The Washington warhawks are ramping up the rhetoric, and more, in order to justify an attack on Iran. Yesterday I did a diary on a mysterious attack on ships moored off the United Arab Emirates. Today Xaxnar expanded on the story asking “Will Bolton Get His War?….”; Durrati tells us that the US has ordered non-emergency personnel out of Iraq in preparation for war on Iran and Meteor Blades tells us how Tom Cotton thinks war on Iran would be a cakewalk. Cotton told Fox News “I can’t think of anything more meaningful than serving at Arlington National Cemetery with The Old Guard”.
The excuse will be a combination of the breakdown in the nuclear agreement between Iran and the “5+1”, the permanent members of the UN Security Council and the EU and precipitated by claims of “state sponsored terrorism” by Iran. The distinctly unspectacular and ineffectual sabotage of the ships in the Persian Gulf looks like a bungled propaganda effort. The drone attacks by the Houthis on the trans-Saudi Arabian oil pipeline would seem to be a better accusation for them as the Houthis in Yemen have been accused of being sponsored by their fellow Shia in Iran.
Let’s be under no illusion. Both Iran and Saudi Arabia use their religious enforcers in what can well be described as internal terrorism against minorities. Rich individual Saudis provided funds for Al Qaeda but the suggestion that this was state sponsorship is nonsense. Bin Laden organised against the Saudi regime because he believed they were corrupt and went against his interpretation of Wahhabism. This holier-than-thou atitude earned “the Arabs” so much hatred in Afghanistan that it was likely the Taliban would have handed him over if the US had waited a week or two before declaring war. Bush was reported to have refused such an offer in 2001. The US went to war anyway but then war is good for business and diverts from problems at home. Increasing production to replace equipment lost or worn out would certainly help Boeing at the moment given its problems with the 737-Max.
If the RWNJs persist in this rush to war; the American people should be reminded that Iran has a long history of being the victim of terrorist attacks from Pakistan by groups alleged to be sponsored by the USA. One recent example.
The phone call [between the Iranian President and Pakistani Prime Minister] comes three weeks after a terror attack killed 27 Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) for which Pakistan based
Jaish ul-Adl terrorist group claimed responsibility. The attack took place on February 13 in Iran's Sistan and Baluchestan Province, just one day before the Pulwama attack in India. Iran named a Pakistani suicide bomber behind the attack, the worst on Iranian soil in many years.
The Iranian President warned, “The continuation of these terrorists’ activities ..
From a France 24 report.
Jaish al-Adl -- Army of Justice in Arabic -- is seen as the incarnation of Jundallah, or Soldiers of God, which began a bloody rebellion against the Islamic republic in 2000.
For a decade, Jundallah waged a deadly insurgency on civilians and officials in the restive southeast.
Jundallah has been weakened since Iran executed its leader Abdolmalek Rigi in 2010 after capturing him in a dramatic operation.
From a PBS report in 2009
In February 2007, Dick Cheney traveled to Pakistan and met with then Pakistani President General Pervez Musharraf. Pakistani government sources said at the time that the secret campaign against Iran by Jundullah was on the agenda when the two met. In an interview later that month, Cheney referred to the Jundallah terrorists as "guerrillas" to give them legitimacy.
But despite Cheney's efforts to present them as legitimate fighters, Jundallah is a sectarian terrorist organization. It is made of Sunni extremists who hate the Shiites and its goal is to foment a conflict between the two sects of Islam. Because of its Sunni Salafi roots, it is likely that Jundallah is also supported by Saudi Arabia. I will return to this point shortly.
On Feb. 25, 2007, the London Telegraph reported that "America is secretly funding militant ethnic separatist groups in Iran in an attempt to pile pressure on the Islamic regime to give up its nuclear program. Such incidents have been carried out by the Kurds in the west, the Azeris in the northwest, the Ahwazi Arabs in the south-west, and the Baluchis in the southeast. Funding for their separatist causes comes directly from the CIA's classified budget but is now 'no great secret', according to one former high-ranking CIA official in Washington."
I don’t seem to remember any reports of Iran sponsoring terrorist battallions ready to attack the USA from bases in Canada or Mexico. Or is that what the rhetoric about “The Wall” is all about?