Pentagon afraid to punish Iran.

By Ted Belman

Garth Porter reports in Asia Times Pentagon blocked Cheney’s attack on Iran reasoning

    Pentagon officials argued that no decision should be made about the limited airstrike on Iran without a thorough discussion of the sequence of events that would follow an Iranian retaliation for such an attack. Carpenter said the DoD officials insisted that the Bush administration had to make “a policy decision about how far the administration would go – what would happen after the Iranians would go after our folks”.

In other words, the Pentagon felt “that Iran has “escalation dominance” in its conflict with the United States.”

    Pentagon civilian and military opposition to such a strategic attack on Iran had become well-known during 2007. But this is the first evidence from an insider that Cheney’s proposal was perceived as a ploy to provoke Iranian retaliation that could used to justify a strategic attack on Iran

So there you have it. The reason the US didn’t go after Iran in limited ways was because the US feared Iranian retaliation. The US had to first decide if it wanted a full scale war with Iran. If not it feared limited attacks.

June 10, 2008 | 6 Comments »

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6 Comments / 6 Comments

  1. It would be nice if Iran were wiped off the face of the earth first. I think that’s why there’s a push to help arm Saudi Arabia. That’s just speculation. Our only exit strategy is the removal of all Middle Eastern regimes.

  2. That’s a bunch of bullshit. The Pentagon isn’t afraid of anything. No, what we have here in America is bunch of demon-crats holding back our Pentagon from making effective choices and decisions in warfare. A war plan was already drafted up and one of our Pentagon officials already boasted that it would only take a few weeks to destroy the Iranian regime. The true problem is a larger war with Russia and China. We need Russia and China’s alliance to be successful in Iran. We simply need a plan with the Russians and the Chinese to divide up Iran fairly and equally once we seize their oil and petroleum fields. However, with the Bush-Rice plan to help Saudi Arabia build nuclear technologies, it’s kind of hypocritical of us to fight against Iran while arming Saudi Arabia – Israel’s avowed enemies.

    Have we all forgotten that PAKISTAN now has 60 nuclear facilities? Just how did they become a nuclear power? Osama has hidden himself somewhere in there and wasn’t our whole war against the chief of Al Qaeda? We haven’t achieved our objective in capturing Osama who runs around laughing hysterically at the weaknesses of the US and EUROPE. All enemies of the US are laughing, including the democratic party. Can the Pentagon fight against the entire UN community? Well, the UN has an office right in the Middle of the Pentagon! We must also not forget about how many democratic corporations have economic ties with Iran and will LOOSE MONEY.

    Shall we LOOSE MONEY TO DO WHAT’S RIGHT? I have deleted my website as a statement of protest that I accept my own defeat in this world.

    My only commander in chief is the Lord, the God of Israel!

  3. You know, before we took out Saddam, we should have eliminated the Ayatollahs of Iran, they are a more dangerous threat, that is why the other Middle Eastern states were happy Saddam was in power, he was a buffer between them and the insane Shia regime in Iran.

  4. It appeared in early 2007, therefore, that a strike at Iran’s nuclear program and military power had been blocked by opposition from the Pentagon. Cheney’s proposal for an attack on IRGC bases in June 2007, tied to the alleged Iranian role in providing both weapons – especially the highly lethal explosively formed projectiles (EFPs) – and training to Shi’ite militias appears to have been a strategy for getting around the firm resistance of military leaders to such an unprovoked attack.

    Well if Iran is providing EFP’s to terrorists in Iraq to kill American soldiers, then an attack on Iran would NOT be unprovoked.

  5. This is so pathetic. Every day I am more ashamed of this country than I am the day before.

    I’m not surprised though. I was counting on the attack on Iran to happen in 2006, when it didn’t come I knew this government has lost its nerve. It’s really profoundly pathetic what has happened.

  6. Whats there to be afraid of didn’ Barak Hussein Obama, state recently that Iran was a nothing powrless country compared to Russia and especially the USA? I am paraphrasing!