It's really about Russia

Lots of news about Iran has been floating around the past few days. Over the weekend some neocon flunkies did the tv circuit to helpfully explain that if we stupid Americans do something as reckless as vote for Obama, then Bush will be forced to attack Iran. (This is not to say I heart Obama, only to point out the incredibly blatant manipulation and fear-mongering.)

WALLACE: So, you’re suggesting that he might in fact, if Obama’s going to win the election, either before or after the election, launch a military strike?

KRISTOL: I don’t know. I mean, I think he would worry about it. On the other hand, you can’t — it’s hard to make foreign policy based on guesses of election results. I think Israel is worried though. I mean, what is, what signal goes to Ahmadinejad if Obama wins on a platform of unconditional negotiations and with an obvious reluctance to even talk about using military force.

Is this Israel's election or is it America's election?

There's even more juicy neocon wackiness coming out of John Bolton.

I think if they [Israel] are to do anything, the most likely period is after our elections and before the inauguration of the next President. I don’t think they will do anything before our election because they don’t want to affect it. And they’d have to make a judgment whether to go during the remainder of President Bush’s term in office or wait for his successor.

How sweet that they don't want to affect our elections. Of course, having neocon pundits like Bill Kristol and John Bolton -- who in all liklihood are dual US-Israeli citizens -- go around on weekend talk shows helpfully explaining what will happen if we don't make the 'correct' choice (for Israel), well I'm sure that doesn't affect our elections at all.

Do you see the psychopathy here? They are setting this up so that it can't be Bush's fault for attacking Iran. It would be our fault for picking the 'wrong' candidate in our very own democratic presidential elections. This is the 'you made me do it' excuse -- a favorite of psychopaths everywhere.

Meanwhile, I cannot urge you strongly enough to go and read this, and click through to the pdf and read the whole thing. Here is a highly condensed recap:

Russia has enormous energy reserves for oil and gas, along with pipelines and plenty of money. Pakistan, India, China and Iran are coming together in an Asian Energy Security Grid. This is America's worst nightmare -- a viable rival bloc of economic, political and military power. In particular, this new bloc dramatically decreases US naval superiority since the pipelines are primarily land based. It also threatens our currency and economy, and by extension, the spending available for our military-industrial complex. Therefore, the US must prevent this bloc from gaining strength. (Side note: Obama's top foreign policy counselor, Zbigniew Brzezinski, is all over controlling Russia and has been for years. There's no assurance that we would be any safer under Obama than McCain, scary as that sounds.)

Having a first strike nuclear capability is key to US dominance. Most importantly, the US wants the ability to strike first without fear of serious retribution. Iran is a great proxy and scapegoat for justifying various moves that will ensure this dominance over Russia. All the bluster over Iran's supposed nuclear capabilities is a smokescreen to cover the real target, Russia.

The pipeline between Iran, Pakistan and China must be stopped. The US will try to wrong-foot the Iranians into a response that allows them to be officially labeled 'terrorists'. By linking the Iranians to both Hezbollah and Hamas, the argument can be made that Israel's problems cannot ever be solved until Iran is dealt with first. See current events for details.