Gareth Porter and Jim Lobe of Inter Press Service report, " The postponement of a massive joint U.S.-Israeli military exercise appears to be the culmination of a series of events that has impelled the Barack Obama administration to put more distance between the United States and aggressive Israeli policies toward Iran. The exercise called Austere Challenge 12 and originally scheduled for April, was to have been a simulation of a joint U.S.-Israeli effort to identify, track and intercept incoming missiles by integrating sophisticated U.S. radar systems with the Israeli Arrow, Patriot and Iron Dome anti-missile defence systems. U.S. participation in such an exercise, obviously geared to a scenario involving an Iranian retaliation against an Israeli attack on its nuclear facilities, would have made the United States out to be a partner of Israel in any war that would follow an Israeli attack on Iran. Obama and U.S. military leaders apparently decided that the United States could not participate in such an exercise so long as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu refused to give the administration any assurance that he will not attack Iran without prior approval from Washington. "
In summary, fortunately, our situation today is far different from a decade ago. Ten years ago our nation, including me, was in a rage to capture or kill, preferably the latter, the perpetrators of 9/11, Al-Qa'ida and Osama bin Laden. We fully endorsed the attack on hapless Afghanistan to find the bastards. The neocon-led White House in accordance with the neo-conservative charter, Project for the New American Century or PNAC http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_for_the_New_American_Century, used this enormous thirst for vengeance to launch an unrelated and unprovoked war against Iraq in a quest for an American Empire through conquest and hegemony. As a consequence, both wars turned into a debacle.
We are, indeed, fortunate that is not happening today. Never again should the neocons gain control of the White House, the top command of the entire powerful American military. The neocons are like piranhas who feed on the blood of American troops and call it patriotism as is illustrated on the Internet, email, parades " and the Super Bowl.
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