Nuclear attack on Iran is "certain"

[Benbow]

Simon Jenkins
Wednesday April 12, 2006
The Guardian

This week's most terrifying remark came from the foreign secretary, Jack Straw. He declared that a nuclear attack on Iran would be "completely nuts" and an assault of any sort "inconceivable". In Straw-speak, "nuts" means he's just heard it is going to happen and "inconceivable" means certain.

A measure of the plight of British foreign policy is that such words from the foreign secretary are anything but reassuring. Straw says of Iran that "there is no smoking gun, there is no casus belli". There was no smoking gun in Iraq, only weapons conjured from the fevered imagination of Downing Street and the intelligence chiefs.

<snip>

As for a casus belli, there was also none in Iraq. Tony Blair had to beat one out of the hapless attorney general before his generals would agree to fight. But Iran's casus belli was set out in unambiguous terms by the prime minister in his speech to the Foreign Policy Centre in London on March 21. Blair was updating his 1999 Chicago doctrine of global intervention. Then it was justified by humanitarianism and was optional. Now it is vital for the "battle of values ... a battle about modernity". Those who are not of our values are to be subject to pre-emptive attack.

<snip>

The speech was full of jihadist rhetoric. Blair's desire to wipe non-democratic values off the map is akin to Iran's view of Israel. But we know that when he says war he means war. The speech was the wildest by a British leader in modern times and was the clearest imaginable statement of a casus belli. He mentioned Iran three times. It was gilt-edged, copper-bottomed, swivel-eyed neoconservatism.

The rest of the article is here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,1752058,00.html

Notes for non-Brit readers.
Significantly, (a) this piece appears in what is normally a left-wing Government supporting newspaper; and (b) Whitehall language is usually an exemplar of British understatement - so when the Foreign Secretary talks like this, Brits know that the situation must be extraordinarily critical.

Our Prime Minister is nuts, too.

[Kutjara]

1. Good analysis. And, even more alarmingly,

Tony Blair is another 'Christian' on a personal mission of redemption. Usually, the Brits have more sense than to elect overtly religious types but, with Blair, they made an uncharacteristic goof.

Now Phony Tony and Chimpy are skipping hand-in-hand toward the Rapture.

[farmboxer]

2. Obvious "Wagging the Dog"!

Everyone should know that.

[CJCRANE]

3. Tony's "battle of values" is BS.

Ke knows full well that he would never attack SA, UAE and other non-democratic dictatorial countries because they are Anglo-American business partners.

Democracy and values (and WMD) have nothing to do with the War on Terror. It's all about business.

[teryang]

4. This is the same routine Hitler used in the early stages

Threatening people with war even though he wasn't quite ready for it. Quite a few prizes fell in his lap without a fight.

The manipulation of the UN process is going to look a lot like Munich if the Chinese and Russians lose their backbone. They need to draw a line on Iran.