The Anglo-American aggression addicts haven't kicked the habit. The team that brought you shock and awe and Operation Infinite Justice is gearing up for yet another crack at winning a senseless war in the Middle East...............The US national intelligence director James Clapper's unsubstantiated claim that Iran is preparing attacks in the US itself – without even a 45-minute warning, apparently – is one sign among many that the familiar spook-media propaganda coalition is in overdrive again, selling another cock-eyed conflict.

In his book Spider's Web: The Secret History of How the White House Illegally Armed Iraq (1993), US journalist Alan Friedman emphasised how the US aided the Saddam Hussein regime in Iraq in attacking Iran in the 1980s. According to Friedman, Washington gave Iraq billions of dollars worth of economic aid, dual-use technology, non-US arms, military intelligence, special operations training, and other forms of assistance throughout the Iran-Iraq War in the 1980s. According to Friedman, an Atlanta branch of the Italian bank Banca Nazionale del Lavoro funneled over $5 billion to Iraq from 1985 to 1989. Moreover, a 1994 report from the US Senate banking committee indicated that the US provided the Saddam regime with chemical weapons and that it exported pathogenic, toxigenic, and other biological materials to Iraq afte...
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The supreme leader of Iran vowed on Friday to retaliate over oil sanctions and threats of military action by the West to stop Iran’s nuclear program, warning that the United States in particular would face severe damage to its interests if any strike were carried out against its nuclear sites.

Iran on Friday launched an observation satellite into orbit above Earth, its third since 2009, the official IRNA news agency reported.

The issue of survival is not taken lightly by the Iranian military and political establishments. According to an article published by the Guardian, an Iranian idiom is quite popular among military officials, “If we drown, we'll drown everyone with us.” The Iranian regime is prepared to fight until the end. Many foreign leaders, such as France’s Nicholas Sarkozy are also very worried about the implications of a potential military conflict with Iran. As reported by the German publication Spiegel, during his New Year’s address to diplomats in Paris, Sarkozy stated, “A military intervention [in Iran] would not solve the problem [of Iran's nuclear program], but would trigger war and chaos in the Middle East and maybe the world.

Guided by an army of "geeks with a conscience," a network of digital activists, working mostly in the shadows, is emerging to challenge the restrictions of repressive governments around the world.

The Gulf Arab states, anchored by Saudi Arabia, are critical front-line allies against Iran. Any threats to the Gulf's autocrats would be perceived in the West also as an assault on important political interests. "It was much easier for the U.S. to cut loose (former Egyptian President Hosni) Mubarak than it would be with any of the Gulf states," said Christopher Davidson, an expert on Gulf affairs at Britain's Durham University. "The Arab Spring is definitely weighing heavily on the minds of Gulf rulers and their Western partners."

Former Israeli defence chief says that a strike on Iran would plunge the Middle East into war..........General Lipkin-Shahak stressed that Iran with a nuclear arsenal would be a hugely destabilising factor in the region. But, he said: "It is quite clear that much if not all of the IDF [Israeli Defence Forces] leadership do not support military action at this point."..........."Even if there was 100 per cent intelligence, even if the Americans knew the exact locations of the sites, it could be very difficult to hit what is inside. The Iranians are not stupid, we should not underestimate their intelligence."

U.S. lawmakers have proposed tighter economic sanctions on Iran, as senior intelligence officials say measures already in place are having an effect. Lawmakers in Washington unveiled proposals Tuesday for sanctions that would target Iran's national oil and shipping companies, and restrict its ability to tap into electronic banking services.

The same time Washington conducts and enlarges this military involvement in the non-Western world, the American public, and again, many of its foreign policy experts and political leaders, have decided that the United States is in decline, its social coherence, its sense of unity and purpose lost, divided as never before by economic class and a newly felt and newly expressed hatred between the one percent monopolizing its wealth and the excluded 99 percent. The American and Western economies are badly weakened by a global recession and potential depression, wrought by Wall Street.............It also is necessary to ask what China's ambitions are. It has never in the past shown much interest...
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But it is also because of the Obama administration permitted the Right to define the metrics of success on Iran. Obama has completely bought into the idea that a “strong” Iran policy is one that is tough, punishing and confrontational. As on so many other issues, Obama has permitted the debate to take place on the Right’s turf. In doing so, he has betrayed his own platform of pursuing “smart” rather than just “tough” policies.

In sum, whatever you think about President Ahmadinejad (and I think he's pretty horrible), or about what he said or about the sincerity of his subsequent qualifications of what he said, for Barak to say Iran's "strategic goal" is Israel's annihilation is a bit misleading. But let's leave aside the facts of the case. Could Barak really think that, even if Iranian leaders had said they would launch a first strike, they'd actually do such a thing? To believe that, you would have to believe that the Iranian regime is literally suicidal, since Israel's nuclear retaliatory capacity is very robust (not to mention the fact that the event wouldn't exactly go unnotice...
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But in recent weeks, the Obama administration and its allies have thrown smart sanctions overboard, slapping Iran with broad restrictions on oil exports and banking that they hope will damage the economy so badly that they force the leadership to change course..........."The first victims will be the poor and helpless," Raisdana said. "Then the middle class, and ultimately the tiny minority of the rich whose consumer goods are imported from abroad."

It's hard to understand how a society that has so impressively brought social injustice to the top of the agenda has fallen victim to our nationalist-religious leaders' criminal ploy and the irresponsible opposition's helplessness.