Pentagon Preparing “Show of Force” Against Iran; MoJo is All Over the Story

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The AP is reporting that the Pentagon is considering “a major buildup of U.S. Navy forces in the Gulf as a show of force against Iran.” While seemingly insane — Thanks for suggesting diplomacy with these folks, Iraq Study Group. Now get out of town. — this should come as no surprise to regular Mother Jones readers.

In July 2006, we published “Next We Take Tehran: The confrontation with Iran has very little to do with nukes—and a lot with the agenda of empire.”

Also in July 2006, we published “Three Days in Rome: In which a neoconservative jack-of-all-trades, a pair of Pentagon hawks, and an Iranian exile with a knack for tall tales try to outflank the CIA and conjure a coup in Tehran.”

In October 2006, we published “Meet the “Whack Iran” Lobby: Exiles peddling shaky intelligence, advocacy groups pressing for regime change, neocons bent on remaking the Middle East. Sound familiar?”

And also in October 2006, we published “Has Washington Found its Iranian Chalabi?: Introducing the talented Mr. Fakhravar.”

So get educated! (Oh, and in a recent issue of Vanity Fair, Frank Gaffney, assistant secretary of defense under Reagan and president of the hawkish Center for Security Policy, which has close ties to the top levels of the Pentagon, said, “I would say that the likelihood of military action against Iran is 100 percent.” So there you go.)

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We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

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Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

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