Iran Attack Looks More Likely as Eisenhower Carrier Group Sails

[Demeter]

http://www.buzzflash.com/articles/contributors/461

Iran Attack Looks More Likely as Eisenhower Carrier Group Sails for Iran Theater

A BUZZFLASH GUEST CONTRIBUTION
by Dave Lindorff, co-author of "The Case for Impeachment"

BREAKING NEWS: Eisenhower Carrier Group Sails for Iran Theater

The nuclear-powered aircraft carrier Eisenhower and its accompanying strike force of cruiser, destroyer and attack submarine slipped their moorings and headed off for the Persian Gulf region on Oct. 2, as I had predicted in a piece in The Nation magazine a few weeks back.

The Eisenhower strike force, according to my sources, is scheduled to arrive in the vicinity of Iran around October 21, at the same time as a second flotilla of minesweepers and other ships.

This build-up of naval power around the coast of Iran, according to some military sources, is in preparation for an air attack on Iran that would target not just Iran's nuclear enrichment facilities, but its entire military command and control system.

While such an attack could be expected to unleash a wave of military violence all over Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and elsewhere against American forces and interests and against oil wells, pipelines and loading vacilities, as well as a mining of the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz, with a resulting skyrocketing of global oil prices, the real goal of this new war by the U.S. would be ensuring Republican control of the House and Senate.

SOME REAL NEWS TO GO AGAINST THE FLUFFY SEX SCANDALS

Dave Lindorff is co-author with Barbara Olshansky of "The Case for Impeachment: The Legal Argument for Removing President George W. Bush from Office" (St. Martin's Press, June 2006). His work can be found at www.thiscantbehappening.net

[Solo_in_MD]

1. Nonsense

The Ike has been in the workup schedule for over a year, standard rotation, and was already planned for that region to relieve one of bird farms already there.


He should stick to politics and leave the Defense reporting to those who understand it.

[BattyDem]

2. The Eisenhower's crew disagrees

They got an unexpected "prepare to deploy order" and were told to be ready by October 1.

From The Nation:

The Eisenhower had been in port at the Naval Station Norfolk for several years for refurbishing and refueling of its nuclear reactor; it had not been scheduled to depart for a new duty station until at least a month later, and possibly not till next spring. Family members, before the orders, had moved into the area and had until then expected to be with their sailor-spouses and parents in Virginia for some time yet. First word of the early dispatch of the "Ike Strike" group to the Persian Gulf region came from several angry officers on the ships involved, who contacted antiwar critics like retired Air Force Col. Sam Gardiner and complained that they were being sent to attack Iran without any order from the Congress.

*******

Colonel Gardiner, who has taught military strategy at the National War College, says that the carrier deployment and a scheduled Persian Gulf arrival date of October 21 is "very important evidence" of war planning. He says, "I know that some naval forces have already received 'prepare to deploy orders' , which have set the date for being ready to go as October 1. Given that it would take about from October 2 to October 21 to get those forces to the Gulf region, that looks about like the date" of any possible military action against Iran. (A PTDO means that all crews should be at their stations, and ships and planes should be ready to go, by a certain date--in this case, reportedly, October 1.) Gardiner notes, "You cannot issue a PTDO and then stay ready for very long. It's a very significant order, and it's not done as a training exercise." This point was also made in the Time article.

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20061009/lindorff

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This doesn't sound good. :scared:

[Solo_in_MD]

3. The air wing workup schedule say different...

[peacetalksforall]

4. Most likely some aircraft that looks like it belongs to the Iranian

air force will be shot down on the claim that it was about to bomb one of our ships. We will 'counter-attack', then martial law will be declared in the U.S. - the election will be 'postponed'.

[peacetalksforall]

5. The word went around a year ago that mil intelligence was

already in Iran - preparing, so to spaek. People posting here have reported on relatives who have been told they're going. But the ships are not part of it - according to what you are saying?

[Solo_in_MD]

7. What I am saying is that it is not a popup

The Ike Group has been working up and been planned to deploy for quite sometime. 30 days wobble is not significant.

[sofa king]

8. No, but maybe 30-120 days wobble is.

The Eisenhower was scheduled to be ready to deploy sometime between November and March. Instead they had to rush off in order to be in the Arabian Sea by the new moon, October 22. And it's a seven-month deployment instead of six, which further suggests an early departure.

As best I can tell, five out of the seven Marine Expeditionary Units just happen to be ready to deploy or nearly so. One is already in Kuwait. Another is on the way to the Persian Gulf with the Boxer. Still another, the 26th, just happened to be training in southeast Virginia--not Quantico--at the end of September, at the same time that the USS Kearsarge (LHD-3) happened to wander into Norfolk in the middle of its tour. MEUs do not normally hold exercises in Virginia, but this one did, and completed it on October 5. At top speed, the Kearsarge could leave Norfolk on October 7 and still catch up with the Eisenhower Group at Dubai on the 21st. Did the Marines load up and take off? I don't know.

There's a lot of wobbling going on, and I'm worried about it.

[bemildred]

6. Whitney's record of prognostication is not good.

We been "gonna attack Iran" for a couple years now.