Can we afford not to assume that Bushco plans a nuclear attack on Iran?

[Dover]

A simple question.

[LeftCoast]

1. Can we afford not to assume the moon will come crashing into the earth?

I dunno. You tell me.

[Dover]

6. This is no pie in the sky, out of the blue question.

It's being openly and publicly discussed...by journalists, by this administration itself. Is it not up for discussion at DU? So why the defensiveness about discussing it? If that potential exists should we not respond now, or shall we take a wait and see attitude?

A previous poster linked to this article which has some of these sources:

http://www.homelandsecurityus.net/Iran/petrodollars_and_nuclear_weapons.htm

[seriousstan]

10. Nuke the moon!!

[Rocknrule]

13. "Would you miss it?"

[Vincardog]

2. DimSon wants to use up the world and force the second coming.

What better tool than nukes?
:nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke:
:nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke:
:nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke:
:nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke:
Have I mentioned lately how much I am disgusted by the
Homo Erotic Sadistic Psychopath?

[Vanje]

3. I'm very much afraid that nukes are in our near future.

Very much afraid.

[Bucky]

24. I think it's still a long shot that they'll go nuke

These guys are straight up bullies. Punks. They just don't pick fights with viable opponents. Iraq; Afghanistan; Panama; Granada; Iraqi detainees... They're the kings of kicking a man when he's down. They never, never go up against a worthy opponent. Even a (former) fringe nut with a good spiel like bin Laden they can't stand to go up against. He scares 'em (and so they've made that punk bigger and more viable). This is the classic chickenshit strategy. They never fight fair.

OK, so that rules out Iran as a conventional target. And with Europe as pissed at Iran as they are right now, I'm thinking the Bushies don't have it in them to waddle into another fight all alone when there's still a ghost of a chance for Europe to do all the diplomatic heavy lifting for them. Yes, beside chickens and bullies, I also think they're lazy. They've let Europe handle Iran all along up till now. I don't think they see that changing.

[MadisonProgressive]

4. Not worried at all

I just called GEICO!!

[Che_Nuevara]

5. In a similar issue,

Der Spiegel (the German trashier equivalent of Time Magazine) ran an article on Chancellor Merkel's opinion of war in Iran. It included a tidbit about Israeli jets going on bombing runs.

Does this strike anyone as a really good way to start WWIII?

[High Plains]

18. Ya got a better one?

[jpak]

7. They have certainly lowered the bar on the first use of nukes

I would not put it past them -at all.

It would send a "strong signal to the world" that the USA is not about to let some quaint old fashioned notion - the nuclear taboo - get in the way of its Imperial Ambitions.

If ya got 'em - use 'em....

:nuke:

[pitohui]

8. can we afford to assume he will?

i can't think of one positive outcome from automatically assumming all is lost, doom, and gloom

suppose you are wrong, you'll be sorry you blew your IRA in vegas

[Dover]

11. Activism is not based on a 'doom and gloom' mentality. Rolling over is.

Are you more comfortable assuming that all the talk of the use of nukes in Iran is a big bluff?
Or are you suggesting that I and others are all making this potential more real than it is...despite public journalistic and administration talk to the contrary?

The reason to act now is to communicate loud and clear that WE THE PEOPLE do NOT and will NOT condone any use of nuclear weaponry, nor a pre-emptive attack in any form on any country.



Not Just A Last Resort?
A Global Strike Plan, With a Nuclear Option

By William Arkin

Sunday, May 15, 2005; Page B01

Early last summer, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld approved a top secret "Interim Global Strike Alert Order" directing the military to assume and maintain readiness to attack hostile countries that are developing weapons of mass destruction, specifically Iran and North Korea.

Two months later, Lt. Gen. Bruce Carlson, commander of the 8th Air Force, told a reporter that his fleet of B-2 and B-52 bombers had changed its way of operating so that it could be ready to carry out such missions. "We're now at the point where we are essentially on alert," Carlson said in an interview with the Shreveport (La.) Times. "We have the capacity to plan and execute global strikes." Carlson said his forces were the U.S. Strategic Command's "focal point for global strike" and could execute an attack "in half a day or less."


In the secret world of military planning, global strike has become the term of art to describe a specific preemptive attack. When military officials refer to global strike, they stress its conventional elements. Surprisingly, however, global strike also includes a nuclear option, which runs counter to traditional U.S. notions about the defensive role of nuclear weapons.

The official U.S. position on the use of nuclear weapons has not changed. Since the end of the Cold War, the United States has taken steps to de-emphasize the importance of its nuclear arsenal. The Bush administration has said it remains committed to reducing our nuclear stockpile while keeping a credible deterrent against other nuclear powers. Administration and military officials have stressed this continuity in testimony over the past several years before various congressional committees...cont'd
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/14/AR2005051400071.html

[pitohui]

21. i'm very comfortable that is a big bluff

what activism would stop a nuclear weapon anyway?

15 million people marched to stop the invasion of iraq, i don't notice it stopped anybody

i prefer to worry abt matters that i have some hope of being able to change, plus iran is the bush family's best friend, the big act is for the sheeple to make sure they continue to forget abt october surprise, which put reagan/bush in office in the first place, or the first gulf war, which crushed the army of iran's great enemy iraq

apparently the sheeple have trouble remembering that we are busily keeping a foot on iran's great enemy iraq even to this day...

we are not really enemies of iran, you know, they are the best friends the bush family ever had

[CabalPowered]

9. Check out CONPLAN 8022-02.. WP link inside

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/14/AR2005051400071.html

[Bucky]

23. Great link.

[Just Me]

12. I am certain the BushCO/neoconster regime will attack Iran.

I have no doubt, whatsoever, that they will. None.

[LunaC]

14. The ingredients for one are all in place!

April 2004 - PNAC Rumsfeld issues the Nuclear Weapons Employment Policy. The document states in part that “ U.S. nuclear forces must be capable of, and be seen to be capable of, destroying those critical war-making and war-supporting assets and capabilities that a potential enemy leadership values most and that it would rely on to achieve its own objectives in a post-war world.”
http://www.armscontrol.org/act/2005_09/Kristensen.asp


MAY 2004 - National Security Presidential Directive #35 is approved, entitled “Nuclear Weapons Deployment Authorization”.

http://www.fas.org/irp/offdocs/nspd/


The U.S. House of Representatives passes Resolution 398 in a 376-3 vote, calling on the U.S. government "to use all appropriate means to deter, dissuade, and prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons.”

http://cns.miis.edu/pubs/week/040812.htm#fn2


January 2005 - The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff issues Global Strike Joint Integrating Concept, Version 1, for conducting global strike operations during the “seize the initiative” phase of a conflict (“seconds to days”). Targets include WMD production, storage, and delivery capabilities, critical command and control facilities, anti-access capabilities (radars, surface-to-air missile sites, theater ballistic missile sites), and adversary leadership.

http://www.armscontrol.org/act/2005_09/Kristensen.asp


August 2005 - It is reported that the Pentagon, acting under instructions from PNAC Cheney’s office, has tasked the United States Strategic Command (STRATCOM) with drawing up a plan that includes a large-scale air assault on Iran employing both conventional and tactical nuclear weapons.

Several senior Air Force officers involved in the planning are reportedly appalled at the implications of what they are doing—that Iran is being set up for an unprovoked nuclear attack—but no one is prepared to damage his career by posing any objections

http://www.amconmag.com/2005_08_01/article3.html


September 2005 - Iran announces that its oil bourse will become operational by March 2006.

http://www.iranmania.com/News/ArticleView/Default.asp?ArchiveNews=Yes&NewsCode=28176&NewsKind=BusinessEconomy


The IAEA resolution of September 24 2005 allows the United States to carry out a nuclear attack against Iran "legally."

http://www.antiwar.com/orig/hirsch.php?articleid=8007


February 2006 - PNAC Bolton takes over as President of the U.N. Security Council.

http://www.tompaine.com/articles/20060112/the_bush_who_cried_wolf.php


Hang on, kids....it's gonna' be a bumpy ride!

[Dover]

15. Excellent documentation as usual LunaC. Thanks.

I guess it's harder to pretend that this is all 'doom and gloom' naysaying when you lay it out so neatly. I just assume people have been reading, paying attention, connecting the dots on their own, but apparently that's not a safe assumption.

So the question is.....What are WE THE PEOPLE going to do about it?

[LunaC]

19. What CAN we do?

We have an Admin that does whatever they want, whenever they want. The law and the Constitution mean nothing to them and they make up the rules as they go. It’s an ever-changing landscape for which there are no road maps, no traffic signals, no sense of order. Just the chaos that accompanies a Fascist dictatorial leadership hellbent on pursuing their own Agenda where We The People are incidental cogs in the machine. Truth, Honor, Integrity, Responsibility, Empathy, Justice and Conscience are forgotten attributes of the past, scoffed at and trodden-upon by those that hold the future in their grasp.

I’ve been remarkably quiet lately because I’m admittedly depressed. Perhaps it’s Scandal Fatigue. Perhaps it’s a temporary feeling of helplessness. Perhaps it’s a sense of foreboding, waiting for the next audacity, the next outrage, the Other Shoe to drop. Something truly wicked this way comes. Perhaps I’m just holding my breath until that time arrives, regrouping, regenerating, conserving my energy until the next phase becomes clearer and I’m stronger to resume the fight once again. For the moment, however….I’m just burned out and bummed out in a very big way!

[BeHereNow]

20. "Beware the Ides of March..."

I have no doubt that is what they plan.

BHN

Julius Caesar/ Act I, Scene 2

"SOOTHSAYER.
Caesar!

CAESAR.
Ha! Who calls?

CASCA.
Bid every noise be still.--Peace yet again!

CAESAR.
Who is it in the press that calls on me?
I hear a tongue, shriller than all the music,
Cry "Caesar"! Speak, Caesar is turn'd to hear.

SOOTHSAYER.
Beware the Ides of March.

CAESAR.
What man is that?

BRUTUS.
A soothsayer bids you beware the Ides of March.

CAESAR.
Set him before me; let me see his face.

CASSIUS.
Fellow, come from the throng; look upon Caesar.

CAESAR.
What say'st thou to me now? Speak once again.

SOOTHSAYER.
Beware the Ides of March.

CAESAR.
He is a dreamer; let us leave him. Pass."

[Dover]

22. Perfectly understandable LunaC

We've all gone through these dark periods of hopelessness and helplessness. ((hugs))

Perhaps new targets (such as the real brains and money behind these events) and need to get smarter, innovative, yet simple...a new kind of activism. I wouldn't feel comfortable discussing or hashing it out in an open forum and so perhaps one new strategy might be to develop an effective way for groups to work around the internet.

We haven't really begun to acknowledge the power we DO have. And a surprisingly small percentage of the population can impact them in a big way. At its worst we may literally have to throw ourselves in front of this train wreck. We all need to search our conscience about this and decide for ourselves. Thousands are already dead in Iraq. Thousands and thousands more are potential targets. That level of evil is nearly impossible to wrap one's mind and heart around. What will it take to stir us to action?

We CAN be sure that doing absolutely nothing but curling up into a fetal position, or waiting for politicians to lead the charge, will result in NO change whatsoever. We've been led along with carrots that offer justice and change in order to keep us otherwise engaged and filled with false hopes.

This just cannot be allowed to happen. It's beyond evil...it's a war waged on humanity and the planet. It's not political anymore.....waaaaay beyond that.

[Karenina]

16. In a word

NO. Nein. Nyet. Iye. Non.

[Dover]

17. IRAN RESOLUTION JUST PASSED...condemns Iran for violation of INN

Regarding referral to UN Security Council.

http://c-span.org/

Stream live on C-Span.


SUMMARY OF BILL:
H.CON.RES.341
Title: Condemning the Government of Iran for violating its international nuclear nonproliferation obligations and expressing support for efforts to report Iran to the United Nations Security Council.
Sponsor: Rep Ros-Lehtinen, Ileana (introduced 2/15/2006) Cosponsors (26)
Latest Major Action: 2/15/2006 Referred to House committee. Status: Referred to the House Committee on International Relations.
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c109:H.CON.RES.341

Only a few Dems spoke up in opposition.