Posted on 09/28/2009 10:19:33 AM PDT by nuconvert
(excerpt)
Pressure, be it gentle or severe, will not erase that nuclear program. The choices are now what they ever were: an American or an Israeli strike, which would probably cause a substantial war, or living in a world with Iranian nuclear weapons, which may also result in war, perhaps nuclear, over a longer period of time.
(excerpt)
At the heart of the problem is not simply the nuclear program. It is the Iranian regime, a regime that has, since 1979, relentlessly waged war against the U.S. and its allies. From Buenos Aires to Herat, from Beirut to Cairo, from Baghdad to, now, Caracas, Iranian agents have done their best to disrupt and kill. Iran is militarily weak, but it is masterful at subversive war, and at the kind of high-tech guerrilla, roadside-bomb and rocket fight that Hezbollah conducted in 2006. American military cemeteries contain the bodies of hundreds, maybe thousands, of American servicemen and servicewomen slain by Iranian technology, Iranian tactics, and in some cases, Iranian operatives.
The brutality without is more than matched by the brutality within—the rape, torture and summary execution of civilians by the tens of thousands, down, quite literally, to the present day. This is a corrupt, fanatical, ruthless and unprincipled regime—unpopular, to be sure, but willing to do whatever it takes to stay in power. With such a regime, no real negotiation, based on understandings of mutual interest and respect for undertakings is possible.
It is, therefore, in the American interest to break with past policy and actively seek the overthrow of the Islamic Republic. Not by invasion, which this administration would not contemplate and could not execute, but through every instrument of U.S. power, soft more than hard.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
We need to just man up and get this over with. There is no doubt in anyone’s mind that we are eventually going to have to deal with them. Better now than later, especially later when they have nukes. Meanwhile, Gibbs is blathering on about the Olympics.
We should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity. - Ann Coulter
Pong
I gotcher two options right here (plus one): Israel blows up their facilities with nukes; Israel blows up their facilities conventionally; or Israel blows up their facilities using embedded “sleeper” saboteurs in an inside job. My money is on a blend of the latter two.
I didn’t see the dust off and nuke them from orbit option. Its the only way to be sure. /aliens
in addition, Israel would have to wipe out a good bit of their economic infrastructure in order to hamstring them and prevent them from being able to reassemble the nuke progam anytime soon. I am guessing things like blowing out bridges and highways, oil facilities, and maybe even an EMP blast to take down the country’s grid. If the mullahs spend the next ten years stringing wire and laying concrete it should keep them too busy to re-enter the nuke business.
We need to direct some of our old ICBM’s, and let the world know that the moment a nuke arcs out of Iran, we put the hammer down once for each outgoing missile.
The headline is false. There aren't two choices left on Iran. Iran decided how this ends on its own, a long time ago. The only things we are dickering over are the butcher's bill and the payment date.
Which are related --- exponentially.
They are going to deploy 50 warheads on missiles as their own deterrent, and then they are going to conveniently lose a half dozen, that will show up in the hands of Hezbollah and Hamas, which will fire them at Israel.
Exactly. Gibss thinks the javalin throw is the perfect defense against Iranian nukes.
Looks like the 2010 Military Olympics have been awarded to Teheran.
“The war on terror is not a figure of speech. It is an inescapable calling of our generation. The terrorists are offended not merely by our policies they are offended by our existence as free nations. No concession will appease their hatred. No accommodation will satisfy their endless demands. Their ultimate ambitions are to control the peoples of the Middle East and to blackmail the rest of the world with weapons of mass terror. There can be no separate peace with the terrorist enemy. Any sign of weakness or retreat simply validates terrorist violence and invites more violence for all nations. The only certain way to protect our people is by early, united and decisive action.”
GEORGE BUSH
Thanks. Do you have a link to that? A date he said that?
Maybe we should point some of our warheads directly over when Amanut lives or stays or hides, that way any bone headed move will have him killed first. Could that deter him?
Then again maybe not...
"It is, therefore, in the American interest to break with past policy and actively seek the overthrow of the Islamic Republic. Not by invasion, which this administration would not contemplate and could not execute, but through every instrument of U.S. power, soft more than hard. And if, as is most likely, President Obama presides over the emergence of a nuclear Iran, he had best prepare for storms that will make the squawks of protest against his health-care plans look like the merest showers on a sunny day."
The whole crux of his article, up until this point, is that Iran laughs at diplomatic/economic efforts, and Barry is too much of a wuss to stomach a war. So the only is to keep using these instruments of "soft" power? Haven't we learned from Afghanistan that the majority (not all) of these people simply do not want democracy and will send their children and ours to the grave to make that clear?
Sanctions and diplomacy can have no effect on a gov't that has NO CONSCIENCE. I don't want war with Iran, but looking at it with a cold eye - is there any other outcome, one way or another? There is no reason to presume that Iran will take control of nuclear weapons for the sake of diplomatic horse-trading. We can only assume they are acquiring them for the sake of using them. I don't relish the options for Israel, but, looking at this with a very VERY cold eye, if Israel fears it's own total destruction is imminent, a pre-emptive, gov't decapitating nuclear strike is not out of the realm of possibility. They would certainly become the most hated nation on earth, but, at this point, it's arguable that they are already, and an alternative nuclear holocaust is an utterly unacceptable possibility to Israel. If they truly felt that conventional strikes could not provide certainty, or merely kick the can down the road, I hazard to say that there is a very SMALL chance that a unilateral nuclear strike occurs. No outcome for Israel is worse than not-existing. If we see a missile test from Israel in the coming weeks/months, there may be no turning back.
God have mercy on us all.
bttt
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