by Neil Deo

Created on: June 06, 2008   Last Updated: June 19, 2008

First and foremost, it is sad and scary that since 2001, or perhaps since the first Gulf War, we can openly discuss bombing other countries.

If we accept the premises of a unipolar world where neither the Europeans, nor the Russians or the United Nations (UN) can stop the USA or its ally Israel, let us speculate therefore on what might be the thinking in US-Israeli circles about attacking Iran in the near future.

Although Iran is hated by the west for its alleged desire to deny the holocuast and wipe Israel off the map, the US_Isareli alliance is really determined to halt Iran's development of nuclear technology (civilian and/or military). The media do not have the same repetitious "attack" on facts showing that Iran has been strengthened because of the US wars against Afghanistan and Iraq. It s entirely possible that the Iranian nuclear energy program might be diverted into a military direction. Now, the governing international body, the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Association) has not definitively agreed with US, Israeli and western views or "facts" about Iran's nuclear ambitions. However, in the geopolitics of the Middle East, it is almost sufficient that Israel fingers any neighbor or nation in the world as an "enemy" and the US will usually support Israeli government objectives against such an "enemy or danger." (I hasten to add that the Israeli government intentions may not be exactly the same as Israeli population views and desires for the region).

If there is US-Isareli attack on Iran in 2008, the reasons are likely to be connected with the misguided war in Iraq since 9-11-2001 and the consequent strengthening of Iran. Ironically, Iran may be have become the only sizeable threat to Israel. In the case of Syria, that country has less of an ability to respond in kind to serious Israeli attacks, as in the recent attack on an alleged North Korean-Syrian project that seems to have brought no response from Syria. Israel will not be able to do anything similar in Iran and get away with it, unless the US is also part of the full planning. But there will be costs to Israel and the US, but no one knows precisely what consequences will accrue, as was the case with invading Baghdad.

This leaves the question about why would the Bush Administration go along with a military pre-emptive strike or Israeli-led venture against Iran's nuclear program. Remember too, that Israel was able to destroy Saddam Hussein's nuclear reactor in 1981, and apparently alone. So, why

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