Is iran the next target in the administration's sights?

author : Alice Zillah topic : Iran | petrolium

by Alice Zillah

At the Support the Truth event on February 18, former UN weapons inspector Scott Ritter told an Olympia audience that the Bush administration had reviewed plans in October 2004 to attack Iran in June of 2005. "The Pentagon was told to be prepared to launch a massive aerial attack against Iran, Iraq's neighbor to the east, in order to destroy the Iranian nuclear program."

Only the independent media covered this bombshell. Last month Ritter wrote, "It was curious that no one in the American media took it upon themselves to confront the President or his Secretary of State about the June 2005 date, or for that matter the October 2004 review by the President of military plans to attack Iran in June 2005."

But despite the silence in the corporate press about a possible attack, there are ominous signs that Ritter's prediction might prove correct -- unless we mobilize to stop another preemptive war.

Some signs of plans for an attack include:

In late March three warships with 6,300 sailors and Marines were deployed to the Persian Gulf. Fighter jets from one of the ships, the USS Theodore Roosevelt, conducted trial bombing runs before deployment.

The London Times revealed that the Israeli government has prepared secret plans for a combined air and ground attack on targets in Iran if "diplomacy fails to halt the Iranian nuclear program". In the Haaretz newspaper, Israel Air Force Commander Eliezer Shakedi implied that Israel would have help, presumably from the US, if it went ahead with these plans.

On April 19, New York Post columnist Cindy Adams wrote that Henry Kissinger told her, "It's a foregone conclusion that we will also go to war in Iran."

Commentator Charles Goyette says, "That the US might attack Iran in June is one of our worst-kept secrets."

It's important to note that under international law, it is illegal to plot preemptive war. In his opening statement at the Nuremberg Trials in 1945, Justice Jackson said, "To plan, prepare, initiate, or wage a war of aggression, or a war in violation of international treaties, agreements, and assurances, or to conspire or participate in a common plan to do so, is a crime.... No political, military, economic, or other considerations shall serve as an excuse or justification for such actions."

The Bush administration has begun the by-now-familiar song and dance about Iran: Iran has a secret weapons program, ties to Al Qaeda, and represents a threat to the US. It's remarkable that they think anyone will take these allegations seriously, given that just last month an official US Presidential Commission report stated that virtually every intelligence report on Iraq during the build-up to war was "dead wrong." But the Bush administration apparently thinks that it can launch another preemptive attack for made-up reasons.

Iran has acknowledged that it is conducting uranium-enrichment activities, which is allowed under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). The United States likes to tell other countries that they must follow the NPT and even go beyond its requirements, while acting as though the agreement doesn't apply to us well. If the Bush administration was genuinely concerned about nuclear weapons it would take steps to follow the treaty obligations by starting the process of disarmament, and ending the funding of new nuclear weapon technology. We would cease our own uranium enrichment too (Vice President Cheney's home state of Wyoming leads the country in uranium production).

But the nuclear issue is a smokescreen. The Bush administration has its eyes on Iran because of the huge reserves of oil and natural gas that Iran possesses, and the fact that Iran is selling oil and gas to India and China, our primary competitors in the global struggle over energy. The Bush administration would ultimately like to achieve "regime change" in Iran to get a government more sympathetic to our foreign oil dependence.

While this outlook it bleak, we can prevent an attack on Iran if we organize, mobilize, and get the word out. No more war and no more excuses for war!

We can call our senators and congresspersons and ask them to investigate Bush's illegal plans for an attack on Iran. We can write letters to the editor of "mainstream" newspapers like the Olympian to let more people know. And we can work to stop the nomination of John Bolton for UN Ambassador. Bolton has already called for a "robust" military attack on Iran if it doesn't stop its uranium enrichment. Some analysts think Bolton was nominated for UN Ambassador precisely to enable a US attack on Iran.

We have the power to end war. Now is the time to act!