Mark Crispin Miller: BushCo Plans "Surgical Strike" In Iran

[Hissyspit]

Via E-Mail:

United States is drawing up plans to strike on Iranian insurgency camp
Michael Smith
Read Mick Smith's defence blog at www.timesonline.co.uk/micksmith

The US military is drawing up plans for a "surgical strike" against an insurgent training camp inside Iran if Republican Guards continue with attempts to destabilise Iraq, western intelligence sources said last week. One source said the Americans were growing increasingly angry at the involvement of the Guards' special-operations Quds force inside Iraq, training Shi'ite militias and smuggling weapons into the country.

Despite a belligerent stance by Vice-President Dick Cheney, the administration has put plans for an attack on Iran's nuclear facilities on the back burner since Robert Gates replaced Donald Rumsfeld as defence secretary in 2006, the sources said.

However, US commanders are increasingly concerned by Iranian interference in Iraq and are determined that recent successes by joint Iraqi and US forces in the southern port city of Basra should not be reversed by the Quds Force.

"If the situation in Basra goes back to what it was like before, America is likely to blame Iran and carry out a surgical strike on a militant training camp across the border in Khuzestan," said one source, referring to a frontier province.

They acknowledged Iran was unlikely to cease involvement in Iraq and that, however limited a US attack might be, the fighting could escalate.

Although American defence chiefs are firmly opposed to any attack on Iranian nuclear facilities, they believe a raid on one of the camps training Shi'ite militiamen would deliver a powerful message to Tehran.

British officials believe the US military tends to overestimate the effect of the Iranian involvement in Iraq.

But they say there is little doubt that the Revolutionary Guard exercises significant influence over splinter groups of the radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army, who were the main targets of recent operations in Basra.

The CBS television network reported last week that plans were being drawn up for an attack on Iran, citing an officer who blamed the "increasingly hostile role" Iran was playing in Iraq.

The American news reports were unclear about the precise target of such an action and referred to Iran's nuclear facilities as the likely objective.

According to the intelligence sources there will not be an attack on Iran's nuclear capacity. "The Pentagon is not keen on that at all. If an attack happens it will be on a training camp to send a clear message to Iran not to interfere."

President George W Bush is known to be determined that he should not hand over what he sees as "the Iran problem" to his successor. A limited attack on a training camp may give an impression of tough action, while at the same time being something that both Gates and the US commander in Iraq, General David Petraeus, could accept.

[Hidey]

1. $250.00 Oil, here we come! Cha-Ching!

n/t

[Ganja Ninja]

22. Exactly.

One last move to boost oil prices into the stratosphere and keep them there for awhile.

[Anarchy in Detroit]

2. CIA is already in Iran (or has been for that matter)

I believe Mike Gravel said in an interview that the CIA gets at least 125 million in funding in Iran, and he said to expect something in Spring...HMMMMM coincidence? I think not. They've been planning this one for a bit, just to leave it with Obama.

[dantyrant]

13. CIA and their proxies have been in Iran for years

Operating in the north via the PKK and MEK(w/ Mossad?), and more recently in Baluchistan IIRC. Sy Hersh has reported this in the New Yorker.

[calimary]

3. It'll be a little more than an "Iran problem."

An "Iran catastrophe" is more like it. God help us when we try throwing one of those "surgical" punches. WHY do these bastards insist on swaggering around, picking fights with other countries? Is that how they behaved on the playground?

[tblue37]

7. Yep. Look at how W plays rugby.

[calimary]

8. Well, he's consistent, if nothing else.

Illegal sucker-punches over an entire lifetime.

Amazing.

[bdamomma]

14. and apparently our Congress has this notion that this regime

we have has to ask Congress for permission to strike a country first, yea sure, when has this dirty filthy regime has ever ask for permission. Somebody or alot of somebodies has to stop this maniacs from doing this.

[tom_paine]

4. The kind of surgery performed with a nuclear sledgehammer

Blood and guts and bone and radiation everywhere.

[nadinbrzezinski]

5. Ok for all the nay sayers

standard BUSH OP... leave a mess to the next Pres

Can anybody say SOMALIA?

I knew you could

Yes, I expect it

[Ytzak]

6. Bush did say that he would not let the next president escape "our country's destiny"

Friends of his from Texas were shocked recently to find him nearly wild-eyed, thumping himself on the chest three times while he repeated "I am the president!" He also made it clear he was setting Iraq up so his successor could not get out of "our country's destiny."

As long as he's in the driver's seat we are doomed to ride his Texas Taxi to hell.

[bdamomma]

15. we have our own sick fundamentalist right here sitting in the WH.

he is really a sick sick man, but we all know that already.

[KeepItReal]

9. 1 camp? Park a satellite over it. Bomb anything out of it crossing Iraqi border.

once "insurgents" enter Iraq, they are legit targets.

How hard is that?

[Useful Idiot]

10. 1 camp? Park a satellite over it. Bomb anything in it so it doesnt cross the boarder

Once they enter the camps for training they are legit targets. Waiting till they cross back over into Iraq defeats most of the purpose of a bombing run into Iran in the first place. Give them a bloody nose on thier own turf-just so they know that the U.S will do it if pushed.

[14thColony]

20. So....

Then you'd agree this is exactly what the Soviet Union should have done to our CIA-run mujaheddin camps in Pakistan, where we and the Pakistanis trained insurgents to send back into Afghanistan to kill Soviet troops trying to stabilize the country and support the Afghan government back in 1979-1989?

What Iran is doing in Iraq is, in virtually every possible way, identical to what we were doing against the Soviet military occupation of Afghanistan from our camps in Pakistan.

So I guess the USSR missed the boat: they should have flattened our camps and threatened 'surgical strikes' on the US mainland to give us a bloody nose on our own turf so we would know what the USSR would do it it was pushed...

Hmmmmmmm....doesn't seem so cut-and-dried the other way around, huh?

This is called 'proxy war.' We practically invented it. We're just upset it's being used against us, that's all. But it has been a 'legitimate' way of pursuing national policy since at least World War II. We wrote the rules, but never expected to have to play by them.

[LynnTheDem]

26. Gee yeah what a fucking brilliant idea!.

Who gives a shit about internaitonal law! Who gives a shit about the US Constitution and "supreme law of the land" Geneva Conventions!

BOMB, BOMB, BOMB!

KILL! KILL! KILL!

That's gonna keep making us ever so much more safer!

:eyes:

[JCMach1]

11. Let me guess, this will be ready to go by Mid to late October...

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

12. Shock and awe, part deux

Some cool black and green night-vision stuff on national television should be good for a few Repub votes, eh?

I just want to see who gets to play Christiane Amanpour this time!

[DCKit]

16. Headline: Bush* Plans Surgery - Millions Expected to Die of Complications,

Cost of Ongoing Care to Bankrupt the American People for Decades.

[spanone]

17. and the iranians are probably planning a 'surgical strike' also

who appointed these fuckers to play god???

[Peace Patriot]

18. If China invaded Mexico and set up a puppet government to steal their oil,

would the U.S. not be sending aid to the Mexican insurgency?

It's absurd to expect Iran not to be involved in this Bushite disaster right next door to them. The wonder is they have been so restrained about it. Somewhat lost in the middle of the article...

"British officials believe the US military tends to overestimate the effect of the Iranian involvement in Iraq."

This "surgical strike" plot is purely for domestic political purposes. It will do NOTHING to disinterest Iran in what is happening in their neighbor country, and what has been inflicted on their neighbor country by a foreign giant that demonizes them in "axis of evil" language.

Let Middle Easterners solve their own problems, in the context of a UN-sponsored peace initiative. Start reducing oil consumption and converting to green energy. And bring our troops home NOW! We have no right to be there. None!

[14thColony]

23. Yer right

And (as I mentioned above) - WE have already done exactly what we're accusing Iran of doing - CIA-run mujaheddin camps in Pakistan, sending insurgents over the border into Afghanistan for 10 years to kill Soviet troops who were there to stabilize Afghanistan, suppress the anti-government insurgency, and support the government in Kabul. Exactly what we're doing in Iraq, and Iran is doing to us what we did to the Soviets, albeit about one-tenth as much as we did to support the mujaheddin.

We do it to the Soviets: righteous support of Afghan freedom fighters agains the totalitarian foreign invader.

Iran does it to us: wicked and nefarious collusion with evil terrorists to kill Americans.

[debbierlus]

19. Fuckers

Maniacs with bombs. Criminal thugs with the power of the red button.

[JHB]

21. Bush Family Tradition

Back in late '92, in order to throw a wrench into the notion of a post-Cold War "peace dividend", Poppy suddenly decided (after years of turmoil) that it was necessary for us to put troops into Somalia, ostensibly to protect food shipments.

(Interestingly enough, about a year(? two?) prior to this I was watching a CNN report on aid shipments to Somalia, and the plane (a C-130, I think) landing to deliver another shipment was marked "Southern Air Transport". DUers familiar with the Iran-Contra scandal will recognize the name. Don't know if it was there on "Company business", or if charter flights like that are how it padded its books in the "offseason".)

We all know how well THAT orphaned deployment turned out (Mogadishu). And we all know how much Chim-Chim loves one-upping his Old Man...

[Peace Patriot]

24. Ah, the "peace dividend"! Those were the days!

Do you think we'll get another one, this time?

[LynnTheDem]

25. Illegal act of war. But what's another in a long line of war crimes?

Imagine any other naiton on the planet threatening us the way bUsh's America threatens others.

The hypocrisy is overwhelming. The blow-back is gonna hurt.

[Zywiec]

27. What happened to the surgical strike on the nuclear facilities? n/t

[MilesColtrane]

28. BushCo is hoping for escalation.

They bomb an insurgent camp-->Iran responds by firing at some ships or launching some missiles into Iran-->The U.S. starts an all out air campaign.

This will give Bush a small degree of cover to go after suspected nuke sights, rather than simply launching a massive preemptive attack, he'll start with something small.

[Clear Blue Sky]

29. "Surgical strike"? What if the patient dies Dr Bush?

[LaPera]

30. MCM, Scott Ritter, Seymour Hersh are correct, only fools believe Bush won't

strike Iran, (OIL & perpetuating never ending war profiteering for the corporations).