Onto Iran?

By vetoing a UN resolution calling for a ceasefire Blair has given his full support to the Israeli blitzkrieg in Lebanon. This wanton act of terrorism threatens everyone in Lebanon including , incidently, several thousand British citizens whose possible deaths would have thereby been sanctioned by British prime minister.Apparently, all is fair in the “war on terrorism”.These attacks have been justified by feigned outrage at Hezbollah's actions which have gone as far as kidnapping i.e. capturing two Israeli soldiers – yes, soldiers!- engaged in nothing more than an illegal infiltration of a neighbouring country. And so it's only reasonable that the neighbouring country had to be destroyed.

But this is not enough for the warlord Blair. Blair, remember, has vision. And what does he see? A chance to provoke the wider war which is his heart's desire.If the armed forces are, as they have shown themselves to be, reluctant to engage in a nuclear attack on Iran perhaps there is a chance to bounce them into it.Surely, after all, they will rally to the defence of democracy. Specifically, Israeli democracy,- not, perhaps, the best that money can buy ( isn't there something of a racial element in it?) but, anyway, a democracy. Remember, Blair will tell them, we are fighting for a state built on the same foundations as our own, expropriation, genocide and terror.

Definately Maybe

A consensus seems to have emerged that Hezbollah “started it”by infiltrating into Israel to abduct the two soldiers. According to Voltaire Network it was the other way round but anyway it has become a “virtual” fact of the type that monopoly control of the media makes possible.More importantly, a consensus has emerged that Iran( and Syria) are somehow behind it.A recent meeting in the House of Commons organised by the Campaign against Sanctions and Military Intervention in Iran(http://www.campaigniran.org/casmii/) condemned Blair's attempts to implicate Iran.As Professor Abbas Edalat put it

"Until the new war waged by Israel against Lebanon, the main focus of the US/Israeli hysteric campaign against Iran was centred around the unfounded allegation of a covert nuclear arms program in Iran. We now have a new orchestrated campaign of threats. Today Iran and Syria are being blamed falsely by the US and the UK for being at the root of the present conflict in Lebanon. This double accusation and threat will multiply many fold the danger of a military attack against Iran as well as Syria by Israel and the US. "


But to no avail- Blair's view has already achieved alarmingly wide-ranging resonance.It is also being echoed on the left. Thus Alex Callincos in the latest Socialist Worker writes:

“My guess is that the Hizbollah offensive - for that is what the raid that captured two Israeli soldiers amounted to - was coordinated with the Iranian regime”

Joining in the guessing game was the Great Sage of Massachusetts. In a dithering response to Amy Goodman, Chomsky opined that

“ I don't think we have the slightest idea. You can guess anything you’d like. It's a possibility. In fact, even a probability”

Is this “It's probably Iran” meant to be a rebuttal of the War Party's vehement chorus of denunciation of Iran?

My guess is with this kind of opposition Blair fancies his chances of steamrollering us into the global war, the World War III that Gingrich says has already started. The crisis which started with the Israelis “taking out” a seaside picnic is taking on proportions which are truly terrifying.

Incidently, if anyone thinks that the Brits are laggards when it comes to this escalation read the Times 21st July.It talks of Britains plans for “containment” of Iran and

“ British frustration with the US’s failure to devise a plan for dealing with Tehran, once the Iraqi conflict stripped it of the appetite for military action.”

A bang or a whimper?

There is an air of finality about the situation as if our fate is at last to be decided either way. Will it be with an apocalyptic war against Iran soon to be transformed into a generalized East- West conflict which engulfs us all or is it just the last gasp of the Anglo-American-Israeli ascendancy who with their anti-humanist ideology, their ever more terrible techniques of death, their mercenaries, their death squads, their media whores and their sanctimonious, smirking, lying toadies in the political parties, think-tanks and academia have lorded it over the world for too long?