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Scapegoating Iran for Failure in Iraq

Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit

Workers World - Feb 22, 2007
http://www.workers.org/2007/world/letter-0222/

Letter to WW

Scapegoating Iran for Iraq failure

To enter its war against the people of Iraq, Washington manufactured the
fiction of Iraq's "weapons of mass destruction." Currently, the U.S. is
laboring its mental powers to come up with a similar hoax. Now President
George W. Bush, with the generous help of the mainstream media (Fox News,
CNN, Wall Street Journal, New York Times and many others), has painted Iran
guilty of multiple crimes that have to be confronted for the safety and
security of the "international community."

To be true to his character, Bush Jr. had to find a scapegoat for his and
the U.S. mighty military's failure to bring the people of Iraq to their
knees.

No longer are Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan and the U.S.-promoted
sectarian conflicts between the Shi'ia and Sunni populations of Iraq, who
had coexisted side by side in the same communities for centuries,
sufficient and convincing explanations for sacrificing the lives of
additional American troops. The U.S. administration now has to deflect from
its own failures and put the blame on Iraq's neighboring countries of Iran
and Syria.

In the last century, the colonial and neo-colonial powers--France in
Algeria, Britain in Iraq, the Dutch in Indonesia and the U.S. in
Vietnam--exhibited very similar conduct and arguments, trying to place the
blame for their own crimes on third parties.

For the White House and the Pentagon, headed now by a trickster from the
CIA, Robert Gates, to receive a green light, or at least no serious
opposition to continuing the war in Iraq while taking the U.S. to the brink
of war with Iran and utter disaster, they have to scare the American people
to death. Now, Iran is the "biggest threat to the United States," in the
words of neo-conservative hysteria-maker Michael Ledeen.

The Bush regime, in direct opposition to strong public opinion in the U.S.
and internationally, has escalated the tension between the two countries
and embarked on a series of provocations, which include:

- - The kidnapping and threatening of Iranian diplomats in Iraq and around the
world.

- - The blacklisting of Sepah, Iran's commercial bank, in the European
countries.

- - Arbitrarily interpreting the UN sanctions and, with the assistance of U.S.
congressional legislation, imposing embargos on foreign companies in
non-nuclear commercial relations with Iran. So far the U.S. has imposed
sanctions on several Chinese and Russian companies, in violation of
international laws.

- - The deployment of Patriot missiles to Israel and the Persian Gulf states
with the perceived scenario of shooting down incoming Iranian Shahab-3
missiles, in case Tehran tries to retaliate in response to American-Israeli
missile attacks.

- - The deployment of the USS Eisenhower nuclear strike force to the Oman Sea
and the vicinity of the Persian Gulf waters.

- - The baseless claim of Washington that Iranian "networks" are operating
inside Iraq with the purpose of helping the guerrillas target U.S. troops.

- - The constant violation of Iran's airspace by drones to drop electronic
transmission devices and collect intelligence information.

- - The deployment of U.S. special forces to the border regions in Khuzistan
province next to Basra in Iraq and in Sistan-Baloochistan province next to
Afghanistan and Pakistan to influence ethnic minorities and stir up
separatist ideas.

The same scheme used by the U.S. to exploit social tensions in Iraq, using
the sectarian yardstick of Shi'a and Sunni, currently has found a greater
application in the entire sub-continent of the Middle East. In this game of
occupiers, the kings of Saudi Arabia and Jordan have become two
enthusiastic and happy players, expressing dissatisfaction with Iran's
growing regional status.

Iranian historian Ervand Abrahamian told CNN's Lou Dobbs that if the U.S.
administration provoked a war between the U.S. and Iran, it would last 30
to 100 years. The U.S. ruling class may start the war, but the Iranians
would finish it.

Ardeshir Ommani
American-Iranian Friendship Committee
Ardeshiromm@optonline.net

***

Workers World - Feb 22, 2007 issue
http://www.workers.org/2007/world/iran-0222/

Bush steps up threats on Iran

By LeiLani Dowell

Using a barrage of unconfirmed, anonymous "evidence," Washington has
attempted to ratchet up public opinion against the government of Iran, in
an announcement ominously reminiscent of the lead-up to the 2003 U.S.
invasion of Iraq.

President Bush claimed that the announcement was not meant to signal a war
threat upon Iran. However, given the escalation of the administration's
hostility towards the country--including the imposition of sanctions, the
positioning of aircraft carriers off the coast of Iran in a possible
attempt to provoke an altercation, and the current claim of Iranian weapons
in Iraq--an aggressive move by Washington can't be ruled out.

It is necessary for the anti-war, anti-imperialist movement to take the
threat of a U.S. war against Iran extremely seriously, and to make the
demand to Congress, the Pentagon, and the White House for "no new wars!"
New propaganda campaign

At a Feb. 10 press briefing in the Green Zone in Baghdad, even the
officials who presented the evidence--a senior defense official, a defense
analyst and an explosives expert--refused to identify themselves publicly,
as they displayed what they said were munitions and weapons fragments of
the deadliest weapons in Iraq.

They claimed that the "highest levels" of the Iranian government has been
supplying these weapons--known as Explosively Formed Penetrators--to
resistance forces in Iraq, and that these weapons had been responsible for
170 of the more than 3,000 U.S. casualties there.

Media representatives were not allowed to record, photograph or videotape
any part of the briefing. (Washington Post, Feb. 12) Instead, photos of the
munitions were made available to the press. The Los Angeles Times reports,
"The officials said each piece of the displayed hardware could be traced to
Iran, though to the untrained eye there were no obvious Iranian markings
other than that on the dynamite. Some of the munitions bore Western
lettering." (Feb. 12)

No explanation was given as to what made these weapons distinctly Iranian.
No concrete evidence was given as to the links between the Iranian
government and the manufacture or transfer of these weapons to Iraq.

Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Mohammad Ali Hosseini, made it clear:
"Such accusations cannot be relied upon or be presented as evidence. The
United States has a long history in fabricating evidence. Such charges are
unacceptable." (AP, Feb. 13)

Whether or not the Bush administration has already opted to launch a new
war against Iran in the near future, it has decidedly heightened the
campaign in favor of one.

Corporate media aids war drive

As usual, the corporate media has supported this campaign, making the
newest wave of accusations against Iran front-page, high priority coverage.
Despite the fact that the "evidence" presented is dubious at best, they
have presented and built up the case in public consciousness.

Yet even the big-business media has been forced, in a limited way, to
acknowledge that this huge propaganda campaign is following the same
pattern as the "weapons of mass destruction" ploy in Iraq. Given the
fallout around their coverage of the lies that sold the Iraq war, some of
these papers attempted to cover themselves by running editorials the next
day questioning the lack of concrete evidence, and even the motives of the
press conference announcing the news.

The day after the briefing, the top U.S. military officer, Gen. Peter Pace
of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, admitted to the Voice of America, "I would
not say by what I know that the Iranian government clearly knows or is
complicit." (Associated Press, Feb. 13)

Attempting to downplay the criticism that followed Pace's announcement,
President George Bush claimed at a Feb. 14 news conference that he was
convinced that the Iranian government is supplying weapons to fighters in
Iraq. A reporter asked, "What assurances can you give the American people
that the intelligence this time will be accurate?"

Bush had a simplistic, elusive response: "We know they're there. We know
they're supplied by the Quds Force. We know the Quds Force is a part of the
Iranian government. ... My job is to protect our troops." (New York Times,
Feb. 14)

Escalation a diversion from Iraq

Last Nov. 7, a majority in the United States voted to protect the troops by
sending them home, in what was largely considered an anti-war referendum
for a withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq. Those same millions are paying
close attention to the pending Congressional vote on increased war
funding--and despite the voices of the masses at the polls, it appears that
Congress is only willing to put forth non-binding resolutions against the
continued occupation.

In light of the vote in Congress, the new propaganda campaign against Iran
appears as another diversion aimed at dampening the overwhelming anti-war
sentiment of working people in the United States. The timing of the release
of the "news"-- only a month before the fourth anniversary of the war on
March 17, with massive anti-war protests scheduled for that day in
Washington and around the country--is not coincidental.

In a Feb. 12 interview on "Good Morning America," Iranian President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad made this very point: "I think that Americans have made a
mistake in Iraq ... and that's why they are trying to point their fingers
at other people, and pointing fingers at others will not solve the
problem."

Ahmadinejad further pointed out that there is clear, overt evidence that
the United States is the main perpetrator of violence in Iraq: "I can give
you figures and numbers, which are known: more than 160,000 American troops
are in Iraq. What are they doing in Iraq?"
U.S. aggression can't be ruled out

Although the prospect of a new war appears adventurous for the Bush
administration, and could possibly lead them deeper into the quagmire than
they are today, it doesn't mean the Washington war hawks won't risk a
disastrous war in a reckless attempt to reverse their defeat.

The Los Angeles Times reports that Israel, the United State's closest ally
in the region, has "begun an unusually open campaign to muster
international political and economic pressures against Iran. They warn that
time is growing short and hint that they will resort to force if those
pressures fail." (Feb. 7)

In addition, some leading Democrats have fallen in line with the posturing
against Iran. In an interview on Democracy Now, New Hampshire Peace Action
director Anne Miller described an interaction she had with Democratic
presidential candidate Hillary Clinton: "[I] approached the Senator and ...
asked her if she really would leave all options on the table [with regards
to Iran] and how could she threaten, in effect, other countries' children
with nuclear genocide. She looked me right in the eye, and she said, `No
options are off the table.'" (Feb. 13)

During the congressional debate over Iraq on Feb. 13, Rep. Anthony Weiner,
D-NY, suggested that while Iraq was the wrong target, Iran was the right
one: "Our engagement in Iraq has stretched us thinner and thinner and
thinner. ... You know what would send the right message? You take some of
those troops out of Baghdad, you put them on the Iranian border."

While some signals point to the administration's desire for an air strike
against Iran in an attempt to minimize U.S. casualties--and ensure death
and destruction for many Iranian people--another alarming sign is Bush's
desire to increase the size of the military by 92,000 troops over the next
five years, as expressed in his Jan. 23 State of the Union address.

Retired Army Lt. General William Odom, who oversaw Ronald Reagan's
Star-Wars program, warned, "Fear that Congress will confront [the war in
Iraq] helps explain the administration and neocon drumbeat we now hear for
expanding the war to Iran. Here we see shades of the Nixon-Kissinger
strategy in Vietnam: widen the war into Cambodia and Laos. Only this time,
the adverse consequences would be far greater." (Washington Post, Feb. 11)

Articles copyright 1995-2007 Workers World. Verbatim copying and
distribution of this entire article is permitted in any medium without
royalty provided this notice is preserved.
Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011
Email: ww@workers.org
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