The US war with Iran has already begun

[Guest guest]

Monday, June 20, 2005 8:14 AM

The US war with Iran has already begun

 

 

> The US war with Iran has already begun

> By Scott Ritter

>

>

> Monday 20 June 2005, 8:56 Makka Time, 5:56 GMT

>

> Americans, along with the rest of the world, are starting to wake up to

> the

> uncomfortable fact that President George Bush not only lied to them about

> the weapons of mass destruction in Iraq (the ostensible excuse for the

> March

> 2003 invasion and occupation of that country by US forces), but also about

> the very process that led to war.

>

> On 16 October 2002, President Bush told the American people that " I have

> not

> ordered the use of force. I hope that the use of force will not become

> necessary. "

>

> We know now that this statement was itself a lie, that the president, by

> late August 2002, had, in fact, signed off on the 'execute' orders

> authorising the US military to begin active military operations inside

> Iraq,

> and that these orders were being implemented as early as September 2002,

> when the US Air Force, assisted by the British Royal Air Force, began

> expanding its bombardment of targets inside and outside the so-called

> no-fly

> zone in Iraq.

>

> These operations were designed to degrade Iraqi air defence and command

> and

> control capabilities. They also paved the way for the insertion of US

> Special Operations units, who were conducting strategic reconnaissance,

> and

> later direct action, operations against specific targets inside Iraq,

> prior

> to the 19 March 2003 commencement of hostilities.

>

> President Bush had signed a covert finding in late spring 2002, which

> authorised the CIA and US Special Operations forces to dispatch

> clandestine

> units into Iraq for the purpose of removing Saddam Hussein from power.

>

> The fact is that the Iraq war had begun by the beginning of summer 2002,

> if

> not earlier.

>

> The violation of a sovereign nation's airspace is an act of war in and of

> itself. But the war with Iran has gone far beyond the intelligence

> gathering

> phase.

> This timeline of events has ramifications that go beyond historical trivia

> or political investigation into the events of the past.

>

> It represents a record of precedent on the part of the Bush administration

> which must be acknowledged when considering the ongoing events regarding

> US-Iran relations. As was the case with Iraq pre-March 2003, the Bush

> administration today speaks of " diplomacy " and a desire for a " peaceful "

> resolution to the Iranian question.

>

> But the facts speak of another agenda, that of war and the forceful

> removal

> of the theocratic regime, currently wielding the reigns of power in

> Tehran.

>

> As with Iraq, the president has paved the way for the conditioning of the

> American public and an all-too-compliant media to accept at face value the

> merits of a regime change policy regarding Iran, linking the regime of the

> Mullah's to an " axis of evil " (together with the newly " liberated " Iraq

> and

> North Korea), and speaking of the absolute requirement for the spread of

> " democracy " to the Iranian people.

>

> " Liberation " and the spread of " democracy " have become none-too-subtle

> code

> words within the neo-conservative cabal that formulates and executes

> American foreign policy today for militarism and war.

>

> By the intensity of the " liberation/democracy " rhetoric alone, Americans

> should be put on notice that Iran is well-fixed in the cross-hairs as the

> next target for the illegal policy of regime change being implemented by

> the

> Bush administration.

>

> But Americans, and indeed much of the rest of the world, continue to be

> lulled into a false sense of complacency by the fact that overt

> conventional

> military operations have not yet commenced between the United States and

> Iran.

>

> As such, many hold out the false hope that an extension of the current

> insanity in Iraq can be postponed or prevented in the case of Iran. But

> this

> is a fool's dream.

>

> The reality is that the US war with Iran has already begun. As we speak,

> American over flights of Iranian soil are taking place, using pilotless

> drones and other, more sophisticated, capabilities.

>

> The violation of a sovereign nation's airspace is an act of war in and of

> itself. But the war with Iran has gone far beyond the

> intelligence-gathering

> phase.

>

> President Bush has taken advantage of the sweeping powers granted to him

> in

> the aftermath of 11 September 2001, to wage a global war against terror

> and

> to initiate several covert offensive operations inside Iran.

>

> The most visible of these is the CIA-backed actions recently undertaken by

> the Mujahadeen el-Khalq, or MEK, an Iranian opposition group, once run by

> Saddam Hussein's dreaded intelligence services, but now working

> exclusively

> for the CIA's Directorate of Operations.

>

> It is bitter irony that the CIA is using a group still labelled as a

> terrorist organisation, a group trained in the art of explosive

> assassination by the same intelligence units of the former regime of

> Saddam

> Hussein, who are slaughtering American soldiers in Iraq today, to carry

> out

> remote bombings in Iran of the sort that the Bush administration condemns

> on

> a daily basis inside Iraq.

>

> Perhaps the adage of " one man's freedom fighter is another man's

> terrorist "

> has finally been embraced by the White House, exposing as utter hypocrisy

> the entire underlying notions governing the ongoing global war on terror.

>

> But the CIA-backed campaign of MEK terror bombings in Iran are not the

> only

> action ongoing against Iran.

>

> To the north, in neighbouring Azerbaijan, the US military is preparing a

> base of operations for a massive military presence that will foretell a

> major land-based campaign designed to capture Tehran.

>

> Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld's interest in Azerbaijan may have

> escaped the blinkered Western media, but Russia and the Caucasus nations

> understand only too well that the die has been cast regarding Azerbaijan's

> role in the upcoming war with Iran.

>

> The ethnic links between the Azeri of northern Iran and Azerbaijan were

> long

> exploited by the Soviet Union during the Cold War, and this vehicle for

> internal manipulation has been seized upon by CIA paramilitary operatives

> and US Special Operations units who are training with Azerbaijan forces to

> form special units capable of operating inside Iran for the purpose of

> intelligence gathering, direct action, and mobilising indigenous

> opposition

> to the Mullahs in Tehran.

>

> But this is only one use the US has planned for Azerbaijan. American

> military aircraft, operating from forward bases in Azerbaijan, will have a

> much shorter distance to fly when striking targets in and around Tehran.

>

> In fact, US air power should be able to maintain a nearly 24-hour a day

> presence over Tehran airspace once military hostilities commence.

>

> No longer will the United States need to consider employment of Cold

> War-dated plans which called for moving on Tehran from the Arab Gulf

> cities

> of Chah Bahar and Bandar Abbas. US Marine Corps units will be able to

> secure these towns in order to protect the vital Straits of Hormuz, but

> the

> need to advance inland has been eliminated.

>

> A much shorter route to Tehran now exists - the coastal highway running

> along the Caspian Sea from Azerbaijan to Tehran.

>

> US military planners have already begun war games calling for the

> deployment

> of multi-divisional forces into Azerbaijan.

>

> Logistical planning is well advanced concerning the basing of US air and

> ground power in Azerbaijan.

>

> Given the fact that the bulk of the logistical support and command and

> control capability required to wage a war with Iran is already forward

> deployed in the region thanks to the massive US presence in Iraq, the

> build-up time for a war with Iran will be significantly reduced compared

> to

> even the accelerated time tables witnessed with Iraq in 2002-2003.

>

> America and the Western nations continue to be fixated on the ongoing

> tragedy and debacle that is Iraq. Much needed debate on the reasoning

> behind

> the war with Iraq and the failed post-war occupation of Iraq is finally

> starting to spring up in the United States and elsewhere.

>

> Normally, this would represent a good turn of events. But with everyone's

> heads rooted in the events of the past, many are missing out on the crime

> that is about to be repeated by the Bush administration in Iran - an

> illegal

> war of aggression, based on false premise, carried out with little regard

> to

> either the people of Iran or the United States.

>

> Most Americans, together with the mainstream American media, are blind to

> the tell-tale signs of war, waiting, instead, for some formal declaration

> of

> hostility, a made-for-TV moment such as was witnessed on 19 March 2003.

>

> We now know that the war had started much earlier. Likewise, history will

> show that the US-led war with Iran will not have begun once a similar

> formal

> statement is offered by the Bush administration, but, rather, had already

> been under way since June 2005, when the CIA began its programme of

> MEK-executed terror bombings in Iran.

>

> Scott Ritter is a former UN weapons inspector in Iraq, 1991-1998, and

> author

> of Iraq Confidential: The Untold Story of America's Intelligence

> Conspiracy,

> to be published by I B Tauris in October 2005.

>

> The opinions expressed here are the author's and do not necessarily

> reflect

> the editorial position or have the endorsement of Aljazeera.

>

>