http://www.ichblog.eu/content/view/60/1/
The Unthinkable: The US- Israeli Nuclear War on Iran
Monday, 22 January 2007
By Michel Chossudovsky
The World is at the crossroads of the most serious crisis in modern
history. The US has embarked on a military adventure, a long war,
which threatens the future of humanity.
At no point since the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima
on August 6th, 1945, has humanity been closer to the unthinkable, a
nuclear holocaust which could potentially spread, in terms of
radioactive fallout, over a large part of the Middle East.
There is mounting evidence that the Bush Administration in liaison
with Israel and NATO is planning the launching of a nuclear war
against Iran, ironically, in retaliation for its nonexistent nuclear
weapons program. The US-Israeli military operation is said to be in
an advanced state of readiness.
If such a plan were to be launched, the war would escalate and
eventually engulf the entire Middle-East Central Asian region.
The war could extend beyond the region, as some analysts have
suggested, ultimately leading us into a World War III scenario.
In this regard, the structure of military alliances is crucial. China
and Russia have entered into farreaching military cooperation
agreements with Iran. The latter have a direct bearing on the
conflict. Iran possesses an advanced air defense system as well as
capabilities to target US and allied positions in Iraq and the Gulf
States, as demonstrated in recent military exercises.
The US-led naval deployment (involving a massive deployment of
military hardware) is taking place in two distinct theaters:the
Persian Gulf and the Eastern Mediterranean.
The militarization of the Eastern Mediterranean is broadly under the
jurisdiction of NATO in liaison with Israel. Directed against Syria,
it is conducted under the façade of a UN peace-keeping mission. In
this context, the war on Lebanon last Summer must be viewed as a
stage of the broader US sponsored military road-map.
The naval armada in the Persian Gulf is largely under US command,
with the participation of Canada.
The naval buildup is coordinated with the air attacks. The planning
of aerial bombings of Iran started in mid-2004, pursuant to the
formulation of CONPLAN 8022 in early 2004. In May 2004, National
Security Presidential Directive NSPD 35 entitled Nuclear Weapons
Deployment Authorization was issued. While its contents remain
classified, the presumption is that NSPD 35 pertains to the
stockpiling and deployment of tactical nuclear weapons in the Middle
East war theater in compliance with CONPLAN 8022.
Despite Pentagon statements which describe tactical nuclear weapons
as safe for the surrounding civilian population, the use of nukes
in a conventional war theater would trigger a nuclear holocaust.The
resulting radioactive contamination, which threatens future
generations, would by no means be limited to the Middle East.
In 2005, Vice President Dick Cheney is reported to have instructed
USSTRATCOM to draw up a contingency plan to be employed in response
to another 9/11-type terrorist attack on the United States. The
presumption was that if such a 9/11 type event were to take place,
Iran would, according to Cheney, be behind it, thereby providing a
pretext for punitive bombings, much in the same way as the US
sponsored attacks on Afghanistan in October 2001, allegedly in
retribution for the alleged support of the Taliban government to the
9/11 terrorists
More recently, several analysts have focussed on the creation of a
Gulf of Tonkin incident, which would be used by the Bush
administration as a pretext to wage war on Iran.
We bring to the attention of our readers a selection of Global
Research articles, which document various aspects of US-Israeli war
preparations.
It is essential that this information reaches the broader public. We
invite our subscribers and readers to distribute and forward these
articles far and wide.
To reverse the tide of war requires a massive campaign of networking
and outreach to inform people across the land, nationally and
internationally, in neighborhoods, workplaces, parishes, schools,
universities, municipalities, on the dangers of a US sponsored war
which contemplates the use of nuclear weapons. The message should be
loud and clear: It is not Iran which is a threat to global security
but the United States of America and Israel.
Debate and discussion must also take place within the Military and
Intelligence community, particularly with regard to the use of
tactical nuclear weapons, within the corridors of the US Congress, in
municipalities and at all levels of government. Ultimately, the
legitimacy of the political and military actors in high office must
be challenged.
There seems to be a reluctance by members of Congress to exercise
their powers under the US Constitution, with a view to preventing the
unthinkable: the onslaught of a
