Robert Parry: Bush's Rush to Armageddon

[marmar]

From Truthout:

Bush's Rush to Armageddon
By Robert Parry
Consortium News

Monday 08 January 2007

George W. Bush has purged senior military and intelligence officials who were obstacles to a wider war in the Middle East, broadening his options for both escalating the conflict inside Iraq and expanding the fighting to Iran and Syria with Israel's help.
On Jan. 4, Bush ousted the top two commanders in the Middle East, Generals John Abizaid and George Casey, who had opposed a military escalation in Iraq, and removed Director of National Intelligence John Negroponte, who had stood by intelligence estimates downplaying the near-term threat from Iran's nuclear program.

Most Washington observers have treated Bush's shake-up as either routine or part of his desire for a new team to handle his planned "surge" of U.S. troops in Iraq. But intelligence sources say the personnel changes also fit with a scenario for attacking Iran's nuclear facilities and seeking violent regime change in Syria.

Bush appointed Admiral William Fallon as the new chief of Central Command for the Middle East despite the fact that Fallon, a former Navy fighter pilot and currently head of the Pacific Command, will oversee two ground wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The choice of Fallon makes more sense if Bush foresees a bigger role for two aircraft carrier groups now poised off Iran's coastline, such as support for possible Israeli air strikes against Iran's nuclear targets or as a deterrent against any overt Iranian retaliation.

Though not considered a Middle East expert, Fallon has moved in neoconservative circles, for instance, attending a 2001 awards ceremony at the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs, a think tank dedicated to explaining "the link between American defense policy and the security of Israel."

Bush's personnel changes also come as Israel is reported stepping up preparations for air strikes, possibly including tactical nuclear bombs, to destroy Iran's nuclear facilities, such as the reactor at Anton, south of Tehran, where enriched uranium is produced.

The Sunday Times of London reported on Jan. 7 that two Israeli air squadrons are training for the mission and "if things go according to plan, a pilot will first launch a conventional laser-guided bomb to blow a shaft down through the layers of hardened concrete . Other pilots will then be ready to drop low-yield one kiloton nuclear weapons into the hole."

The Sunday Times wrote that Israel also would hit two other facilities - at Isfahan and Arak - with conventional bombs. But the possible use of a nuclear bomb at Natanz would represent the first nuclear attack since the United States destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan at the end of World War II six decades ago. ......(more)

The rest of the article is at: http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/010807R.shtml

[Bitwit1234]

1. I asked this over and over

WHO IN THE HELL IS ADVISING BUSH. HE IS TOO STUPID TO PLAN ALL THIS. SOMEONE HAS GOT TO BE BEHIND IT. BUT WHO.

And it sure ain't rove. He doesn't have the brains either. He is good at dirty tricks to steal elections. And smearing and lying on candidates but he's no master mind.

[Tellurian]

2. Not too hard to figure out...The Iraq Study Group..

Uncle Baker, the candlestick maker, Skowcroft and Hamilton..

[Chulanowa]

4. Don't underestimate your enemy

Bush cannot speak, and he's bad at covering his own spin. But I don't doubt for a second that he's capable of playing a damn good game of chess. While you're looking for the strings, chances are just as good that you're looking at a "real boy".

[bleever]

3. I don't want this to happen.

I think it will be bad.

I think that awareness of what might be coming might stop it.

K&R.