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Time's Arrow: America's Nuclear Priesthood Awaits Epiphany in Persia

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chrisfloyd Donating Member (39 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Apr-20-06 07:34 AM
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Time's Arrow: America's Nuclear Priesthood Awaits Epiphany in Persia
From Empire Burlesque.

Twelve hours. One circuit of the sun from horizon to horizon, one course of the moon from dusk to dawn. What was once a natural measurement for the daily round of human life is now a doom-laden interval between the voicing of an autocrat's brutal whim and the infliction of mass annihilation halfway around the world.

Twelve hours is the maximum time necessary for American bombers to gear up and launch an unprovoked sneak attack – a Pearl Harbor in reverse – against Iran, the Washington Post reports. The plan for this "global strike," which includes a very viable "nuclear option," was approved months ago, and is now in operation. The planes are already on continuous alert, making "nuclear delivery" practice runs along the Iranian border, as Sy Hersh reports in the New Yorker, and waiting only for the signal from President George W. Bush to drop their payloads of conventional and nuclear weapons on some 400 targets spread throughout the condemned land.

And when this attack comes – either as a stand-alone "knock-out blow" or else as the precusor to a full-scale, regime-changing invasion, like the earlier aggression in Iraq – there will be no warning, no declaration of war, no hearings, no public debate. The already issued orders governing the operation put the decision solely in the hands of the president: he picks up the phone, he says, "Go" – and in twelve hours' time, up to a million Iranians will be dead.

This potential death toll is not pacificist hyperbole; it comes from a National Academy of Sciences study sponsored by the Pentagon itself, as The Progressive reports. (Although Bush's military brass like to peddle the public lie that "we don't do body counts" of the enemy, in reality, like all good businessmen they keep precise accounts of their production outputs: i.e., corpses.) The Pentagon's NAS study calibrated the kill-rate from "bunker-busting" tactical nukes used to take out underground facilities – such as those which house much of Iran's nuclear power program.

Another simulation by scientists, using Pentagon-devised software, was even more specific, measuring the aftermath of a "limited" nuclear attack on the main Iranian underground site in Esfahan, the magazine reports. This small expansion of the Pentagon franchise would result in stellar production figures: three million people killed by radiation in just two weeks, and 35 million people exposed to dangerous levels of cancer-causing radiation in Afghanistan, Pakistan and India. Bush has about 50 nuclear "earth-penetrating weapons" at his disposal, according to the Union of Concerned Scientists.

Nor is the idea of a nuclear strike on Iran mere "liberal paranoia." Bush himself pointedly refused to take the nuclear option "off the table" this week. But what's more, Bush has made the use of nuclear weapons a centerpiece of his "National Security Strategy of the United States," issued last month, The Progressive notes. While reaffirming the criminal principle of "pre-emptive" attacks on perceived enemies which may or may not be threatening America with weapons they may or may not possess, Bush declared that "safe, credible and reliable nuclear forces continue to play a critical role" in the "offensive strike systems" that are now a key part of America's "deterrence."

In the depraved jargon of atomic warmongering, a "credible" nuclear force is one that can and will be used in the course of ordinary military operations. It is no longer to be regarded as a sacred taboo. This has long been the dream of the Pentagon's "nuclear priesthood" and its acolytes, going back to the days of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. For decades, a strong faction within the American power structure has been afflicted with a perverted craving to unleash these weapons once more. An almost sexual frustration can be discerned in their laments as time and again, in crisis after crisis, their counsels for "going nuclear" were rejected – often at the very last moment. To justify their abberant desire, they have relentlessly demonized an ever-changing array of "enemies," painting each one as an imminent, overwhelming threat, led by "madmen" in thrall to pure evil, impervious to reason, fit only for destruction. Evidence for the "threat" is invariably exaggerated, manipulated, even manufactured; this ritual cycle has been enacted over and over, leading to many wars – but never to that ultimate, orgasmic release.

Now this paranoid sect has at last seized the commanding heights of American power. Two of its most venerable and faithful adherents are the central players in the court of the Crawford Caligula: Vice President Dick Cheney and Pentagon warlord Donald Rumsfeld. And they have found a most eager disciple in the peevish dullard strutting in the Oval Office. Under their sinister tutelage, Bush has eviscerated 40 years' worth of arms control treaties; officially "normalized" the use of nuclear weapons, even against non-nuclear states; rewarded outlaw proliferators like India, Israel and Pakistan; and is now destroying the last and most effective restraint on the spread of nuclear weapons: the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

The treaty guarantees its signatories – such as Iran – the right to establish nuclear power programs in exchange for rigorous international inspections. But Bush has arbitrarily decided that Iran – whose nuclear program undergone perhaps the most extensive inspection process in history – must end its lawful activities. Why? Because the country is led by "madmen" in thrall to pure evil, impervious to reason, who one day may or may not threaten America with weapons they may or may not have.

So the NPT is dead. As with the Geneva Conventions and the U.S. Constitution, it now means only what Bush says it means. Force of arms, not rule of law, is the new world order. The attack on Iran is coming. And Bush is insisting that the nuclear option remain in the warplans, despite resistance from top military officers, as Hersh reports. The obvious, murderous insanity of such a move in no way precludes its implementation by this gang – as their invasion of Iraq clearly shows.

The nuclear sectarians have waited decades for this moment. Such a chance may never come again. Will they let it pass, when with just a word, in just twelve hours, they can see their god rising in a pillar of fire over Persia?

Chris Floyd/This is an extended version of a column appearing in the April 21 edition of The Moscow Times. Links to sources can found at Empire Burlesque.
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endarkenment Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Apr-20-06 07:40 AM
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1. About that 'insane iranian president'.
It just occurred to me why he 'taunted' us by announcing their enrichment of uranium. Iran is required to fully disclose its nuclear research and development activities as one of its obligations under the NPT.

Ahmadinejad is still a vile fundamentalist loon, but at least in this respect he was acting responsibly, not irrationally as has been portrayed virtually everywhere.
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leftchick Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Apr-20-06 07:43 AM
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2. all I can say is
omg. :cry:
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bananas Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Apr-20-06 07:57 AM
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3. Welcome to DU, Chris.
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havocmom Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Apr-20-06 08:07 AM
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4. K & R
With the neocon/PNACers in charge of the US arsenal, any foreign leader worth his salt would be trying to come up with a deterrent against US aggression. Why we would take exception at that is beyond me. We reap what we sow.

Might be a good time to consider a regime change at home, starting with electing a Congress who will actually take part in governance and do proper oversight of the terrorists in the administration.
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Supersedeas Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Apr-20-06 08:09 AM
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5. Crawford Caligula...somehow that really works
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Memory Container Donating Member (108 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Apr-20-06 08:19 AM
Original message
So after Bush orders the strike against all public outrage
Edited on Thu Apr-20-06 08:20 AM by Memory Container
and we march on Washington;

You think the military will help oust the traitor?

That was weird... I posted just once and it came up twice, and it says 'original message' on my post. What's up with that?
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Memory Container Donating Member (108 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Apr-20-06 08:19 AM
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6. So after Bush orders the strike against all public outrage
and we march on Washington;

You think the military will help oust the traitor?
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seemslikeadream Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Apr-20-06 08:34 AM
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7. The Crawford Caligula



Thanks again Chris




Obediah Obediah, Jah Jah sent us here to catch vampire…
Obediah Obediah, Jah Jah sent us here to catch vampire…
We have the chalice to light up Jah fire!
When i and i catch them vampire
i and i have to set them on fire
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ArmchairMeme Donating Member (390 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Apr-20-06 08:44 AM
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8. Fallout question
Anyone here remember perhaps late 1950's Strontium 90 in milk as a result of nuclear fallout?
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endarkenment Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Apr-20-06 08:59 AM
Response to Reply #8
9. Old enough to remember it well.
I think it was the early 60's after the russians tested a huge H bomb that concern about what we all were doing started to boil over.
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ArmchairMeme Donating Member (390 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Apr-20-06 10:28 AM
Response to Reply #9
10. Fallout
Is it possible that the current generation is not aware that there are world wide consequences to the use of nuclear weapons? They seem to think they can be used "in safety" and be contained to the geographic area used in.

Granted there are many other consequences, political, economic, material as well as the long term contamination of the atmosphere and land with the fallout from these weapons.

I firmly believe that they should not be used - ever.

I also remember the instructions to take cover in the nearest ditch if a large flash of light was seen. Even as a fourth grader I could understand that if I saw the flash of light hiding in a ditch would not protect me from the firestorm that would come. Nor would going into the basement of the school, crouching and covering my head with my arms. The school did this regularly.

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endarkenment Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Apr-20-06 12:41 PM
Response to Reply #10
11. I recall fondly the old duck and cover
We would be routinely marched into the hall to kneel with our heads tucked down against the wall. Strict silence was maintained. Everyone was very serious. And then my good friend Gary would invariably let loose with a giant fart. Ah, to be young again!
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GeorgeGist Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Apr-20-06 09:16 PM
Response to Original message
12. I assume that somewhere in the sanctuaries of the Pentagon...
there is another PLAN that is being considered. I think IKE would have made sure it existed. :patriot:
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LibertyorDeath Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Apr-20-06 11:56 PM
Response to Original message
13. Good to see you here.
I read your excellent insights often.
Welcome to DU wish it were under better circumstances.

"The obvious, murderous insanity of such a move in no way precludes its implementation by this gang – as their invasion of Iraq clearly shows."

So true.
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