http://www.anotherpanacea.com/2007/03/reading-tehran/ Cure-alls and Remedies Sat, 04 Feb 2012 22:26:47 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 http://www.anotherpanacea.com/2007/03/reading-tehran/comment-page-1/#comment-128 Don Deeley Fri, 30 Mar 2007 09:29:25 +0000 http://www.anotherpanacea.com/2007/03/30/reading-tehran/#comment-128 The border dispute gets stranger than that. <a href="http://www.campaigniran.org/casmii/" rel="nofollow">CASMII</a> and <a>matthewgood.org</a> have pieces up saying that if you print out a map of the disputed area and use the GPS coordinates given by the British, they're clearly closer to Iran than Iraq. There's also another piece saying the British didn't have the right to be boarding ships anyway. None of it answers the question of why British forcers were boarding the ship to investigate cars though. It's a very strange situation. But I think Iran's being cagier than they're being given credit for. Blair can't get a war with Iran. He's a lame duck and the British people won't stand for it. But, as Iraq proved, who cares what the people think, it's the military that goes to war. Only the military isn't up for playing with the US anymore either. They just finished an inquiry into a US-on-Brit friendly fire death where they ruled the US's obstruction and destruction of evidence was "criminal." A "Gulf of Tonkin"-style event only works when the people in charge are willing to follow up on it. Speaking of "Gulf of Tonkin" events, when the US was doing their massive military manoeuvers just off the coast of Iran this weekend, there was a rumor that the Iranians fired a missile. And that story came out because the military initially and immediately reported it as "a rumor and only a rumor." The purpose of having all the forces stationed in the Gulf is to try to incite an attack so there's then justification for a full military response. But the missile rumor makes it look like the military itself is trying to make the war effort as difficult on Bush et al. as possible. Still, we should be emailing our Congresspeople every day to tell them no war in Iran. Bush wants this. The border dispute gets stranger than that. CASMII and <a>matthewgood.org have pieces up saying that if you print out a map of the disputed area and use the GPS coordinates given by the British, they're clearly closer to Iran than Iraq. There's also another piece saying the British didn't have the right to be boarding ships anyway. None of it answers the question of why British forcers were boarding the ship to investigate cars though. It's a very strange situation.
But I think Iran's being cagier than they're being given credit for. Blair can't get a war with Iran. He's a lame duck and the British people won't stand for it. But, as Iraq proved, who cares what the people think, it's the military that goes to war. Only the military isn't up for playing with the US anymore either. They just finished an inquiry into a US-on-Brit friendly fire death where they ruled the US's obstruction and destruction of evidence was "criminal." A "Gulf of Tonkin"-style event only works when the people in charge are willing to follow up on it.
Speaking of "Gulf of Tonkin" events, when the US was doing their massive military manoeuvers just off the coast of Iran this weekend, there was a rumor that the Iranians fired a missile. And that story came out because the military initially and immediately reported it as "a rumor and only a rumor." The purpose of having all the forces stationed in the Gulf is to try to incite an attack so there's then justification for a full military response. But the missile rumor makes it look like the military itself is trying to make the war effort as difficult on Bush et al. as possible.
Still, we should be emailing our Congresspeople every day to tell them no war in Iran. Bush wants this.

]]>