This year marks the 70th anniversary of Lt. Commander Arthur McCollum's secret memorandum to FDR on how to provoke a war with Japan. His "recommendations for action" would guarantee Japan's retaliation, forcing the U.S. into war with Japan, Germany and Italy.

The provocations would entail military posturing and an embargo, choking Japan's supply of raw materials and oil along with freezing their assets.

We are commemorating this anniversary by dusting off this game plan and changing the target from J-A-P-A-N to I-R-A-N.

This week's signing of United Nations resolution 1929 has lit the fuse for a likely explosion. Just like the Japan plan, we are starving Iran of supplies and petroleum products in addition to punishing their economy.

The U.S. has been trying to bait Iran into overreacting for years as payback for overthrowing our compliant puppet, the Shah. Every time they call our bluff and agree to our demands, we change the game and raise the ante. Any misstep will be all that it takes for us to attack. Washington has shown with Afghanistan and Iraq how quick they are to let the bombs fly. They have no problem lying or killing thousands of innocent civilians.
The 1940 war pitch concludes:
It is not believed that in the present state of political opinion the United States government is capable of declaring war against Japan without more ado; and it is barely possible that vigorous action on our part might lead the Japanese to modify their attitude. Therefore, the following course of action is suggested:
A. Make an arrangement with Britain for the use of British bases in the Pacific, particularly Singapore.
B. Make an arrangement with Holland for the use of base facilities and acquisition of supplies in the Dutch East Indies.
C. Give all possible aid to the Chinese government of Chiang-Kai-Shek.
D. Send a division of long range heavy cruisers to the Orient, Philippines, or Singapore.
E. Send two divisions of submarines to the Orient.
F. Keep the main strength of the U.S. fleet now in the Pacific in the vicinity of the Hawaiian Islands.
G. Insist that the Dutch refuse to grant Japanese demands for undue economic concessions, particularly oil.
H. Completely embargo all U.S. trade with Japan, in collaboration with a similar embargo imposed by the British Empire.
If by these means Japan could be led to commit an overt act of war, so much the better. At all events we must be fully prepared to accept the threat of war. (Italics added).
-A. H. McCollum

With the U.S. military now surrounding Iran on land and sea, we have a far more threatening military posture than McCollum's memo called for against Japan.
Washington knows that the embargo will punish the people of Iran. They pretend that this will cause the Iranian people to blame their own leaders for their misery. But history has shown that this will only turn them against the U.S. and to rally behind their own government. It was our similar sanctions against Iraq which killed more than a million innocent people, and helped convince Bin Laden to commit 9/11.
The U.S. is trying to provoke another Pearl Harbor or 9/11 to justify attacking Iran. Washington is yet again relying on the farsighted words of the 19th century libertarian Frederic Bastiat who said: "When goods cannot cross borders, armies will".