Opinion Editorials, March 2010

How Israel Could Start World War III

By Sam Hamod

Al-Jazeerah & ccun.org, March 15, 2010

Israel could start World War 3 by attacking Iran, it’s that simple.  Even Admiral Mullen, our head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, according to insiders who traveled with him to Israel in February when he was rebuffed by Netanyahu, Barak and Lieberman; he worries about how we could be "mouse trapped" into a world war.

Here is the scenario:

Israel attacks Iran.  Iran responds by attacking the American fleet in the Persian Gulf and by blocking the Straits of Hormuz, thus destroying our naval fleet and cutting off the world’s oil supply from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and other Middle East oil suppliers.

America must respond by helping Israel and by holding up its status in the world; thus, America attacks Iran. 

The Chinese and Russians have to respond by helping Iran, with whom they have major oil deals, and because they cannot allow Israel or America to gain a foothold and take over Iran because it would cut them off from their much needed oil supply.  Thus, they enter the war.

So, then, with Israel’s actions, World War 3 will flower into a great catastrophe for the world—a war that will destroy much of mankind  and the infrastructures of most countries because all will be pulled into it—America, Russia, China, Both Koreas, The Gulf States, all of the European Union, —you name it, all will have to participate to survive this disaster.

Now then, let’s look at the facts of this situation.  Israel and Hillary Clinton have both been denying the reports by U.S. Intelligence Services and the IAEA that Iran is far from a bomb and not a threat.  America has thousands of atomic weapons, and has nothing to fear from Iran.  Israel has at least 350 atomic weapons and the delivery systems to use them; thus, they have nothing to fear from Iran because Iran has no weapons and no known system of delivery.  Thus, it is clear, that Israel is crying wolf in order to provoke a war with Iran so that it can be the only military power in the Middle East, just as their false intelligence was used to create an attack on Iraq in the last decade.

Admiral Mullen is correct when he worries that Israel is once again creating a problem for America. While serving under President Bush, Admiral Mullen was sent to Israel to tell them, in no uncertain terms, that the U.S. would not support Israel in this attack and would not countenance another attack of the sort that Israel used when it attacked the American Intelligence Ship, “THE U.S.S. LIBERTY” (killing dozens of crewmen and never being prosecuted for this act of war and betrayal of America’s  friendship).

At this time, Bibi Netanyahu has concluded that President Obama is a lame duck, a “Wuss” as he told some American correspondents in a closed session; thus, when Mullen  recently went to Israel, in February, he felt that, Netanyahu had Hillary Clinton in his pocket, good support from the Zionists in Congress, from VP Joe Biden, and had rebuffed special envoi George Mitchell, and that Israel might very well start an attack on Iran. As one observer put it, he felt that Admiral Mullen left Israel with his hands sweating, from frustration, fear of an Israeli attack and Israeli arrogance in the matter. 

Some of late have been quoting the old Mayan Prophecy that the world as we know it will be destroyed in 2012 — it could be that Israel will help make that prophecy come true, unless President Obama finally stands up as a leader and leads America and the world on a path to peace and justice. If he does not, and continues to listen to Israeli “Intelligence,” that heavily influences American CIA, allows the un-victorious generals McChrystal and Petraus, to sway him into further disasters, then any chance for peace in the world will be lost. 

One last point must be made; at this time, it is obvious from seeing the reaction of the people in the streets of the Muslim countries of the world, that the citizenry of these nations are upset with American policies in Palestine, Iraq, and  Afghanistan— if this third World War comes, you can be sure these countries will not side with America (even if their “Leaders” tell them to; we’d see all of the nominal leaders of friendly Muslim countries be pulled out of power, just as happened in Iran and Iraq in the past ). 

Let us hope none of this happens, but it is a distinct possibility unless Netanyahu, Lieberman and Barak are reigned in, along with their allies in the U.S. Congress, Hillary, The Pentagon and the U.S. Senate.

Sam Hamod has his PhD. from The Writers' Workshop of the University of Iowa and has taught in the Workshop; he was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in poetry, has published 10 books of poems, and has appeared in dozens of anthologies in the U.S. and abroad.

 He has also taught creative writing at the University of Iowa, Princeton, Michigan, Wisconsin, Howard and overseas as well. His most recent books were, JUST LOVE POEMS FOR YOU (2006), Ishmael Reed Pub. Co/Contemporary Poetry Press and THE ARAB POEMS, THE MUSLIM POEMS (2000), Contemporary Poetry Press/Cedar Creek; he has two more books of poems under contract and his memoirs as well.

He has won many awards over the years, and in addition has read with such poets as Kinnell, Ginsberg, Merwin, Wright, Knight, Baraka and others, and has had praise from Neruda, Borges and such American poets as Ishmael Reed, James Wright, Dick Hugo, Jack Marshall, Amiri Baraka and E. Ethelbert Miller among others. He may be contacted at drsamhamod@gmail,com