Operation Nuke The Mullahs

Last week I pointed to an article in The American Conservative of all places which stated that Vice President Dick Cheney has ordered the Pentagon to draft a plan to attack Iran with nuclear weapons in response to another 9/11-style terrorist attack. The article, by Philip Giraldi, is now available here on their website.

Juan Cole notes that the NeoCons in the White House and Pentagon thought they could use Iraq as a spring board to attack Iran. Taking a look at their grand strategy it appears that Iran, not Iraq, was their prized possession all along. However, this strategy has been somewhat foiled since Iraq's government is now dominated by Shi'ites which are friendly with Iran's Islamic Shi'ite theocratic regime. Thus, is war with Iran still a possibility? Scott Ritter has argued that the war against Iran has already begun with CIA-sponsored covert missions.

At Counterpunch, Gary Leupp responds to Giraldi's claims about Cheney's plans to nuke Iran asking:

Can it get madder than this? The neocons' plans for a total reorganization of the "Greater Middle East" have been plain for some time now. Many have been warning against the prospect of an expansion of the Iraq War into Syria and Iran. You'd think that reality would smack these guys in the face and they'd call off anything so stupid. But they apparently think that by using conventional and nuclear weapons (first time any nation will do that since Nagasaki); by employing the Mujahadeen Khalq; by activating agents in place to organize demonstrations (as the CIA did so successfully in Iraq in 1953); by attacking from Azerbaijan they can actually pull this off. Do they even realize that southern Iraq and Iran constitute the heartland of historical Shiism, and that an attack on Iran will negate any goodwill among Shiites U.S. forces have acquired in Iraq?

Leupp hopes that the Air Force would resist or at least question such an insane plan as a pre-emptive nuclear attack on Iran. He offers the following rhetorical questions:

What do they mean by "another 9-11"? Could any, even small-time terrorist act in the U.S. (say, killing 52 in the Boston subway) be the signal for us to start bombing Iran?

Does the Vice President's office anticipate this second 9-11 sometime soon?

What does Vice President Cheney know that we don't? Does he have access to intelligence which predicts an Iranian-sponsored attack on the United States? I urge you to consider these candidly truthful words Mr. Cheney uttered last year on the campaign trail:

"It’s absolutely essential that eight weeks from today, on November 2, we make the right choice, because if we make the wrong choice then the danger is that we’ll get hit again and we’ll be hit in a way that will be devastating from the standpoint of the United States."

I think it's clear that we made the wrong choice on November 2.   

Technorati:  dick cheney iran iraq politics war freedom

Comments

[Aaron Singleton]

This has definitely been the agenda all along. I mean how consistent would it be for them to claim that Iraq was a threat, or that it needs democracy and yet leave Iran alone. Right! The case for war with Iraq was weak and based on lies, and the case for Iran would be the same. But if they can get away with one why not the other. Hopefully we'll see a Vietname-style awakening among the general population to the insanity and murderous nature of this whole thing, and it will become politically impossible for this administration to pursue their war agenda. Then again, maybe that's giving the American sheeple too much credit.

[An Angry Old Broad]

This made my blood run cold Agi.I've been angry,pissed,upset with these maniacs for a long time,but this one just floored me.It takes alot to scare me,but this did.

[GRUMPY OLD MAN]

And you don't think there will be an attack? Just like most people over there obviously believe there will be a congressional election in 2006. Like Hell! These criminals are in the saddle and they intend to stay there no matter what. And now everyone should be able to see who really runs the shop. What the hell is the VP doing making plans to Nuke anyone? Or does the Constitution no longer exist at all?

[Kate]

Agit, it's stories like these that leave me dumbfounded. What do we do when the inmates have taken over the asylum? Cheney is completely nuts. Eegads.

[grannyinsanity]

I've got another post on it, corrente built on that, rigorous institution wrote about it, singularity wrote about it, lyndon Larouche even wrote about it!

The shitz is that the Senate Passed the Patriot act and we will probably be declared enemy combatants when the military industrial complex lights the fuse.

I lost the link, but does anybody know what Carlyle's interest in the London subway is?

[karenas]

Hi, all,
About a week ago I saw on morning news some guy talking about ten al-qaeda members training to crash planes into hospitals, nuclear power plants and air force bases in CA. I never saw this clip again, but googled and found out that the California Department of Homeland Security issued a terror alert memo to all of the hospital workers, telling them to "be vigilant." The guy on TV was very specific. He said these ten plan to hijack planes from Mexico or India. Then he said the terror alert has not been raised because they had nothing specific. It reminded me of Condi's repeated claims about the August 6 PDB. April, 2005, Bush's hand-picked panel which included the President of Yale, for christ sake, concluded that the WMD claims made by the Pres. were squarely the fault of the CIA. McCain was on this panel. They reignited a fight about "Curveball" and got Tenet and McLaughlin in an uproar. They are attacking faulty intelligence which sounds like the perfect preamble to "not knowing" how the heck we "got hit again" defense. And I am not a conspiracy theorist.

[The Alchemist]

It strikes me that every time Cheney, or indeed any high-up talks about invading Iran, or Syria they actualy increase the chances of an attack on the US, no?

So one must ask, is this simple incompetance, or are they trying to provoke such an attack in order to furnish an excuse for the next round of invasions?