April 23, 2008
by Robert W. Barker
Bellum, looming on new fronts, confronts us as we deal with the ongoing cost, loss of blood, and prestige in Iraq. We find the NeoCons are not quite through - they are now commencing a fresh thrust for conflict with Iran, as the Cheney Symphony de Bellum commences and the drum beat for war grows louder.
Inside the bowels of the Pentagon someone knows the truth, deep in the hearts and minds of major NeoCons exist the known facts, and they seem to point to a marching beat of war with Iran. The drums of war are pounding again, and if you listen carefully they forewarn of a coming event that will incite bellum on a third front. Tragedy perhaps, WMD-type lies or excuses maybe, false flag or eschewed reality - the pretext will be made, and war inevitably engaged.
Contrary to the current belief in the US that the Bush Administration is willing to negotiate with Iran for cessation of Iran's nuclear weapons programs, it appears to be a ruse. As usual, the truth resides beneath the rhetoric - beside the public persona and waiting around the corner, like the Surprise Symphony.
Instead of emphasizing negotiations as claimed, we are seeing all the old signs of a choral build up to planned bellum. Talk is the cheap and possibly-easy solution, but war brings new adventures and profit for the boys in the Cheney band, so strike up the bellum band.
Just follow the bouncing imperial Cheney beat, and it will pulsate to a conflict based rhythm. Dick Cheney, the harbinger of bellum, was circulating in March, 08 throughout the mid-eastern nations to issue timely warnings and drum up support for an Iranian strike.
Israel has been warned, and plans for heavy casualties are underway in the Holy land. And, though Israel will most likely never directly hit Iran, they expect retaliation from their neighbors in the area if and when the US decides to strike up the bomb.
Haste in motion is how one might describe the March 16 Cheney trip to Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Oman, Turkey and the Palestinian territory. As tensions are rising in the area, Dick prepares ye the way of the looming conflict.
Meanwhile, Israel is conducting prevalent home-front military exercises, the largest in its history, as minister Binyamin Eliezer in impeccable timing warned Tehran not to blame the Jewish State if attacked.
Of the people in DC that have advocated the use of force against Iran, Dick Cheney has been the most outspoken. Mars the God of war and Greed the God of profit appear to motivate Mr. Cheney in an continually louder drum roll.
Chief Warmonger Cheney, the five deferments from Vietnam draft-dodger turned hawk, visited the Persian Gulf a year ago, in May 2007. Hawk-majorette Cheney stood aboard an aircraft carrier just like Bush did in his "Mission-Accomplished" speech, and issued what amounted to ultimatums to Iran. Dick warned the Iranians of looming US military action if they continued to pursue nuclear-arms technology or tried to disrupt the beat of oil shipping in the Gulf.
"With two carrier strike groups in the Gulf, we're sending clear messages to friends and adversaries alike. We'll keep the sea lanes open.... [And] we'll stand with others to prevent Iran from gaining nuclear weapons and dominating this region." Dick spewed this threat in their backdoor to give the statement additional weight, and Tehran had been warned. From that moment on, the drums of war excuses started - they were supplying arms to insurgents, providing explosives to terrorists, threatening to call Iran's "Islamic Revolution Guards Corps" a foreign terrorist organization, and so on.
Then, like the clash of a giant cymbal, a report from the "National Intelligence" peopl, halted the beat of the drums of bellum, yet only for a short measure.
Sources close to the administration say they now reject the National Intelligence Estimate report released in December that claimed Iran had ceased its nuclear weapons program in late 2003. The rhythmic marches of bellum were sounding on all fronts until that truthful report put the administration's Iran attack plans on the back rehearsal schedule. Now they plan to deny the Intelligence report outright and push the media buttons to sound the horns, start the drum roll, and regain the marching momentum for an attack on Tehran's nuclear sites.
These desperate lame-ducks appear to desire a third front to involve Iran, and then the NeoCons hope the USA will once again be committed beyond our ability to withdraw without losing face.
Sound familiar?
The drumbeats of military action can be heard from many corners, and they all point towards Iran and its nuclear program as the crux of the irritation; yet this is one more eternal "war for peace" song.
Hezzbollah has been supplied thousands of missiles according to the Washington Post, and this has Israel stirred up and anxious, and provides for greater ammunition for war with Iran.
And the beat goes on.
Israel's recent war drills and exercises, including preparations for possible chemical and biological weapons attacks, drew a quick ridicule from Syria which then displayed its own military exercises.
The Syrian government has accused Israel of promoting bellum and getting ready for a war which Damascus predicts would commence sometime between May 1st and late June. With a roll, a flam, and a paradiddle, they commenced the paeans rhythm, and the horns soon follow.
Long-range missiles Iran has been accused of developing to strike Israel are reported by the Israeli intelligence services and media. Israel's military experts further see the Iranians using terror groups like Hamas operating from Palestine or Hezbollah from Lebanon to launch terror attacks inside Israel. The Israeli newspaper Haaretz revealed that Israel nurtures a serious trepidation that North Korea has furnished technology and nuclear materials to Iran to aid Tehran's secret nuclear weapons program.
A symphony of fear is building around the globe, and fear breeds a crescendo of aggression.
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Iran remains rather truculent to international pressures that it offer disclosure relating to its nuclear program, and this adds to the tensions. Just recently, Sunday April14th, the head of Iran's nuclear program suddenly canceled a meeting with the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, causing a downturn to the U.N. monitoring efforts to investigate whether Iran tried to create nuclear arms, according to an AP report, and Cheney now seems "justified."
Signs indicate that President Bush is not quacking like a lame duck who will not stir up trouble before he departs - more like a screeching hawk.
The U.S. is poised to attack on a timely basis, in advance of Iran's possible acquisition of nuclear weapons, and supposedly thwart the threat of Iranian leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to "wipe Israel off the map." Le Monde, the French news service, reported in March that freshly exposed documents show that Iran has not ceased developing nuclear weapons - more fuel for the Cheney goals of perpetual war.
Further intrigue transpired when the commander of U.S. forces in the Middle East, Admiral William Fallon, resigned back in March following ugly media reports that he broke with President Bush's strategy on Iran, and wanted distance between himself and the Administration when they strike Iran. Esquire magazine reported that in their opinion Fallon's departure amply demonstrates the U.S. intention to attack Iran.
Tehran-based Iranian news network, Press TV, reports that Saudi Arabia is initiating emergency steps in preparing to counter possible "radioactive hazards" that may result from an American attack on Iran's nuclear facilities.
Saudi Arabian newspaper Okaz disclosed that the Saudi government has granted approval for nuclear fallout preparations, and according to the Iranian network, that approval came a day after Cheney met with the kingdom's high-ranking officials - further proof that the U.S. "is now informing its Arab allies of a potential war."
The American commander in Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus, has ratcheted up his critical assessment of Iran, informing Congress that Iran supplied Hezbullah:
"Iran has fueled the violence in a particularly damaging way." Said the General to a wide-eyed Congress.
The Bush administration and other war-mongers have claimed Iran was providing insurgents with missiles that were killing Americans and hitting targets within the U.S. occupied Green Zone in Baghdad.
MSNBC Commentator Pat Buchanan told the US public that Petraeus' remarks to Congress lay the groundwork for a U.S. attack on Iran.
President Bush threw in some weight on this issue in a speech at the White House on April 10 that claimed Iran along with al-Qaida, are "two of the greatest threats to America." Bush further said Iran "can live in peace with its neighbors," or "continue to arm and train and fund illegal militant groups which are terrorizing the Iraqi people . If Iran makes the wrong choice, America will act to protect our interests and our troops and our Iraqi partners."
And meanwhile in Iran, the Iranians worsened tensions when it announced that it had commenced installing 6,000 new centrifuges at its uranium enrichment plant in Natanz. Centrifuges are capable of enriching uranium to a lower level to produce nuclear fuel or a higher level for use in weapons grade fuels. The odd thing is Iran already has nearly 3,000 centrifuges currently operating in Natanz, and the new announcement was viewed as a display of truculent defiance to international demands to cease a nuclear program that the U.S. insists is aimed at building nuclear weapons.
Additionally, the pathos-filled plot grows thicker as the Iranian regime has been putting massive pressure on Iraqi Shiite leader Muqtada Sadr over the past month. Recently they went so far as to temporarily place him under house arrest and also freezing his bank accounts; according to Newsmax. The Iranians worry that Sadr's support for the uprising in Basra, could push the United States to attack Iran," again this is according to Newsmax.
If both these scenarios are accurate, then we are getting mixed signals from Iran, and now we sincerely miss the Intel that Valerie Plame's team may have provided on Iran. Plame's team was plugged into Iranian sources - that was their specialty - yet when the Cheney team exposed her, our best Intel on Iran was thwarted and now we depend on Israelis for Intel on Iran.
The wheels of bellum are turning for a third front, and the US public will be caught unaware unless some catastrophic event predicates an attack that we believe is justified. In fact, if they seek the approval of the American public, it will no doubt be through a false flag event or a legitimate episode involving Iran, for nothing short of a serious event will move the reluctant public to another war.
Yet do they care, and will they act again unilaterally?
We are weary of wars for some nebulous vague goals - involving our tax dollars and blood in altercations for corporate interest like Halliburton or some other Cheney friendly group. That will not wash in the USA, yet that may not prevent the Neo Con Symphony of Bellum.
Although one wonders if the Neo Cons in DC are interested in justification to the public, and our media plays along with all Cheney Bush regimes schemes, so we will have to wait and see how the Iranian fear club reacts.
One can still feel the vibrations of the looming beat of war, and if you listen carefully the rhythm becomes audible. Soon we will all hear its ugly beat...1...2...3...4...we just can't take no more.
War. What is it good for? Unless you're Cheney and the private companies and mercenary armies he employs, war is a great drain on the rhythm of the nation.
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Robert W. Barker [send him email] is a writer, professional photographer and travel aficionado from Eureka Ca. His work is carried on many web sites around the globe, a first novel recently copyrighted in the library of Congress, is soon to be published.
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