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Title: US Assassination Of Top Iranian Military Official May Ignite World War
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URL Source: https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2020/0 ... official-may-ignite-world-war/
Published: Jan 3, 2020
Author: Caitlin Johnstone
Post Date: 2020-01-03 09:44:42 by Ada
Keywords: None
Views: 565
Comments: 21
The US has admitted to assassinating Iran’s most beloved military leader, General Qassem Soleimani, in a drone strike which seems very likely to ignite a full-scale war. Six others are also reported killed, including Iraqi militia commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis. According to the Pentagon, Trump personally ordered the assassination. I’ll keep following this hugely important story and will probably be writing a lot about it as it unfolds. I encourage everyone who values peace and humanity to follow it as well. “Spoke to a very knowledgeable person about what Iran’s response to Soleimani’s assassination might be,” The Quincy Institute’s Trita Parsi tweeted regarding this developing story. “This would be the equivalent of Iran assassinating Petreus or Mattis, I argued. No, he responded, this is much bigger than that.” “Most Americans won’t understand the gravity of this,” tweeted journalist Rania Khalek. “Qasem Soleimani is head of the Iranian IRGC’s elite Quds Force, which conducts operations outside of Iran in both Iraq and Syria. He was credited with helping turn the tide in both countries against Al-Qaeda and ISIS.” “This is very serious,” Khalek added. “The US essentially declared war on Iran by assassinating its most revered military figure in Iraq. And by also killing the head of the PMF, the US created more enemies in Iraq. There will be regional retaliation. It’s unlikely it can be prevented.” “If true, It is not an understatement to say this could change the entire Middle East,” tweeted Rising‘s Saagar Enjeti. “There’s going to be that war now that people have been pushing for since tanking the Iran Deal,” tweeted The Intercept‘s Murtaza Mohammad Hussain. “If this is true, the US has effectively declared war on Iran, which has established militarily ties with Russia and China. It’s not hyperbole to say this could start WW3. Insane,” tweeted Grayzone‘s Dan Cohen, who also highlighted the important fact that “Iran, Russia and China held joint naval drills less than a week ago.” “Iranian sources in Iran are warning that killing Gen. Qasem Sulaimani spells war,” tweeted Farnaz Fassihi of The New York Times. “‘Official reaction will begin with a strike,’ one says.” A proportionate retaliatory strike would necessarily entail an attack on US military targets, or the military targets of US allies. If that happens, either the empire stands down or we’re looking at an all-out war of a size that is potentially almost limitless. Months after Donald Trump took office it was reported that the CIA had escalated covert operations in Iran, and the administration has been escalating tensions with that nation further and further ever since it announced its withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal in 2018 on completely false pretenses. The withdrawal was followed by waves of debilitating, civilian-starving sanctions implemented with the goal of provoking civil unrest, a goal Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has openly admitted. From there we saw increased US military presence in the region, then the Iraqi-killing airstrikes earlier this week and the resulting tense angry standoff at the US embassy in Baghdad, and now here we are with Iran planning retaliation for an unforgivable assassination on its most senior and revered military official. Many are understandably claiming that this geostrategically pivotal confrontation was precisely what Trump was installed to facilitate all along. The largest donor to any campaign in 2016 was oligarch Sheldon Adelson, who gave $25 million to the Trump campaign, and who in 2013 said that the US should drop a nuclear bomb on Iran. After Trump’s election win, Adelson gave another $5 million to his inauguration, the largest single presidential inaugural donation ever made. Newt Gingrich, another of the billionaire’s hired politicians, has said that Adelson’s “central value” is Israel. Make no mistake, Iran is not Iraq or Libya. A full-scale war against Iran would be many times more deadly, costly and destabilizing than those interventions; the UK’s Admiral Lord West told The Daily Star Online last year that winning such a war would require no less than a million troops, or nearly the total number of active duty US military personnel in the entire world. Even if a direct war with Iran didn’t lead to a confrontation with China, Russia and the other unabsorbed allies, it would still be worse than Vietnam and Iraq combined in terms of death, destruction, expense, and regional destabilization. And now, as I sit as the mother of two teenagers watching what might be a third world war looming on the horizon, all I can think is about how infuriating it is that we’ve spent the last three years on Russia bullshit and sectarian political infighting instead of building an actual cohesive antiwar movement and pushing real opposition to Trump’s warmongering. Let’s get it together, humans. We need big changes, and we need them yesterday.
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#1. To: Ada (#0)
Was this written by ghost of Neville Chamberlain???
If we do go to war in Iran, it will draw about all our military resources to the region, giving China an opportunity to invade Taiwan, and whomever else wants to do something while the US is powerless to stop. The economic impact alone of an invasion is also dangerous to the USA. What happens to the dollar if we embark on a costly war? One thing is that oil goes up in price which helps Russia -- not a bad thing IMO as Russia is not the threat that it's made out to be.
We will never go to a land war in or with Iran. Neville Chamberlain is NOT sitting in the White House. Tehren will be removed from the map from without.
Chamberlain was right. Churchill started a war that he could not win.
No one talks about the chimperor building that insane "consulate" after destroying Iraq.
“The most dangerous man to any government is the man who is able to think things out... without regard to the prevailing superstitions and taboos. Almost inevitably he comes to the conclusion that the government he lives under is dishonest, insane, intolerable.” ~ H. L. Mencken
We will certainly not be invading Iran. It would not be afforded either politically or economically, and it would require a staging area. We had Saudi Arabia to invade Iraq from. To invade Iran either Iraq or Afghanistan would need to be willing and able, and Iraq may easily refuse, and even if the agreed, it would be a hostile place to do it. Nuking Tehran, if that's what you're referring to, would be detrimental to the US in the international arena, and would guarantee NK would never stop it's nuke program. If anyone cares about that, which maybe they don't, but it would make a permanent mess of things for the USA.
Poker, table stakes. Iran nor anyone is POSITIVE that the US will or will not use nuclear. Stalin bet that Truman WOULD NOT and he was right. We lost 45000 American kids. Many were my friends and comrades. That was okay, what a relief, Truman did NOT use nuclear. Truman had nothing to do with putting us in Korea, Americas hero FDR did. Trump had nothing to do with us being in Iraq, Bush did, our hero. Again, Neville Chamberlain is NOT in the White House. In a few months we can throw Trump out of White House, install someone that will disengage from the world and we will all live happily ever after.
Beg to differ. It is not certain that we will not invade. Currently the world is waiting to see what Iran will do, or what will be done and blamed on Iran. That depends upon whether Trumpenyahoo believes it will be successful or not. If we do invade, it will start with the "shock and awe" missile bombing campaign, which will test the Russian made defense system. That is something they want to do. Edit: If Russian defenses are successful in shooting down most of "shock and awe" then it will likely go back to stalemate. Will Russia fully enter the war on Iran's side? Dunno. Let's say they use their supersonic missiles to knock out a carrier or two, and perhaps hit land staging areas. Then we have no choice but to invade Russia, probably through Ukraine and the "Stans" area. Now it's on. What will China do? What if they stay out to pursue their own agenda. It may be that New York and London are sufficiently satisfied that they can work with the Chinks that they are not concerned about that. It's more than dicey right now. Winter is the perfect season to invade RU, just perfect.
“The most dangerous man to any government is the man who is able to think things out... without regard to the prevailing superstitions and taboos. Almost inevitably he comes to the conclusion that the government he lives under is dishonest, insane, intolerable.” ~ H. L. Mencken
Buildup will take several months, meanwhile bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb Iran.
I should clarify, that I am not certain that an invasion will take place. Again, it depends upon Trumpenyahoo's chutzpah. Pelosi has already given Trump cover to hold back, for now. Iran is signaling that they are not going to knee-jerk. So, now we wait for Iran's reaction or a false flag if the Neocons are going ahead with an attack. I'd say about 30% chance at this point. I have seen no reaction from Putin or China yet. An "invasion" is NOT physically possible nor desirable. There would be NO need.
A bombing campaign is possible.
Bombing is probable, up to Iran. Their choice.
Build up where? Iraq or Afghanistan? Both are hostile territory unlike Saudia Arabia was when we invaded Iraq. Maybe we'll stage there again and then the invading troops will drive through Iraq to Iran's border? That's probably the better idea but ... no I don't see any invasion happening at all. Any war with Iran would consist only of bombing campaigns, and for the duration, no oil flowing out of the Persion Gulf.
Concur. It would be nasty optics. Any war with Iran would consist only of bombing campaigns, and for the duration, no oil flowing out of the Persion Gulf. As usual. Wash, Rinse... ALL MSM-spun theater, misdirection and distraction as the One World Gummint destroys Western Civ and sovereignty. Kurd territory is a possibility. Kuwait. We have pretty good control of southwestern Afghanistan. Naval assault from multiple places from the Gulf of Oman all the way up the Persian Gulf. No invasion will happen without staging, which takes time. We'll have some idea what's going on unless they shut off Internet information (a possibility). Edit: no I don't see any invasion happening at all. I have underestimated the gall of these people too many times to be dismissive about the possibility. Hubris doesn't begin to describe their ability to order up destruction and death on a massive scale. I think the instant the first boot hits the ground in any staging operation, it will be war-on as far as Iran is concerned. They won't wait until staging is complete and take the defensive on the US time table. At least they shouldn't. Unlike with Saddam, there was at least the illusion of a negotiated peace, but there's not prospect for that with Iran. What they could do offensively outside their borders might be limited, but they wouldn't be the pushover Iraq was. But again, a ground war is unlikely.
Russia controls the Caspian Sea, but there's this: In 2005, Blackwater USA's Maritime Division was contracted to conduct interdiction training for the Azerbaijani naval special forces.[9] Cooperation with U.S. In 2006, the U.S. Government donated three motorboats to the Azerbaijani Navy. There is also an agreement to provide U.S. support to refurbish Azerbaijani warships in the Caspian Sea. On May 19, 2006, the Azerbaijani and Turkish Navy held a joint military exercise on safeguarding the security of oil and gas pipelines in Baku. The training session was observed by Azerbaijan Navy commander Shahin Sultanov and Turkish Armed Forces attaché Seyhan Ceyhan. The activities aimed to ensure the safety of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline (BTC), the main export pipeline to take Caspian oil to Turkey and further on to world markets, as well as on expanding cooperation between the two countries’ military forces. The exercises started with the clearance of mines on the seabed. This was followed by rendering harmless the traps planted in the area by symbolic terrorists. The training concluded with the practice of maritime and air operations.[10] In 2007, an agreement between the Azerbaijani Navy and a U.S. military company was concluded, which stated that a part of the Azerbaijani Navy would be equipped with advanced laser marksmanship devices/systems. U.S. company specialists were also due to give training for the use of this new equipment.[11] If Russia stays out the US could literally surround Iran. I don't mean to be contentious, but the US is already there, so a build up can happen with plenty of defense in place. Iran can only watch the Navy approach with no way of knowing where the amphibious assault would take place. All this after suffering weeks of bombardment destroying their power generation systems, etc. I think it's a myth that Iran would be able to offer much more resistance than Iraq; not without help. The bases we have there now, while certainly are protected against suicide bombers and rocket attacks, are, I suspect, not equipped to withstand a full war. Maybe I'm wrong but that would seem a needless expense for addressing a threat that doesn't really exist, or didn't until now. Iran would probably have a victory by winning Iraq's political allegiance. No doubt they are looking for gains there. But we'll see. Or in the case of how a war with Iran would turn out, hopefully, we won't see.
#2. To: Ada (#0)
#3. To: Pinguinite (#2)
If we do go to war in Iran,
#4. To: Cynicom (#1)
#5. To: Cynicom, Ada, 4 (#3)
#6. To: Cynicom (#3)
#7. To: Pinguinite (#6)
Nuking Tehran,
#8. To: Pinguinite (#6)
(Edited)
We will certainly not be invading Iran.
Freedom is a social skill.
#9. To: Anthem (#8)
#10. To: Lod (#9)
Freedom is a social skill.
#11. To: Lod, Pinguinite (#9)
Freedom is a social skill.
#12. To: Anthem (#11)
I should clarify, that I am not certain that an invasion will take place.
#13. To: Cynicom (#12)
Freedom is a social skill.
#14. To: Anthem (#13)
#15. To: Anthem (#10)
Buildup will take several months, meanwhile bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb Iran.
#16. To: Pinguinite, Anthem (#15)
no I don't see any invasion happening at all.
#17. To: Pinguinite (#15)
(Edited)
Freedom is a social skill.
#18. To: Anthem (#17)
No invasion will happen without staging, which takes time.
#19. To: Pinguinite (#15)
In 2004 a U.S. Navy SEAL team from Little Creek Amphibious Base, Va., participated in joint exercises with the Azeri Navy's 641st Special Warfare Naval Unit, headquartered at the Azeri Naval Station outside Baku.[7] The unit has been described as an 'impressive new maritime special forces unit.[8]
Freedom is a social skill.
#20. To: Pinguinite (#18)
(Edited)
Freedom is a social skill.
#21. To: Anthem (#20)
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