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Iranians Would Welcome Airstrikes, Sources Say
Newsmax ^ | 5/20/2008 | KennethTimmerman

Posted on 05/20/2008 5:20:17 PM PDT by G8 Diplomat

As Barack Obama and John McCain thrash it out over how they would deal with Iran, voices from inside Iran are weighing in with an unusual message: If the United States strikes hard and fast, we will support you.

Emissaries from inside Iran have been meeting with Iranian exiles in Europe, the United States, and elsewhere in recent weeks to deliver this provocative message, which they claim comes from pro-U.S. dissidents at the upper-most levels of the regime.

“U.S. airstrikes must be powerful and sustained enough to break the myth of the regime’s absolute power and reveal the weakness of the leadership,” a former official who traveled outside of Iran recently said.

The United States should target the office of Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, as well as the headquarters of the Revolutionary Guards Corp, the offices of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and that of his predecessor and rival, Mullah Hashemi-Rafsanjani, Iranian sources say.

The goal should be to carry out sustained airstrikes over a 48-72 hour period that would “decapitate” the regime.

Such a strike would send a clear message to the Iranian people and to disgruntled officials throughout Iran’s faction-ridden government that the United States is serious about confronting the regime over its bad behavior in Iraq and is willing to strike the leaders responsible for that behavior, the Iranian sources argue.

(Excerpt) Read more at newsmax.com ...


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: airstrikes; iran; iraniannukes; premption
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To: G8 Diplomat
The United States should target the office of Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, as well as the headquarters of the Revolutionary Guards Corp, the offices of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and that of his predecessor and rival, Mullah Hashemi-Rafsanjani, Iranian sources say.

Unfortunately that would involve collateral damage to the human shields the Iranians would doubtlessly have in place like Jimmy Critter and Cindy Sheehan.

21 posted on 05/20/2008 7:03:30 PM PDT by Rome2000 (Peace is not an option)
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To: sionnsar

I was thinking of the best way to respond to that...you did it better than I could. Thanks.

Some people don’t have the intelligence it takes to formulate foreign policy....they live in comic book world where everything goes the way they want it to go, instead of the real world which is entirely different.


22 posted on 05/20/2008 7:04:03 PM PDT by G8 Diplomat
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To: G8 Diplomat

Great... Thanks ~alot~ Newsmax. Just what we needed.


23 posted on 05/20/2008 7:04:24 PM PDT by Ramius (Personally, I give us... one chance in three. More tea?)
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To: G8 Diplomat
Excellent, Iran, we're pencilling you in. Did you have a seasonal preference, late fall, perhaps? Any particular holiday we should avoid?

Now about the addresses of the 85 mullahs. We'll need those too for the party planning.

24 posted on 05/20/2008 7:04:59 PM PDT by txhurl
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To: sionnsar
I'll leave it to others to educate you.

Ignorance is not always bliss;

Please, consider a more polite mode of conversation. Were you really able to judge my education or ignorance from a one-sentence joke?

A decapitation strike is a very dangerous thing, because it leaves the enemy mostly undefeated. We saw how much trouble the half-defeated Baathists caused us in Iraq. Wars are won by breaking the enemy's will to fight. Killing the top mullah won't achieve that.

Don't kid yourself that there is no popular support for the regime in Iran. No regime can survive without strong support from a substantial portion of a country's population.

25 posted on 05/20/2008 7:08:40 PM PDT by tarator
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To: G8 Diplomat

Oops...that was supposed to be in response to post 15, not 14


26 posted on 05/20/2008 7:15:45 PM PDT by G8 Diplomat
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To: G8 Diplomat
Sounds like a set-up to make it appear we have more support inside Iran than we really do.

I don't think a decapitation strike is the answer - we saw how well that went in Iraq.

All-out support of Iran's opposition groups (military and political) in a concerted attempt to topple the mullahs would be my choice.

27 posted on 05/20/2008 7:16:33 PM PDT by reagan_fanatic (Average White Conservative)
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To: reagan_fanatic

As for support in Iran—we’ve got about 70%. We’re more popular in Iran than in Europe, for example.

I have to admit I was skeptical myself. I thought I read somewhere earlier that the Iranians, although they want the mullahs out, would prefer not to be bombed. I would hate Hillary as president and a Reid/Pelosi-type Congress, but would you want someone bombing Washington?


28 posted on 05/20/2008 7:19:50 PM PDT by G8 Diplomat
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To: FARS
FARS, from my discussions with the Iranian-Americans I know, I would likely not be surprised.

Iran is not so fortunate as the American colonies in that its oppressors are not on the other wide of a very wide ocean, but the attitude of the Iranians on the street is not so very different from our colonists of yore. I am encouraged (and here goes any visa to visit today's Iran) to hear the Iranian peoples' position. Knock it down just far enough and the whole corrupt and dishonest edifice will collapse.

And Iran will enjoy freedom again.

That is my ongoing prayer to God.

29 posted on 05/20/2008 7:20:00 PM PDT by sionnsar (trad-anglican.faithweb.com |Iran Azadi| 5yst3m 0wn3d - it's N0t Y0ur5 (SONY) | UN: Useless Nations)
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To: FARS; devolve; ntnychik; PhilDragoo; MeekOneGOP

I know [I KNOW] that I read articles a few years ago about the younger generation of Iranians, who were more ‘westernized’ and liked America and wanted to live like us.

At the time I had hopes that things there would change. But their government dominates them [just as ours is pretty much trying to do now] and it’s hard to ‘take it back’.

We will learn this if we allow the democrats to take us over.

I am not a historian, nor a politician, just a regular person with my own thoughts, however dim they seem.


30 posted on 05/20/2008 7:21:28 PM PDT by potlatch
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To: G8 Diplomat

Next new moon phase 3 - 9 June.


31 posted on 05/20/2008 7:21:43 PM PDT by TADSLOS (The GOP death march to the gravesite is underway.)
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To: FARS

It is always educational to read your updates. It constantly reminds me that the Mullah’s in Iran are the enemy, and it is not the people who we should be angry at. I wish the same for them. I wish them freedom from their present tormentors.


32 posted on 05/20/2008 7:23:28 PM PDT by Enterprise ((Those who "betray us" also "Betray U.S." They're called DEMOCRATS!))
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To: G8 Diplomat
The United States should target the office of Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, as well as the headquarters of the Revolutionary Guards Corp, the offices of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and that of his predecessor and rival, Mullah Hashemi-Rafsanjani, Iranian sources say.

I wonder if we could pull it off?

After all it hasn't in the past been tried and succeeded yet. /s

We should just take the diplomatic path and talk to all anti-American zealot despots for we know THAT will work. /snicker

33 posted on 05/20/2008 7:23:38 PM PDT by EGPWS (Trust in God, question everyone else)
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To: reagan_fanatic
I don't think a decapitation strike is the answer - we saw how well that went in Iraq.

Actually, the invasion (and nab Saddam) part of the war in Iraq went according to plan. It wasn't until we started to nation-build that we ran into trouble.

There'll be no occupation, nation-building, or social engineering effots in Iran. Just take out the nuke facitities and turn their "navy" into fish condos. No boots on the ground. ...except perhaps some spec-ops. It'll all be over pretty quickly.

34 posted on 05/20/2008 7:24:19 PM PDT by Mr. Mojo
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To: G8 Diplomat

I like the way you think.

The day of reckoning for 444 days of humiliation and for eight brave men who died on the fialed rescue attempt is long overdue.

We should start it on Nov. 1st so it will be over on November 4th.

That would be so sweet.


35 posted on 05/20/2008 7:29:03 PM PDT by exit82 (People get the government they deserve. And they are about to get it--in spades.)
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To: Mr. Mojo

Sounds good to me.

There’s no Sunni-Shi’ite-Kurd divide in Iran, which makes things a lot smoother. They can make their own government. Reza Pahlavi (the last Shah’s son) lives in a town about ten minutes away from my home. I suppose technically he could re-take the throne, though I’d think the Iranians would prefer a democracy (and hopefully they can make one that works better than ours does at the moment).


36 posted on 05/20/2008 7:36:13 PM PDT by G8 Diplomat
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To: G8 Diplomat

I’ve seen Reza a few times on FNC these past few years. He’s strongly against U.S. air strikes, fearing it would alienate the very people we’re trying to win over. He doesn’t quite get that this isn’t about “winning over” anybody; it’s about preventing a fanatical regime from possessing nukes by any means necessary. But he seems like a decent fella nevertheless.

Oh yeah, in my last post I neglected to mention the necessity of taking out the terrorist strongholds in western Iran responsible for much of the chaos/death in Iraq. A prime concern.


37 posted on 05/20/2008 7:46:45 PM PDT by Mr. Mojo
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To: Mr. Mojo

Both good points


38 posted on 05/20/2008 7:53:37 PM PDT by G8 Diplomat
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To: sionnsar; Clint Williams

Relax, calm down, take some slow deep breaths. I don’t have the “football” or it would have been used many years ago, the day after 911.


39 posted on 05/20/2008 7:56:06 PM PDT by Gator113 (Obama is a member of the Far Wright Conspiracy.......)
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To: tarator; LibreOuMort; nuconvert; freedom44; Admin Moderator; Jim Robinson; John Robinson
Please, consider a more polite mode of conversation. Were you really able to judge my education or ignorance from a one-sentence joke?

MyPlease, consider a more polite mode of conversation. Were you really able to judge my education or ignorance from a one-sentence joke?

A decapitation strike is a very dangerous thing, because it leaves the enemy mostly undefeated. We saw how much trouble the half-defeated Baathists caused us in Iraq. Wars are won by breaking the enemy's will to fight. Killing the top mullah won't achieve that.

Don't kid yourself that there is no popular support for the regime in Iran. No regime can survive without strong support from a substantial portion of a country's population.

You launched the incivility with a "one-sentence joke" that could be readily identified as anything such. This happens all the time on FR and no blame occurs as the result of such. Hey, I've been on the "other" side too.

I thoroughly agree with you about the risks of a decapitation strike -- you make some excellent points about the risks involved. And I was suggesting some minimal risks.

Where we differ, I suspect, is in "knowledge" of the internal situation in Iran. Everything I hear, whether from Iranians in the US (naturalized or otherwise), Iranians who have *escaped* from Iran (I'm saying no further about that), or Iranians still there, says the government is not far from collapse if such is triggered.

But as to your comment:

Don't kid yourself that there is no popular support for the regime in Iran. No regime can survive without strong support from a substantial portion of a country's population.
I'd like to hear from you about the strong support for the Basiji among the Iranians. I do not hear that they have strong support from among the people, that they are not even comprised of Iranian peoples, but that the Iranians consider the Basiji to be Arabic and anti-Iranian thugs employed by the mullahs.

I see a fast-declining situation in Iran and would rather avoid a violent resolution. But it might not be in our future and we have to work out the best way forward.

... I am cutting this off because I am having too many problems with "Preview" -- my text is getting mangled beyond recognition.

40 posted on 05/20/2008 8:00:31 PM PDT by sionnsar (trad-anglican.faithweb.com |Iran Azadi| 5yst3m 0wn3d - it's N0t Y0ur5 (SONY) | UN: Useless Nations)
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