Brinkmanship over Iran Tensions

[marmar]

from Consortium News:


Brinkmanship over Iran Tensions
November 12, 2012

Like a decade ago with Iraq, the Washington press corps today is hyping every dubious incident that raises tensions with Iran, such as shots fired at an unmanned U.S. drone off Iran’s coast. Downplayed are the endless Israeli threats to bomb Iran, as ex-CIA analyst Paul R. Pillar explains.

By Paul R. Pillar


Recent reports that in 2010 Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak ordered the Israeli military to increase its readiness level in anticipation of war with Iran appeared to leave some unanswered questions.

Since none of us who do not have Israeli military manuals on our shelves know exactly what level “P-plus” means, it is hard to adjudicate the reported disagreement between Israeli military chiefs, who resisted the order on grounds that it could precipitate a war, and Netanyahu and Barak, who reportedly assured them that it would not.

A subsequent analysis by Israeli journalist Yossi Melman helps to clear matters up. Melman explains: “The truth is that Netanyahu and Barak did not order the military to plan a direct, all-out attack on Iran. Their true intention was to trigger a chain of events which would create tension and provoke Iran, and eventually could have led to a war that might drag in the United States.”

The Israeli military’s chief of staff, General Gabi Ashkenazi, warned Netanyahu and Barak that what they were ordering could “create uncontrollable facts on the ground” that would touch off an unwanted war. “If you open and press an accordion, the instrument starts playing music,” is the way Ashkenazi put it. The understandable worry among the generals was about a 1914-style situation in which the responses and fears engendered by mobilization measures lead to a war that nobody had specifically chosen in the first place. ..................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://consortiumnews.com/2012/11/12/brinkmanship-over-iran-tensions/

[xchrom]

1. du rec. nt

[leveymg]

2. Iran wins so long as it can resist the urge to strike back, no matter what the provocation.