Pakistani Weekly Pulse claims U.S. will attack both Iran and Pakistan

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...as American forces will try to hit both Iran and Pakistan simultaneously in an upcoming war, based on information put out by both Pakistani and Indian analysts.

U.S. probability of an attack on Iran has risen sharply says the Pakistani news weekly, Weekly Pulse. This became evident from French Foreign Minister Bernard Kushner's statement, in an interview last month, that France should prepare for a war against Iran, in case negotiations fail.

Weekly Pulse points out that, besides Iran, Pakistan is also one of the "problematic" states, so by invading the western parts of Pakistan they can take out Islamic militants who have congregated in that region. Both Republican and Democratic presidential hopefuls have reiterated their opinion that the imbroglio in Afghanistan cannot be solved without first bringing Pakistan into line. The nuclear capability of Pakistan and its doubtful role in nuclear proliferation cases is also a matter of concern in Washington.

Indian military analysts say that the Americans will not carry out two separate military operations and will try to hit both Iran and the western part of Pakistan simultaneously. When in September, Pentagon raised the number of U.S. attack targets in Iran from 1,000 to 2,000, Indian experts pointed out that the new targets identified were mostly in western Pakistan.

The Pakistani weekly also notes that a report, released last month by the U.S.-based Institute for the Study of War, employs the term "proxy war," and claims that with the Sunni insurgency and al-Qaeda in Iraq "increasingly under control", Iranian intervention is the "next major problem the coalition must tackle". The dual attack on Iran and Pakistan could come as early as November 2007.

The BushCo mushroom principle: Keep America in the dark and feed us a lot of bullshit!

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Looming US invasions on Iran and Pakistan?
By Atilla Amir Iftikhar September 28, 2007

The probability of a US-led military campaign against Iran has steadily increased and earlier this year the prediction was an attack by November – by then the US would also have gathered enough support from important coalition partners in the NATO alliance and friendly Muslim states. French Foreign Minister Bernard Kushner in an interview this month stated that France must prepare for a war against Iran should negotiations fail.

A slim majority of Europeans would back attacks on Iran as a last resort to stop it from acquiring a nuclear bomb, according to a poll by Frances TNS-Sores released in April 2007. Asked to comment on the statement "we must stop countries like Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons, even if that means taking military action,” 52 per cent said they agreed while 40 per cent said they did not.

A majority agreed with the statement in 18 EU states including France and Britain while a majority was against it in nine others, including Germany and Spain. Support was highest in Denmark (68 per cent) and fell to 37 per cent in Slovakia. The United States hopes for permission to use airfields in Azerbaijan for military purposes and even the Gulf states, Qatar, Oman and the United Arab Emirates have told the United States that they would not object to US or Israel using their airspace, in case of an attack on Iranian nuclear facilities.

The Institute for the Study of War last month released a report by Kimberly Kaman which explicitly uses the term "proxy war" and claims that with the Sunni insurgency and Al-Qaeda in Iraq "increasingly under control", Iranian intervention is the "next major problem the coalition must tackle". Further, the US General Dan McNeill reiterated repeated concerns of the coalition forces in Afghanistan that Iranian weapons were being supplied to insurgents in the western Farah and southern Helmand provinces of Afghanistan.

Hence, Washington believes that a rapid attack on Iran with an overwhelming force would help the Americans eventually succeed both in Iraq and Afghanistan. Insiders say that Pentagon has drawn up plans for massive air-strikes against over 1,000 targets in Iran, designed to annihilate the Iranians' military capability in less than one week. Recently, the retired US general John Abigail did warn against attacking Iran and said the West could live with a nuclear-armed Iran. "Iran is not a suicide nation".

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http://www.weeklypulse.org/pulse/article/713