its turkey operations, which are in-house. This deflected some of the higher costs to the contractors, explained Agnese

An explosion in U.S. production of corn-based ethanol has strained supplies of the grain for human and animal consumption. Making ethanol from inedible feedstocks such as bagasse, grasses, and agricultural waste could be a better way, but commercial success has been elusive despite years of efforts.

In fact, in the fall of 1998, Celunol, then called BC International, announced plans to build a cellulosic ethanol plant in Jennings with Department of Energy assistance. The plant was never built, a spokesman says, because the company wasn't able to secure the rest of the financing.

Today, Celunol has competition in the race to build the first cellulosic ethanol plant. The enzymes company Iogen operates a small wheat-straw-based facility in Canada and is scouting locations for a larger plant.

Kansas became America’s top wheat grower, regularly producing close to one-fifth of the country’s total harvest. With their sheaves of wheat, called shocks, stacked upright everywhere in the fields to dry, wheat became so ingrained in the Kansas mind-set that Wichita State University adopted the name Shockers for its mascot.

But in the last two decades, farmers have increasingly turned to corn and soybeans, which need nearly twice as much water.

“That part of the state is going to be out of water in about 25 years at the current rate of consumption,” said Mike Hayden, the secretary of the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks and a former Kansas governor.

See

Real Costs of Bio-Fuels

Conrad Black and ADM

Bio Fuels = Eco Disaster

GMO News Roundup

BioFuel and The Wheat Board

The Ethanol Scam: ADM and Brian Mulroney

ADM

Wheat Board

Farmers

ind blog posts, photos, events and more off-site about:
Canada, agriculture, wheat, Canadian Wheat Board, farmers, Western-Canada, barley, wheat, Strahl, Government, Conservatives, Harper, Elizabeth May, corn MexicoUSA, Bush, ADM, ethanol, biofuels,

Goldbug

Now this is either a good reason (for investors) to invade Iran or a very bad reason to invade.....

United States Invasion of Iran Could Put Gold Over $1,000



Find blog posts, photos, events and more off-site about:
Iran, gold, invasion, US, Bush,

Canada Who?

George Bush does it again. After 9/11 he forgot us. Now he does it again when calling for a new surge in Afghanistan. So maybe our being there is not as important as the Harpocrites think it is. And maybe their new relationship with Bush ain't much different than our old relationship with Bush.

President George W. Bush called for an all-out allied effort Thursday to defeat the Taliban but angered some in Canada by failing to mention its role in the deadly southern part of Afghanistan. Mr. Bush singled out for praise countries that have recently pledged extra forces or equipment as a spring offensive looms – countries like Norway, Britain, Poland, Turkey, Denmark, Greece and Iceland.

See:

Bush


Afghanistan





Find blog posts, photos, events and more off-site about:
Afghanistan, NDP, liberals, War, Harper, Conservatives, Liberals, Canada, politics, military, NATO, peacekeeping, Karzai, Government, Politics, Canada, Harper, war, Taliban,Bush, 9/11, Kabul, Karzai, Islam,

Poll Predicts War On Iran

It's a good thing that the Bush White House doesn't develop its policies and strategies based on polling. American Majority Predicts War with Iran


See

Iran


Find blog posts, photos, events and more off-site about:
Iran, War, Bush, America

Surge In Iraq

The real surge in Iraq is not Bush's it is the in the civil war being conducted by the Iraqi Government and its allies, the Shia establishment, against fellow Shia and the Sunni's in their battle to take control of Baghdad. It is ethnic cleansing of areas where both Shia and Sunni's have lived together for years.

Iraqi Interior Ministry estimates 1000 killed in one week

The increase in internecine warfare has been aggravated by police and security units which are made up of religious zealots of both sects. So far since Bush announced his surge policy the result has been more deaths in Baghdad than ever before.

"The root causes of the sectarian violence lie in revenge killings and lack of accountability for past crimes as well as in the growing sense of impunity for on-going human rights violations," the UN report said.

That is the real surge. The ethnic cleansing of neighbourhoods before the US troops backing Shia government forces appear.

Soldiers say adding troops is lost cause

They cite the level of violence, lack of security or Iraqi support

Soldiers interviewed across east Baghdad, home to more than half the city's 8 million people, said the violence is so out of control that while a surge of 21,500 more American troops may momentarily suppress it, the notion that U.S. forces can bring lasting security to Iraq is misguided. Soldiers such as Hardy must contend not only with an escalating civil war between Iraq's Sunni and Shiite Muslims, but also with insurgents on both sides who target U.S. forces.

Officials estimate that 500,000 or more Iraqis have been forced into the limbo of displacement inside their country since February 2006, when the bombing of a Shiite shrine in the city of Samarra accelerated ongoing sectarian violence and localized ethnic cleansing.

The forced migrations are especially prevalent in Baghdad, a once-mixed city that is now fragmenting into segregated enclaves.

"Both (sects) are involved in the game," said Ali Shalan Mohan, a department director in the Iraqi government's Ministry of Displacement and Migration, who is himself displaced.

Iraqis are fleeing at a rate that could exceed 1,000 per day, according to some estimates.

In a country of about 26 million, more than 1.5 million people have been displaced, according to the International Organization for Migration, a Geneva-based group that counts displaced Iraqis in the central and southern portion of Iraq (not including the three Kurdish-run provinces). More than 1.2 million Iraqis, by most estimates, have fled Iraq to neighboring countries since 2003.

The Iraqi government reported a much higher count as of mid-January, saying 560,000 had fled their homes in 2006 — close to what the United Nations has estimated.

But Sunnis especially fear registering as displaced with a government that is dominated by Shiite parties with links to Shiite militias.

"People won't register with this government because they think the government is part of the displacement," said Samir al-Hayat, 30, from a mixed Sunni-Shiite family that is displaced yet unregistered.

The U.S. military has long suspected that Shiite militias in Baghdad are working systematically to cleanse neighborhoods.

Last summer, American troops in eastern Baghdad said Shiite gunmen were suspected of forcing mass evacuations of Sunni residents so they could give their homes to Shiites displaced from other areas of the city.

Mahdi Army gains strength by US aid

The U.S. military drive to train and equip Iraq's security forces has unwittingly strengthened anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militia, which has been battling to take over much of the capital city as American forces are trying to secure it.

U.S. Army commanders and enlisted men who are patrolling east Baghdad, which is home to more than half the city's population and the front line of Sadr's campaign to drive rival Sunnis from their homes and neighborhoods, said Sadr's militias had heavily infiltrated the Iraqi police and army units that they've trained and armed.

Domestic Security Forces Face Major Challenges

Even after the Defense Department took over this training in 2004 and invested more resources, it was clear that the U.S. military did "not have the right experience or personnel to provide the unique training that the Iraqi Police Service needs."

On January 28, Diyala Governate police chief Ghanim al-Qureyshi announced that 1,500 local police officers had been dismissed for fleeing when the city of Ba'qubah was attacked by Sunni insurgents last November. He added that Ba'qubah Mayor Khalid al-Sinjari had been dismissed amid suspicions that he had collaborated with Sunni insurgents.

On January 20, armed gunmen attacked a Provincial Joint Coordination Center in the southern city of Karbala, resulting in the abductions and deaths of five U.S. soldiers. As details of the attack surfaced, U.S. officials reported that the attackers wore uniforms resembling those worn by U.S. forces and drove in vehicles commonly used by U.S. contractors.

See

Iraq

Find blog posts, photos, events and more off-site about:
Iraq, Bush, surge, Police, Sunni, Shia, baghdad, ethnic cleansing,
war, terror, terrorism, imperialism,

Israeli Rabbi Says Wipe Out Arabs

I wonder if this comment will generate the same world wide outrage and denounciation as comments made by the President of Iran.

The spiritual leader of Israel's ultra-orthodox Shas party, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, has provoked outrage with a sermon calling for the annihilation of Arabs."It is forbidden to be merciful to them. You must send missiles to them and annihilate them. They are evil and damnable," he was quoted as saying in a sermon delivered on Monday to mark the Jewish festival of Passover. Rabbi Yosef is one of the most powerful religious figures in Israel, He is known for his outspoken comments and has in the past referred to the Arabs as "vipers".

And while there are apologists attempting to excuse his comments let us not forget that in Israel the law is too stike ones enemies first.

The Iranian nuclear threat is uppermost in the minds of many Israelis and Jews around the world who care for their coreligionists living in Israel . However, it seems that the case for a preemptive strike against Iran has not been properly made. From a Jewish legal standpoint it is clear according to Halacha (Jewish law) one must rise first and strike a person who clearly intends to deliver one a fatal blow.

Even if that threat is only 'percieved' and not a real one. Such was the case of Israels attack in the past on Iraq. An act that was a violation of international law.

And with the ramping up of politics of fear, which is what the War on Terror really is, Israelis are getting an itchy trigger finger.

Israel’s powerful deterrent is continually being downplayed by those who insist that the Israeli state is essentially as vulnerable as the Jews of Europe were in 1939.

Of the dozens of articles and speeches which express that fear, one stands out. It is by Benny Morris, one of Israel's top historians who made his name by exploring the origins of the Palestinian refugee problem. He is no right-winger (although he has moved rightward lately) which makes his words especially significant.

In an essay in the "Jerusalem Post," called "This Holocaust Will Be Different," Morris offers this prediction.

"One bright morning, in five or 10 years, perhaps during a regional crisis, perhaps out of the blue, a day or a year or five years after Iran's acquisition of the Bomb, the mullahs in Qom will convene in secret session, under a portrait of the steely-eyed Ayatollah Khomeini, and give President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, by then in his second or third term, the go-ahead.

"The orders will go out and the Shihab III and IV missiles will take off for Tel Aviv, Beersheba, Haifa and Jerusalem, and probably some military sites, including Israel's half dozen air and (reported) nuclear missile bases….

"With a country the size and shape of Israel (an elongated 20,000 square kilometers), probably four or five hits will suffice: No more Israel. “

The most distressing part of Morris's analysis (or prophecy) is its utter fatalism. “America will do nothing. Iran will get the bomb. Iran will use it on Israel. Israel will be destroyed. It's all inevitable.”

But Israel may not have to go it alone as the United States has ramped up its rhetorical hysteria over Iran in preparation for a potential attack, either by it or Israel.

Testifying before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Thursday, Zbigniew Brzezinski, the national security adviser in the Carter administration, delivered a scathing critique of the war in Iraq and warned that the Bush administration’s policy was leading inevitably to a war with Iran, with incalculable consequences for US imperialism in the Middle East and internationally.

The United States is planning what will be a catastrophic attack on Iran. For the Bush cabal, the attack will be a way of "buying time" for its disaster in Iraq. In announcing what he called a "surge" of American troops in Iraq, George W. Bush identified Iran as his real target. "We will interrupt the flow of support [to the insurgency in Iraq] from Iran and Syria," he said. "And we will seek out and destroy the networks providing advanced weaponry and training to our enemies in Iraq."

Like WMD the evidence of Iranian involvement in Iraq is also suspect.

Evidence is still inconclusive on Iran involvement in Iraq

Bush administration officials acknowledged Friday that they had yet to compile evidence strong enough to back up publicly their claims that Iran is fomenting violence against U.S. troops in Iraq.

Administration officials have long complained that Iran was supplying Shiite Muslim militants with lethal explosives and other materiel used to kill U.S. military personnel. But despite several pledges to make the evidence public, the administration has twice postponed the release — most recently, a briefing by military officials scheduled for last Tuesday in Baghdad.

As far as Tehran's involvement in Iraq is concerned, Lionel Beehner of the Council on Foreign Relations wrote Wednesday that " enormous controversy" still swirls around the issue of Iranian influence.

...much of the evidence the United States cites as proof of Iranian involvement remains secret and in some cases is disputed by the Iraqi government, too. This has created an uncomfortable analogy to the period before the Iraq invasion, when secret intelligence ultimately discredited pushed the United States toward war.

With the Real Politick of Fear, evidence does not matter to Israel of the United States, the mere use of pompous rhetoric and inflamatory statements by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is being used as an excuse to prepare for war with Iran by chicken hawks in both countries.

When Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert declared last week at the Herzliya conference that Israel could not risk another "existential threat" such as the Holocaust, he was repeating what has become the dominant theme in Israel's campaign against Iran – that it cannot tolerate an Iran with the technology that could be used to make nuclear weapons, because Iran is fanatically committed to the physical destruction of Israel. The internal assessment by the Israeli national security apparatus of the Iranian threat, however, is more realistic than the government's public rhetoric would indicate. Since Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad came to power in August 2005, Israel has effectively exploited his image as someone who is particularly fanatical about destroying Israel to develop the theme of Iran's threat of a "second Holocaust" by using nuclear weapons. But such alarmist statements do not accurately reflect the strategic thinking of the Israeli national security officials. -antiwar

As usual what is forgotten is that the President of Iran does not run Iran, like the President of the United States runs America. He is only one voice which is controled by the Mullahs and their councils.

The Baltimore Sun, in an editorial : "Iran is hardly a monolithic, march-in-step country; everything Iranian is not evil. But that's a hard sell to make in Washington...Iran's interests, in fact, are in some ways parallel to America's. Iran would not benefit from an Iraqi collapse into total anarchy, or from a wider sectarian war. Right now, Iran and the Sunni regime of Saudi Arabia, one of America's traditional allies in the region, have been trying to mediate a settlement in Lebanon.

The fact that this whole issue arose from Irans need to develop nuclear energy, not a bomb, in order to expand its infrastructure is completely lost in the whole chicken little reaction that nuclear energy = nuclear weapon. It is a deliberate obfustication of what Iran wants, which is nuclear power contracts like Pakistan and India have, not weapons, but access to nucelar technology and uranium.

They need an alternative energy source to grow their capitalist infrastructure since their domestic reliance on gas and oil is now restricted because of export demand.

At the meeting with Secretary of the Russian Security Council Igor Ivanov in Tehran over the past weekend, Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said: "Our countries could set up an OPEC-type organization on gas cooperation."

Judging from the initial response, the majority of analysts think that this proposal is rooted in politics rather than economics.

This is not the first time the idea has been put forward. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad offered to Russian President Vladimir Putin at their meeting in Shanghai in June 2006 to establish what he described as cooperation "in fixing gas prices, and major flows in the interests of global stability."

Indicatively, the same idea was discussed during the recent Algerian visit of Viktor Khristenko, Minister of Industry and Energy: Algeria and Qatar could join the two countries. The resources of this potential cartel are very impressive - they account for more than 30% of the world's gas production, and their aggregate proven reserves exceed 60% of the total, which is comparable to OPEC's respective share in the global oil reserves - about 68%. The would-be cartel could include other members as well.

Malaysia has warned it will drop free trade talks with the US if it is asked to scrap a multi-billion-dollar gas deal with Iran, a news report said yesterday.

US House of Representatives' Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Tom Lantos has urged the suspension of negotiations to forge a free trade agreement with Malaysia until it halts a US$16 billion deal to develop gas fields in southern Iran.

The proposition of war with Iran is saber rattling by Israel and America, because their very visible military failures in Lebanon and Iraq have given strength to their regional enemies, which have increased not decreased thanks to Bush's War On Terror.

Now they must strike back, at least rhetorially, ramping up the threat that they will take unilateral action. Whether that threat will come to pass is another question. But it bodes ill for any resolution to the crisis of Middle East. Chickens, home, roost.

See:

Oil the New Silk Road

US Declares Economic War On Iran

Find blog posts, photos, events and more off-site about:
nuclear,, nuclear, weapons,, WMD,, Iran,, Isreal,, Bush,, USA,, Iraq,, Lebanon,, Rabbi Yosef,, anti-arab,, Russia,, Putin,, oil,, gas,, Middle, East