Pat Buchanan issues veiled warning about Israhellie false-flag plot for Iran war

[yankeedoodle]

The Israeli-linked tanker MT Mercer Street, off the Fujayrah port in the United Arab Emirates, on August 3, 2021. On July 29 the ship had sustained what appeared to be a drone attack. Israel claims the strike was by Iran, which Iran denies.

Patrick Buchanan: A Tonkin Gulf incident in the Gulf of Oman?
https://israelpalestinenews.org/patrick-buchanan-a-tonkin-gulf-incident-in-the-gulf-of-oman/

Israel has long targeted Iran as an enemy to be taken down. Author/analyst Patrick Buchanan is not alone in suspecting that the recent strike on the the MT Mercer Street tanker could be a false flag incident intended to lead to an attack against Iran...
Buchanan concludes: "Those behind this attack on the Israeli-owned vessel do not want to reduce the possibility of war between the United States and Iran. They want to make it a reality. We ought not accommodate them."

By Patrick Buchanan, reposted from Commercial-News https://www.commercial-news.com/opinion/patrick-buchanan-a-tonkin-gulf-incident-in-the-gulf-of-oman/article_fb2fe330-f6b4-11eb-8ce6-3f26cd85a025.html

A week ago, the MT Mercer Street, a Japanese-owned tanker managed by a U.K.-based company owned by Israeli billionaire Eyal Ofer, sailing in the Arabian Sea off the coast of Oman, was struck by drones.

A British security guard and Romanian crew member were killed.

Britain and the U.S. immediately blamed Iran, and the Israelis began to beat the war drums.

Monday, Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz said action against Iran should be taken "right now."

Tuesday, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett warned Israel could "act alone." "They can't sit calmly in Tehran while igniting the entire Middle East — that's over," said Bennett. "We are working to enlist the whole world, but when the time comes, we know how to act alone."

Wednesday, Gantz ratcheted it up, "Now is the time for deeds — words are not enough. ... It is time for diplomatic, economic and even military deeds. Otherwise the attacks will continue."

Thursday, Gantz went further: "Israel is ready to attack Iran, yes. ... We are at a point where we need to take military action against Iran. The world needs to take action against Iran now."

And what do the Americans say?

"We are confident that Iran conducted this attack," said Secretary of State Antony Blinken. "We are working with our partners to consider our next steps and consulting with governments inside the region and beyond on an appropriate response, which will be forthcoming." [Editor's note: Blinken is a longtime Israel partisan.]

Iran, however, has repeatedly denied that it ordered the attack.

What makes the attack puzzling is its timing, as it occurred just days before the inauguration of the newly elected president of Iran, the ultraconservative hardliner Ebrahim Raisi.

Query: Would Raisi have ordered a provocative attack on an Israeli-owned vessel, just days before taking office, when his highest priority is a lifting of the "maximum pressure" sanctions imposed on his country by former President Donald Trump? Why?

Would Raisi put at risk his principal diplomatic goal, just to get even with Israel for some earlier pinprick strike in the tit-for-tat war in which Iran and Israel have been engaged for years? Again, why?

If not Raisi, would the outgoing president, the moderate Hassan Rouhani, have ordered such an attack on his last hours in office and risk igniting a war with Israel and the U.S. that his country could not win?

Could the attack have been the work of rogue elements in the Iranian Republican Guard Corps? Gantz and Foreign Minister Yair Lapid claim that Saeed Ara Jani, head of the drones section of the IRGC, "is the man personally responsible for the terror attacks in the Gulf of Oman."

Or was this simply a reflexive Iranian reprisal for Israeli attacks?

For years, Israel and Iran have been in a shadow war, with Iran backing Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthi rebels in Yemen, and the Shia militia in Syria and Iraq.

Israel has both initiated and responded to attacks with strikes on Iranian-backed militia in Lebanon, Syria and Iraq, and by sabotaging Iran's nuclear program and assassinating its nuclear scientists.

But whoever was behind the attack in the Gulf of Oman, and whatever the political motive, the U.S. was not the target, and the U.S. should not respond militarily to a drone strike that was not aimed at us.

No one has deputized us to police the Middle East, and we have not prospered these last two decades by having deputized ourselves.

With America leaving Afghanistan and U.S. troops in Iraq transiting out of any "combat" role, now is not the time to get us ensnared in a new war with Iran.

Lest we forget. It was in an August, 57 years ago, that the Tonkin Gulf incident occurred, which led America to plunge into an eight-year war in Vietnam.

President Joe Biden's diplomatic goal with Iran, since taking office, has been the resurrection of the 2015 nuclear deal from which former President Donald Trump walked away. In return for Iran's reacceptance of strict conditions on its nuclear program, the U.S. has offered a lifting of Trump's sanctions.

Whoever launched the drone strike sought to ensure that no new U.S.-Iran deal is consummated, that U.S. sanctions remain in place, and that a U.S. war with Iran remain a possibility.

But, again, why would Tehran carry out such a drone attack and kill crewmen on an Israeli-owned vessel — then loudly deny it?

Since he took office, Biden has revealed his intent to extricate the U.S. from the "forever wars" of the Middle East and to pivot to the Far East and China. By this month's end, all U.S. forces are to be out of Afghanistan, and the 2,500 U.S. troops still in Iraq are to be repurposed, no longer to be designated as combat troops.

Those behind this attack on the Israeli-owned vessel do not want to reduce the possibility of war between the United States and Iran.

They want to make it a reality. We ought not accommodate them.

[yankeedoodle]

Brits [ ] gonna tell us who did it.     Wonder how long it will take them to tell us that Israhell...oops, Iran...did it.   

UK Special Forces team allegedly deployed to Yemen to hunt suspects in Mercer Street tanker attack 
https://www.rt.com/news/531481-uk-special-forces-yemen-tanker/?utm_source=browser&utm_medium=aplication_chrome&utm_campaign=chrome

A Special Air Service (SAS) team has arrived in Yemen to hunt down those allegedly responsible for launching a recent drone attack against the Israeli-operated tanker off the coast of Oman, the Daily Express reported.

A team of 40 Special Forces soldiers arrived to eastern Yemen on Saturday, the paper claimed on Sunday. The team supposedly includes an electronic warfare unit capable of intercepting communications and is tasked with hunting down the group that is supposedly behind the attack on the Mercer Street tanker in late June.

The soldiers would also rely on local handlers, who received payment from the Foreign Office, the paper said, adding that London apparently believes that Iran-backed Houthi rebels carried out the attack with support from Tehran.

"Everything points to the drone being launched from Yemen. The concern now is that an extended range drone will give them a new capability," a British military source told the Daily Express.

The paper also said, citing purported US and Israeli intelligence, that the suicide drone that killed two people onboard the tanker was launched from Eastern Yemen and directed via GPS towards the vessel while a human operator controlled it for the final mile.

The UK's SAS team is working together with an American Special Operations force that is already in Yemen, the paper said, adding that the Americans have been training an elite Saudi commando unit there.

The Daily Express did not name its sources and the UK officials did not confirm the operation, which is supposedly still ongoing. London, Washington and Tel Aviv accused Tehran of being behind the attack on an Israeli-operated tanker that claimed the life of a British security guard and a Romanian captain.

Iran repeatedly denied the accusations and vowed a "strong" response to any threats, as the UK and the US stated they were working on a "response"  against Tehran, but stopped short of officially announcing any specific steps.

Israel's defense minister said earlier this week that his nation is ready to strike Iran as tensions in the region remain high.

The presence of British soldiers on the Yemeni soil would hardly be anything new, though. Reports about the UK commandos being injured in one of the fights of the protracted civil war date back to as early as 2019. A unit of the Special Boat Service saw some of its commandos injured in an alleged gun battle in the Sa'dah area of northern Yemen, according to the media.

In Yemen, a Saudi-led coalition is supporting the Yemeni government of the president Mansur Hadi against the Shiite Houthi rebels backed by Iran. The coalition led by Riyadh has been repeatedly accused of human rights violations in Yemen – partly due to indiscriminate bombings that often claim lives of civilians.

The UK troops, however, do not take part in this conflict, at least officially. London repeatedly stated it was not a "party to the war," although the British defense industry was actively supplying the Saudis with arms and ammunition. In the five years of the Yemeni war between 2015 and 2020, the leading British arms manufacturer BAE Systems reportedly sold £15 billion ($20.27 billion) worth of arms, training and other services to Saudi armed forces.

In July, it was revealed that London maintains a covert detachment of soldiers in Yemen. The troops had been training Saudi forces since at least the start of 2021. They were stationed at the Al-Ghaydah airport in al-Mahrah, Yemen's far eastern governorate.

The place was earlier described by the Human Rights Watch as an informal detention facility, where people were tortured. Another report said that around 30 British soldiers were stationed there.

British air defense teams have also been deployed to Saudi Arabia to man Giraffe radars that track Houthi drones and rockets since at least February 2020.

[yankeedoodle]

From Phil Giraldi:
Was the Tanker Attack an Israeli False Flag?
An incident that could lead to a much bigger warhttps://www.unz.com/pgiraldi/was-the-tanker-attack-an-israeli-false-flag/

In the United States we now live under a government that largely operates in secret, headed by an executive that ignores the constitutional separation of powers and backed by a legislature that is more interested in social engineering than in benefitting the American people. The US, together with its best friend and faux ally Israel, has become the ultimate rogue nation, asserting its right to attack anyone at any time who refuses to recognize Washington's leadership. America is a country in decline, its influence having been eroded by a string of foreign policy and military disasters starting with Vietnam and more recently including Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria, Yemen and the Ukraine. As a result, respect for the United States has plummeted most particularly over the past twenty years since the War on Terror was declared and the country has become a debtor nation as it prints money to sustain a pointless policy of global hegemony which no one else either desires or respects.

It has been argued in some circles that the hopelessly ignorant Donald Trump and the dementia plagued Joe Biden have done one positive thing, and that has been to keep us out of an actual shooting war with anyone able to retaliate in kind, which means in practice Russia and possibly China. Even if that were so, one might question a clumsy foreign policy devoid of any genuine national interest that is a train wreck waiting to happen. It has no off switch and has pushed America's two principal rivals into becoming willy-nilly de facto enemies, something which neither Moscow nor Beijing wished to see develop.

Contrary to the claims that Trump and Biden are war-shy, both men have in fact committed war crimes by carrying out attacks on targets in both Syria and Iraq, to include the assassination of senior Iranian general Qasim Soleimani in January 2020. Though it was claimed at the time that the attacks were retaliatory, evidence supporting that view was either non-existent or deliberately fabricated.

Part of the problem for Washington is that the US had inextricably tied itself to worthless so-called allies in the Middle East, most notably Israel and Saudi Arabia. The real danger is not that Joe Biden or Kamala Harris will do something really stupid but rather that Riyadh or Jerusalem will get involved in something over their heads and demand, as "allies," that they be bailed out by Uncle Sam. Biden will be unable to resist, particularly if it is the Israel Lobby that is doing the pushing.

Perhaps one of the more interesting news plus analysis articles along those lines that I have read in a while appeared last week in the Business Insider, written by one Mitchell Plitnick, who is described as president of ReThinking Foreign Policy. https://www.businessinsider.com/russia-and-israel-may-be-on-collision-course-in-syria-2021-8 The article bears the headline "Russia and Israel may be on a collision course in Syria" and it argues that Russia's commitment to Syria and Israel's interest in actively deterring Iran and its proxies are irreconcilable, with the US ending up in an extremely difficult position which could easily lead to its involvement in what could become a new shooting war. The White House would have to tread very carefully as it would likely want to avoid sending the wrong signals either to Moscow or Jerusalem, but that realization may be beyond the thinking of the warhawks on the National Security Council.

To place the Plitnick article in its current context of rumors of wars, one might cite yet another piece in Business Insider about the July 30th explosive drone attack on an oil tanker off the coast of Oman in the northern Indian Ocean, which killed two crewmen, a Briton and a Romanian. https://www.businessinsider.com/us-shares-evidence-iran-used-kamikaze-drones-deadly-tanker-attack-2021-8 The bombing was immediately attributed to Iran by both Israel and Washington, though the only proof presented was that the fragments of the drone appeared to demonstrate that it was Iranian made, which means little as the device is available to and used by various players throughout the Middle East and in central Asia.

The tanker in question was the MT Mercer Street, sailing under a Liberian flag but Japanese-owned and managed by Zodiac Maritime, an international ship management company headquartered in London and owned by Israeli shipping magnate Eyal Ofer. It was empty, sailing to pick up a cargo, and had a mixed international crew. Inevitably, initial media reporting depended on analysis by the US and Israel, which saw the attack as a warning or retaliatory strike executed or ordered by the newly elected government currently assuming control in Tehran.

US Secretary of State Tony Blinken, who could not possibly have known who carried out the attack, was not shy about expressing his "authoritative" viewpoint, asserting that "We are confident that Iran conducted this attack. We are working with our partners to consider our next steps and consulting with governments inside the region and beyond on an appropriate response, which will be forthcoming."

The US Central Command (CENTCOM) also all too quickly pointed to Iran, stating that "The use of Iranian designed and produced one way attack 'kamikaze' UAVs is a growing trend in the region. They are actively used by Iran and their proxies against coalition forces in the region, to include targets in Saudi Arabia and Iraq."

Tehran denied that it had carried out the attack but the Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz was not accepting that and threatened to attack Iran, saying predictably that "We are at a point where we need to take military action against Iran. The world needs to take action against Iran now... Now is the time for deeds — words are not enough. ... It is time for diplomatic, economic and even military deeds. Otherwise the attacks will continue." Gantz also confirmed that "Israel is ready to attack Iran, yes..."

New Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett also made the same demand, saying Israel could "...act alone. They can't sit calmly in Tehran while igniting the entire Middle East — that's over. We are working to enlist the whole world, but when the time comes, we know how to act alone." If the level of verbal vituperation coming out of Israel is anything to go by, an attack on Iran would appear to be imminent.

After the attack on the MT Mercer Street, there soon followed the panicked account the panicked account of an alleged hijacking of a second tanker by personnel initially reported to be wearing "Iranian military uniforms." The "...hijacking incident in international waters in the Gulf of Oman" ended peacefully however. The US State Department subsequently reported that "We can confirm that personnel have left the Panama-flagged Asphalt Princess... We believe that these personnel were Iranian, but we're not in a position to confirm this at this time."

So, the United States government does not actually know who did what to whom but is evidently willing to indict Iran and look the other way if Israel should choose to start a war. Conservative columnist Pat Buchanan is right to compare the drone attack on the Mercer Street to the alleged Gulf of Tonkin Incident in 1964, which was deliberately distorted by the Lyndon B. Johnson Administration and used to justify rapid escalation of US involvement in the Vietnam War. Buchanan observes that it is by no means clear that Iran was behind the Mercer Street attack and there are a number of good reasons to doubt it, including Iranian hopes to have sanctions against its economy lifted which will require best behavior. Also, Iran would have known that it would be blamed for such an incident in any event, so why should it risk going to war with Israel and the US, a war that it knows it cannot win?

Buchanan observes that whoever attacked the tanker wants war and also to derail any negotiations to de-sanction Iran, but he stops short of suggesting who that might be. The answer is of course Israel, engaging in a false flag operation employing an Iranian produced drone. And I would add to Buchanan's comments that there is in any event a terrible stink of hypocrisy over the threat of war to avenge the tanker incident. Israel has attacked Iranian ships in the past and has been regularly bombing Syria in often successful attempts to kill Iranians who are, by the way, in the country at the invitation of its legitimate government. Zionist Joe Biden has yet to condemn those war crimes, nor has the suddenly aroused Tony Blinken. And Joe, who surely knows that neither Syria nor Iran threatens the United States, also continues to keep American troops in Syria, occupying a large part of the country, which directly confront the Kremlin's forces. Israel wants a war that will inevitably involve the United States and maybe also Russia to some degree as collateral damage. Will it get that or will Biden have the courage to say "No!"