Blair's Brinkmanship with Iran

Tony Blair set up the situation for confrontation with Iran. He positioned the UK navy close to Iran, then provoked a military policing reaction from Iran in disputed waters. Iran was defending it's territorial waters. Blair, having succeeded with this provocation, is expanding the dispute with Iran rather than look for a peaceful resolution of what should be regarded as a trivial incident.

Both the US and Israel have been looking for any excuse for war with Iran as they did to make war on Iraq. It seems as if Tony Blair may supply this excuse by refusing to engage in diplomatic discussion with Iran thus pleasing Bush and the Israelis. Better untold Iranian casualties, but earning brownie points with Bush, than settle disputes easily through discussion.

A key point here is that Blair lied extensively with Bush to bring on their illegal war with Iraq. They are both war criminals who must bear responsibility for 655,000 murdered Iraqis. They know it and the world knows it. Supposedly both are nearing the end of their reign in the US and UK. War with Iran has always been part of the Bush neoconservative plan. So these desperate war criminals believe they have nothing to lose by opening their war with Iran through massive bombing.

They may trigger a world war III. Or their mad scheme may result in a huge war, where both may declare martial law, conscription, other dictatorial controls and cancel elections "during the crisis" for the indefinite future. They will write history, whitewashing their own deceitful roles, and continue their rule themselves or through carefully selected surrogates. Both men want to ensure that they will never have to answer for their crimes.

Brinkmanship Unwise in Uncharted Waters

by Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS) March 30, 2007

There is real danger that this incident, and the way it plays out, may turn out to be outgoing British Prime Minister Tony Blair's last gesture of fealty to President George W. Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, and “neo-conservative” advisers who, this time, are looking for a casus belli to “justify” air strikes on Iran.

The frenzy in America's corporate media over Iran's detainment of 15 British Marines who may, or may not, have violated Iranian-claimed territorial waters is a flashback to the unrestrained support given the administration's war-mongering against Iraq shortly before the attack.

The British are refusing to concede the possibility that its Marines may have crossed into ill-charted, Iranian-claimed waters and are ratcheting up the confrontation. At this point, the relative merits of the British and Iranian versions of what actually happened are greatly less important than how hotheads on each side—and particularly the British—decide to exploit the event in the coming days.

There is real danger that this incident, and the way it plays out, may turn out to be outgoing British Prime Minister Tony Blair's last gesture of fealty to President George W. Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, and “neo-conservative” advisers who, this time, are looking for a casus belli to “justify” air strikes on Iran. Bush and Cheney no doubt find encouragement in the fact that the Democrats last week refused to include in the current House bill on Iraq war funding proposed language forbidding the White House from launching war on Iran without explicit congressional approval.

If the Senate omits similar language today, or if the prohibition disappears in conference, chances increase for a “pre-emptive” US and/or Israeli strike on Iran and a major war that will make the one in Iraq seem like a minor skirmish. The impression, cultivated by the White House and our domesticated media, that Saudi Arabia and other Sunni-majority states might favor a military strike on Iran is a myth. But the implications go far beyond the Middle East. With the Russians and Chinese, the US has long since forfeited the ability, exploited with considerable agility in the 70s and 80s, to play one off against the other. In fact, US policies have helped drive the two giants together. They know well that it's about oil and strategic positioning and will not stand idly by if Washington strikes Iran.

Perfidious Albion/Tamed “Poodle” ...