Larisa Alexandrovna: Oh, My, God - Parts 1 & 2

[Hissyspit]

http://www.atlargely.com/2007/08/omg-part-2.html

OMG, Part 2

Okay, this is not good folks... not good at all:

"Iran says it will make a formal protest to Iraq on Wednesday over the apparent arrest and detention of seven of its nationals by US troops in Baghdad.

The men were seized from one of the city's main hotels and led away blindfolded and in handcuffs. The Iranian embassy in Baghdad says the men were experts helping to rebuild electricity power stations in Iraq. The US military declined to comment, saying that the action was part of an operation that had not been completed. The group was detained at the Sheraton Ishtar Hotel. Video footage showed soldiers leading the men out of the building. Other soldiers were seen carrying what appeared to be luggage and a laptop computer bag."

The administration is playing at disaster. They are trying to provoke Iran into a first attack. It won't happen, but what will happen is that in a tense situation like this, someone will do something stupid. This is absolutely dangerous and absolutely unhinged behavior. We have American troops in Iraq sitting pretty like ducks at a shoot-em-up party. The LAST thing we need to be doing is playing "bring them on."

And to make things even worse, Kaiser Soze is now playing this game too. Think about this for a moment. US, France, Israel on one side and Russia, China (who holds our debt), and every moderate Muslim nation, as well as South America, on the other side (the holders of the oil we use). If we keep this up, all it will take is for China to call in the debt, and our economy would be worthless overnight. These machismo games are a national security threat.


http://www.atlargely.com/2007/08/larry-johnsons-.html

Larry Johnson's fantastic analysis

Larry Johnson makes provides a very good analysis of what I talk about below in OH, MY, GOD post. I was so startled by the President's speech that I sent word to various sources of mine asking them if I was losing my mind or if the President had just declared war on Iran. The response was that I was indeed reacting appropriately, meaning, it appears the President has indeed declared war on Iran.

To make matters even more interesting, no sooner do I report on the administration's new propaganda product of EFPs to frame Iran as a pretext for war, the President starts delivering that talking point live and in living color and the public is shocked.. Here is what I reported:

"In an effort to build congressional and Pentagon support for military options against Iran, the Bush administration has shifted from its earlier strategy of building a case based on an alleged Iranian nuclear weapons program to one invoking improvised explosive devices (IEDs) purportedly manufactured in Iran that are killing US soldiers in Iraq. According to officials – including two former Central Intelligence Agency case officers with experience in the Middle East – the administration believes that by focusing on the alleged ties between IEDs and Iran, they can link the Iranian government directly to attacks on US forces in Iraq.

Yet the public is shocked, as though this was not already reported on and the public not already warned. We knew this was coming. What we did not know - and what I find remarkable - is this buried declaration of war that no one appears to have noticed in the press. Now, keeping what I reported in mind and reading the text of the President's speech, also now read Larry Johnson's excellent analysis.

Here are some excerpts from his blog:

##

America and the world are entering an extremely dangerous and volatile period and it will be up to senior U.S. military officials and members of Congress to stop the rush to a new war with Iran. The evidence is alarming and disturbing and today’s speech by President Bush before the Veteran’s of Foreign War should not be dismissed as mere political posturing. According to AFP: US President George W. Bush branded the Islamic Republic “the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism,” citing its backing of Hamas, Hezbollah, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Shiite fighters killing US troops in Iraq.

http://www.atlargely.com/2007/08/oh-my-god.html

OH, MY, GOD

Our fearless leader has just claimed that Iran is the leading supporter of terrorism - as though someone injected him with bullshit (Cheney?) and put him into operational spin mode (Cheney?). The president actually is under the delusion that we - the public - are retarded. He even uses the term "nuclear holocaust" as though he or the US has any ethical room to speak. I find his latest fear mongering not only incredibly offensive, but also incredibly dangerous:

- snip -

'"I will take all actions necessary to protect our troops," he said. "I have authorised our military commanders in Iraq to confront Tehran's murderous activities."

The US president insisted action against extremists, both Sunni and Shia, in the Middle East was necessary to protect Americans all over the world.

For the second time in a week he alluded to the disastrous Vietnam war, and Mr Bush also referred to US intervention in Europe in the second world war. As he ran through historical conflicts he repeatedly said the US had "got the job done" and would continue to do so.

"We must confront these dangers before it's too late," he said. "We will fight them over there so we do not have to face them in the United States of America."'

Well, at least this supports what I have now reported twice in the last two weeks: we have stepped up our operations in Iran using CIA "other" black ops. Welcome to the next new war.

MORE AT LINKS

[Swamp Rat]

1. k&r

[liberalmuse]

2. We know what they're planning...

what are we going to do about it? Are we going to follow these insane fucks over the cliff? I know I'm not.

[Old and In the Way]

3. What do these criminals have to lose?

They are in too deep, they've destroyed the US Treasury, lied about the basis of an attack on Iraq, and probably let 9/11 occur to get their PNAC plan to grab the oil underway. They are all in. Will they light the war that ignites the Middle East? If that can help them create conditions to decl;are martial law here, that's how they'll attempt to avoid their ultimate accountability.

This is a very sick and dangerous administration.

[HCE SuiGeneris]

4. America sits in oblivion, besieged by their own media and government,

wringing their hands, or living in denial. This is so wrong.

History is cruel.

[bdamomma]

21. now we know how Germany felt.

but will we rise to the occasion?? to save ourselves, our kids and our country against these thugs.

[mindwalker_i]

5. So honestly...

Bush doesn't care about the troops. He's just using them as an excuse to threaten Iran by saying "I won't allow them to kill American troops..." Bush doesn't care about America either - Katrina being the case in point. He cares about his friends at the top of the food chain and that's about it. The rest of us are the "little people" who work at the factories (if we're lucky), or serving him his dinner at a fancy restaurant. Think Bush wants to have a beer with you? Yeah, he plays a used car salesman on TV, but that's just acting. He's not one of you. He never was and never will be. Get over it.

Who's going to profit from a war with Iran? Obviously not the troops in Iraq but that never mattered anyway. They're grunts - disposable grunts. The only positive thing I see from this is that it will be such an utter disaster that the remaining 26% won't have much of a choice but to say, "Gee, this sucks." Maybe they'll even be forced to consider what got us here in the first place.

I wouldn't hold my breath on that one.

-mwalker

[bdamomma]

22. he spits on all of us, and probably laughing too, smirking too.

[pansypoo53219]

6. uh oh

cheeney is driving now.

[wiggs]

7. This is why the writers of the constitution created three co-equal branches of government...

...to prevent a rogue contingent from taking over the whole country.

What they didn't count on was system-wide compliance and deception, created by arm-bending from the corporatist world.

[orleans]

8. i hate to admit it, but i find this so disturbing i just glazed over your

post--same as i've done with a couple other iran threads.

i can't deal with it lately--don't like to think about it--want to call durbin & obama and tell them i've read some things lately that we're starting some shit up with iran, and DON'T YOU LET BUSH DO IT!

maybe i will.

but as far as details? i can't read it.
and i'm not sure why.

[bdamomma]

23. call your senators, because we know that these nutcases

will not go to the Congress for permission, that is for damn sure. * has proclaimed himself as the unitary executive.

[eridani]

9. Call your congresscritters tomorrow--

--and ask them what they are planning to do to stop the Bush war on Iran.

[bananarepublican]

10. Does Bush want another war just to prove that he's not gay? n/t

[DemReadingDU]

11. morning kick

[Coexist]

12. knr

[cali]

13. Yeah, he's ratcheting it up

and Iran is incensed about these detentions, but it's important to not that the Iranians were quickly released.

[HamdenRice]

14. Point of information, once again: China cannot "call in the debt"

In some bank lending arrangements, a bank can "call in the debt." But that's not how the US federal debt works.

The Treasury Department sells bonds, or debt instruments. These have fixed maturities. That means that the buyer or holder of the bond gets interest for a certain number of years (say, 20 years) and then gets the principal back.

The holder of the bond cannot decide to "call in" the federal government's debt.

A holder, such as China, can, however, sell the bond to someone else. The worry with China is that it may decide to sell its billions and billions of treasury bonds on the open market. This would depress the price of the bonds, as well as the price of the US dollar. That, in turn, would cause the price of imported goods, such as oil, to rise dramatically, cause interest rates to rise, and the stock market to plummet.

[DemReadingDU]

15. Would China do this?

If China decided to sell its billions and billions of treasury bonds on the open market, wouldn't this also depress the world, not just the U.S.?

Would China really do this?

[HamdenRice]

17. That's the big question -- it's like mutually assured destruction

The first effect on China would be that it's own massive reserves of dollars and US treasuries would be depressed. So the only way they can do this is if they could somehow do it secretly and/or quickly.

Otherwise, once word got out that China was dumping dollars and t-bills, the prices of each would collapse and China would wipe out billions in value of its own reserves.

Then, as you point out, the medium term problem is that this would depress US demand for Chinese products, which would depress Chinese manufacturing.

So oddly, the US has leverage over China. It's like the old saying, "Borrow $100,000 from the bank, and the bank owns you; borrow $100 million from the bank and you own the bank."

[sofa king]

27. Could they be hedging their bets?

http://www.cnbc.com/id/20461003

"So far, over $500 million in so-called put options have been purchased betting that the benchmark Standard and Poor's 500 index S&P 500 will tumble anywhere from 5% to 11% in September. Some investors are even buying put options calling for 52% decline. A "put" option increases in value as the underlying stock or index falls."

[htuttle]

16. Actually, I think all China has to do is stop buying our debt

If they weren't there snapping up all those Treasury bonds and such, the dollar would probably crash even without them trying to unload what they are already stuck with.

And as to whether they 'would' do something like this, since it would certainly cost them hundreds of billions in loses, I'd keep in mind that historically speaking, the Chinese government tends to play a very long game. They don't care about 'next quarter' nearly as much as 'next decade'. I could easily imagine them taking a big financial hit now if it cleared out the competition for a longer term time frame.

[HamdenRice]

18. That's what happened in the stock market crash of the mid 80s

Major purchasers of treasury bills simply declined to purchase, which led to a panick on Wall St.

[bdamomma]

19. Oh god, * is totally out of control.

He is our biggest threat. Who or what will stop these maniacs (our homegrown maniacs).:grr:

[lovuian]

20. this was all part of the plan and they are failing

they have no other options but to continue

they can have a war but we don't have to fight it

in other words they can't win they will fail

[Fly by night]

24. Iranians released; incident called "regrettable" (AP)

"BAGHDAD (AP) -- A group of eight Iranians, including two diplomats, were released by U.S. forces Wednesday after being detained because unauthorized weapons were found in their cars, the U.S. military said. An adviser to the top U.S. general in Iraq called the situation "regrettable."

"The incident Tuesday came as tensions between Washington and Tehran were already strained by the detention of each other's citizens as well as U.S. accusations of Iranian involvement in Iraq's violence and alleged Iranian efforts to develop nuclear bombs.

"In Tehran, Iranian officials on Wednesday summoned a Swiss diplomat who represents American interests in the country to protest the U.S. forces' detention of the eight Iranians, the Foreign Ministry said.

"Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini called the U.S. action an act of "interference" in Iraq's internal affairs and "inconsistent" with the responsibilities of U.S.-led occupation forces in Iraq.

"Four cars carrying the Iranians, as well as seven Iraqis, were stopped at a checkpoint Tuesday evening and then allowed to proceed to the nearby Sheraton Ishtar hotel, where they were later taken into custody and questioned, the military said.

"Saadi Othman, an adviser to Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. general in Iraq, told British Broadcasting Corp. television that the incident was "regrettable" and had "nothing to do" with President Bush's remarks on Tuesday, when he lashed out at Iran for meddling in Iraq's affairs and fomenting instability here."

I wouldn't put anything past the Smirking Chimp. But this latest provocation seems to have been nipped in the bud.

[Kurovski]

25. K&R. (nt)

[RadiDem]

26. FUCK! AWOL is trying to start WWIII so he and his Xtian nutter friends can get raptured!