PLEASE HELP STOP THE IRAN WAR.

[Clarkie1]

Sign the petition if you haven't yet. If you've already, signed, spread the word!

New video blog here:

http://www.stopiranwar.com/?page_id=16

Transcipt

March 7, 2007
Jon Soltz: I'm Jon Soltz, Iraq war veteran and Chairman of VoteVets.org .

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: I'm retired General Wes Clark.

Jon Soltz: Welcome back to stopIranWar.com and we'd like to thank everyone for, for joining this segment of our discussion.

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: With every passing day that the administration won't talk to Iran, we come closer to an Iranian nuclear weapon, and the time at which the decision must be made whether or not the administration will use its military option. What is that military option going to be like, and what's it going to be like for the troops on the ground in Iraq? Well, from the strategic perspective, I can tell you that it's going to be air and naval and maybe some Marine action along the Persian Gulf. I think we can flood the skies over Iran. I think we can precision target every significant military base, everything connected with the nuclear weapons program, all of their command and control. I think that the- won't be an overnight strike. This may go on a week. It may go on two weeks. It may go on three weeks. But at the end of it Iran's conventional military strength will be severely impacted. What's it going to be like for the troops in Iraq? Let's ask Jon Soltz.

Jon Soltz: Well Sir, I mean, the troops in Iraq are as we already know, are, are just drastically overextended, especially with the escalation we're going to see. Guys that were told they were going to be in Iraq twelve months, now going to be sixteen. National Guards and Reservists now are able to get called up for their, their second tours. So, what's going to happen is, Iran's just going to, they're going to turn the heat up, and they're- you're going to see more, you know, these projectiles, these force penetrators, explosively formed penetrators that, they'll break right through the up-armored Humvie. Whenever you see casualty rates where three or four troops die at one time, that's, that's because of this Iranian equipment that, that's, that's coming into the country. I think the other thing you'll see is Mr. Sadr, who controls, you know, we're not quite sure how many, but we think maybe 40-60 thousand militiamen. You'll see them rise up on the ground inside of Iraq, and you know, that's precisely the reason that we had to escalate 20 thousand troops in April of 2004 when, when my unit, First Armored Division, was, was extended. So, you know, what you're going do is you're going to further tie American involvement into Iraq, rather than working for a plan to extricate Iraq. So, you really can't support striking Iran and support the troops in the field, because all you're doing is making an extremely difficult mission that's almost impossible right now, pure military force, more complex by striking Iran.

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: It'll be about survival.

Jon Soltz: It'll be about survival.

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: When you're on the ground in Iraq after this breaks out-

Jon Soltz: Survival.

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: -you're going to have to do what we call force protection.

Jon Soltz: Force protection.

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Going to be, force protection's job number one, and that's going to distract us from the mission in Iraq. But he mission in Iraq is going to be secondary at the point.

Jon Solz: So I think one thing that's interesting also when you look tactically at what's going to happen if you strike Iran is what's going to happen to the Iraqi military and the Iraqi police corps which we, we know has been heavily penetrated by insurgents - I mean, all kinds of funny things with fake numbers. You know, they, they put extra ghost troops inside their units so the Commander gets an extra pay for, and, and then they're laundering maybe some of that money to the militias.

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Or extra armored vests and-

Jon Soltz: That's right. And-

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: -weapons.

Jon Soltz: And there's a large question of now as to how much we give equipment to the Iraqi force, because will that end up in the militia's hands? And-

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: That's right.

Jon Soltz: -If you strike Iran and the militia rises up, what percent of the Iraqi Army and Iraqi police, frankly, disappears to, to turn around and fight America.

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Hard to know.

Jon Soltz: Hard to know.

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: And we don't want to find out.

Jon Soltz: That's right.

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: So this is a tough decision. It's a really bad- It's a really bad option for the troops on the ground in Iraq. But it's also got enormous consequences in the region, because people throughout the region will be on heightened alert. You can expect a hike in the price of oil, problems with insurance rates for international carriers who are trying to haul it out. You may see some hostility toward American embassies abroad. You may see some terrorist attacks in North Africa or in Europe or South America or anyplace where Hizbullah has active cells. We just don't know, but what we do know is it will be unpleasant. It's an option we don't have to take. All we have to do, at least right now, is talk to the Iranians. What you have to do to help us do this is come to our website.

Jon Soltz: Sign the petition today. Pass it along to your friends. We've had great support last week. Thousands of people have signed up. Let's keep this momentum going. Send a message to the President that war with iran is not the answer.

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: www.stopiranwar.com

Jon Soltz: Please, act now.

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK: Thank you.

[BamaLefty]

1. There is a FaceBook group

for this, btw. I've joined.

"Stop the Iran War"

[Leopolds Ghost]

2. Doesn't mention Iranian retaliation against all shipping in the Gulf and Straights.

In any case, what is the likelihood? It seems to have been steadily decreasing the longer those ships sit in the Indian Ocean doing nothing.

All a bunch of sabre rattling. If Bush was gonna bite the bullet, he would've done so already.