五角大楼被瞄准的伊朗为政权变动在9/11以后
由 Gareth搬运工 | 三个星期，在9/11恐怖攻击，前美国之后。 国防部长Donald Rumsfeld在伊朗在中东建立了不仅去除Saddam Hussein政权由力量，但翻转政权一个正式军事目标，以及在叙利亚和其他四个国家，根据在然后国防部副部长广泛地引述的文件为伊拉克战争决定的政策道格拉斯Feith的最近出版会计。
Feith的帐户更加进一步表明中东由军事力量和力量威胁地图的国家的高级军事领导明确地支持这个进取的目标重制。
Feith的书， “战争和决定”，上个月被发布，提供纸Rumsfeld的节录被送到乔治· W.总统。 布什在9月。 30， 2001年要求管理对焦点不在采取在本·拉登的阿尔凯达网络下，而且在建立“新的政权的”目标参加一系列状态通过“帮助地方人民赶走自己恐怖分子和释放自己政权那支持恐怖主义”。
在引述从那个文件， Feith删除将被瞄准的所有状态的名字除了阿富汗，插入词组“其他状态”在托架。 在页的传真从一个相关五角大楼“竞选计划”文件， Taliban和Saddam Hussein政权被列出和“状态政权”反对哪些“计划，并且操作”也许登上，但是其他四个状态的名字“为安全原因”被染黑。
Gen. Wesley Clark，在科索沃战争中命令北约轰炸竞选，在他的2003书“一个朋友”在五角大楼召回告诉的赢取的现代战争在状态名单Rumsfeld和国防部副部长保罗Wolfowitz想中断包括伊拉克、伊朗、叙利亚、利比亚、苏丹和索马里2001年的11月。
克拉克写那名单也包括黎巴嫩。 Feith显露Rumsfeld的纸要求到“叙利亚在黎巴嫩外面”作为美国的一个主要目标。 政策。
当这位作家要求Feith，在一次最近公开露面哪些国家’命名之后从本文被删除了，他援引删除的安全原因。 But when he was asked which of the six regimes on the Clark list were included in the Rumsfeld paper, he replied, “All of them.”
Rumsfeld’s paper was given to the White House only two weeks after Bush had approved a U.S. military operation in Afghanistan directed against bin Laden and the Taliban regime. Despite that decision, Rumsfeld’s proposal called explicitly for postponing indefinitely U.S. airstrikes and the use of ground forces in support of the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance in order to try to catch bin Laden.
Instead the Rumsfeld paper argued that the U.S. should target states which had supported anti-Israel forces such as Hezbollah and Hamas. It urged that the United States “[c]apitalize on our strong suit, which is not finding a few hundred terrorists in caves in Afghanistan, but in the vastness of our military and humanitarian resources, which can strengthen the opposition forces in terrorist-supporting states.”
Feith describes the policy outlined in the paper as consisting of “military action against some of the state sponsors and pressure — short of war — against others”.
The Rumsfeld plan represented a Pentagon consensus that included the uniformed military leadership, according to Feith’s account. He writes that the process of drafting the paper involved consultations with the outgoing Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Henry Shelton and the incoming Chairman Gen. Richard Myers.
Myers helped revise the initial draft, Feith writes, and Gen. John P. Abizaid, who was then director of the Joint Staff, enthusiastically endorsed it in draft form. “This is an exceptionally important memo,” wrote Abizaid, “which gives clear strategic vision.” In a message quoted by Feith, Abizaid recommended to Myers that “you support this approach”.
After the invasion and occupation of Iraq in 2003, Abizaid was promoted to become chief of CENTCOM, with military responsibility for the entire Middle East.
Neither Myers nor Abizaid, both of whom are now retired from the military, responded to e-mails asking for their comments on Feith’s account of their role in the process of producing the Rumsfeld strategy.
Rumsfeld’s aides had also drafted a second version of the paper, as instructions to all military commanders in the development of “campaign plans against terrorism”.
That instructions document was a joint effort by Feith’s office and by the Strategic Plans and Policy directorate of Abizaid’s Joint Staff. It followed the broad outlines of the paper for Bush, arguing that the enemy was a “network” that included states that support terrorism and that the Defence Department should seek to “convince or compel” those states to cut their ties to terrorism.
The Pentagon guidance document called for military commanders to assist other government agencies “as directed” to “encourage populations dominated by terrorist organizations or their supporters to overthrow that domination”.
That language was adopted because the campaign planning document was issued as “Strategic Guidance for the Defense Department” on Oct. 3, 2001 — just three days after the Rumsfeld strategy paper had gone to the president.
Bush had not approved the explicit aim of regime change in Iran, Syria and four other countries proposed by Rumsfeld. Thus Rumsfeld adopted the aggressive military plan targeting multiple regimes in the Middle East for regime change even though it was not White House policy.
The Defence Department guidance document made it clear that U.S. military aims in regard to those states would go well beyond any ties to terrorism. The document said that the Defence Department would also seek to isolate and weaken those states and to “disrupt, damage or destroy” their military capacities — not necessarily limited to WMD.
The document included as a “strategic objective” a requirement to “prevent further attacks against the U.S. or U.S. interests”. That language, which extended the principle of preemption far beyond the issue of WMD, was so broad as to justify plans to use force against virtually any state that was not a client of the United States.
The military leadership’s strong preference for focusing on states as enemies rather than on the threat from al Qaeda after 9/11 continued a pattern of behaviour going back to the Bill Clinton administration (1993-2001).
After the bombing of two U.S. embassies in East Africa by al Qaeda operatives, State Department counter-terrorism official Michael Sheehan proposed supporting the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance in Afghanistan against bin Laden’s sponsor, the Taliban regime. However, senior U.S. military leaders “refused to consider it”, according to a 2004 account by Richard H. Shultz, Jr., a military specialist at Tufts University.
A senior officer on the Joint Staff told State Department counter-terrorism director Sheehan he had heard terrorist strikes characterised more than once by colleagues as a “small price to pay for being a superpower”.
*Gareth Porter is an historian and national security policy analyst. The paperback edition of his latest book, “Perils of Dominance: Imbalance of Power and the Road to War in Vietnam”, was published in 2006.
See More:Iran World NewsHave Your Say: Pentagon Targeted Iran for Regime Change after 9/11
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This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 7th, 2008 at 1:36 pm and is filed under 9/11 Truth, War & Terrorism News . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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