-Surprise drill: IDF gets ready for war
The
Israeli Defense Force has begun surprise live-fire war games on the
Golan Heights, bordering unstable Lebanon and Syria. Officially, the
Israeli military is practicing combat readiness to repel possible
sudden attack from Lebanon-based Hezbollah.
19
September, 2012
The
Chief of IDF General Staff Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz ordered troops from
the Northern and Central commands, reinforced by reservists, to
simulate an emergency. The IDF insists the drill is a routine
scheduled event, but for unknown reasons withheld from making public
how many troops and what military vehicles are being involved in the
war games.
But
Israel Radio’s military affairs correspondent who is in regular
contact with senior officers, said on air that the timing of the
exercise was “not
mere coincidence.”
Troops
were flown by helicopter from central Israel to the Golan Heights for
the exercise.
The
live fire drill will be conducted later in the evening and will be
overseen by the IDF’s Chief Artillery Officer, Brig. Gen. Roei
Riftin.
Similar
war games were held a year ago and last week the IDF held drills
simulating a mass rocket assault on Israeli territory by Hezbollah.
The
IDF has expressed concerns several times that the situation in
neighboring Syria, where a civil war is in full swing, might get out
of hand. Syria has a considerable chemical weapons stockpile and
Israel fears these weapons could fall into the wrong hands if
President Bashar al-Assad is ousted. Some defecting Syrian officers
claim Assad has plans to hand some of the chemical weapons over to
Hezbollah.
Starting
from last week, the IDF began reinforcing the fence on the
Israel-Syria border in the Golan Heights area. Military engineers
implanted new motion sensors along the border, electrified parts of
the fence to activate new alarm systems and planted mines in certain
areas along the border.
Israeli soldiers are seen on a Israeli mobile artillery during a military exercise in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, north of Israel on September 19, 2012. (AFP Photo/Jack Guez)
An Israeli mobile artillery cross a road during a military exercise in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, north of Israel on September 19, 2012. (AFP Photo/Jack Guez)
An Israeli mobile artillery cross a road during a military exercise in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, north of Israel on September 19, 2012. (AFP Photo/Jack Guez)
An Israeli mobile artillery and APC armored personel carriers cross a road during a military exercise in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, north of Israel on September 19, 2012. (AFP Photo/Jack Guez)
An Israeli mobile artillery drives through sandy terrain during a military exercise in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, north of Israel on September 19, 2012. (AFP Photo/Jack Guez)
Postscriptum
These
are the comments by Wes Miller of CollapseNet accompanying a Huffington Post article, who puts rumours of
Israel planning to attack Iran down to “Israeli psy-ops” and labels
those of us that warn of this possibility as wanting "to pee their pants
and find a hole in the ground”.
Here
is the article....
Meet the Press Gives Netanyahu Cheney's Bully Pulpit for War
And
here are Wes' comments. I'll leave it to you to make up your own
mind
"And
when Cheney met the press, he was never challenged. Eventually the
free pass that the media gave Cheney and others led us into a
quagmire in Iraq to dismantle WMD that didn't exist.
"It
was déjà vu all over again this past Sunday when Netanyahu
presented his own absolute certainties to Americans. He told us that
Iran "is racing to develop nuclear bombs" and said if the
U.S. does not set a redline for war to block Iran's enrichment
program, Iran would "proceed to the bomb."
"Bibi's
assertions contradict the very clear assessments of U.S. and Israeli
intelligence. They agree that Iran has not made an actual decision to
build a nuclear weapon and the U.S. intelligence community's
assessment from 2007 still stands--Iran does not have an active
nuclear weapons program and is far from "racing" to develop
a nuclear bomb."
"Sanity
on the whole Iran issue is coming out, slowly, and despite the
mainstream media panic-tales that the neo-cons and Bibi continue to
shovel like so much horseshit. Read the whole article and get up to
speed, then feel free to breathe easy for a while about Iran. I
wholeheartedly support the authors' conclusions about both Iran and
the pitiful state of MTP (and corporate media in general).
"Have
you noticed the dramatic decline in oil prices lately? Do you think
the "fear premium" over a war with Iran would allow such a
drastic drop in oil prices, keeping in mind our huge war-game
exercises going on in the Gulf and the Fed announcement of QE
Infinity, if oil traders and "those in the know" really
believed war was imminent with Iran? Not freaking likely.... When/if
oil prices jump 15-20% or more in a day or so, then we might have
cause for concern. Oil prices going down, with all things considered,
show me what we already know - that the global economy sucks and it
is expected to get worse, and not more war coming in the Persian Gulf
soon.
"I
nailed this one months ago. All the flailing around is just that -
intentional panic efforts created by those who want war and accepted
by those who want to pee their pants and find a hole in the ground.
The flames of panic are further fanned by press outlets to get more
viewers or readers. The reality is, it is not that time...yet...and
it may never come. We just might "slow-grind" ourselves
into oblivion rather than blow ourselves up. Collapse comes in many
forms, and it proceeds apace.
"We
don't panic here at CollapseNet, and we won't in the future. We stare
down the issues of the day with cool-headed analysis taking in all
considerations while being impervious to the influence of money,
power, or fear.....".
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