The evidence is clear enough : a statement from Strategic Command has effectively confirmed ex-CIA agent Philip Giraldi’s claim in The American Conservative( 1st August 2005) that Cheney had requested that Statcom prepare for nuclear strikes against Iran(See Nuclear War against Iran- Michel Chossudovsky, 3rd January at globalresearch.ca). Given forty years of agitation in this country against nuclear weapons you may be excused for thinking that people would be shouting from the rooftops about this mortal threat to us all: but the people don’t know and evidently the likes of CND and Stop the War don’t want to know.

Are these organisations then guilty of criminal neglect in terms of not carrying out their self-proclaimed tasks? Undoubtedly. Are they in fact integrated into the empire and using their influence to clear the way for their masters? Who knows? The reality we face is , however, implacable in its awfulness; we are heading inexorably towards the tragic denouement of the imperial war machine: those who are itching to use “those wonderful weapons “, as Madeleine Albright would have it, have manoeuvred themselves into precisely the place where they can finally achieve what they have been bragging about for so long. Before discussing what action we should take to try and prevent disaster I will try to summarise the method in this madness in order to shake up the attitude of the sceptics, the “they wouldn’t do a thing like that tendancy” which, apart from simple treachery, is the main obstacle to action.

A nuclear attack on Iran would be a crime of inconceivable proportions and totally unpredictable outcomes. It would be opposed by Russia, as well as China, contrary to mendacious press reports from who have an obvious motive in convincing us otherwise.

Do the USA and Britain have the means to carry out such an attack?

A thousand times over.

Have they a history of war crimes including nuclear war crimes?

Clearly.

Could the criminals involved be said to have a longstanding predisposition to this type of action; is it a crime fortold?

Clearly it is. Anecdotal evidence shows the likes of Richard Perle as braggarts when it comes to nuclear weapons. Geoff Hoon made clear Britain’s predisposition to the use of these weapons. But the evidence is much more plain than that- the US nuclear doctrine has been transformed in order to put pre-emptive first strike nuclear attacks on the order of the day: hence the opposition of 1500 US scientists who have petitioned against it ( http://physics.ucsd.edu/petition/). All these modifications to US nuclear doctrine have been carefully monitored by journalists like Gordon Prather.( see antiwar.com)

Do they have a motive?

Obviously they think they do; Iran has been placed in “the axis of evil”.

In terms of the Bush doctrine is Iran with us or against us?

Iran is a large nation with a young, educated population and rich in natural resources. Left undisturbed one would expect it to become the dominant power in the Middle east. It has formed close diplomatic and commercial ties with countries ranging from China to Venezuela. It is planning to set up a euro spot market in oil which many see as a mortal threat to the US dollar. It appears to be prepared to take on the US head on. The US, as long as it conceives of itself as an empire, has a clear interest in eliminating a dangerous and resourceful rival.

Do the Anglo- Americans have opportunity?

This is, if you like, a silly question. Through the manipulation of media and terror ( see Ivashov’s speech translated on this blog ) they create opportunity. Iran is a virtual enemy in the virtual world of CNN, FOX and the BBC and the potential virtual author of another, unfortunately all too real, massacre of innocents.

So there you have it: means , history, predisposition, motive and opportunity.

But the sceptics object: “ Is this a reasonable thing to do?” “What do they have to gain from such recklessness?” “ Wouldn’t they themselves end up the losers themselves?”

I would answer: “It is the logic of a madman, the psycho-pathology of an elite who are themselves the expression of an empire which is doomed”

Let’s look at their predicament

They are obviously losing the war in Iraq. If they stay much longer their army will cease to exist. The US is bankrupt , has destroyed most of its productive capacity and the dollar is on the verge of collapse( just look at the explosive growth of the gold price). One option would be to renounce the whole imperial project and reinvent the USA( and Britain) as a sovereign nation coexisting with others on a basis of equality, not domination. No doubt , this will be the eventual choice but it cannot be carried out by this leadership who have burnt their boats and are totally committed to the present strategy, not least because of the crimes that have brought them thus far. As in Macbeth, the pursuit of power involves crimes, the immunity from which can only be bought by new crimes: regression is unthinkable, renunciation of power, fatal. The necessary policy shift away from empire therefore entails a revolution, albeit a legal and democratic one. Since, for the war party, things cannot go on as they are and retreat is not an option, escalation imposes itself as the only remaining option.

“Yes but,” you will object, “the army is not up to occupying Iran”

True. The army has already shown that it is not up to occupying Iraq. Its “occupation” has degenerated into the aerial destruction of a nation- in fact a genocide.The Anglo-American empire is basically an offshore, financial, maritime empire. Its strength never rested on its land army but in its navy and now, its air force and nuclear capability. The height of its power was its success in dividing Eurasia, pitting the armies of France and Germany against Russia. We must be clear about one thing – there will never be an Anglo-American world empire! Furthermore, since 1990 the strength of the US army has decreased immensely. As a military power today it is either nuclear or it is nothing, Rumsfeld’s drivel about special forces and mercenaries notwithstanding. If it is not a military power how much less is it an economic or diplomatic power. So it is not hard to see that to assert itself in the world requires a nuclear show of strength , or at least so it would be perceived in the minds of those for whom supreme US power is axiomatic. With or without an attempted occupation of Iran, the US appears poised to play to its one perceived strength in endeavouring to destroy Iran from the air. The argument put forward that failure in Iraq precludes an attack on Iran has been turned on its head by the War Party: failure against Iraq means upping the ante against Iran- escalating the war not just geographically but in terms of means employed.

You may object ,” this war is not good for business.”

In other words, the quaint old marxist notion that “our business is business”. Our business is war and has been since the Whig financiers took over England and created Great Britain. The Bank of England became the supreme instrument of war as contemporaries like Defoe and Swift could see. But there was flaw in the edifice of absolute power, a fissure whose opening, even as the vicious, ancestral strain reasserts itself for the last time, betokens the doom of the House of Usher. The imperial leadership faces an impossible conundrum which lies at the root of their delusional insanity – only empire will do but it can only ever fail.

So madness will prevail and if this horror doesn’t happen it will only be because someone gets to Cheney before Cheney gets to the button. We can hope or pray for this outcome but I prefer that we take matters in our own hands. What must we do?

Another anti-war movement is possible!

Nothing is happening because the War Party so fear the potential of opposition to their aggression that they have pulled out all the stops , standing down all the oppositional organisations which they can control or influence. Amazingly, this appears to be virtually all of them and they may now just be tying up some loose ends in the shape of both George Galloway’s Respect and the Lib-Dems. We are in a stranglehold from which we must break loose, breaking in the process the unnatural silence around the approaching danger. We must embark upon a massive publicity campaign to alert the public to what is happening. The internet is our best hope but we cannot rely on that alone. We need “Hands off Iran” committees set up in every town to organise leafletings, meetings, demos, pickets etc. We must act, inform , communicate and convince. No one supports what they are planning other than the deranged. We are the mainstream and must act as such. I am already encouraged by the amount of stuff circulating on the net. Let it become a torrent not just about what they are doing but what we are doing.

The die is cast and in reality it was cast long ago. Swift in his clairvoyance would have been unsurprised and unfazed by the pretty pass in which we find ourselves. To us has fallen the task of constraining the Whigs in the final delirium of their madness. We are entitled to fear the worst but also to hope for a new era of lasting peace if this madness can be stopped. Ironically, the Anglo-Americam globalisation of death and destruction has led to a counter- globalisation of life and construction throughout the rest of the world. As we look on from here in the heart of darkness it seems that we must only reach out to become part of it. But the evil remains and must be met head on. Let us acquit ourselves well for the sake of this new, emerging life, for future generations and for our own humanity which can only affirm itself against the prevailing cacophony of falsehood and betrayal.

 http://endempire.blogspot.com/

Just to remind you of the first meeting of "Hands off Iran"" committee this Thursday 19th, Partick Burgh Halls, 7.30, room 9.

To get to Partick Burgh Halls turn left as you come out of Partick
underground. got straight on crossing Dunbarton road and then take first right: 50 metres down you will find entrance on your right. Ask for room 9.

hope to see you there,

Colin