Rattlesnake Ridge 
BFF
“Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta is one of several administration officials to express concern publicly that Israel is positioning itself for a surprise attack. Last month, the administration dispatched the Joint Chiefs chairman, Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, to the Israeli capital for high-level discussions about the possibility of a unilateral Israeli strike. “Israel has indicated they’re considering this, and we have indicated our concerns,” Panetta told reporters Thursday after a NATO meeting in Brussels. Panetta declined to comment on published reports that he thinks the Israelis could carry out a strike this spring, possibly as early as April…………”
“US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta believes there is a “strong likelihood” that Israel will strike Iran’s nuclear installations this spring, the Washington Post said Thursday in an editorial. When asked about the opinion piece by reporters travelling with him to a NATO meeting in Brussels, Panetta brushed it aside…………”
I wonder if the Iranian leaders are as befuddled, as lost in this fog of war and no war, of good cop and bad cop. Their heads must be spinning from all the conflicting statements form American and Israeli officials, named and anonymous. It has become like a war of wits and nerves, similar to the one that preceded the invasion of Nazi Europe at Normandy in 1944.
If Israel starts a war, the United States will get involved: what else can Obama do in an election years with the American Likud Party (GOP) hounding him? Some Arab countries will also have to get involved on the Israeli side: otherwise how can Israeli bombers reach Iranian territory? The most like candidate would be Saudi Arabia, whose semi-official media have been preparing their people for this with years of sectarian propaganda. Pro-Saudi media on the Gulf have also been opining that Iran is more dangerous than Israel as an enemy, for now. Neither Iraq nor Turkey will allow over-flights, if they can help it.
Of course they can be just applying the advice given by Tom Friedman a couple of years ago: make the Iranians think that they will be attacked if they don’t obey, then they will obey. It hasn’t worked yet, and unlikely to do so nay time soon. Or maybe it is just part of a process of desensitization of public opinion, such as it is, for another war.
Cheers
mhg
[email protected]