[WCUSP] [Fwd: "Surge" a smokescreen for the REAL war plan?]

[yvonne simmons]

> 
> 
>   Troop Escalation and Iran
> 
> 
>   Distracting Congress from the Real War Plan
> 
> By PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS
> 
> Is the surge an orchestrated distraction from the
> real war plan?
> 
> A good case can be made that it is. The US Congress
> and media are 
> focused on President Bush's proposal for an increase
> of 20,000 US troops 
> in Iraq, while Israel and its American
> neoconservative allies prepare an 
> assault on Iran.
> 
> Commentators have expressed puzzlement over
> President Bush's appointment 
> of a US Navy admiral as commander in charge of the
> ground wars in Iraq 
> and Afghanistan. The appointment makes sense only if
> the 
> administration's attention has shifted from the
> insurgencies to an 
> attack on Iran.
> 
> The Bush administration has recently doubled its
> aircraft carrier forces 
> and air power in the Persian Gulf. According to
> credible news reports, 
> the Israeli air force has been making practice runs
> in preparation for 
> an attack on Iran.
> 
> Recently, Israeli military and political leaders
> have described Israeli 
> machinations to manipulate the American public and
> their representatives 
> into supporting or joining an Israeli assault on
> Iran.
> 
> Two US carrier task forces or strike groups will
> certainly congest the 
> Persian Gulf. On January 9 a US nuclear sub collided
> with a Japanese 
> tanker in the Persian Gulf. Two carrier groups will
> have scant room for 
> maneuver. Their purpose is either to provide the
> means for a hard hit on 
> Iran or to serve as sitting ducks for a new Pearl
> Harbor that would 
> rally Americans behind the new war.
> 
> Whether our ships are hit by Iran in retaliation to
> an attack from 
> Israel or suffer an orchestrated attack by Israel
> that is blamed on the 
> Iranians, there are certainly far more US naval
> forces in the Persian 
> Gulf than prudence demands.
> 
> Bush's proposed surge appears to have no real
> military purpose. The US 
> military opposes it as militarily pointless and as
> damaging to the US 
> Army and Marine Corps. The surge can only be
> accomplished by keeping 
> troops deployed after the arrival of their
> replacements.
> Moreover, the increase in numbers that can be
> achieved in this way are 
> far short of the numbers required to put down the
> insurgency and civil war.
> 
> The only purpose of the surge is to distract
> Congress while plans are 
> implemented to widen the war.
> 
> Weapons inspectors have failed to find a nuclear
> weapons program in 
> Iran. Most experts say it would be years before Iran
> could make a weapon 
> even if the Iranian government is actively working
> on a weapons program. 
> Since the danger, if any, is years away, why is
> Israel so determined to 
> attack Iran now?
> 
> The answer might be that Israel has the chance now.
> The Bush 
> administration is in its pocket. The White House is
> working with 
> neoconservatives, not with the American foreign
> policy community 
> represented by the Iraq Study Group. Neoconservative
> propagandists are 
> in influential positions in the media. The US
> Congress is intimidated by 
> AIPAC. The correlation of forces are heavily in
> Israel's favor.
> 
> Part of the Israeli/neoconservative plan has already
> been achieved with 
> the destruction of civilian infrastructure and
> spread of sectarian 
> strife in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Lebanon. If Iran
> can be taken out with 
> a powerful air attack that might involve nuclear
> weapons, Syria would be 
> isolated and Hezbollah would be cut off from Iranian
> supplies.
> 
> Israel has two years remaining to use its American
> resources to achieve 
> its aims in the Middle East. How influential will
> Israel and the 
> neoconservatives be with the next president in the
> wake of a US defeat 
> in Iraq and Israeli defeat in Lebanaon? If the US
> withdraws its troops 
> from Iraq, as the US military and foreign policy
> community recommend and 
> as polls show the American public wants, the only
> effect of Bush's Iraq 
> invasion will have been to radicalize Muslims
> against Israel, the US, 
> and US puppet governments in the Middle East.
> Extremist elements will 
> tout their victory over the US, and the pressures on
> Israel to accept a 
> realistic accommodation with Palestinians will be
> over-powering.
> 
> Now is the chance--the only chance--for Israel and
> the neoconservatives 
> to achieve their goal of bringing Muslims to heel, a
> goal that they have 
> been writing about and working to achieve for a
> decade.
> 
> This goal requires the war to be widened by whatever
> deceit and 
> treachery necessary to bring the American public
> along.
> 
> The US Congress must immediately refocus its
> attention from the surge to 
> Iran, the real target of Bush administration
> aggression.
> 
> Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the
> Treasury in the Reagan 
> administration. He was Associate Editor of the Wall
> Street Journal 
> editorial page and Contributing Editor of National
> Review. He is 
> coauthor of The Tyranny of Good Intentions. 
>
<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/076152553X/counterpunchmaga>He
> 
> can be reached at: pcroberts at postmark.net
> <mailto:pcroberts at postmark.net>
> 
> 
> 



 
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