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BREAKING NEWS: Eisenhower Carrier Group Sails for Iran Theater
http://www.thiscantbehappening.net
Monday, October 9, 2006
By David Lindorff
The nuclear-powered aircraft carrier Eisenhower and its accompanying strike
force of cruiser, destroyer and attack submarine slipped their moorings and
headed off for the Persian Gulf region on Oct. 2, as I had predicted in a
piece in The Nation magazine a few weeks back.
The Eisenhower strike force, according to my sources, is scheduled to arrive
in the vicinity of Iran around October 21, at the same time as a second
flotilla of minesweepers and other ships.
This build-up of naval power around the coast of Iran, according to some
military sources, is in preparation for an air attack on Iran that would
target not just Iran's nuclear enrichment facilities, but its entire
military command and control system.
While such an attack could be expected to unleash a wave of military
violence all over Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and elsewhere against American
forces and interests and against oil wells, pipelines and loading
facilities, as well as a mining of the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz,
with a resulting skyrocketing of global oil prices, the real goal of this
new war by the U.S. would be ensuring Republican control of the House and
Senate.
It seems increasingly clear that the Republican Party is going to lose its
grip on the House of Representatives, and that it may even lose control of
the Senate, barring some dramatic October Surprise by the president. So far,
the surprises have been working against Republicans, with the Foley sex
scandal, the evidence that Abramoff's bribery reached right into the inner
sanctum of the White House, and the deteriorating U.S. position in Iraq.
With the number of House seats reportedly "in play" now rising from 15 to 30
and now 50, President Bush is looking at the possibility of a blow out Nov.
7 that could see him facing a Democratic Congress bent on revenge for five
six years of systematic abuse.
Bush has committed a long string of impeachable crimes against the
Constitution, the Republic and the American people--everything from lying to
the Congress and the 9-11 Commission, obstructing an investigation into the
outing of CIA agent Valerie Plame, abuse of power, violation of federal laws
like the Foreign Surveillance Intelligence Act, dereliction of duty and
criminal negligence, and war crimes. He can expect a Democratic Congress to
call him to account for at least some of these crimes, whatever House
minority leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) may say today.
This means that the worse things look for Republican chances in November,
the greater the likelihood that a desperate President Bush will order a
disastrous attack on Iran--one that would have the country enter into a
third, even worse, war even as it is currently busy losing two others. But
Bush and his gang of cronies don't care about initiating a disaster. They're
focused on the disaster that will hit them if they don't turn around the
November election. Sacrificing the country or its young men and women in
uniform, or the lives of innocent Iranians, is not a concern, any more than
it was when Bush ordered the invasion of Iraq.
Clearly such a war would be an act of madness, and yet we know that the
plans, already drawn up, are being updated and fine-tuned now by generals
and admirals whose twisted sense of patriotism has them giving primary
loyalty to a demented commander in chief instead of to the Constitutional
and the people of the United States, to both of which they swore an oath to
protect.
I hope I am wrong about all this, but the sailing of the Eisenhower, which
had been pushed forward recently by about a month by the Pentagon for
clearly political reasons, makes me think I'm right. A key will be what
happens with the Enterprise carrier strike force, which has already been on
station in the Arabian Sea for six months, where it has been launching air
strikes against Afghanistan and Iraq targets. Ordinarily, such deployments
last six months and then the carrier group returns to base for resupply and
for R&R for the crew. If the Enterprise is held over for a longer
deployment, after the arrival of the Eisenhower, we will know that something
serious is planned.
Meanwhile, journalist Larisa Alexandrovna, in the online publication Raw
Story, reports that top military leaders are already engaging in "branches
and sequels" planning for an Iran attack, which her sources tell her is the
kind of planning that is done "after an initial plan has been decided upon."
What is deeply troubling here is the total silence on the part of the
Democratic Party opposition. Not one Democrat in Congress, and as far as I
know, not one Democratic candidate for Congress--not even anti-war insurgent
Ned Lamont in Connecticut, has demanded an answer from Bush and the Pentagon
for the obvious military buildup around Iran, or about published reports
that the U.S. already has special forces in side Iran backing the terrorist
organization MEK, and selecting targets for U.S. bombardment.
If and when the U.S. attacks Iran, leading to a predicable--if
temporary--rallying around the flag by the American public, and to an upset
win by incumbent Republican congressional candidates, Democrats will have
only themselves to blame for the debacle.
But it will be the American people--and especially the people of Iran--who
will be the victims of this treacherous deed and this treasonous failure of
will.
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