Iran : 2012-02-06 : Yahoo, Fox News of the Internet - and why the Zionist Lobby's Drumbeat to War is Becoming A Lot Louder Now

On the upside, we know now, if we couldn't work it out from Allen & Co's intimate relations with Rupert Murdoch and News Corp's affairs, that, like much of the lame street media, Yahoo is controlled by war mongers who don't have a clue between them. On the down side, we know that the relentless beating of the war drums are quite likely to lead to an actual attack on Iran at some time in the future. What nobody knows is how this will pan out for anyone, other than we are playing with fire.

Fire that includes the high probability that any interruptions in the oil supply will have devastating economic consequences for a world already wracked by the biggest recession that has carefully not been called a depression - and that severe interruptions in a significant share of the world's oil supply is the inevitable result of any military action - by anyone - involving Iran.

Which means that the drumbeat to war makes absolutely no sense.

We all know that if Israel or its proxy, the US, were to attack Iran, that Iran would most likely withdraw from the NPT. We also know that this may well be the most likely outcome of the current round of economic warfare (know as "sanctions" in the USA) against Iran. This would immediately remove the justification for all the actions, including sanctions, against Iran, and would support their development, for strictly pragmatic reasons, of a nuclear defensive posture, even if they maintained their current strong religious and ethical objections to nuclear weapons.

Iran has, at great expense, responded to 30 years of threats from Israel and the USA, by developing a well protected industrial (including nuclear and missile) capacity, located deep underground and so, largely impervious to attack. This makes any attacks against its nuclear infrastructure futile. Bombing, at least with conventional devices, will not stop Iran's perfectly legal use of nuclear power - and may induce them to attempt to produce nuclear weapons.

This is exactly the opposite of the outcome that the West has been asserting as its reasons for hounding Iran.

This too, makes absolutely no sense on its face.

Let me try to explain a few things.

Were Iran to become a nuclear armed country, this might be used to attempt to justify deploying nuclear weapons, weapons which the ICC has declared are illegal to use, against them, which might be an additional reason, above the religious and ethical objections, why Iran has not yet taken this step. It also might be a reason for Israel to want them to become a nuclear equipped state. If only for a little.

Here's why.

Imagecredits: Haim Gvirtzman, Maps of Israeli Interests in Judea and Samaria, Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies, Bar-Ilan University

Israel has known since at least the 1970s that, while most of their potable water is drawn from the "Mountain Aquifer" which underlies the West Bank, this is unsustainable and alternative sources are needed.

In 1992, the Israel water authority warned the Israeli government that continued use, at the then already unsustainable levels, of the aquifers supplying Israel's water, most of them located under Palestinian areas, would result in the level dropping so far that water from the Dead Sea would enter the aquifers, making them saline.

This is what lead to continuous Israeli control of those areas and water usage from the aquifers by the Palestinians whose water Israel relies upon (Refer e.g. http://www.biu.ac.il/soc/besa/publications/maps/mapwater.htm), without paying for it; which undoubtedly will, eventually, lead to the mother of all reparation judgements, unless Palestine is absorbed into Israel, and maybe even then.

Since then, Israel has nearly doubled its population from 4.66 million to almost 8 million, much of this through immigration from the ex-Soviet states, increasing the pressure on the water supplies.

The original "black line" where sea water ingress to the aquifers became inevitable was passed in 1998 after the government lowered the minimum pumping level without any scientific justification.

The long predicted sea water ingress and resulting salination of the aquifers occurred.

The use of water from the aquifers for agriculture has salinated the fields, resulting in massive loss of agricultural potential.

The combination of overuse, salination and overpopulation has left both Israel and the Palestine with insufficient water resources to sustain the existing population, and salination of the land will lead to eventual food insufficiency.

While Israel could provide desalinated water to its citizens to meet life-critical potable water needs, the Palestinians cannot afford this, meaning that the Palestinians may need to be integrated, moved elsewhere or see their population plumet - and Israel doesn't want to accept the first, and will be blamed for the latter.

Not even Israel, with (unsustainable) American financial support can provide enough water to meet its agricultural needs.

Israel is well aware of all the above.

This is why Israel attempted, with American support, to negotiate for water from Egypt and why Israel went so far as to develop battle plans to wrest control of the Nile waters from Egypt. Still, while this explains American and Israeli involvement in, and massive destabilization of, Egypt, Ethiopa and the Sudan, this was quite futile, because Egypt's primary fresh water resource, the Nile, is under vast pressure, both from Egypt, which is currently allocated the lions share by treaties negotiated in the early 1900s, and by upstream users who would like to renegotiate a fairer distribution, and no water is likely to be available now or in the future, irrespective of political developments.

Which meant that the Lebanon was the only likely source of water to sustain the Jewish population of Israel.

This required Israeli control of the Lebanon.

Which is why Israel invaded the Lebanon in the 1980s.

Ultimately, due to Iranian, Syrian, Lebanese and Iraqi support, Israel eventually had its ass handed to it on a plate.

Israel determined that they would obliviate Lebanon's supporters, and due to American fundamentalist support in no small part via the "Project for the New American Century"(PNAC), this became a significant component of America's strategic planning, leading eventually to the American invasions of  Iraq and Libya and threats to Iran and Syria.

The cost of the war devastated their economy and collapsed the standard of living, leading to an Israeli withdrawal by July of 2000.

Israel again turned to Egypt. When, in 2011, it became obvious that negotiations with Egypt were not only futile, but doomed by political change, just as the now saline aquifers began to fail, desalination proved far too expensive and global warming began to affect precipitation patterns, causing more extreme temperatures and extreme rainfall events despite total precipitation decreasing and expected to decrease further, the need to eliminate support for the Lebanese, making them more susceptible to Israeli influence, or if required, occupation, became a lot more urgent.

The net result has been the elimination of Libya, pressure on Syria, and threats against Iran. Due to unexpectedly strong protection of Syria by Russia, Israel is attempting to stampede the US into launching an attack on Iran in the hope that this will weaken Syria and the Lebanon sufficiently for Israel to acquire the water resources it requires.

America's Military-Industrial-Media complex is slathering at the mouth at the thought of being rescued from the impact of budget cuts and peace breaking out all over, and is doing everything it can to help persuade us to engage in a jolly little war against Iran.

If you think about it, this all makes perfect sense.

Including why you can't look at any news source, on- or off-line, without seeing more propaganda extolling the necessity and inevitability of a war with Iran.

For all the wrong reasons, including utterly spurious images of "mushroom shaped clouds" and with totally spurious urgency attached to the propaganda.

Just as happened with Iraq, the war mongers don't much want you to hear this message, but at this point, they don't really care. After all, when it comes to America, "There's an old saying in Tennessee—I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee—that says, 'Fool me once, shame on, shame on you. Fool me -- you can't get fooled again.'"* - unless you are stupid, a Republican or a conservative. But I repeat myself.

Israel has taken advantage of, and even attacked the US repeatedly, and got away with it.  Perhaps this is what GW Bush was thinking when he said, "there's an enemy that would like to attack America, Americans, again. There just is. That's the reality of the world. And I wish him all the very best."** If the headlines are correct, America may well succeed beyond GW Bush's most surreal articulation, "Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we."***

*"Remarks by the President on Teaching American History and Civic Education", G.W. Bush, Nashville, Tennessee; September 17, 2002

**GW Bush, Washington, D.C., January 12, 2009

***GW Bush, Washington, D.C., August 5, 2004