"No country can attack us because we are a superior force. We will deter any offensive."
Posted on 01/18/2005 7:14:27 AM PST by F14 Pilot
TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran has the military might to deter attacks against it, its defense minister said in remarks published Tuesday, one day after President Bush said he would not rule out military action against Iran.
Ali Shamkhani said the Islamic Republic, which has seen U.S. forces topple regimes in neighboring Afghanistan and Iraq (news - web sites) in the last three years, did not fear attack.
"We are able to say that we have strength such that no country can attack us because they do not have precise information about our military capabilities due to our ability to implement flexible strategies," the semi-official Mehr news agency quoted Shamkhani as saying.
"We can claim that we have rapidly produced equipment that has resulted in the greatest deterrent," he said, without elaborating.
Iran last October announced successful trials of its Shahab-3 ballistic missile with a range of 1,250 miles, putting parts of Europe, as well as Israel and U.S. bases in the Gulf, within its reach.
Bush said Monday that Washington would not rule out military action against Iran, which he labeled in 2002 an "axis of evil" member alongside Iraq and North Korea, if it was not more forthcoming about its suspected nuclear weapons program.
Iranian officials said they were unconcerned about the threats of military action, which seemed to suggest Washington was eager to tackle Iran in Bush's second term.
"Iran has no fear of foreign enemies' threats...as they are very well aware that the Islamic Republic is not a place for adventurism," the ISNA student news agency quoted influential former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani as saying.
Bush's comments followed an article in the New Yorker magazine Sunday which said U.S. commando units were conducting secret reconnaissance missions inside Iran to identify hidden nuclear and chemical sites for possible future strikes.
Iran denies its nuclear facilities are to be used to make nuclear weapons and Pentagon officials have said the New Yorker report was "riddled with errors."
IRAN UNCONCERNED
Ali Aghamohammadi, head of the Propaganda Office at Iran's Supreme National Security Council, dismissed the New Yorker report as "psychological warfare against Iran."
"The entry of American commandos (into Iran) is not that easy and believing this story would be naive," state radio quoted him as saying.
The European Union insisted Tuesday diplomacy was the right approach with Iran.
"We are working with our Iranian partners in good faith as I trust they are working with us in good faith. We will pursue that path as long as it's possible and fruitful to do so," said Commission external affairs spokeswoman Emma Udwin.
Britain, Germany and France have sought to persuade Tehran to give up technology that can be used to make nuclear warheads in return for incentives such as trade deals and help with a civilian nuclear program.
Mehr news agency, which analysts say has close ties to the office of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in an editorial entitled "Futile espionage" ridiculed U.S. attempts to destabilize Iran since the 1979 Islamic revolution.
"The United States is well aware that Iran has strongly withstood U.S. pressure for over 25 years ... Today, the Islamic Republic has acquired massive military might, the dimensions of which still remain unknown, and is prepared to attack any intruder with a fearsome rain of fire and death," it said.
"The U.S. and Israel know that they can never militarily challenge Iran, since attacking the Islamic Republic would be biting off more than they could chew and would only choke them if they attempted it," it added.
4. China and/or Russia have promised to watch their six militarily.
"No country can attack us because we are a superior force. We will deter any offensive."
Flexible strategies? Monty Python comes to mind. "Run Away! Run Away!"
But let's face it: the war on terrorism is very analogous to the war on Communism we successfully completed against the Soviets. Communism is still here and still a threat - look at a large minority of Congress, for instance. But the ability to wage war on a global scale by a Communist nation is gone (China is no longer Communist - it is a fascist nation by any reasonable definition).
Iran and Syria are the primary sources of funding and direction for Islamofascism, with Saudi Arabia coming in a close third. We are occupying Iraq and Afghanistan, which almost surround Iran, and we have a strong ally in Israel which gives us a great vantage point for dealing with Saudi Arabia, Syria and Egypt. Pakistan is nominally an ally, so it has many of our military on their ground already.
We won against the Soviets by fighting them through surrogates and in their sphere of influence. We basically, witness Cuba, stopped them from doing much operating in ours. Similar tactics to what we're doing now.
We didn't confront a nuclear armed Russia directly and it would seem prudent to follow the same course with Iran and North Korea. But we, especially during the Reagan years, contained, outspent and outbluffed them.
The major difference, from our point of view, is that the Communist agents, while trying their best to defeat our way of life, normally didn't suicide. At least not in a spectacular way. These Islamofascist agents often do.
Same hatred of the West, same goal to defeat us. And they both have the useful idiots of the left on their side.
Very similar to the rhetoric Saddam Hussein was spewing. You know, before he was deposed and arrested and all.
Looks like Baghdad Bob found a new job.
What, Baghdad Bob is working for Iran now?
Hmmm. Tehran Bob just doesn't have the same ring to it.
I say we drop the MOAP on them!
(M)other
(O)f
(A)ll
(P)igs
May the pork be with you!
ARTHUR:
Consult the Book of Armaments!
BROTHER MAYNARD:
Armaments, chapter two, verses nine to twenty-one.
SECOND BROTHER:
And Saint Attila raised the hand grenade up on high, saying, 'O Lord, bless this Thy hand grenade that, with it, Thou mayest blow Thine enemies to tiny bits in Thy mercy.'
And the Lord did grin, and the people did feast upon the lambs and sloths and carp and anchovies and orangutans and breakfast cereals and fruit bats and large chu--
MAYNARD:
Skip a bit, Brother.
SECOND BROTHER:
And the Lord spake, saying, 'First shalt thou take out the Holy Pin. Then, shalt thou count to three. No more. No less. Three shalt be the number thou shalt count, and the number of the counting shall be three. Four shalt thou not count, nor either count thou two, excepting that thou then proceed to three. Five is right out. Once the number three, being the third number, be reached, then, lobbest thou thy Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch towards thy foe, who, being naughty in My sight, shall snuff it.'
MAYNARD:
Amen.
KNIGHTS:
Amen.
ARTHUR:
Right!
One!... Two!... Five!
GALAHAD:
Three, sir!
ARTHUR:
Three!
[angels sing]
[boom]
Good point. Just like the weapons of mass destruction, heh? It's hard for us to comprehend the Muslim mindset.
Yeah, but what are they gonna do when their own citizens who want freedom turn on them?
Never underestimate your enemies capabilities. Can we beat them on a battlefield? Sure. Can we beat them walking into their cities, dealing with crazies and whackjobs? Not without also having to deal with our leftwing media and public opinion.
Lessee now, they've got to not only worry about the U.S., but also about their own people. Not exactly a wonderful position to be in. Furthermore, I'll bet you they are planning to defend themselves on what they have seen the U.S. do, not on what the U.S. actually does.
Same crap Iraq was saying before Desert Storm. Back then it was even considered on Merit, because the Iraqi's had just come from a prolonged war with Iran, where Iraq gained a reputation as a good ambush Army but not much else. At the time it was thought that maybe Iraq wasn't the great ambush Army that everyone thought, but the Iranians were just really, really good at walking into ambushes.
It's bluster, plain and simple, and its the way the Middle East has operated forever. Remember Saddam saying all that mother of all battles crap? And to that end it worked in the sense that tens of thousands of body bags were flown to the gulf just in case.
Bump!
These Persians have been living around Arabs for too long. They are starting to sound alike.
I hope we do go after them. Why play this long insurgent game? We know they are largely behind it. Let the process go for a while and if they can't agree to stop building WMD, remove this regime too. We're fighting them now anyway.
Red6
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