Begin forwarded message:
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: February 28, 2007 2:19:30 PM PST
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Hold Your Breath
Report: Iran War Was Set to Start NOW,
But Resistance Gave Bush ‘Weak Knees’
Posted by Jon Ponder | Feb. 28, 2007, 7:58 am
http://www.pensitoreview.com/2007/02/28/report-iran-war-is-set-to-
start-now/
Apocalypse now:
New reporting by Robert Parry on the behind-the-scenes battle
between President Bush and the U.S. military’s top generals picks
up where the Seymour Hersh’s story in the New Yorker leaves off —
painting a picture of a what amounts to a quiet military coup at
the very top ranks of the Pentagon against the neocon cabal at the
White House.
Resistance from the Pentagon, Tony Blair, and even Democrats in
Congress appears to be having an effect on Bush’s decision-making.
He had planned to launch an attack on Iran, possibly as early as
this week, but got “weak knees.”
The nation’s top brass are convinced that attacking Iran would
yield calamitous results, and yet the White House — under the sway
of the neocons and Vice President Cheney — is determined at any
cost to escalate the sectarian war it has started in Iraq into a
full-scale regional war between Sunni Arabs and Shiite Iran.
In an elaborate contest of wills, the generals, apparently
including General Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of
Staff, have leaked the broad strokes of Cheney’s secret war
planning to the media. They have also let it be known that many of
them would resign if Cheney and Bush take the country to war.
To counter this threat, Cheney has instructed the Pentagon to be
ready to start bombing Iran within 24 hours after a signal from the
White House — relying on the military’s “do or die” ethos to force
the generals to stay at their posts until after the damage is done:
By creating such a tight time frame for action, Bush would negate
the possibility for the Pentagon brass and Congress to mount any
serious opposition to a presidential order on Iran, even if they
are convinced Bush’s actions will be catastrophic.
The tradition of the U.S. military is to implement presidential
orders regardless of doubts. Perhaps months later, a dissenting
commander might quietly resign.
That practice and the 24-hour window may help explain why several
U.S. generals are pondering now how to stop Bush from blindsiding
them with a new war. One of their tactics appears to be leaking
indications of their strong opposition to the press.
It was the order to set up the 24 hour trigger that prompted
several top generals to signal to the Sunday Times of London this
week that they would resign if the order to start the war is given.
And, as unlikely as it may seem, the generals’ resistance may have
been worked, at least in the short term:
[One] source told me that the resistance — from the Pentagon, Blair
and even Democrats in Congress — appears to be having an effect on
Bush’s decision-making. This source said he believed Bush had
planned to launch an attack on Iran, possibly as early as this
week, but was getting “weak knees.”
Nonetheless, based on the way Cheney and Bush drove the country to
war against Iraq in 2002, the best assumption is that the new war
against Iran could begin at any moment.
It will come, according to Parry’s sources, with an ISRAELI attack
on Iran, probably on its nuclear facilities. When Iran retaliates,
the U.S. will respond in full force to "defend" Israel, launching a
bombardment of Iran’s infrastructure similar to the “shock and awe”
at the start of the war in Iraq.
What the generals want the American people to know is that this
nightmare scenario is real, the planning is complete and ready to
go — and that at any moment now a strike may be launched that will
trigger a full-scale World War in the Middle East.
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