Posted on 01/16/2007 10:37:38 AM PST by Flavius
JERUSALEM - When a US secretary of State comes to town, all eyes are on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
But as Condoleezza Rice's weekend visit here demonstrated, there is no issue dominating the agenda like the international standoff surrounding Iran's nuclear ambitions.
A report last week in one of Britain's leading newspapers, The Sunday Times, claimed that Israel was making preparations for a conventional attack on Iran to destroy its uranium enrichment facilities. Ms. Rice, asked in an Israeli television interview during her visit if the US would support such an Israeli strike, gave a reply that didn't exactly douse the smoldering signals emanating from Israel and Iran. Rather, the fact that some kind of a confrontation is now talked about openly, she said, is an indication of how grave the situation has become.
(Excerpt) Read more at csmonitor.com ...
And it don't hurt to have bases in Iraq and Afghanistan to do it.
Unfortunately, that is very likely.
I don't know that anyone with half a brain did not see the IRAQi takedown for anything but a strategic move to counter IRAN...I am no strategy genius but it did seem obvious that the only thing for the US to do was put our boots on the enemies front, back & side doors, after Afkanistan, Iraq was the obvious target....IMO. It would have helped enormously if there had been a true mobilization and clearer communications within our country of the long term ramifications of our preemptive strike in the ME...
We're just waiting for the winter heating-oil season to be behind us...
what would make more sense would be to broaden the bombing campaign. REMOVE their infrastructure tha gives them the ability to work on such old destructive, dirty technologies.
maybe something along the lines of hiroshima style....relatively massive and crushing... cuzz sure as sunday, they will continue to return to weapons construction.
they already are in the stone age, but our oil bucks have given them the ability to buy old $hit technology which they indend to use
Israel and the West HAVE to get away from political correctness and play on the same playing field that the mullahs are on.
would the mullahs precision bomb tel aviv?
WHERE to strike is the problem. I doubt we even know for certain where everything is. Anything visible is probably a decoy.
Israel no doubt has the best, top notch spies in Iran, but Iran will no doubt have so much security that it's not possible to get anywhere near their inner circle that knows where things are.
The Iranians probably raised every one of their nuclear scientists and workers from birth.
If Isreal stikes and misses, then what?
"If Isreal strikes and misses, then what?"
Go back, Jack, and do it again.
"What we are seeing is a game of chess and it's only in the early stages of the game."
The "leak" isn't why I would question going into conflict with Olmert in charge. Olmert has proven to be soft, and media sensitive. In the past the Israelis accomplished their goals first, then dealt with image. Olmert is an American style politician.
I suspect that Iran's plan is to complete their nuke program *before* Israel realizes it...or hope that,in the end,Israel will lose its nerve.
Besides, Iran's goals aren't limited to Israel, they would attempt to bring about an econimic blow to all of Europe and Pacific coast Asia by blocking the narrow shipping lanes and stopping oil flow. That isn't that hard to do either, a couple of ships sunk in the right places could do it. Iran knows it can't win a war, and they won't try to at this point. But they are prepared to take a pummeling as long as they accomplish this goal. Then later on they could start attacking the other oil producing countries, forcing them into an alliance perhaps.
If Iran attacks oil shipments or launch missiles into the oil productions facilities of the other Gulf states than it will be an all out war, and the US will and should destroy anything that resembles military infrastructures in Iran in addition to destroying all of Iran oil production and refining capabilities.
Not a chance, and they probably couldn't even if they tried. besides, they've already said that any Muslim casualties are acceptable for Allah's cause; if Allah wills it, blah blah blah.
When you have an entire generation whose knowledge of foreign policy is limited to reading Howard Zinn it's hard to explain ANY strategy to them.
I doubt an all out war would happen over the blocking of shipping lanes to Europe. Those other producers would still be able to ship through the gulf. As long as Iran leaves them alone, it's a calculated risk that they wouldn't start a war with them. Besides, once they nuke Israel, they would be afraid of recieving the same.
I think they would let the USA do the fighting for them, and Iran would fight a limited, short war with the USA then come to some sort of cease fire. The damage would be done to the Eurpeon economy.
I may be completely wrong, but I have a feeling Putin has a scheme worked out with Irans mullah mafia in which he interjects (with the help of the UN and China of course) and brokers some kind of peace deal in which gives him a lot of control. It would make sense given Putin's desire to have dominance over the entire European and Asian market.
And do you think (and I agree that we should) the USA would destroy them? I don't. Cripple them yes. The enviro wienies would scream blue murder if we created an enviromental disaster.
Why I think Putin has a scheme worked out is because he has been sneaking around alot making deals, is often seen to be talking with Iran and interjecting on their side. Plus He knows the RATS and anti-war movement would be more than willing to accept a peace deal to stop any war from esculating. The traitors in our midst are one of his best weapons.
yup
thats it
so he can dispatch crazies when he wants to throw a wrench into something
In regards to Putin, he could not stop us in Iraq and he will not be able to stop us if we decide to launch an Air War against the Iranian terrorist regime. He can yell and scream and exercise his veto power in the UN security council together with China and France, but at the end no one will be able to stop the only super power in the world; the United States of America.
I sincerely hope that is so, but it's not really our enemies abroad that I worry about, as you point out,we do have the ability to do what needs to be done. The question is, do we have the will? The traitors in this country are worse than the enemy abroad.
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