Jim Lobe: U.S. Hawks Behind Iraq War Rally for Strikes Against Iran

Despite well-informed skepticism about the likelihood that the alleged “Iranian plot” was organized by the Iranian government, prominent U.S. hawks and neoconservatives are beating war drums for retaliatory trikes against Iran. According to IPS News Washington Bureau Chief, Jim Lobe:

Key neo-conservatives and other right-wing hawks who championed the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq are calling for military strikes against Iran in retaliation for its purported murder-for-hire plot against the Saudi ambassador here.

Leading the charge is the Foreign Policy Initiative (FPI), the ideological successor to the Project for the New American Century (PNAC), which played a critical role in mobilising support for “regime change” in Iraq in the late 1990s and subsequently spearheaded the public campaign to invade the country after the 9/11 attacks. The group sent reporters appeals by two of its leaders for military action on its letterhead Monday.

In a column headlined “Speak Softly …And Fight Back” in this week’s Weekly Standard, chief editor William Kristol, co-founder of both PNAC and FPI, said the alleged plot amounted to “an engraved invitation” by Tehran to use force against it.

“We can strike at the Iranian Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC), and weaken them. And we can hit the regime’s nuclear weapons program, and set it back,” he wrote, adding that Congress should approve a resolution authorising the use of force against Iranian entities deemed responsible for attacks on U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, acts of terrorism, or “the regime’s nuclear weapons program”.

Kristol’s advice was seconded by Jamie Fly, FPI’s executive director, who called for President Barack Obama to emulate former presidents Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton when they ordered targeted strikes against Libya in 1986 and Iraq in 1993, respectively, in retaliation for alleged terrorist plots against U.S. targets.

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Jasmin Ramsey

Jasmin Ramsey is a journalist based in Washington, DC.

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3 Comments

  1. The article closes with Romney saying we should keep two carrier groups in the area to check Iran. My question is, when did we not have at least 3 carrier groups in the PG? We’ve had 5-6 groups operating there from time to time.

  2. RE:”Despite well-informed skepticism about the likelihood that the alleged “Iranian plot” was organized by the Iranian government, prominent U.S. hawks and neoconservatives are beating war drums for retaliatory trikes against Iran.” ~ Jasmin Ramsey
    MY COMMENT: I wonder if the following article is correct.
    ARTICLE: The Alleged Iran Saudi Envoy Assassination Plot, By Ismail Salami, Global Research, 10/17/11

    (excerpts) Despite its evidently make-believe facade, the cooked-up story of the Saudi envoy assassination plot does not seem to be something which can be easily banished from the minds of the US powers that be….
    …there has recently emerged an interesting piece of information about a second person held on suspicion of involvement in the alleged plot. The information reveals a man named Gholam Hussein Shakouri who is closely connected with the fabricated prime suspect. Shakouri, who is a cousin of Mansour Arbaseir, is reportedly a member of the MKO, a notorious terrorist organization now based at the Ashraf camp in Iraq and strongly supported by the US government although the organization has been widely designated as a terrorist organization…

    .
    SOURCE – http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=27126.

    P.S. FROM MARCY WHEELER, 10/17/11: “…a footnote [in the criminal compaint] states that Arbabsiar confessed that Individual #1 told him the money came from Gholam Shakuri. The criminal complaint named Shakuri, who is at large and believed to be in Iran, as the Iranian official working as Arbabsiar’s case officer of sorts…”.
    SOURCE – http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2011/10/significant-holes-in-us-legal-case-against-alleged-iran-plotter/246780/

  3. Dickerson, that has to be the best worst picture of Hillary. Makes you want to grab that hand that’s making the peace gesture and slap her with it, till the wipes that goofy grin off her face. She looks so much like she’s pandering.

    Reminds me of a girl I knew in college, she was trying to make a big peace symbol on her jacket, instead she drew the Mercedes three pointed star.

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