Iran "War Signals" -- is THIS what we're being distracted from?

[magellan]

The Nation | posted September 21, 2006 (web only)
War Signals?
Dave Lindorff

snip...

As Time writes in its cover story, "What Would War Look Like?," evidence of the forward deployment of minesweepers and word that the chief of naval operations had asked for a reworking of old plans for mining Iranian harbors "suggest that a much discussed--but until now largely theoretical--prospect has become real: that the U.S. may be preparing for war with Iran."

According to Lieut. Mike Kafka, a spokesman at the headquarters of the Second Fleet, based in Norfolk, Virginia, the Eisenhower Strike Group, bristling with Tomahawk cruise missiles, has received orders to depart the United States in a little over a week <approx. Oct 1>. Other official sources in the public affairs office of the Navy Department at the Pentagon confirm that this powerful armada is scheduled to arrive off the coast of Iran on or around October 21.

snip...

McGovern, who had first told a group of anti-Iraq War activists Sunday on the National Mall in Washington, DC, during an ongoing action called "Camp Democracy," about his being alerted to the strike group deployment, warned, "We have about seven weeks to try and stop this next war from happening."

One solid indication that the dispatch of the Eisenhower is part of a force buildup would be if the carrier Enterprise--currently in the Arabian Sea, where it has been launching bombing runs against the Taliban in Afghanistan, and which is at the end of its normal six-month sea tour--is kept on station instead of sent back to the United States. Arguing against simple rotation of tours is the fact that the Eisenhower's refurbishing and its dispatch were rushed forward by at least a month. A report from the Enterprise on the Navy's official website referred to its ongoing role in the Afghanistan fighting, and gave no indication of plans to head back to port. The Navy itself has no comment on the ship's future orders.

more...

Bluff is not in Bush**'s bag of tricks, and timing is everything. Enterprise departed her homeport in Norfolk, VA on May 2. That makes the end of her normal 6-month tour Nov 2...twelve days after the Ike is scheduled to relieve the Lincoln task group in the Persian Gulf. If things are going to be ratcheted up with Iran, it seems most likely to happen during that window of time.

[MADem]

1. It could be FAILURE in Afghanistan...can't have THAT before an election

There has gotta be a fiction that Monkey knows how to run a war....they've gotta keep the game afoot for a little while longer. Note how NEWSWEAK failed to put the real story on the US cover:



How pathetic of our media, to cave so quickly and easily in the run up to an election. But what else is new?