Iran, Syria, Israel and the US

It seems that new wars in the Middle East are drawing closer every day. It has been clear for quite some time that the US has plans to go to war with Iran, either directly, or through the Israeli military, which is essentially the US military with Israeli personnel, and now those plans appear to include Syria as well.

As with the months leading up to the overt campaign for war with Iraq, anti-Iranian propaganda is now a regular occurance in the mainstream US press. According to Fox News, Iran and Syria have united against the US. These assertions are always vague and unprovable, and serve only to incite a general resentment and fear among the public.

Also, in response to the assasination of the former Prime Minister of Lebanon, the United States has recalled it's ambassador from Syria. The former Prime Minister had recently become increasingly critical of the Serbian troop presence in Lebanon. This troop presence has led to an anti-Syrian political movement, and they have blamed Syria for the assasination, although I can find no credible link between Syria and the group Victory and Jihad, who have claimed responsibility. It seems unlikely that the Serbian government would wish to ignite such anti-Serbian sentiment in Lebanon, and the assasination reminds me very much of the CIA's covert actions in Chile in the early 1970's, specifically the assination of General Schneider, who was a right wing leader and popular among those who would eventually stage a coup to overthrow the democratically elected government. In order to unite the factions in Chile who opposed the socialist government, the CIA ambushed the general, attempting to kidnap him and blame it on government repression, but he faught back, and was killed.

Also, there were the CNN stories which ran two satelite photos of the same facility, with one story claiming the facility was in Iran, and the other claiming the facility was in North Korea. CNN claims that both photos were taken from the Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty website. The RFE/RL is a news organization funded by the US government, and the language of their mission statement seems eerily reminiscent of the Office of Strategic Influence, a program set up and officially disbanded by the Department of Defense in 2002, although Donald Rumsfeld admitted that most of the programs of the OSI would continue under various other offices within the Department of Defense (for more info and documentation, see my previous post "Media Manipulation" from 2/11/05).

Now today, there was an unexplained explosion in Iran near the Bushehr nuclear power facility. Although it has been officially denied, US officials have reported that unmanned surveilance drones have been flying missions over Iran for the past year, and there has been speculation that the explosion may be related to these surveilance activities. I found it curious that the Israeli air force was quick to deny any involvement.

It was also reported by Seymore Hersh, the reporter who broke the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal, that US special forces have been conducting operations in Iran for the past six months.

I find it almost unbelievable that the Bush administration would be planning new wars while the war in Iraq continues. Do they really have the military strength to fight another war? Presumably, with Donald Rumsfeld in charge, they will again seriously underestimate the size of the force necessary to accomplish their goals, and in a few years we will find ourselves embroiled in not one but three bloody wars in the Middle East.