Drone downed in Iran: ‘US great game could spark WWIII’

Following the latest report that the Iranian military has shot down a US drone in eastern Iran, radio host Stephen Lendman told RT such US reconnaissance missions point towards greater ambitions for domination, which might lead to all-out war.With diplomatic tensions reaching a boiling point between Iran and the West, Lendman believes such spying operations are part and parcel of a greater war that the United States has been waging against Iran for decades.  “Since the 1970s America has had a running on-and-off war with Iran, basically wanting to change the regime, to make it subservient to US interests, and Iran has the crazy notion that it believes it has the right to its own sovereignty, to run its own government, to conduct its own affairs, it doesn’t have to answer to Washington. Washington disagrees, and therein lies the conflict,” he said. Lendman also claims US Special Forces are already operating within Iran, as he believes the build-up for an attack is becoming imminent.  According to Lendman, recent events in Libya, Syria, and now Iran, point towards a greater drive to rein in everyone who might be opposed to unrestrained US power. “America has had for some years, especially since the Bush years, what they call the greater Middle East project. The project is total dominance over the region, North Africa, the Middle East, Central Asia, to Russia’s borders. Russia of course is being surrounded with US military bases, China as well. This is part of America’s game. They’re trying to eliminate countries that are not in America’s orbit. So there was a war on Libya and Syria is being targeted. The Libyan model is being replicated in Syria, so far short of NATO bombing. If Syria is delinked from Iran, Iran is next.  “There could be an insurgency in Iran, the same as in Libya, the same as in Syria, very possibly conflict follows.”Following a November 8 International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) report which claimed Iran had been actively developing nuclear weapons, Lendman counters that no country has been more transparent with the IAEA than Iran. However, Lendman believes that if the allegations regarding nuclear weapons are used to justify war, Iran, unlike Libya, is a big country with a powerful military, and any unjustified strike by Israel or the US could prove disastrous.   “Iran has been very bluntly saying, if it is attacked by Israel, by America, it will respond, it will fire back. It can attack Israeli cities, it can attack US bases. We’re talking about something very serious, we’re talking about the possibility of general war, dare I say it, World War III.”