US will not hesitate to defend Israel, Rice warns Tehran

It's the ultimate exercise in spin.

The US vowed to defend Israel and its other allies in the Gulf, as Iran carried out its second ballistic missile test in two days yesterday.

One could almost be forgiven for reading that sentence and imagining that Iran have been acting aggressively towards Israel, rather than what has actually taken place; which is Iran have conducted tests to show that they could respond if either Israel or the United States carried out one of their many threats to take military action against the Iranians for enriching uranium, which is their right under the NNPT.

Israel responded to the tests with a show of strength of its own, putting on display at the country's international Ben-Gurion airport its new spy and early warning plane, which can reach Iran. Israel also hinted that it would not hesitate to attack Iran's nuclear facilities.

Please note that Israel is "responding" to the tests, and that she is "hinting" that she might attack Iran's nuclear facilities. Up until now I wouldn't say either Israel or the US have been "hinting" at all. They have been making outright and bellicose threats. And these threats have been having the desired effect, on investment companies, if not on the Iranians.

As the situation worsened in the Gulf, the French oil company Total said it would pull out of a large-scale investment in an Iranian gas field - a serious blow to Tehran, which is keen to exploit its gas reserves, and a victory for the Bush administration, which has been seeking to isolate the Iranian government.

A spokeswoman for the company said it was too risky to invest in Iran at present.

And Total's decision to withdraw shows that the company has seriously considered the fact that Israel or the US might act outside of international law and illegally attack Iranian nuclear facilities.

Of course, as always, both Israel and the US seek to make their acts of outright aggression appear to be defensive actions; which is why Rice is talking of defending Israel, which is not under any form of attack.

"Defending" Israel and "liberating" Iraq is further proof that Orwell got it right. The first attack these buggers always make is on the English language itself. One normally "liberates" a country from foreign occupation. In the case of Iraq it is the foreign occupiers who are claiming to be the "liberators". Such bastardisation of the English language is becoming the norm from the Bush administration as witnessed by Rice's latest attempt to portray the group threatening to attack as the "defenders".

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Tags: Israel, Iran, Middle East, Condi Rice, Ahmadinejad