Iran Watch

Joseph Cirincione from the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace reports that according to his sources, high-level political and military officials have already begun planning in earnest for a strike against Iran. He also sees a lot of similarities between how the Iraq invasion was marketed to the public, and how the Bush administration is now following the same propaganda model with Iran:

The unfolding administration strategy appears to be an effort to repeat its successful campaign for the Iraq war. It is now trying to link Iran to the 9/11 attacks by repeatedly claiming that Iran is the main state sponsor of terrorism in the world (though this suggestion is highly questionable). It is also attempting to make the threat urgent by arguing that Iran might soon pass a “point of no return” if it can perfect the technology of enriching uranium, even though many other nations have gone far beyond Iran’s capabilities and stopped their programs short of weapons. And, of course, it is now publicly linking Iran to the Iraqi insurgency and the improvised explosive devices used to kill and maim U.S. troops in Iraq, though Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Peter Pace admitted there is no evidence to support this claim.

I guess none of this is breaking news, but Ciricincione has a lot of street cred as an outsider perspective on security issues–this is different in other words than Sy Hersh or Normon Solomon reporting that war with Iran is imminent.

Unofrtunately, Cirincione’s suggestions for averting a crisis are a bit umm…shall we say unrealistic? He counsels the administration to lay their cards on the table, and provide the public with evidence backing up their assertion that Iran is a decade away from having a nuclear bomb.

Considering the administration didn’t even bother manufacturing evidence after the fact that Iraq had WMD, I really wouldn’t expect too much in the way of supporting evidence. He states:

An accurate and fully understood assessment of the status and potential of Iran’s nuclear program is the essential basis for any policy. We cannot let the political or ideological agenda of a small group determine a national security decision that could create havoc in a critical area of the globe. Not again.

Sorry, Not. Going. To. Happen. As Chomsky and other observers of US imperialism have noted as far back as 2003, Afghanistan and Iraq were more or less trial runs for invading and colonizing countries in the oil rich and geopolitically important Middle East and Central Asia regions, respectively.

Siddharth Varadarajan wrote a recent article on the US’s gambit for a Security Council resolution against Iran here.