Na alle overdreven herrie van Britten, Amerikanen en de EU, gebeurt wat er in dit soort gevallen allereerst had moeten gebeuren, doodgewoon diplomatiek overleg met Iran.
'Brinkmanship Unwise in Uncharted Waters
Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity Statement
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 warmongering against Iraq shortly before the attack.
The British are refusing to concede the possibility that their 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 "neoconservative" 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.
The Israel lobby has been crowing about its success in getting House members to excise that language, and similar pressure has been applied to senators. Why does this matter? Because the reluctance of most lawmakers to apply the brakes to the president increases chances for "pre-emptive" US or US/Israeli air attacks 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 seventies and eighties, 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"'
The British are refusing to concede the possibility that their 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 "neoconservative" 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.
The Israel lobby has been crowing about its success in getting House members to excise that language, and similar pressure has been applied to senators. Why does this matter? Because the reluctance of most lawmakers to apply the brakes to the president increases chances for "pre-emptive" US or US/Israeli air attacks 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 seventies and eighties, 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"'
Lees verder: http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/040207P.shtml
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