by Sheldon Richman, December 16, 2011 The U.S. government lost a spy drone over Iran. Is it part of an ongoing covert war? Either Iranian forces shot it down or it fell out of the sky. We may never know which, but now the Obama administration wants it back. Iran says no. It is apparently studying the craft’s advanced stealth and other technology — and perhaps attempting to reverse engineer it. This is not analogous to playful kids who accidentally throw a baseball into a neighbor’s yard and ask for it back. The U.S. government has been making war sounds in Iran’s direction for years, and these belligerent noises have grown louder in recent months. While there are grounds for believing the U.S. military does not want to attack Iran, which is far larger and more populous than Iraq and would require a long, bloody involvement throughout the region, President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton insist that “all options are on the table.” Those who insist that the U.S. government is a benevolent force in the world ought to take note that the Obama administration has not excluded nuclear weapons from the list of options. But the present trouble only scratches the surface. For years the U.S. government has menaced Iran with a military presence in the region, including warships in the Persian Gulf. Indeed, Iran is virtually surrounded by American military bases. The invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq put thousands of troops just across Iran’s east and west borders. Other close U.S. allies in the region include Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Israel. Admittedly, the Bush administration’s overthrow of Iran’s nemesis, Saddam Hussein in Iraq, seems to have introduced an incoherent note in an otherwise consistently anti-Iran policy. The now Shiite-ruled Iraq is closer to Iran’s regime than Saddam’s Sunni Ba’athist regime was. (The U.S. government supported Saddam when his military attacked Iran in 1980.) Moreover, U.S. troops are leaving Iraq, as called for by the agreement negotiated between the Iraqi regime and the Bush administration. But the troops are not going far. As the Department of Defense puts it, the forces are simply being “repostured,” that is, moved elsewhere in the region, including Kuwait. Iran surely has noticed. The U.S. government wants the American people to believe that there are sound reasons for this belligerence, namely, that it is defensive and preemptive. Nonsense. As many have pointed out, U.S. intelligence agencies say Iran dropped its nuclear-weapons program over eight years ago, and the International Atomic Energy Agency has regularly certified that Iran has complied with its obligations under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Every speck of Iran’s uranium is accounted for by the IAEA — none has been diverted to weapons production. Of course, U.S. regimes have portrayed Iran as aggressively anti-American since its 1979 Islamic revolution. But that narrative conveniently leaves out the fact that the CIA helped overthrow a democratic government and install the brutal Shah in 1953. Iran did not start the hostilities. So is war against Iran ahead? Who can say for certain? The economic sanctions the U.S. has long maintained against Iran, which have been intensified of late, already constitute an act of war under international law and could be the prelude to overt war. The sanctions are apparently supposed to persuade the Iranian people, who unlike their rulers suffer privation, to overthrow their government. The problem for the U.S. policy is that sanctions more often than not have the opposite effect: they prompt the people to rally around the government to counter the external enemy. But something even more ominous is becoming clear: a covert war against Iran. Fox News called the downed drone the latest in a series of mysterious events, including explosions and assassinations targeting Iran’s nuclear scientists and its ballistic missile program. Some argue that the covert war against Iran's nuclear program is under way, but it began more than a year ago. War without the American people's knowledge? It wouldn’t be the first time. A war with Iran would be catastrophic — for Iranians, Americans (government contractors excepted), and Israelis. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta believes that’s the case, as do former Israeli Mossad chiefs. President Obama must do the decent thing and take all forms of warfare off the table. http://www.fff.org/comment/com1112s.asp
It doesn't help that they're diplomatically off-the-grid. If we could somehow get some clerics and the next President over there to just try and "apologize" for the Embassy hijacking and we could recognize their government retro-actively to Khomeini - the closest we could come in material terms to apologizing for supporting the Shah -then we could probably save a lot in terms of either weapons, espionage or just bluster. We make all kinds of contingency plans for war, why not some for peace?
Maybe some of those backwards Mullahs will suddenly start passing away....until a more moderate leadership takes over. DD
Where are we drawing the war line? If we just hassle them and ninja their nuke program, I suppose some people are getting killed, is that a war? Cause that is probably happening. But shock and awe, tanks over the border? Nooo; nobody in even their neocon, chickenhawk, right mind would do that.
do you think that maybe all our meddling in irans affairs over the last 55 years has contributed to the rise and power of the mullahs?
I would definitely have a major problem with an actual military attack on Iran. But covert ops to sabotage their nuclear program? I'm fine with that, and I'm also fine with the details not being released to the public. Not to mention that somehow American troops going back to Kuwait like we've done for the past 20 something years constitutes belligerence as opposed to them being in a country bordering Iran. The Kuwaiti rulers don't have a problem with our men there. The Kuwaiti people, as far as I know, really don't either. And we don't. Are we to withdraw because another nation in the region gets prissy about it?
Until we as Americans start caring more about foreigners and combat-ready youngsters with no college or job prospects than we do about the fundamental middle-class rights of vehicle-ownership and same-day cross-country air travel, yeah.
Seriously, isn't there some sorta espionage team that can destroy the drone? For the amount of money going into the armed forces, Americans should be able to expect at least that.
Hey, maybe the real US plot was to crash the drone in Iran and then try to convince the American people that OMG OMG those fiendish Iranian master villains are going to clone the drone and then they will be stealthily cruising drones over American cities threatening to conquer us and steal our precious bodily fluids. Therefore, broke as we may be, we need to borrow a couple of trillion more to invade Iran and occupy them asap to keep this from happening. Anybody remember the Dubya and gang talking about those fiendish Iraqis having wmds on gliders IIRC that could attack America?
Glynch, do you think that we are going to be in a war with Iran in the next 3 years? And no, I was not old enough to pay serious attention to news, but I don't ever recall that story, and a quick Google search turns up nothing about gliders.
I'll try to search for the glider or was it on a dirigible? I think that a couple of the GOP ers might start a war with Iran. Sort of like Dubya not much interested in governing but like being a war president. Probably not boots on the ground. The military guys even the generals I think are getting tired. I wouldn't be surprised if they shot off a few hundred cruise missiles at a couple million a piece as a payback to their defense contractor campaign contributors and to keep the neocons/Likudniks warm and fuzzy. If so I hope I know in advance, but of course only they can make those insider trades. Could make some good money shorting the S&P. Buying oil stocks and (I refuse ) arms stocks)
We have no business over there anyway. They have to keep to covert though, because any overt action would hurt Obama's reelection chances. I just wish the US would stop waving its big dick in every poorer counties face.
The closest I could find on the glider and wmd. I remember talking about it on the bbs if the old brain can still be trusted. WE had some real fans of the Dubya Admin's propaganda on wmd's that a lot of us were disputing as it happened. Turns out we were right and the NYT and the Dubya fans were wrong. http://books.google.com/books?id=Vu...6CQ&sqi=2&ved=0CB0Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false
War? "I would definitely have a major problem with an actual military attack on Iran." Acts of war? "But covert ops to sabotage their nuclear program? I'm fine with that, and I'm also fine with the details not being released to the public." Seems like we have a hawk in dove's clothing.
I didn't say you were. It's just funny that your point of view is so unpopular that you have to try appealing to the doves when you lay in on the table.
