US admiral urges caution on Iran
Adm Mullen said the results of war in Iran would be unpredictable
America's top military officer has said opening up a third front in the Middle East through a strike on Iran would be "extremely stressful" for US forces.
Tensions have risen amid reports Israel could be planning a possible strike against Iran's nuclear facilities.
At a US defence department news conference, Adm Mullen refused to say what Israeli leaders told him during meetings last week about any plan to strike Iran.
But he warned that opening up a third front, after Iraq and Afghanistan, would be "extremely stressful, very challenging, with consequences that would be difficult to predict".
[url]http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7486338.stm[/url]
L ate last year, Congress agreed to a request from President Bush to fund a major escalation of covert operations against Iran, according to current and former military, intelligence, and congressional sources. These operations, for which the President sought up to four hundred million dollars, were described in a Presidential Finding signed by Bush, and are designed to destabilize the country’s religious leadership. The covert activities involve support of the minority Ahwazi Arab and Baluchi groups and other dissident organizations. They also include gathering intelligence about Iran’s suspected nuclear-weapons program.
[url]http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/07/07/080707fa_fact_hersh[/url]
There is a growing conviction among members of the United States military, and in the international community, that President Bush’s ultimate goal in the nuclear confrontation with Iran is regime change.
The rationale for regime change was articulated in early March by Patrick Clawson, an Iran expert who is the deputy director for research at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and who has been a supporter of President Bush. “So long as Iran has an Islamic republic, it will have a nuclear-weapons program, at least clandestinely,” Clawson told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on March 2nd. “The key issue, therefore, is: How long will the present Iranian regime last?”
[url]http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2006/04/17/060417fa_fact[/url]
Last edited by Mish; 03-07-08 at 10:42 AM.
Don't cry, don't regret and don't blame
Weak find the whip, willing find freedom
Towards the sun, carry your name
In warm hands you are given
Ask the wind for the way
Uncertainty's gone, your path will unravel
Accept all as it is and do not blame
God or the Devil
~Born to Live - Mavrik~