Coming at you Iran.
Courtesy of the great friendly folks in Abilene, Texas
Posted on 04/15/2006 8:11:03 AM PDT by Hadean
IRAN has said it could defeat any American military action over its controversial nuclear drive, in one of the Islamic regime's boldest challenges yet to the United States.
"You can start a war but it won't be you who finishes it," said General Yahya Rahim Safavi, the head of the Revolutionary Guards and among the regime's most powerful figures.
"The Americans know better than anyone that their troops in the region and in Iraq are vulnerable. I would advise them not to commit such a strategic error," he told reporters on the sidelines of a pro-Palestinian conference in Tehran.
The United States accuses Iran of using an atomic energy drive as a mask for weapons development. Last weekend US news reports said President George W. Bush's administration was refining plans for preventive strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities.
"I would advise them to first get out of their quagmire in Iraq before getting into an even bigger one," General Safavi said with a grin.
"We have American forces in the region under total surveillance. For the past two years, we have been ready for any scenario, whether sanctions or an attack."
Advertisement: Iran announced this week it had successfully enriched uranium to make nuclear fuel, despite a UN Security Council demand for the sensitive work to be halted by April 28.
The Islamic regime says it only wants to generate atomic energy, but enrichment can be extended to make the fissile core of a nuclear warhead -- something the United States is convinced that "axis of evil" member Iran wants to acquire.
At a Friday prayer sermon in Tehran, senior cleric Ayatollah Ahmad Janati simply branded the US as a "decaying power" lacking the "stamina" to block Iran's ambitions.
And hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said that a US push for tough United Nations sanctions was of "no importance".
"She is free to say whatever she wants," the president replied when asked to respond to comments by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice highlighting part of the UN charter that provides for sanctions backed up by the threat of military action.
"We give no importance to her comments," he said with a broad smile.
On Thursday, Ms Rice said that faced with Iran's intransigence, the United States "will look at the full range of options available to the United Nations".
"There is no doubt that Iran continues to defy the will of the international community," Rice said, after Iran also dismissed a personal appeal from the UN atomic watchdog chief Mohamed ElBaradei.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief must give a report at the end of April on Iranian compliance with the Security Council demand. In Tehran he said that after three years of investigations Iran's activities were "still hazy and not very clear".
Although the United States has been prodding the council to take a tough stand against the Islamic republic, including possible sanctions, it has run into opposition from veto-wielding members Russia and China.
Representatives of the five permanent members of the Security Council plus Germany are to meet in Moscow Tuesday to discuss the crisis.
In seeking to deter international action, Iran has been playing up its oil wealth, its military might in strategic Gulf waters and its influence across the region -- such as in Iraq, Lebanon and the Palestinian territories.
(snip)
None of which will ultimately matter if we hammer them back to the stone age overnight with all the airborne firepower at our disposal; all of material wealth will be nullified in a matter of hours. To do this, the only feet we will set in Iranian sand are those of our forward recon teams that are in-country to designate targets.
Which is another reason to take this psycho out now.
That sure is pretty!Wish I had one!
Not so stupid. All he has to do is stall until 2008 and hope a dem is elected. He remembers Jimmy fondly. He will remember the next dem president fondly. That president will permit the establishment of a nuclear Islamic Calphate in the middle east. The stakes are that high in 2008.
I didn't say they were unconvertible, just that we have forgotten how to fight wars, and the conversion can only start whent he complete bankruptcy of their own systems (political and religious) is made perfectly obvious.
We need to look back to WWII Germany and Japan for answers on how to fight this one. Both the Nazis and Japanese militartists were just as fanatical as the present day fundamentalists Islamics, and only complete and utter defeat allowed either nation to be occupied effectively and eventually returned to the fold of civilized nations.
You can only begin to negotiate with such a fanatical enemy when the costs of conflict have been made crystal clear and when you have completely destroyed his means and will to continue waging war. The problems we have encountered in Iraq are a by-product of a "kindler, gentler" US war machine which puts a premium on precision, attempts to reduce collateral damage by any means necessary, and in which the political often trumps the militarily practical.
As a result, we have had to endure three years of sniping, sneak attacks, and booby traps from Iraqis and "foreign fighters" who do not believe that such actions hurt their cause because the US will not retaliate in the same ways they might have circa 1945 (carpet bombing, bulldozing the enemy inside their bunkers, liberal use of artilery and napalm, annhilation battles, etc).
We could avoid an awful lot of this right at the start by making it perfectly clear that resistance will be met with overwhelming force and that only complete and abject surrender is acceptible. I don't consider that to be "alienating the people" because that is exactly what THEIR leadership is seeking from us (the West): unconditional cultural and religious surrender.
Let's see general, we fought "The Mother of All Battles" and it took us 100 hours.
I'd just like to see us fight a war with the gloves off like WWII - carpet bombing, and nukes if necessary! Then we'd see who finishes it.
IMO
Here's the deal.
Like two gunfighters in the street, each waiting for his opponent to make the slightest move.
Then the fecal material collides with the ventilator.
We are already at war with Iran, have been since the Carter days, only difference now is it is going to get really hot, very soon.
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