CounterPunch Exclusives

CounterPunch Exclusives

How Will the US Military Invade Iran?

Photograph Source: U.S. Army 300MPAD by Staff Sgt. Christopher Osburn – Public Domain

This past weekend, Trump threatened to escalate the War with Iran by destroying that country’s energy infrastructure starting, as he said, “with the big one”. The ‘big one’ was no doubt a veiled reference to Iran’s civilian nuclear plants.

Iran’s Natanz nuclear plant had been hit with a US missile a few days earlier as a warning. As he announced his plan to destroy all of Iran’s civilian nuclear infrastructure, Trump further declared Iran had 48 hours to capitulate before the US attack. The price of oil jumped and stock market futures began to fall within 24 hours of Trump’s threat.

Before the 48 hours were up, on Monday morning, March 23, an hour before the US stock markets opened, Trump announced Iran had approached him and asked for negotiations. Therefore he, Trump, was now suspending the attack on Iran for five more days, i.e. to the end of the current week.

The five day extension had nothing to do with negotiations, which Iran announced had never taken place. Trump made it up. The five day extension was yet another move by Trump administration officials to stabilize the US stock markets and the price of oil, both of which were set to spike. Within hours of announcing his five day suspension on Monday, US oil prices (WTI) fell $10 a barrel to $90 and stock markets opened higher after a string of declines last week.

Since the war began on February 28, Trump and various administration officials have repeatedly said publicly that negotiations were occurring, were showing progress, or even that the war was about to ‘end soon’, as Trump himself declared.

The pattern shows such false statements were, and remain, mostly about keeping financial markets from falling too fast and to prevent oil prices from rising too fast.

But there’s another explanation for Trump’s about face and his five day suspension of the US attack on Iran’s nuclear energy infrastructure.

That’s Trump’s buying time to get US military forces into the region in order to launch a ground assault into Iran, to coincide with his plan to bomb Iran’s nuclear and civilian energy infrastructure.

Here’s some facts why the five day suspension is really about buying time for much larger US military preparation.

The mainstream US media keeps reporting that a contingent of about 2,000 US marines are en route by sea on the US landing ship, US Tripoli, coming from Asia to the Persian Gulf. If we are to believe the media, the US intends to invade Iran with just a couple battalions of Marines.

The Marines plan to land in the Strait of Hormuz area. The US will somehow seize the strait and allow oil tankers to sail through it again. The media’s is also promoting the view that a second possible landing target is Iran’s Kharg Island, where 90% of Iran’s crude oil is refined and shipped. Kharg is close to the coast of Iran, well into the Persian Gulf’s upper end and closer to Kuwait than to the Hormuz strait. The media refers to Trump’s own social media posts where he mentions Kharg Island as a good target for the Marines. Israel’s number one mouthpiece in the US Senate, Lindsey Graham, gives daily press........

© CounterPunch