31 thoughts on “U.S. Defense Secretary Admits U.S. Cannot Prevent Israeli Attack on Iran – Tikun Olam תיקון עולם إصلاح العالم
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  1. Hi Richard,

    Great catch! Some other things of note re: Iran and WikiLeaks:

    (1) Aug 09 – Rafsanjani’s trusted business ally, and trusted US “spy”, tells the State Dept. that Rafsanjani has let him know in confidence that the Supreme Leader of Iran has leukemia and will be dying in months. http://cablegate.wikileaks.org/cable/2009/08/09ISTANBUL336.html This has long been a rumor, but now is somewhat substantiated with this leak. The indication is that the election unrest was the result of an immediate coup d’etats by Ahmadinejad, but likely a long-term coup d’etats meant to influence the succession of the Supreme Leadership;

    (2) The Freedom or Green Movement in Iran is HOMEMADE. While the diaspora is noted as having an open hand in the movement, this document hereby exonerates the freedom movement from any charges of undue conspiracy http://cablegate.wikileaks.org/cable/2010/01/10RPODUBAI13.html ; and,

    (3) Washington has a bad habit of talking to inept analysts about Iran and WikiLeaks has exposed their incompetency to the Iranian regime (and everyone else who knows, like me). The analysts sheepishly and nonsensically insert translated words in Farsi into their documents to fool their American counterparts into thinking that they are knowledgeable about what they say. For instance, in the above linked document, the word “Khamoush” is inserted into the analysis for NO reason and additionally translated incorrectly as “silent”; and,

    (4) Meir Dagan told Jon Corzine that Iraqi surgents come from Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Syria and Sudan, yet fails to mention Iran. Iran is widely reported around the same time to be training the same insurgents all over the press http://cablegate.wikileaks.org/cable/2005/03/05TELAVIV1580.html .

    I am still waiting to see some of the stuff about the Carter administration’s hand in literally pressuring the Shah to retreat from the revolution and their hand in flying Khomeini into the country and preventing the Shah from being able to have his messages broadcast on BBC, while Khomeini had a BBC reporter following him around everywhere. Indeed, many people think the Shah was individually responsible for the brutality of the SAVAK. People don’t understand that the man wasn’t exactly a profoundly powerful character in a very hostile Middle East. His trusted officials would betray him by letting the CIA/Mossad trained SAVAK carry out acts against his own people without his knowledge and he would apologize for it publicly instead of accusing the people that betrayed him. The documents themselves reveal that Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei views the Shah’s “retreat” as his ultimate flaw.

  2. Not that I think an attack is a good idea but I think your expectations from Obama are too high. I’m not sure how, save bolting the planes to the ground, the US can stop Israel from attacking if Israel is bent on doing so (which, as wikileaks show, it isn’t anyway)

    Israel is a sovereign state and if it decides to attack, it will, no matter how many loops Obama will jump through.

    1. ” I’m not sure how, save bolting the planes to the ground, the US can stop Israel from attacking if Israel is bent on doing so (which, as wikileaks show, it isn’t anyway)”

      1. Threaten to shoot the IAF planes down as they violate Iraqi airspace on their way to Iran.
      2. Threaten to withdraw the billions in US aid to Israel.
      3. Threaten to US will stop using it’s veto at the UN SC to protect Israel. Israel would soon start to behave under threat of UN SC sanctions.

      1. Threaten to shoot the IAF planes down as they violate Iraqi airspace on their way to Iran.

        I trust you recognize the glaring irony in that suggestion!

      2. None of your suggestions are practical under (my understanding of) the way US politics work. Please offer *real* options

        1. Shoot down IAF planes? Seriously? That would be an act of war for which authorization of Congress is required. Congress, probably the most Zionist parliament in the world after the Knesset.

        2. and 3, not credible for the same reason.

        1. Apparently you have not heard about the War Powers Act with which Congress effectively relinquished is power to declare war and handed it to the President.

          But wait – shooting down Israeli planes over Iraqi airspace which is control by the occupying power, the United States, is not the act of war. The act of war is on the part of Israel using U.S. controlled airspace against the agreement of the U.S. in order to commit an act of aggression against Iran.

  3. What is shocking about these leaks is just how low-wattage our diplomatic and intelligence operations are. I always assumed that the Ahmadinejad as Hitler rhetoric was purely political, strategic gibberish for the masses. Now I find that people in positions of influence actually believe that the President of Iran, not even the most powerful man in Iran, is indeed another Hitler. Do they know who Hitler was, what he did? The historical illiteracy and degree of hyperbole here is both staggering and frightening. I guess after George W I should know better, but still, amazing.

    1. No one ever went broke underestimating the sophistication of the American leadership when it comes to international matters.

    2. I don’t grasp why you are so surprised that Israel is “allowed” to strike without US approval. Even tho’ Israel gets immense help from the US, that doesn’t make it the 51st State, and it still is rightly sovereign to make its own (often bad) decisions.

      In any case Israel is, in my opinion and hope, not stupid enough to attack without US approval, even if only to avoid world repercussions.

      I hope you don’t hold that world diplomacy should be dominated by he who holds the purse strings, even tho’ that is often unfortunately the case. The US and Obama understand that purse strings grant leverage, but agree that it doesn’t grant domination – why can’t you?

      1. Agreed that Israel is a sovereign state with the right to make its own bad, and even criminal decisions. Not convinced that Israel is not stupid enough to attack Iran or anyone else. As for purse strings, I haven’t noticed any U.S. administration tightening the purse strings on Israel. Quite the contrary, the U.S. purse strings seem to be perpetually open where Israel is concerned. However, I do not view as domination cutting off the funding that allows Israel to commit its crimes and stupidities. I view that as applying good sense.

      2. Oh, you mean that if it got U.S. approval to attack Iran, Israel wouldn’t be committing a stupid act? Do you think there wouldn’t be “world repercussions” if the U.S. approved, or even went alone?

  4. Obama doesn’t have the guts to do what needs to be done by shutting off the tap and recalling its ambassador.

    Not to defend Obama at all, but can anyone name a U.S. president who has had the guts to do what has needed to be done regarding Israel?

    1. @Katea

      Didn’t see the mossad mentioned anywhere in the link you posted.

      Do you know something we don’t know? All I saw in the link was that the US “and other Western countries” are worried by the Iranian nuclear plans. And now we hear from Wikileak that the Saudis and Bahrain also don’t approve…

      I’m sure the mossad will thank you for adding to their fearmongering without doing anything

      1. What are “Zionist agents” if not Mossad? Besides, Kalea (not Katea) said “looks like Mossad”, not that it was Mossad.

      2. You mean three Iranian nuclear scientists are attacked & two of them murdered & this is something Mossad didn’t have a hand in?

        But what Mossad doesn’t take into account is that Israelis too will pay a price for this gamesmanship. There will be blood and suffering on both sides.

        1. It seems you think that the mossad is the only spy agency that assassinates? Why should they waste resources where in this case plenty of other agencies will do the dirty work for them, and without botching it up!

          Israel has no price to pay, but will be anyway blamed because Israel is always to blame even for what it doesn’t do, especially on this site and by Iran.

          We agree on one thing – there will be blood and suffering on both sides. And ironically neither side is guilty – the Iranians only want peaceful nuclear energy and Israel didn’t assassinate.

        2. Isarel has wanted war with Iran all along. They killed 36 American sailors to try to get the US to bomb Egypt with nuclear weapons. The USS liberty incident almost did what isarel wanted. for the US to go to war against Egypt. Isarel has never wanted peace with Palestine. I guess we will find out if Iran will fire their 1100 missles against Isarel or not. My guess is they will at the first sign of an attack. McCain will finally get his wish. Much blood will be shed. It won’t all be Iranians. If it was the US alone. you couldn’t blame them. They love wars. Makes billionaires out of millioniares. http://www.addictedtowar.com The US has dropped bombs on 53 countries in their history.

  5. Why doe anyone think that the U.S. even wants to prevent Israel from striking Iran? It is the U.S. that wishes Iran struck in the first place; not because of potential nuclear weapons, rather for regime change. It is not about the bomb. That’s only a convenient excuse. As in Iraq and Afghanistan and soon to be Yemen, it is all about oil and gas – natural resources. The U.S. wants Iran brought down, and whether it does it itself, or allows Israel to do it makes no difference. The U.S. and Israel are tied together at the hip, and will sink or swim together. Obama has nothing to say about it.

    1. PS – I don’t know how much it will help, but those of you who read this blog and are opposed to Israel/U.S. aggression against Iran, including sanctions, might want to look at http://www.cpdweb.org and read their statement about ending war threats and sanctions program against Iran. You can also sign up as sponsors and make a contribution (as I have).

  6. Has anyone done an assessment to check if an embryonic nuclear programme in Iran is actually more threatening than the chemical weapons programme that they’ve been running for several years now?

    I know enough about Sarin and VX to understand that it’s NOT worth risking a retaliatory strike with those, just to delay the nuclear programme for a couple of years. We’ve never seen these weapons used in earnest, only tentatively, on small towns in Iraq in the eighties and Yemen back in the fifties.

    1. Interesting point. What’s driving this is (in part) the mass hysteria about atomic weapons, especially the non-hydrogen kind. There’s gross overestimation of it’s power and underestimation of other WMD, at least in Israel.

      The average Israeli will tell you that a single atomic bomb will “destroy Israel” while Sarin is something for a bunch of Kurds in Iraq, i.e. not strong/dangerous/powerful

  7. Maybe we are discussing things from the wrong perspective.

    Israel’s influence over U.S. policy seems more relevant than the U.S.’s influence over Israel’s policy.

    The U.S. acts in a manner that is to Israel’s benefit and Israel acts in a manner that is to Israel’s benefit.

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