Thoughts on the Middle East, History, and Religion
Juan Cole is President of the Global Americana Institute
BBC interviews a former captain in the Israeli army who condemns that attack on Gaza and warns that because of US-Iran tensions, "we are very near WW III."
/End.
posted by Juan Cole @ 1/07/2009 07:07:00 PM
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7 Comments:
finally a voice of reason from the Israelis
Is the captain a spokesman for the IDF or just some joe with a couple of bars on his collar?
I'd put the chance of a major war between Israel and Iran at about 2 % and "WWIII" at less than zero.
The U.S. is not signing off on Israel nuking Iran under any circumstances short of an unprovoked Iranian WMD attack on Israel or the U.S. that kills hundreds of thousands of ppl. If nuclear war were to break out anywhere, the most likely culprits would be Pakistan and India.
And even if the U.S. gave the green light, no nuclear great power would come to Iran's defense.
I read today, in the Jerusalem Post (!) that Congress is planning to put out a resolution backing Israel. While this is predictable, it's disheartening.
There is a sense of deja vu can sometimes feel crushing. Haven't we seen this all before, just two years ago, in Lebanon? Two years before that in Fallujah? Two years before that with the initial invasion of Iraq? A pretext is presented. All the power of the most modern armies are unleashed based on that pretext. Chaos and death unfold. A diplomatic/informational offensive accompanies the military offensive. Many people see through it all, but the political elite and the corporate media close ranks to defend the indefensible, until maybe global revulsion becomes so strong that what amounts to a pause in the carnage is arranged. Until the next pretext...when can we wake up from this nightmare?
Thanks for posting this. BTW, was he Army or Air Force? BBC subtitle says Air Force, your lead says army.
That's what I've been predicting since this began - that the whole purpose of Israel's actions is to inflame Muslim passions so much that somebody outside Gaza retaliates, giving Israel pretext for bombing Iran, which would draw the US into a greater war in the middle east.
Today's rocket attacks have been denied by Hezbollah, but who besides Hezbollah has access to Katyusha rockets? Two more missile strikes from Lebanon and Israel will be dropping bombs on Tehran and that, as they say, will be all she wrote.
Who wants to bet it happens on Inauguration Day?
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