by Philip Giraldi, The Unz Review:
One of the more interesting aspects of the expanding war between Israel and Iran is the way the media and the crowd of “experts” have avoided any discussion of the possible, or perhaps even likely, upcoming decision of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to dig deep into his secret nuclear weapons arsenal to enable the total destruction of Iran’s prime targets. Such targets are likely to include Iran’s own apparently civilian use nuclear develop program, which is protected deep underground in Natanz and elsewhere. Iran’s surviving military and civilian leaders are also now believed to be well protected underground after the recent debacle which saw the Israeli first strike kill a number of generals and other top officials. Netanyahu would like to finish the job by making a leaderless Iran unable to defend itself and maintain sovereignty as an independent nation.
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The day-to-day back and forth of missile and drone strikes continues, and, given the first day’s success, Netanyahu and other Israeli leaders have now also spoken of totally destroying the Iranian capital Tehran, a city of 18 million which would not be turned to Gaza-like rubble using conventional weapons. Should anyone doubt that the insane Netanyahu would do such a thing, initiating the first battlefield use of such weapons since 1945, they should examine the Prime Minister’s record on reckless behavior, in which he has no rival among national leaders. He would unhesitatingly “defend his country and his leadership” by initiating an escalation that could have devastating consequences if other nuclear powers like Pakistan get involved in support of the Iranians.
And then there is the role of President Donald Trump, whose tone deafness on any issue that might require a minimum of a few seconds of contemplation is well established. The Trumpster has already contradicted himself several times over whether he knew in advance about Israel’s somewhat of a surprise attack on Iran and whether the US was involved. He is now saying he “doesn’t want to talk about Iran” but is repeating the Israeli call for Tehran to be evacuated, adding that something “very bad” is coming if Iran does not comply with all of Washington’s demands. Those demands include the total ending of any and all uranium enrichment, even if is for medical or scientific purposes and even if it is fully and regularly inspected by the United Nations and other international bodies.
The irony of all of this is that Israel is being treated as the victim, as usual, even though it has a secret nuclear weapons arsenal consisting of around 200 warheads and Tel Aviv is not a signatory to the nuclear non-proliferation treaty (NPT) that mandates regular inspections. As noted above, Iran is a signatory and has accepted the inspection routine. Furthermore, both US and Israeli intelligence have confirmed that Iran has no nuclear weapons program, so the country, which has not attacked either Israel or the US, constitutes no threat to either nation yet it is itself being attacked as if it is the aggressor. That reality has not stopped Netanyahu’s declaring that the threat of Iranian nukes was his casus belli before starting his war, which it appears Trump and his war machine, recently observered parading on Constitution Avenue in Washington, might soon be joining. Trump’s fractured and often contradictory way of expressing himself on issues suggest that war is coming and that it is, by default, all about Iranian enrichment of uranium.
Paul Craig Roberts is one of the most knowledgeable observers of what has been developing. In a recent article he asked “What Do We Do When President Trump Is in the Pocket of Mass Murderer Netanyahu?” He answers his own question with “Trump says he KNOWS that Iran is ‘very close to having nuclear weapons.’ How does Trump KNOW this? Netanyahu told him… [But] what did the US intelligence community tell Trump? American intelligence told Trump that US intelligence believes that Iran is not building a nuclear weapon and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has not authorized the nuclear weapons program he suspended in 2003. But Trump doesn’t care what the US Director of National Intelligence tells him is the assessment of US intelligence [saying] ‘I do not care what she [Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard] said,’ Trump declared. Netanyahu knows better. So Trump supports Israeli acts of aggression against Iran and informs Iran that if they respond to acts of war the US will help Israel destroy Iran.”
In the latest wrinkle on Trump’s role in going after the Iranians on behalf of Israel, the US president has now threatened to “eliminate” the Iranian Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, if Iran does not submit to unconditional surrender. He claims to know the “secret location” where Ali Khamenei is hiding, “but we won’t kill you yet.” In light of that and other comments from Trump, Roberts makes a very important point, that “This is the behavior of a crazy person. Trump is a massive failure as president. He has allowed a genocidal monster to take over the foreign policy of the United States. Trump has permitted Netanyahu to drag America to the threshold of war with Iran. Trump has permitted the genocide of the Palestinians so that Gaza can be turned into a resort. But I would go beyond all that as Trump is also giving Netanyahu a green light to start a nuclear war… Netanyahu has started a war that Israel Cannot Win and he Has Passed the War on to Trump.”
