Posted on 04/15/2006 9:53:03 AM PDT by Erik Latranyi
Iran 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."
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 told AFP 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, 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.
At the Tehran conference, Iran continued to thumb its nose at the United States and Israel.
"The Zionist regime is an injustice and by its very nature a permanent threat," Ahmadinejad told the gathering of regime officials, visiting Palestinian militant leaders and foreign sympathizers.
"Whether you like it or not, the Zionist regime is on the road to being eliminated," said Ahmadinejad, whose regime does not recognise Israel and who drew international condemnation last year when he said Israel should be "wiped off the map."
Unfazed by his critics, the hardliner went on to repeat his controversial stance on the Holocaust.
"If there is serious doubt over the Holocaust, there is no doubt over the catastrophe and Holocaust being faced by the Palestinians," said the president, who had previously dismissed as a "myth" the killing of an estimated six million Jews by the Nazis and their allies during World War II.
"I tell the governments who support Zionism to ... let the migrants (Jews) return to their countries of origin. If you think you owe them something, give them some of your land," he said.
Iran's turbaned supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, also accused the United States of seeking to place the entire region under Israeli control.
"The plots by the American government against Iran, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon aimed at governing the Middle East with the control of the Zionist regime will not succeed," Khamenei said.
There was no immediate reaction from Washington, but French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy severely condemned Ahmadinejad for his latest remarks on Israel.
"As I have had occasion to do before, when the Iranian president made similar statements, I condemn these inacceptable remarks in the strongest possible terms," Douste-Blazy said in a statement.
"Israel's right to exist and the reality of the Holocaust should not be disputed," he added.
You gotta feel a little or a lot of empathy for the poor-sap-citizens who sit around and let this *sshole pop off and put all of the people of the country in the eye of some serious glass.
This crisis is beyond serious. Our nukes are not going to be used to send Iran to the 10th century, if they are used at all. Conventional airpower can do great damage, but is our intel adequate to serve up all the targets we need to get on the first try? I don't know. Does anyone? These maniacs have picked the absolute best time to strut. We are involved in a conflict which grows increasingly unpopular and which is stretching our conventional resources. We are unpopular around the world. Our President seems hamstrung by the unpopularity of his policies and the despicable backstabbing done them by Dems and some GOPers. The last thing Bush wants is another conflict and I think Iran knows this. So watch them strut and prance on the stage until they really have a true deliverable nuke or until Israel takes matters into its own hands. Ours, meanwhiler are IMO tied.
My husband and I LOVE your tag line! Did you patent that one? Where can we buy a bumper sticker? My hubby wants to put that one on one of his trucks! :)
China, Russia, India, and Europe don't want us to get into the war with Iran.
Iran has 5% of the world's oil. If we do respond to aggressive ravings from Ahmadinejad, there will probably be a Global shortfall in the amount of oil available. This will probably last about a decade. A decade of a shortfall in oil will lead to a Global Depression. The Straights of Hormuz will probably close, so there won't be much oil coming out of the Persian Gulf.
The United States might be able to survive. A decade is a long time.
Much of Iran is mountainous. Iran does have more military forces than Iraq did. Iraq was sanctioned for many years. Iran probably has some aircraft and missles. Iran has operational control of Hizbollah, and maybe strong influence over the majority Shia' Muslims in Iraq. Tehran is in a valley, I believe. The CIA world fact book probably has more information on Iran. The Iranian intelligence apparatus is probably much more formidable. (Though honestly, with some of the pronouncements coming from Ahmadinejad, sometimes I question that.)
If Ahmadinejad does draw us into the fight, China might decide that now is the time to Take back possession of Taiwan, and while it is being militant, it might also go for Japan. Russia could decide to take parts of Europe.
Russia has resources (oil), both China and the US need oil. If we are drawn into Iran, we probably won't continue with the globalization program of manufacturing goods in China and shipping them across the world. That will have other effects.
We will give then enough rope to hang themselves. We'll wait untill their intentions are obvious to even the brain dead Euros. We;ll eventually get everyone on board , then one morning , before sunrise in Iran ..BANG ..We won't use ground troops , it will be done swiftly and with mind boggling force.
"They really do want to go up in a puff of smoke don't they."
Send em straight to hell, where they belong.
They couldn't defeat Iraq when Iraq had no allies. Wonder what they think they can do now, when Iraq is full of GI's. Still, this crap is tiring and my patience grows short. Soon we will have to shut the mouths of these drooling barking dogs..
He'll be down in that well looking for the twelfth imam and asking "where did I go wrong?"
Sounds more like the Poodle to me. I think we should check the source on this one, sounds alot like the Dems talking points to me.
Not really. They should have struck soon after we invaded Iraq. That was when we were most busy with internal conflict and logistical administration problems. They have actually waited too long. But that is their problem.
We are involved in a conflict which grows increasingly unpopular and which is stretching our conventional resources.
War should never be 'popular'. It should only be necessary. What the moonbats think has been irrelevant since 911.
We are unpopular around the world.
That is a problem with the world. Not with US. At least one half of the worlds population is either Islamic or socialistic. We want to be unpopular to them.
Our President seems hamstrung by the unpopularity of his policies and the despicable backstabbing done them by Dems and some GOPers. The last thing Bush wants is another conflict and I think Iran knows this.
The current Iraq conflict is the same conflict as the coming Iran conflict. Here is the proof.
"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.
which one? the ? or the 'dope'?
Either one or both, go ahead and if you make a bumper sticker, please let me know and I will give you my addy and pay for one on my car, truck, 5th wheel and jeep.....
I hope you're right. I would hate to wake up and find out most of North America is without power because the terrorists in Iran denonated a nuclear in our atmosphere and the EM pulse killed all the electrical components in the USA.
We were intrigued by the "plant a lib" one! :) If we have one printed, I promise to send one to ya! You get all the credit my friend! Maybe a freeper has the ability to make these and then FR can sell them and give a portion to FR? Either way - happy day to you today!
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