John Chuckman
COMMENT ON AN ARTICLE BY PATRICK COCKBURN IN THE INDEPENDENT (AND REMOVED BY EDITORS)
“Israel has no real desire for armed conflict with Iran, but Trump might stumble into war against Tehran
“Analysis: If Donald Trump does lead US to attack Iran directly, it will be due to a misunderstanding of the real options available”
'Israel has no real desire for armed conflict with Iran'
Well, one could only wish that were so.
But the words of a Lieberman or a Netanyahu are of no real value as testimony in any court.
And it depends on what you mean by "war," too.
Not all wars involve soldiers marching in with flags flying and tanks rumbling.
Just look at what has been done to beautiful Syria with hired mercenary-phony jihadis. The governments responsible – America, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Britain, France, and originally Turkey – have lied to the public every step of the way for half a dozen years.
I think it fair to say Israel is right now conducting a kind of hybrid war against Iran.
We know, some years back, it was busy assassinating Iranian scientists.
Trump is pushed – and how easily done with this unthinking egomaniac - into tearing up the nuclear agreement that has been scrupulously kept by Iran and into imposing harsh new sanctions for no acceptable reason.
The CIA and Mossad both are busy with all kinds of schemes to hurt and destabilize Iran, including its finances and currency.
And we have the continuous lying, the war-is-peace stuff right out of Orwell, as about the recent missile exchange in Syria. The dozy corporate press has reported Israel's version of Iran fired first, which is just completely false.
Israel fired first, and it was a well-planned, deliberate ambush. Iran in fact never fired any missiles. Syria did. After all, it’s their country Israel illegally attacks. We have several solid sources for those points, yet our corporate press doggedly runs with Israel’s false story of what happened.
When Netanyahu visited Putin at Russia’s Victory Day celebrations, he is reported to have said to Putin, “Iran wants to kill another six million Jews.” A baseless charge but hardly the words of a man with peaceable intentions.
This is an extremely complex and dangerous situation. Russia winked at this attack, but I do not understand why. I’m sure Putin has a reason. Of course, he was privately assured no Russian forces would be affected.
I think that Russia cannot afford to wink at its important potential ally, Iran, going under.
You know who is next in the American imperial cross-hairs. Russia itself. There have already been many efforts in that direction.
Israel doesn't say so in public, but it must regard Russia as a long-term threat simply because it is not a faithful follower of American policy and it is in a position to check many actions Israel might view favorably. The American Neocon-inspired attitude of "full-spectrum dominance" in the world is challenged only by Russia and China, rendering them adversaries implicitly.
Israel is comfortable with a highly aggressive and demanding America because that's how they feel safest and best able to run their ongoing efforts to dominate the Middle East region as a miniature replica of what America does internationally.
The kind of ginned-up aggression and complete dishonesty we experience are dangerous to all of us, and for various reasons, Israel is always found right at the very heart of things.
