Five Reasons Why War With Iran is Total BS

By Clavell Jackson

After more than a decade of fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq, you would think that the American people have had enough with war. But no, there is a cadre of neocons and Christian fundamentalists who seem to be hell bent on dragging the nation into a war with Iran.

Of course, like the first Gulf War and the Iraq war, the real reasons are more cynical. I guess its tough to get people to go to war for cheap oil, but "fighting for freedom" sounds more catchy.  (The first Gulf War reestablished an undemocratic regime in Kuwait, and the Iraq war left thousands of people dead and the nation in such a mess, that Iraqis long for the days of Saddam.)

Here are the reasons why war with Iran is total BS:

• Iran probably does not have nuclear weapons. The main reason why Israel is pushing for an strike on Iran is because the Iranians are allegedly developing a nuclear weapon. However, there are several reasons why this makes no sense. Firstly, American intelligence say that the Iranians are a couple of years away from developing a nuclear weapon. This point was backed up by Sec. of Defense Leon Panetta. In addition, a recent leak of emails from Stratfor, a private intelligence gathering company, claims that Israeli commandos already destroyed an Iranian nuclear site back in 2010. This makes more sense. The Israelis tend not to mess around or wait for permission when they perceive a threat to their nation. And even more suspect is the recent claim that they won't notify the United States if they decide to attack, which indicates they may have already done this in the past.
• Israel has enough nukes to erase Iran from the face of the earth. Israel is worried about Iran getting a nuke, but it is perfectly happy to sit on a nuclear arsenal of up to 200 weapons, according to a 2007 report from the Federation of American Scientists. The Israelis closely guard their nuclear secrets. Back in the 1980s, when Israeli nuclear secrets were leaked by scientist Mordecai Vannunu, Israeli spies used a female agent to lure Vannunu to Italy and whisk him back to Jerusalem, where he was sentenced to 18 years in jail. The clerics running Iran might be crazy, but I don't think they are mad enough to go to war with a country that could vaporize them in a couple of days.  
• Most wars are about money. Tom Clancy once described war as "armed robbery on a national scale." Chances are that if people are dying from warfare, someone, somewhere is getting rich of it. So who stands to gain from a war between Israel and Iran? Well, there are the arms companies who always love a good war. If you are in the weapons trade, then peace is bad for business. You need nations at each other's throats so they can buy your guns, bullets, tanks, missiles and warships. According to an article in The International Business Times, a Stratfor email claims Russia, India and China stand to gain from an attack on Iran. Anissa Haddadi writes, "Not many people know that Russia is one of Israel's largest military partners and India is Israel's largest client. If a direct conflict between Iran and Israel erupts, Russia and Saudi Arabia will gain the advantages on oil increasing prices." Rumors of war also give oil speculators an excuse to jack up prices.
• War with Iran is bad for President Obama. Mere rumors of wars have already caused oil prices to spike, leading to $5 gasoline in part of the United States. And this could be very bad for Obama. Americans are very touchy about gas prices, and then tend to take their frustrations out on the president, even if he has little control over prices at the pump. In addition, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is a neocon, and close to the American Republican party. (Netenyahu lived in America as a youth and graduated from M.I.T.) He is also funded by Sheldon Adelson, the same eccentric billionaire who thinks it would be a good idea to spend $100 million on putting serial philanderer Newt Gingrich and his blow-up doll wife, Callista, in the White House. Netanyahu is alleged to loathe Obama, and according to American writer Max Blumenthal, is funding loony birther queen Orly Taitz. There is nothing Netanyahu would like better than to saddle Obama with an international incident going into an election. As you may have noticed, most of the Republican presidential candidates, except for stealth racist Ron Paul, are in favor of war with Iran.  And if Obama sticks to his guns and refuses to let America get drawn into another conflict, Netanyahu and his neocon buddies can paint him as being weak on defense and not supporting an ally.
• Not all Israelis are in favor of war with Iran. Although most of the Israeli media has fallen in behind the administration in support of a military strike, there are some vocal critics. The liberal Israeli paper Haaretz has been a lone critic of war. And Meir Dagan, former head of Mossad, Israel's foreign intelligence agency, has been a vocal critic of a strike against Iran. Dagan, who is also supported by some generals, said an attack on Iran is “the stupidest idea I’ve ever heard."  And according Salon.com, Dagan added, “the regional challenge that Israel would face would be impossible.”  As a former head of one of the most feared intelligence agencies in the world, I think he knows what he is talking about. Unfortunately, recently Dagan has given up on criticizing the Israeli government.

I am not an intelligence expert, most of this information is open source and can be obtained from an Internet search. I first learned of Israel's plans to attack Iran about five months, when I accidently tuned in Ian Master's radio show "Background Briefing," when he was talking to former CIA agent Bob Baer. I found the interview frightening, but only half believed it. Fast forward to the present day and we are seeing media stories drumming up war with Iran. Be very afraid.