Enough of Global Flaccidity [in dealing with Iran]

The timing and scope of Iranian war games held two weeks ago demonstrates the growing threat emanating from Tehran. The provocative exercises and Iran’s recent expansion of its nuclear program further accentuates the regime’s violent rhetoric, making the Iranian threat to the civilized world increasingly poignant.

With a progressively more sophisticated military capability, it is only a matter of time until Iran’s capacity to inflict destruction equals its stated ambition to do so. The international community must actively confront this threat and end its internal discord.

The Iranian war games showcased a sophisticated array of weaponry that even in its present form could inflict substantial harm. The Shahab3 long-range ballistic missile test fired during the maneuvers, has the capability to deliver a nuclear warhead to Israel, Central Asia, US military installations in Iraq, Afghanistan, Qatar, and Bahrain and every other Middle Eastern state including traditional Iranian rivals such as Egypt, Turkey, and Saudi Arabia.

In addition, Iran tested improved naval missiles capable of striking seaborne targets in the strategically important Persian Gulf. Iran has a past record of sharing such weapons with international terrorist organizations such as Hizbullah . Iran has also indicated that it is willing to share its missile systems with those “friendly” to its interests, making the threat from these weapons more diffuse and global.

Irresponsible thinking has become norm

More worrying than these conventional weapons is Iran’s pursuit of nuclear capability.

Iran recently expanded its uranium enrichment capacity by installing a new cascade of centrifuges at its Natanz facility. Far from halting enrichment activities, this advancement of Iran’s nuclear program failed to draw even minimal international repercussion.

Despite supporting UN Security Council resolution 1696, Russia and China continue to block attempts to exact substantial consequences from Iran for violating the Security Council resolution as well as its obligations under Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and International Atomic Energy Agency rules.

When asked whether Iran posed a potential threat to Russia, the Russian army’s chief of staff typified his country’s short-sightedness on this issue by saying “everything depends on where (the missile) will fly.” Unfortunately, such irresponsible thinking has been the norm for many in the international community when dealing with Iran.

Following Russian obstinacy, China has so far failed to replicate its strong and constructive role in responding to North Korea’s recent nuclear provocations. The world can ill afford to wait for Iran to conduct a nuclear test before China acts to support a robust international non-proliferation regime.

Incitement to genocide

Global flaccidity has increased the Iranian regime’s confidence. Following President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s lead, Iranian officials have taken an increasingly belligerent and hostile tone in a systematic campaign to denigrate the foundations of civilized society.

Ahmadinejad repeatedly calls for the destruction of Israel, which is both an incitement to genocide and a complete contravention of the UN Charter. The regime issues direct threats of revenge against the West for its attempts to halt Iran’s nuclear program and its support of Israel.

In addition, the very legitimacy of the UN and the historicity of the Holocaust are regularly brought into question. With the support of the Iranian government, an international cartoon contest dedicated to demeaning and denying the Holocaust was held in Tehran. Worse than the abhorrent content of the cartoons, the exhibit’s curator left no doubt about the event’s true motivation when he stated that the contest would continue to be held annually “until the destruction of Israel .”

Iran’s growing conventional military capability and steadily advancing nuclear program is a dangerous threat. When given over to radical extremists who glorify and celebrate death on all sides and preach an ideology that undermines the very foundations of civilized society, it is an existential threat.

During the 1930s, another radical regime began building up its military might while spewing hateful propaganda against the civilized world and the Jewish people. To prevent disaster, the internal international discord must now come to an end. A serious cooperative international response to the Iranian threat is needed now, before Iran is allowed to further develop its capacity to inflict destruction on the rest of the world.

christians are dead meat

dead on many levels. Philosophically, the christian foundations that advantaged the west technologically and economically are being eroded. Politically, the christians position has been eroded cuzz its not politically correct to provide support for the self that made the greatness. Demographically, the propensity for its population to grow has been excelled by others who are decimating the "nuclear" family through displacement( five on one). In a few short years, the majority in france will just have to stand up and vote, germany and russia to follow shortly thereafter.

and now the iranians have designs to clean up the few that are left with nuclear weapons... now aint that great!

rest assured, whatever happens to israel happens to the few remaining "western" pools of infidels.

Failure to act insures one thing

We need to erect a strategy to this mounting problem.

Priceless comment... The other evening, I was listening to an author talk about developing characters in his novels on the radio. He said, "when nothing is funny, nothing is serious". The Iran crisis is deadly serious and your comment is seriously funny. I'm surprised there aren't more courageous film makers out there challenging the Iranian government for its openly abusive rhetoric with comedy. Chaplin pushed the envelope in the thirties. I still hold out hope for this generation of artists and comedians...

Since Adolf Hitler had the audacity to borrow his mustache from the most famous celebrity in the world -- Charlie Chaplin -- it meant Hitler was fair game for Chaplin's comedy. (Strangely, the two men were born within four days of each other.) The Great Dictator, conceived in the late thirties but not released until 1940, when Hitler's war was raging across Europe, is the film that skewered the tyrant. Chaplin plays both Adenoid Hynkel, the power-mad ruler of Tomania, and a humble Jewish barber suffering under the dictator's rule. Paulette Goddard, Chaplin's wife at the time, plays the barber's beloved; and the rotund comedian Jack Oakie turns in a weirdly accurate burlesque of Mussolini, as a bellowing fellow dictator named Benzino Napaloni, Dictator of Bacteria. Chaplin himself hits one of his highest moments in the amazing sequence where he performs a dance of love with a large inflated globe of the world. Never has the hunger for world domination been more rhapsodically expressed. The slapstick is swift and sharp, but it was not enough for Chaplin. He ends the film with the barber's six-minute speech calling for peace and prophesying a hopeful future for troubled mankind. Some critics have always felt the monologue was out of place, but the lyricism and sheer humanity of it are still stirring. This was the last appearance of Chaplin's Little Tramp character, and not coincidentally it was his first all-talking picture.

My friend is producing a documentary called "Sexually Dangerous" following convicted sex offenders, you can see the write up on Showtimes website,one of many projects he has going on.

He did the rehab series on Discovery Health that he produced and was the counselor on.

If he ever gets rich enough we have plenty of ideas to do conservative documentaries, exposing democrats, etc. The possibilities are endless as history is always being re-written by the liberal media. It's a tough nut to crack.

He tells me stories about dealing with all of these liberal lunatics who infest entertainment, they just think he's wacky because he's a conservative. I told him to not bother to try to talk to them because they're impossible, they live in a fantasy world.

He tells me stories about dealing with all of these liberal lunatics who infest entertainment, they just think he's wacky because he's a conservative. I told him to not bother to try to talk to them because they're impossible, they live in a fantasy world.

Sometimes it's tough to ignore commonsense when it is in fact, nonsense. Talking is just one way to exert influence over those we disagree with. In the long run, with members of our own democratic culture, talk is the most effective tool we have. That said, it is by far the most frustrating technique. I enjoyed the following article and thought it was on target for our exchange.

Iraqis turn to humor during difficult days
Saad KhalifaA new Iraqi television show, “Hurry Up, He’s Dead,” has been winning over the war-torn country over the past month with nightly parodies of the nation’s devastating political and security situation. Wearing a giant Afro wig and star-shaped sunglasses, the show’s host, Saad Khalifa, pokes fun at nearly every party involved in the devastating situation faced by the country with a comedy broadcast of the day’s latest news throughout Iraq, according to the New York Times. Those targeted in the new show, which last some 20 minutes every night, include nearly everyone on the political spectrum, including the American military, the Iraqi government, as well as Iraqi resistance fighters. While most Iraqis face a grim reality of destruction and lack of basic services, such television shows have been extremely popular ever since the beginning of the current war and the fall of Saddam Hussein. In one recent episode, Khalifa informed the audience that “Rums bin Feld” had revealed that US troops would be leaving Iraq, which they have occupied since 2003, on 1/1, or the first of January. A moment later, he realized that he had misread his report, and that the troops would in fact be leaving “one-by-one,” a rate which would end the current occupation some 600 years from now. In another report, Khalifa announces that the Iraqi Ministry of Water and Sewage had decided to change its name to the ‘Ministry of Sewage’ instead, since it had completely given up on the water part.
Serious business
Despite the show’s humor, however, “Hurry Up, He’s Dead” has a serious message. “The purpose of the show is to fix Iraq,” said Khalifa, who taped the shows initially in Dubai for safety reasons. “We want to fix the civil services. We want to fix the government officials. We want to fix the relationships between people. We want to fix the government and stop the corruption,” he added. Meanwhile, both the serious underlying messages as well as the program’s humor are only gaining in popularity amongst Iraqis. Speaking on the importance of such a program currently in Iraq, one 21 year-old resident of Baghdad who identified herself as Silvana told reporters, “We need fun in our lives because of our tragic circumstances.” “Most of the channels focus on the violence, the bodies. But this program depicts our tragedies in a funny light,” Silvana added, pointing out that she and her family watch the show every night—so long as electricity is maintained in their neighborhood.
© 2006 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)

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Iranian Threat

Enough of global flaccidity

Cooperative international response to Iranian threat is needed now, before Iran develops capacity to inflict destruction

Irresponsible thinking has become norm

Incitement to genocide