by Paul Craig Roberts
24 July 2009
from
VoltaireNet Website
|
Paul Craig Roberts
An economist and a nationally syndicated columnist for Creators
Syndicate. He served as an Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in
the Reagan Administration earning fame as the "Father of
Reaganomics". He is a former editor and columnist for the Wall
Street Journal, among others. He is coauthor with Lawrence Stratton
of ’The New Color Line and The Tyranny of Good Intentions’. His
latest book, How The Economy Was Lost, will be published by
CounterPunch in October 2009. |
According to this columnist, Iran cannot escape a fate similar to that of
Iraq.
The
fiasco of the "green revolution", the recent
display of Israeli military power in the Suez Canal and the increased muscle
in Washington’s warnings to Iran, could be interpreted as symptoms that the
stage is set for Iran’s destruction.
Preconditioned by a perfectly orchestrated
propaganda campaign, the west will simply take it in its stride, while
Washington believes it can count on Moscow’s and Beijing’s neutrality.
However, nothing could be less certain
considering the rationale underlying Admiral’s Fallon’s resignation in March
2008.
Hillary Clinton:
“We remain ready to engage
with Iran, but the time for action is now.
The opportunity will not
remain open indefinitely.”
(Council on Foreign
Relations, 15 July 2009)
When Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, Japan did not
spend years preparing her public case and demonstrating her deployment of
forces for the attack. Japan did not make a world issue out of her view that
the US was denying Japan her role in the Pacific by hindering Japan’s access
to raw materials and energy.
Similarly, when Hitler attacked Russia, he did not preface his invasion with
endless threats and a public case that blamed the war on England.
These events happened before the
PSYOPS era.
Today, America and Israel’s wars of aggression
are preceded by years of propaganda and international meetings, so that by
the time the attack comes it is an expected event, not a monstrous surprise
attack with its connotation of naked aggression.
The US, which has been threatening Iran with attack for years, has passed
the job to Israel. During the third week of July, the American vice
president and secretary of state gave Israel the go-ahead. Israel has made
great public disclosure of its warships passing through the Suez Canal on
their way to Iran. “Muslim” Egypt is complicit, offering no objection
to Israel’s naval forces on their way to a war crime under the Nuremberg
standard that the US imposed on the world.
By the time the attack occurs, it will be old hat, an expected event, and,
moreover, an event justified by years of propaganda asserting Iran’s
perfidy.
Israel intends to dominate the Middle East. Israel’s goal is to
incorporate all of Palestine and southern Lebanon into “Greater Israel.” The
US intends to dominate the entire world, deciding who rules which countries
and controlling resource flows.
The US and Israel are likely to succeed, because they have effective PSYOPS.
For the most part, the world media follows the US media, which follows the
US and Israeli governments’ lines. Indeed, the American media is part of the
PSYOPS of both countries.
According to Thierry Meyssan [1], the CIA used SMS
or text messaging and Twitter to spread disinformation about the Iranian
election, including the false report that the Guardian Council had informed
Mousavi that he had won the election.
When the real results were announced,
Ahmadinejad’s reelection appeared to be fraudulent.
[1]
The CIA and the Iranian experiment, by
Thierry Meyssan, Voltaire Network; 19 June 2009
Iran’s fate awaits it. A reasonable hypothesis to be entertained and
examined is whether Iran’s Rafsanjani and Mousavi are in
league with Washington to gain power in Iran.
Both have lost out in the competition for
government power in Iran. Yet, both are egotistical and ambitious. The
Iranian Revolution of 1979 probably means nothing to them except an
opportunity for personal power. The way the West has always controlled the
Middle East is by purchasing the politicians who are out of power and
backing them in overthrowing the independent government. We see this today
in Sudan as well.
In the case of Iran, there is an additional factor that might align
Rafsanjani with Washington. President Ahmadienijad attacked former President
Rafsanjani, one of Iran’s most wealthy persons, as corrupt. If Rafsanjani
feels threatened by this attack, he has little choice but to try to
overthrow the existing government. This makes him the perfect person
for Washington.
Perhaps there is a better explanation why Rafsanjani and Mousavi, two highly
placed members of the Iranian elite, chose to persist in allegations of
election fraud that have played into Washington’s hands by calling into
question the legitimacy of the Iranian government. It cannot be that the
office of president is worth such costs as the Iranian presidency is not
endowed with decisive powers.
Without Rafsanjani and Mousavi, the US media could not have orchestrated the
Iranian elections as “stolen,” an orchestration that the US government used
to further isolate and discredit the Iranian government, making it easier
for Iran to be attacked. Normally, well placed members of an elite do not
help foreign enemies set their country up for attack.
An Israeli attack on Iran is likely to produce retaliation, which
Washington will use to enter the conflict.
Have the personal ambitions of Rafsanjani
and Mousavi, and the naive youthful upper class Iranian protesters,
set Iran up for destruction?
Consult a map and you will see that Iran is
surrounded by a dozen countries that host US military bases.
Why does anyone in Iran doubt that Iran is on
her way to becoming another Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, in the end to
be ruled by oil companies and an American puppet?
The Russians and Chinese are off balance because of successful American
interventions in their spheres of influence, uncertain of the threat and the
response. Russia could have prevented the coming attack on Iran, but,
pressured by Washington, Russia has not delivered the missile systems that
Iran purchased.
China suffers from her own hubris as a rising
economic power, and is about to lose her energy investments in Iran to
US/Israeli aggression. China is funding America’s wars of aggression with
loans, and Russia is even helping the US to set up a puppet state in
Afghanistan, thus opening up former Soviet central Asia to US hegemony.
The world is so impotent that even
the
bankrupt US can launch a new war of aggression and have it
accepted as a glorious act of liberation in behalf of women’s rights,
peace, and democracy.
Hillary Clinton before the
CFR:
“We remain ready to engage
with Iran, but the time for action is now.
The opportunity will not
remain open indefinitely.”
(July 15, 2009)