US officials broke up an alleged assassination attempt which supposedly targeted the Saudi Ambassador right here in the good ‘ol U.S. of A. In one of the most protected and secure areas of Washington, D.C., one or maybe two individuals with alleged connections to Iran were going to walk right in and, in the words of the Soprano’s, “whack him.”
Really? The whole set of circumstances seems suspect.
According to ABC news, a five count complaint was filed in New York claiming that one person – the would be assassin – was paid by another person- who was once or is in Mexico – a $100,000 down payment to go to Washington, DC and kill the Saudi Ambassador. All purportedly ordered by Iran. Moreover, the first person who was going to bomb some unknown restaurant where the Ambassador might have been and then if he was lucky enough to get away go way over to another part of town to maybe then bomb the Israeli Embassy after which he would get a full $1.5 million.
As you can see, the details, or lack there of, are very sketchy. There is no evidence of lethal materials, no evidence of a direct connection to Iran and no evidence that this dynamic duo could be super human enough to carrying out such a plot. There was however a conversation that someone said they overheard so a complaint was filed by the FBI.
Now if you ask me, this does not sound like Hollywood at all, it sounds like a really bad episode of the Days of Our Lives with a Tom Clancy twist. Although, even Tom Clancy would have passed on this one.
In an effort to try to support my country, I’m trying my hardest to believe, but I just can’t because there are too many suspicious claims. Why on earth would the Iranian government send somebody here to infiltrate the toughest security in the world when they can basically reach across the Arabian or Persian Gulf and cause a lot more chaos with much less risk. Further, it sounds all too familiar to those Iraqi scenarios. You know the ones that connected Saddam to 911. The U.S. government tried to sell us that one as well. Since American’s weren’t buying, the Bush Administration sold weapons of mass destruction instead, which we now know was a lie as well.
So what on earth is the Obama Administration doing following suit? This is an exceedingly dangerous accusation and could have far reaching consequences for the US across the globe. American influence dwindled dramatically because of lost trust during the Iraqi fiasco; an Iranian one will pretty much snuff any remaining American clout right out.
I really hope this is not an election ploy for another “evil” person to be targeted giving politicians a scary, but unfortunately affective way to rally Americans.
Additionally, I hope this is not another US ploy to broker more weapons. The US already sold a slew of bunker buster bombs to Israel just in case they need to use them on Iranian nuclear facilities. This alleged plot would continue to justify the Administration’s case to provide even more weapons to Israel and its neighbors. Specifically America wants to arm its Arabian Gulf allies to the teeth. Billions of dollars in armaments yet to be sold to them will supposedly “protect them from Iran” even though no bunker busters or any other type of missiles, planes and other things they will buy will give them absolutely no protection against this kind of terrorist attempt. At the end of this scenario $120 billion worth of armaments will go to the Gulf countries (Saudi Arabia: $67 billion, UAE: $35-40 billion, Oman: $12 billion, Kuwait: $7 billion).
Further, I hope this is not another drumbeat toward war. There has been an exceptionally hard drum roll for strikes against Iran over the last several years. The Israeli government has been pressuring the U.S., non-stop, to go after the “real threat” in the Middle East – Iran. (Short note here – it is very convenient to have a Latin American connection in all this, one that tries to tie the duo dummies to Hezbollah, an supposedly Iranian proxy, who works with some drug cartels in the Columbia-Costa Rica –Mexico drug triangle to raise funds through money laundering although at this point it would just be better for Hezbollah to take their money and house it in Dubai).
Moving on.
Can someone, anyone, tell me why we can’t find ways other than war to deal with people? Never mind.
Finally, I really hope that the US is not going to misuse its military again. US troops have paid a high price in Iraq and Afghanistan and do not deserve to be sent on a fool’s errand trying to beat up Iran starting yet another war without due cause.
Just because politicians who like big toys are scheming to sustain the military industrial complex does not mean we need to send any more men and women to fight another endless, and senseless, battle or try out new technologies on innocent people.
It is a truly sad day. It really makes one miss the era of the Cold War. In the past, the U.S. would never have held an accusatory press conference even with iron-clad evidence risking international blowback and American lives. The President and his cabinet would have raced to use all the diplomatic resources they could muster to avoid conflict much like President Kennedy did during the Cuban missile crisis. Ministers would have talked and the mere thought of using military power would have been a last, last, last resort.
Today is different and there is no Cold War. There are asymmetric threats and exceedingly complex international and domestic issues. This however does not mean our country has to loose its head accusing when facts are unknown. More importantly, it does not have to use the threat of force first. The military is an insurance policy for our security today and in the future, it is not a political tool used on a whim for selfish political gain – and that goes for both republicans and democrats.
If these actions are true, they should be of course be condemned. Either way though, this gives the U.S. an opportunity to restart a robust diplomacy effort with Iran so neither party ends up starting World War III.
Yes, diplomacy takes time and you may have to talk to people you don’t really like, but isn’t that better than sending our young men and women back to war especially when we haven’t even finished the first two.
War, and selling a plethora of weapons, must be last. The sooner we realize this, the sooner we can get beyond the mistrust of others, which all too often leads to dangerous accusations and misunderstandings with eventual consequences we no longer have to image. We have seen war for over ten years now in Iraq and Afghanistan. We have also seen two World Wars, Hiroshima, Korea, Vietnam, Bosnia and Kosovo. It is high time that we take bold steps to think beyond the initial impulse to kill and alternatively select another path to sustain not death, but life.