Posted on 07/16/2006 9:27:17 AM PDT by veronica
THE Iranian leadership was doing a fine line in rhetoric, until Israel and the US weighed in with specific allegations that Tehran had troops on the ground in Lebanon and that it was an Iranian-built missile that struck an Israeli warship off Beirut.
Accusing Israel of adopting the tactics that Hitler had used against the Jews, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad taunted the Israelis - cockily claiming Israel would not dare to strike Tehran, and warning that any attack on Syria would provoke a "crushing response" from the Islamic world.
At Friday prayers in Tehran, Ayatollah Emami Kashani, one of the country's most senior clerics, claimed Koranic justification for the Hezbollah action that sparked the crisis.
"The capturing of two Zionist soldiers by Hezbollah [to bargain] for the release of so many Palestinian and Lebanese imprisoned in Zionist jails is a legal, legitimate, conscientious, common and flawless act," he said.
But when Israel claimed about 100 Iranian soldiers in Lebanon had helped launch an Iranian-made missile that had struck the warship Spear, the Iranian embassy in Beirut issued a flat denial.
An Israeli commander, Brigadier-General Ido Nehushtan, claimed a Chinese-designed, Iranian-made C-80 radar-guided missile had been used, saying: "We see this as very profound fingerprint of Iranian involvement in Hezbollah."
US intelligence agencies also claimed Iran might have supplied some of its more lethal and up-to-date weapons to Hezbollah.
The tightly controlled Iranian media is full of hectoring anti-US commentary, but the religious-controlled Tehran regime is tight-lipped on the detail of its regional adventurism. Hezbollah's Tehran office curtly declined requests for an interview.
There is rising anxiety in the Sunni-dominated Arab world that Shiite Tehran is making a bid for a new regional balance of power between itself and Israel.
Some analysts argue that Tehran redoubled its nuclear efforts as a shield against the US, after witnessing the fate of Saddam Hussein's Iraq in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001, attacks on the US.
Since being singled out, along with Iraq and North Korea, as one of President George Bush's "axis-of-evil" targets, Tehran has stepped up its rhetorical and material support for anti-US forces in the region - the radical Shiite parties in Iraq, in Bashar al-Assad's Syrian Government, and Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in the Palestinian territories.
Hezbollah has previously used rockets with only a 20-kilometre range. However, Israeli claims that Iran has provided longer-range weapons may have been confirmed by Hezbollah's much deeper strikes into Israel last week, and some analysts say it follows that Hezbollah could not have used the rockets without Tehran's permission.
But in an email analysis at the weekend, Anthony Cordesman, of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, urged caution, lest suspicion and limited facts become full-blown conspiracies.
He writes: "US intelligence has not seen evidence that Iran dominated or controlled the Hezbollah, but for most of the Hezbollah's existence it has seen Iran as a major source of money and weapons."
Iranian forces in Lebanon had been reduced in recent years, but Dr Cordesman says Iran transferred "massive numbers of rockets to Hezbollah", and acknowledges they may have been long range. However, he downplays the lethal force of the weapons and doubts Tehran would have provided anything more powerful or accurate.
But, as a part of the regional power-struggle, Iran is signalling loudly to the Sunni Arab and Muslim world that it is ready to facilitate direct strikes on Israel and indirectly at its US sponsor.
Stupid statement of the week award.
The man is a homicidal maniac and tyranical psycopath. He claimed, in the recent past, that the holocaust did not happen. Now he claims the Israelis are guilty of actions he claims Hitler never did.
It would be comical if he were not at the head of a nation about to acquire nuclear weapons, and with sophisticated missile technology.
He must be brought down post haste...before he causes the death and miaming of tens of millions. We must learn from history and the free world must bring him and the berserker in N. Korea down now. We saw in WW II what happens when the free world negotiates and play fottsies and kissy face with tyrants. We need to take the premptive path this time.
Great observation, Jeff.
Hezbollah is mentioned in the Koran--who wouldda thunk it!! Is that before or after the 72 virgins verse?
Come on, Israel. Send a big fat rocket right into downtown Damascus. Or Tehran. Or both. I'm so sick of that whole area I just want to go Hiroshima on the lot of them.
:)
Something got way lost in the translation. The guy need top pull his burka up over over his face real tight...and keep it there.
Exactly. According to this Pres nutjob, Hitler was a right fine old Chap and perfectly OK by Iraninan standards. Now he want to use Hitler (in reference to Israel) to imply the worst evil possible. Guess the guy needs to spend more time re-reading his prior week's speeches. That or maybe fire George Stephanopolis as his writer (well I know he must have some RAT lib speech writer doing his work).
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060625/wl_mideast_afp/iranpoliticsisrael_060625105130
Iran to host Holocaust conference later this year
Sun Jun 25, 6:51 AM ET
TEHRAN (AFP) -
Iran has said it will still go ahead with its plan to host a conference questioning the Holocaust, with the event now scheduled for later in 2006.
ADVERTISEMENT
The controversial idea emerged after hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad described the systematic slaughter of an estimated six million Jews during World War II as a "myth", and the event was initially set for early this year.
Ahmadinejad is the perfect example of psychological projection. If ever there were a closer parallel to Hitler than Ahmadinejad, I don't know. The world stands silent as Iran builds its war machine and openly preaches genocide.
"I'm so sick of that whole area I just want to go Hiroshima on the lot of them."
A well placed cruise missile would do the trick too.
Cut the head off the snake and let it writhe away.
Agreed.
The world stands silent as Iran builds its war machine and openly preaches genocide.
...and while N. Korea and Red China do the same (build their war machines), and while they all forge economic and military technical agreements with one another. There's your real modern Axis IMHO.
Through Syria and Venezuela and Cuba all in there for good measure.
Actually, the people remaining silent about Ahmadinejad are the same folks that were silent about Hitler throughout the '30's - timid Europeans and US isolationists. And Israel ain't Czechoslovakia.
Deja vu all over again: Germany, circa 1936-1939. Now as then the democracies of the world, deny, dither, and delay.
Well, this is going to sound draconian, but I think they should take out an important mosque or two, preferably at peak business hours. I mean, aim for civilians, like the enemy does. Let's see how they like a taste of their own medicine.
Exactly, see my post 14 in response to post 12.
This is the reason that the islamo-facists of the middle east must be dealt with now. The longer we wait the better their militaries become. Right now, I believe, we have already waited too long, and that's why the U.S. is tentative about attacking Iran's nuclear-building sites. Iran can indeed cause much damage to U.S. forces if we attack. BUT, if we wait another five or ten years, or until AFTER they have nukes and use them, then what?
The time to crush Iran, Syria and Lebanon is now. Russia and communist China won't do a damn thing about it, because if they attack the U.S., or help Iran with modern military hardware, they have far more to loose than we do. China will almost immediately revert back to 1930's lifestyle if their trade with the U.S. stops. Conversely, we don't need the cheasy junk they are selling us.
But who is listening? Syria, Hamas and Hezbollah.
All of the predictions of an uprising in the Muslim world are just wishful thinking.
Iran, you are hanging out there all by your lonesome. The Russians and the Chinese are not going to save your bacon (ummm, maybe a bad choice of words but it will have to do for now), nor is Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia or Libya.
Put up or shut up time is drawing near for the Mullahs. Are they going to watch Hezbollah get slowly but surely ground into fine powder by the Israeli air and ground forces or are they going to ____________ (fill in the blank - I can't).
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.