Yea, but are they?
Really?
Posted on 05/17/2019 3:29:46 AM PDT by Kaslin
Speaking on state TV of the prospect of a war in the Gulf, Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Khamenei seemed to dismiss the idea.
"There won't be any war. ... We don't seek a war, and (the Americans) don't either. They know it's not in their interests."
The ayatollah's analysis -- a war is in neither nation's interest -- is correct. Consider the consequences of a war with the United States for his own country.
Iran's hundreds of swift boats and handful of submarines would be sunk. Its ports would be mined or blockaded. Oil exports and oil revenue would halt. Air fields and missile bases would be bombed. The Iranian economy would crash. Iran would need years to recover.
And though Iran's nuclear sites are under constant observation and regular inspection, they would be destroyed.
Tehran knows this, which is why, despite 40 years of hostility, Iran has never sought war with the "Great Satan" and does not want this war to which we seem to be edging closer every day.
What would such a war mean for the United States?
It would not bring about "regime change" or bring down Iran's government that survived eight years of ground war with Saddam Hussein's Iraq.
If we wish to impose a regime more to our liking in Tehran, we will have to do it the way we did it with Germany and Japan after 1945, or with Iraq in 2003. We would have to invade and occupy Iran.
But in World War II, we had 12 million men under arms. And unlike Iraq in 2003, which is one-third the size and population of Iran, we do not have the hundreds of thousands of troops to call up and send to the Gulf.
Nor would Americans support such an invasion, as President Donald Trump knows from his 2016 campaign. Outside a few precincts, America has no enthusiasm for a new Mideast war, no stomach for any occupation of Iran.
Moreover, war with Iran would involve firefights in the Gulf that would cause at least a temporary shutdown in oil traffic through the Strait of Hormuz -- and a worldwide recession.
How would that help the world? Or Trump in 2020?
How many allies would we have in such a war?
Spain has pulled its lone frigate out of John Bolton's flotilla headed for the Gulf. Britain, France and Germany are staying with the nuclear pact, continuing to trade with Iran, throwing ice water on our intelligence reports that Iran is preparing to attack us.
Turkey regards Iran as a cultural and economic partner. Russia was a de facto ally in Syria's civil war. China continues to buy Iranian oil. India just hosted Iran's foreign minister.
So, again, Cicero's question: "Cui bono?"
Who really wants this war? How did we reach this precipice?
A year ago, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo issued a MacArthurian ultimatum, making 12 demands on the Tehran regime.
Iran must abandon all its allies in the Middle East -- Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen, Hamas in Gaza -- pull all forces under Iranian command out of Syria, and then disarm all its Shiite militia in Iraq.
Iran must halt all enrichment of uranium, swear never to produce plutonium, shut down its heavy water reactor, open up its military bases to inspection to prove it never had a secret nuclear program and stop testing missiles. And unless she submits, Iran will be strangled with sanctions.
Pompeo's speech at the Heritage Foundation read like the terms of some conquering Caesar dictating to some defeated tribe in Gaul, though we had yet to fight and win the war, usually a precondition for dictating terms.
Iran's response was to disregard Pompeo's demands.
And crushing U.S. sanctions were imposed, to brutal effect.
Yet, as one looks again at the places where Pompeo ordered Iran out -- Lebanon, Yemen, Gaza, Syria, Iraq -- no vital interest of ours was imperiled by any Iranian presence.
The people who have a problem with Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon are the Israelis whose occupations spawned those movements.
As for Yemen, the Houthis overthrew a Saudi puppet.
Syria's Bashar Assad never threatened us, though we armed rebels to overthrow him. In Iraq, Iranian-backed Shiite militia helped us to defend Baghdad from the southerly advance of ISIS, which had taken Mosul.
Who wants us to plunge back into the Middle East, to fight a new and wider war than the ones we fought already this century in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Libya and Yemen?
Answer: Pompeo and Bolton, Bibi Netanyahu, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and the Sunni kings, princes, emirs, sultans and the other assorted Jeffersonian democrats on the south shore of the Persian Gulf.
And lest we forget, the never-Trumpers and neocons in exile nursing their bruised egos, whose idea of sweet revenge is a U.S. return to the Mideast in a war with Iran, which then brings an end to the Trump presidency.
” Who Wants This War With Iran? “
I do.....bring it on .
It’s time to rid the world of this simmering cancer , once and for all . They are not going away by themselves . Their own people are powerless slaves and their regional neighbors too weak.
It’s time to demonstrate overwhelming crushing U.S. power and might , in a way that the world will long remember .
American military might ,led by an actual strong American Leader .
Enough of this kinder , gentler crap .
It’s time to kick ass and take names .
100%
The Iranian people, that's who.
Invite Saudi Arabia , some of the Gulf States , Israel and India to join us . Screw NATO
Bunch of fricken cowards ....
Ready ? Let’s roll .
Fried mullah for breakfast
Pat needs to stick to a subject he knows about. Iran isn’t one of them.
Yea, but are they?
Really?
Didn’t Hussein bribe Iran with cold, hard cash to sit down and shaddap? No?
The second they injured one of our soldiers with an
IED in Iraq they entered the war and should have been
carpet bombed
The second the purple lipped rat eared dogeater even
thought about giving these evil miscreants a dime
HE should have been forcibly removed
No justice in this world
“Who Wants This War With Iran?”
I would have said “the Saudis”, or at least included them.
Iran has become an existential threat to them, and their wealth gives them a lot of influence. That’s what’s changed in the world. But Buchanan seems to be revealing his myopic worldview once again.
What say we wait till we get Trump re-elected. Iran isn’t going anywhere and in the meantime we can run the screws down on the Iran leadership, freeze their money, sanctions on western co’s that trade with Iran. We can have a war with Iran later. No hurry. In the meantime Trump needs to fire the Mustache. The guys a loose canon for sure.
Even though it must rankle him to keep his anti-Israel agenda on the down-low, Pat smuggles Netanyahu in sub rosa.
We gotta take em out here first
The guys a loose canon for sure.
I voted for Donald Trump because I got tired of having a government run by Sunni Muslims owned by the Saudi royal family.
I don’t want a war but Iran is destabilizing the mid east...and the world, something must be done. Too bad our once effective CIA has been turned into a ineffective mess.
Saudi Arabia can't even beat Yemen. And why on Earth would India want in?
:: Who really wants this war? ::
Anyone who still thinks that Juan McCain and Bush41 were patriots.
I voted for Donald Trump because I was tired of Ivy League globalist pr!cks running this nation's foreign policy. Anyone who still thinks the invasion of Iraq was a good idea shouldn't even be allowed to clean the toilets in the White House.
LMAO.
If they attack our military we must retaliate, with great force, so the savages know we’ll do it.
I hope nothing like that happens before the election.
In the meantime, Trump’s smart enough not to taunt them.
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