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http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/STA303B.html
While the slaughter continues in Iraq, the United States has its sights set
on the real prize: the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Bush Administration

Readying for 2004 Invasion of Iran

by John Stanton

www.globalresearch.ca 23 March 2003

The URL of this article is: http://globalresearch.ca/articles/STA303B.html

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Even though Syria is next on the chopping block according to the authors of
A Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm--chief among them
Richard Perle and Douglas Feith--it is Iran that they covet. In their view,
it's payback time for the 1970's overthrow of the Shah and subsequent
takeover by Khomeni (then exiled in France), the occupation of the US
Embassy, the ensuing hostage crisis, the botched rescue attempt that sullied
America's military reputation, and tit-for-tat terrorist actions over the
years between the US and Iran (US Navy shoot down of Iranian airliner,
Iranian backed terrorist attacks on US troops, etc). Nevermind that in 1953,
the US, UK and Israeli intelligence were responsible for a coup which ousted
the nationalistic Iranian prime minister Mossadegh and would ultimately lead
to regional conflict with Iraq and hatred of the US to this day. The same
stupidity was repeated in 1963 in Iraq, when US, UK and Israeli intelligence
whipped up a coup decapitating prime minister Assem (a 25 year-old named
Saddam Hussein played a key role in that effort) which would ultimately lead
to regional conflict with Iran and Kuwait and hatred of the US to this day.

The bottom line has not changed in 2003. It is all about economics. In the
1950's and 1960's, the US and UK were worried about the nationalization of
oil production by Iran and Iraq. In 2003 it is the same. The US consumes
roughly 30 percent of the world's energy production (as measured in British
Thermal Units) yet has only 5 percent of its population. "We have 50 percent
of the world's wealth but only 6.3 percent of its population. In this
situation, our real job...is to devise a series of relationships which
permit us to maintain this position of disparity. To do so we have to
dispense with sentimentality...we should cease thinking about human rights,
the raising of living standards and democratization." That according to
George Kennan in 1948 (see Richard Heinberg's fine article at
www.onlinejournal.com for more on US and Eurasia).

The United States and Western Europe have unwaveringly adhered to Kennan's
advice and have only themselves to blame for the madness currently underway
in Middle East and Persian Gulf. For over 50 years, through coups,
preemptive airstrikes and vicious propaganda, the US, UK, France, Israel and
other European nations have long been engaged in "preemption" by attacking
and decapitating the legitimate leaders of the nations that makeup that
region.

And so many still ask the silly question, "Why do they hate us?"

US War Criminals in Action

Dick Cheney, Paul Wolfowitz, Donnie Rumsfeld, Richard Armitage, Elliot
Abrams, Zalmay Khalilzad and other up and coming War Criminals are anxious
to set things right with Iran. It is Iran's turn to be subjected to the 21st
Century version of Nazi Germany's Blitzkrieg, that being the murderous
American Shock and Awe campaign created by leading War Criminal Harlan
Ullman. Ullman writes a column for the Reverend Moon's Washington Times and
is a senior associate with the Center for Strategic and International
Studies, in which the Department of Homeland Security was initially
conceived.

From March 21 to March 24, 2003, Iranian air-space had been violated with
impunity by US aircraft. The US attacked the oil-industry communities of
Khorramshahr, Abadan and Manyuhi in Iran not far from the US-UK-Kuwaiti
controlled Faw Peninsula and Umm al Qasr--control points for the Shatt al
Arb through which billions of gallons of crude oil have passed to the US, UK
and Japan. The oil refinery and depots in Abadan were the primary targets.
The were casualties but no deaths. US and UK bombers have also circled over
Arvand-Kenar in Iran on their way into Iraq. Iranian officials have
protested these violations of International Law, but to no avail. Pentagon
officials declared the cause of the attacks to be "stray" cruise missiles
and bombs. That is improbable.

These attacks (and overflights), it seems, were part of the preprogrammed
target packages planned early on by US military commanders to test, or light
up, Iranian air defenses for the invasion of Iran which is likely to take
place if George Bush II takes the US presidency in 2004. They serve as a
stark warning to Iran not to meddle in what has now become the American,
British and Kuwaiti sphere-of-influence in the southeastern sector of Iraq.

Iran Attack Plans

Between April of 2003 and November 2004, the US, UK and Israel will
accelerate instability operations in Iran and engage in global
disinformation campaigns to belittle the political and military leadership
there. They will take to the airwaves to portray to Americans a country
beset by internal strife and dissension. Corporate media will revisit the
Iranian Hostage Crisis and display for war-hungry Americans footage from the
1978-80 timeframe. That will include images of Khomeni's henchmen hanging
and executing the Shah's secret police. Movies such as Sally Field's Not
Without My Child portraying many Iranians as "evil doers" will be broadcast
by all the networks. Reza Pahlavi, son of the former Shah of Iran, will be
featured with greater frequency on CNN, Fox, ABC, NBC, CBS and PBS.

Images from the 1983 bombing of the US Marine Barracks in Lebanon allegedly
by Iranian backed Hezbollah will be aired and printed. Coincidently, in
Washington, DC, on March 17, 2003, relatives of US Marines killed in Lebanon
were allowed to proceed with a lawsuit to collect $2 billion in damages from
the Iranian government. According to the sometimes reliable Washington Post,
"U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth has ruled that survivors and family
members can sue Iran under the provisions of a 1996 law that allows U.S.
citizens to take legal action against nations that sponsor terrorism.'The
U.S. military force . . . embodies everything that is resented by the
enemies of this country,' Lamberth wrote. 'Failure to permit military
service member [lawsuits] would create a perverse incentive for state
sponsors of terrorism to target noncombatant U.S. military personnel.'
Hundreds of family members turned out for the first day of what is expected
to be two days of testimony and evidence designed to document Iran's role in
the bombing. Iran did not send a representative to the trial." Once Iraq is
successfully occupied, the media will turn its attention to Iran and that
lawsuit.

No Way Out

Already, sources report that elements of the CIA are busy in and around
Iran, and that US-UK-Australian special operations teams operating out of
Afghanistan and Kuwait--and the US Province of Iraq--have been
surreptitiously setting up shop in Iran for months. Iran now finds itself
pinned on all sides by pro-US, UK forces. Operation Liberate Iran will take
place using the same strategy and tactics employed in the Massacre of Iraq.
Iran has few options. One, is the accelation of their nuclear program and a
successful test or demonstration of a nuclear device. That may slow a US led
invasion. A second option would be become part of a new counter-US alliance
that would include Russia, India, France, Germany and China. The last, of
course, is to "disarm" or go into "exile".

21st Century Crusader's George Bush II and Michael Leedon (Benador
Associates, AEI, Bush advisor) believe in their Judeo-Christian quest to
crush Islam as they view it as an illegitimate and insidious religion that
has gotten in the way of oil extraction. The current campaign in the region
is nothing less than an extension of the Crusades dating back to 1096.
Leeden played his God card by indicating prior to the US assault on Iraq
that, "God willing, Judgment Day is coming to the Middle East and the
long-suffering people of Iraq, Syria, Iran and Saudi Arabia will get their
chance to be free." But as Ahmad Faruqui, writing in the Asia Times, pointed
out, this is just another replay of history.

"The Arab world remembers well the words that British General Allenby, a
descendent of the English Crusaders, uttered when he entered Jerusalem on
December 9, 1917, "The Crusades have ended now!" Similarly, it has not
forgotten either the content or the tone of the statements made by French
General Henri Gouraud when he entered Damascus in July 1920. Striding to
Saladin's tomb next to the Grand Mosque, Gouraud kicked it and exclaimed,
"Awake Saladin, we have returned. My presence here consecrates the victory
of the Cross over the Crescent."

Nor will it forget the proclamations of George Bush II and Tony Blair 100
years hence.

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John Stanton cioran123@yahoo.com ,ﾝ is a Virginia Based writer specializing
in national security matters. Copyright J Stanton 2003.ﾝ For fair use only/
pour usage e$B!-(Bquitable seulement .