Israel is destroying Lebanon so that it is free to bomb Iran next year?

[KoKo]

If this article with info that Bush and Blair gave green light to Israel to take out Hezbollah so that it would be free to bomb Iran for us next year is true...does anyone think this is a good idea? Will it be successful in reshaping the Middle East into a Democracy? Will Americans approve of it? :shrug:

-----------------------

Israel: Did Blair know all along?
12:19pm 4th August 2006

Israel had briefed Washington about its concerns before and London was 'kept in the loop', according to one insider. MPs also seized on the revelation that Mr Blair's Middle East envoy - and chief fundraiser - Lord Levy had met senior Israeli ministers dozens of times in the run-up to the conflict.

While the controversial peer frequently meets top Middle East figures as part of his role, the contact was stepped up during June and July - revealing how close the links are between London and Tel Aviv. A senior White House source insisted President Bush was not informed in advance of Israeli actions against Hezbollah. 'Look, we don't have a green light. President Bush is in close contact with Tony Blair - but he couldn't tell Blair what he didn't know,' added the source.


But Dr John Pike, head of the Washington-based military think tank Global Security, said: 'Has the U.S. given Israel a green light to attack Hezbollah and push its troops into southern Lebanon? Yes, of course it has.'

Dr Pike said he believed there was an agreement between Israel and the U.S. that Iranian nuclear plants would eventually - probably next year - have to be bombed to stop the development of a nuclear weapon. Once that bombing takes place, Iran will order Hezbollah to attack Israel. Thus, Dr Pike claimed, the U.S. and Israel agreed in secret that at some point before the attack on the Iranian nuclear sites, Hezbollah had to be disarmed and that as soon as a pretext became available, Israel should use force.

more at .......
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=399005&in_page_id=1770

[David Dunham]

1. Democrats Must Oppose a War with Iran

[Nikki Stone 1]

2. Well that makes sense

And it must be opposed

[cali]

3. I don't even think

all the reupubs would go along with war in Iran.

[MrTriumph]

5. Republicans follow whatever the Dictator, I mean Decider, tells them

Do not underestimate the power Bush has over Republicans. 29% follows him blindly.

Here in Bushland- Tarrant Co. Texas- our local booster paper (Ft. Worth Star Telegram) has not run a front page Iraq story in 2 weeks! Any mention of Bush the "Yo, Blair", lip smacking, grab-ass world leader? Not as a news story.

When the news about the Decider's is bad, it is NOT news here. SMU in adjacent Dallas County, wants his presidential library! And that for a man who boasts he does not read!

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

4. They MADE the pretext become available.

The IDF kidnapped a Palestinian doctor and his son. THAT is what lead to the Israeli soldier being kidnapped. They instigated the pretext, like they have done for decades.

[KoKo]

6. It was taking a chance that Hezbollah wouldn't retaliate, though.

Maybe all the reports of the "intelligence" underestimating the strength of Hezbollah were just disinformation to cover for the fact that Hezbollah was an "obstacle" that would stand in the way of bombing. The so called over-reaction of Israel or "disproportionate" reaction would make more sense if there was an overall plan.

It's a daring plan...and would fit the the misguided fools who wrote PNAC and would explain why both Blair and Bush say "history" will judge them. (Blair repeated Bushbot phrase yesterday in his press conference)

What I don't understand is how they can possibly see their plan aided by Neo-Cons as working unless both countries plan on being an "Occupying Force" in the Middle East forever and think their strong presence will keep more suicide bombers and guerilla tactics from having the whole area be what Iraq looks like now....a MESS!

Just makes no sense any way I can look at it...so I must be missing something.

[Jazzgirl]

13. Thank you Vash for saying the truth.

I've been saying it for two weeks...not one comment. The kidnapping and before that, the shelling and killing of the Palestinian family on Gaza beach.

[KoKo]

14. kick............

[Algorem]

7. softening-up operations

[The Magistrate]

8. No, Ma'am, It Will Not

Doctor Pike will prove as poor a prophet as all the rest who have been predicting this will occur at a variety of dates now long in the past.

There is not going to be an attack on Iran, by either the U.S. or Israel, on the near future, and certainly not so long as there are substantial bodies of U.S. troops in Iraq. The consequences of any such attack would be disasterous to those forces, which would immediately find themselves beseiged in their garrison points, out of supply and immersed in hostile sea of Shia partisans.

[KoKo]

9. There's so much information/disinformation coming at us from all sides

it's difficult to sort out any kind of truth in the conflicting reports.

I posed the question because Pike's comments would seem to support what many think is the "Neo-Con Dream" as expressed in the PNAC. Then there is a paper the "Clean Break" written in '96 that Sidney Blumenthal talks about in a Salon article which would seem to be what we see going on in Iraq and possibly with the "disproportionate response" by Israel in taking out infrastructure before any negotiation.

Reports fly back and forth that Schultz and Baker are allied with Poppy Bush to try to stop the little spawn from wreaking more havoc and then another article will say that Baker and Schultz are working with the Neo-Cons in the hopes that taking out Irans nukes will cause a war that will allow us and Great Britain to take over the regions oil resources. Then there are other reports that Bush and Blair are just incompetent idiots who have overstepped and made Israel's position much weaker by allowing the situation to get out of hand. Plus there are varying degrees of reports which combine some of the above theories.

How are we to know what to believe? The fact that Bush and Blair stay confident that "History will prove them correct" does make one wonder: "What do they know that We all don't...about the whole situation."

My hope is that what you say is true and they will not dare to air strike Iran. But, so far they seem to get what they want by creating situations where the Middle East becomes more and more destabilized. Perhaps they didn't count on so much disapproval coming down on the head of Israel. They thought that they could push the "Terror/Axis of Evil" Meme once again and we would all agree that Lebanon must be bombed into submission because of the terrorist element within.

I wonder, though, if most Americans (ill informed as they are) can look at Lebanon as a terrorist country like Afghanistan or Iraq was portrayed. There's no way they could stretch it that the "9/11" attacks were tied to Hezbollah and so Lebanon must pay. Perhaps that's where Blair and Bush went wrong if the article I quoted in the OP is accurate. Blair, Bush didn't take the time to explain that eliminating Lebanon's infrastructure
would be another victory in the War on Terror. If they had taken the time maybe Americans would have understood the rationale. :shrug:

[The Magistrate]

11. It Is Because There Is So Much Of That, Ma'am

Thst it is important to keep a cool head and engage with a reasoned skepticism. Remember, too, that is the fights that sell the tickets, and any journalistic enterprise has a vested interest frightening headlines; they are money in the share-holders' pockets....

[QuestionAll...]

15. i think disaster is the target end game...

don't think like a human being, please.The people at the helm of these atrocities are not.

[Jacobin]

10. This is a reasonable prediction and jives with this article

http://billmon.org/archives/002627.html

Billmon's blog has had a way of being pretty accurate in predicting events in the Middle East.

[KoKo]

12. Thanks..an interesting article...I haven't checked out Billman in awhile.

I have to hope it's a "wake up call." Otherwise the consequences of what he says are really depressing...

I'm hoping there might be an opinion shift given the disproportionate damage to Lebanon..in the very minds of those who support the Dem Party who might be so loyal to some of the harsher policies of Israel. Sometimes a "wake up call" will come in the nick of time.

[Junkdrawer]

16. Gosh, where have I heard this before....

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=364&topic_id=1643205