Thursday, April 07, 2005
Next stop: Iran
Here's a good way to put your Labour and Tory opponents on the back foot. Their line on the Iraq war is already a matter of public record but, regardless of what it is, ask them whether they would pledge to oppose an American military attack on Iran.
The Our World Our Say campaign will be seeking pledges from leaders and candidates of all the main parties so, if you're a candidate, don't be surprised if you're also challenged on this issue soon.
There is growing evidence that a massive US attack is planned for June - read these three reputable reports:
Seymour Hersh, Pulitzer prize winning investigative journalist:
"The Bush Administration is looking at this as a huge war zone," the former high-level intelligence official told me. "Next, we're going to have the Iranian campaign. We've declared war and the bad guys, wherever they are, are the enemy. This is the last hurrah - we've got four years, and want to come out of this saying we won the war on terrorism."Scott Ritter, former UN Chief Weapons inspector in Iraq, in a recent article describes a meeting with an intelligence source within the Bush administration:
The Bush Administration was keen on achieving some semblance of stability in Iraq before June 2005, I was told. When I asked why that date, the source dropped the bombshell: because that was when the Pentagon was told to be prepared to launch a massive aerial attack against Iran, Iraq's neighbour to the east, in order to destroy the Iranian nuclear programme. "Why June 2005?," I asked. "The Israelis are concerned that if the Iranians get their nuclear enrichment programme up and running, then there will be no way to stop the Iranians from getting a nuclear weapon. June 2005 is seen as the decisive date".Dan Plesch, ex Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies, in his article Iran: the coming war notes that those who say that the cost of an attack on Iran would be too much for the Bush administration should be aware that the US is currently spending about half of the Reagan administration's military expenditure.
And then compare those reports with this recent quote from George W Bush (22nd February 2005):
"And finally, this notion that the United States is getting ready to attack Iran is simply ridiculous. And having said that, all options are on the table. (Laughter)."Since the UK is the USA's key ally in the region, whoever wins the general election may be forced into supporting such an attack. The key aim of the Our World Our Say campaign is therefore to get each party leader to give an unequivocal undertaking that they will not support a US attack on Iran and that they will do everything possible to discourage the US from launching such an attack.
# posted by Simon Titley @ 2:03 am 
