Posted on 01/31/2010 6:49:19 PM PST by edpc
My guess would be a satellite launch thus proving capable of an eye in the sky and developed rocket power enough to reach space and other areas of the earth maybe with different types of payloads.
If I was on duty in the Israeli command center at the time of an Iranian launch I might drop my coffee cup on the first strike button, by accident of course.
~~~
Yew make guuud funi !,,,
Don’t spill ya’ coffee,,,(use palm of the hand)...;0)
My sense of impending danger for this nation has been heightened lately - and I can’t shake it....sooooooo, what to do?
PRAY! HEAVY, URGENT, INCESSANT PRAYER NEEDED NOW!
Agreed.
I had to sleep on this last night after my initial post on this thread, but I think ther is something else with all of this renewed bluster from Mr. Pajamawadi...
Iran might very well not do anything at all...
All they ever seem to be able to accomplish is to scare the hell out of anyone who will listen...
Why does the world continue give them a venue???
If anyone who has ever been to the Persian Gulf, and I know a lot in this forum have been there, and not just to visit...
Commerce through the Straights of Hormuz has always been at the whim of whomever is sitting in control from Tehran...And that is what the key to a lot of this bluster is...
They could fart, and the traffic through that tight little conveyance of water goes down by substancial precentages...And rightfully so...
No one seems to want to do what is required to keep such a strategic and commercially critical waterway relatively clear from unreasonable influence, thus the economic impact of these latest blusterings from Mr. Ahmadinijad is already working as this statement is making the rounds now...
Sure, we used to transit that waterway unimpeaded, but then again we were a big, bad ole grey painted ship with big guns and missiles...Not everyone had that luxury...
I really beliueve this is part of the plan, or the expectations from the announcement that something “significant” will happen on the 11th of February...
I believe it is alreay having the desired effect...
And to confirm this you only have to take a look at the pile up (backlog) of ships sitting at an huge anchorage off of Oman called “Dawhat Diba”...
It’ll start getting even more thick with more ships as the date grows nearer...No one will want to get caught in the PG or transiting the straights, just because of the threat...
And that costs companies and people big time money...
Just my opinion...
Tet Offensive, 6 x 7yrs ago this last night.
Check out #366...Sometimes words are all that is needed to cost world commerce billions, and stroke egos...
Something to consider, because if Feb. 11th comes and goes and not a shot is fired, the effect will be noticable to only a few who do not see the economic impact of what is being setup by mearly words...
I have faith in zero 0 as you call him.
I have faith that he wil join Iran against the United States.
Wow. Thx.
Nightmare in the Middle East
By RALPH PETERS
Last Updated: 8:09 AM, February 1, 2010
Posted: 7:45 PM, January 30, 2010
Whatever planet Earth may find in short supply in 2010, violence and misrule will remain abundant, from the most-recent round of Muslim-vs.-Christian massacres in Nigeria to Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chavez’s delight in unleashing his thugs on students marching for freedom.
But no region — not even sub-Saharan Africa — competes with the greater Middle East when it comes to wanton savagery, thwarted opportunities and the danger posed to innocent populations around the world. With fanatical terrorists of unprecedented brutality, Islamist extremists pursuing nuclear weapons, rogue regimes, disintegrating states and threats of genocide against Israel, the lands of heat and dust between the Nile and the Indus form a realm of deadly failure that will haunt the civilized world throughout our lifetimes.
A survey of the region’s key countries — and problems — doesn’t offer much good news for the Obama Administration’s naive foreign policy efforts:
SEE THE MAP
LEBANON: This isn’t a country — it’s a temporary stand-off. Recently, Prime Minister Saad Hariri, whose father, Rafik, was assassinated by Syria, had to make a humbling visit to Damascus. Syria’s decades-long penetration of the government in Beirut and various Lebanese factions (not least, its backing of the Hezbollah terror organization) has kept Beirut dependent on Damascus to break the political gridlock in parliament. Meanwhile, Hezbollah has been rearming mightily in the wake of its 2006 war with Israel. A new war would devastate much of Lebanon — if internal strife doesn’t do it first.
EGYPT: A US client long counted among the most stable states in the Middle East, Egypt faces a potential succession crisis as octogenarian president Hosni Mubarak, who’s ruled the country for almost three decades, grooms his singularly unimpressive son, Gamal, to take over upon his death. The government and armed forces are more factionalized than they seem to outsiders, Islamist movements have proven ineradicable, and violence against Egypt’s minority Christians is on the rise again.
Unlike many other Arab populations, Egyptians have a strong national identity. There’s no danger of Egypt breaking into pieces. But no one knows for certain which way this crucial state may tilt when the elder Mubarak makes his exit. Will there be a smooth, corporatist transition from one authoritarian regime to another? Will contenders for power play the populist anti-Israeli card? Will the Muslim Brotherhood emerge as a power broker? Will pogroms and unrest rock the country, leading to a military coup? We don’t know — because the Egyptians don’t know.
TURKEY: Long in NATO, but denied membership in the European Union, Turkey has grappled with an identity crisis. Increasingly, its political bosses back an Islamic identity. The ruling AKP (Justice and Development Party) soft-peddles its religious agenda when dealing with the West, but has been methodically dismantling the secular constitution left behind by Kemal Ataturk — who rescued Turkey from oblivion 90 years ago. Despite the military’s hobbling by clever AKP tactics in Ankara, the collective of generals remains a wild card. With the AKP drawing its strength from urban slums and the countryside, more cosmopolitan Turkish voters can’t reverse the Islamic tide. Will the military move to preserve the legacy of Ataturk? Unlikely. But if the generals did move, the Obama administration would back the Islamists.
Meanwhile, Turkey’s current leaders are dragging the country toward the Middle East and away from the West.
SYRIA: The neighborhood’s in such awful shape that this police state’s beginning to look like a success story. It’s internally tranquil, with a budding economy and even a growing tourist trade. On the other hand, the Assad family’s government backs terrorism, harbors remnants of Saddam Hussein’s regime, still hopes for Israel’s destruction — and wouldn’t mind having nukes, if it could figure out how to get them. When Damascus looks like a beacon, it’s getting awfully dark in the Middle East.
ISRAEL: Civilization’s last hope in the region, Israel remains the target of international leftists dreaming of another, more-thorough Holocaust. The “peace process” will continue to fail. Arabs need Israel to blame for their failures. And President Obama empowered the worst Arab elements with his Cairo speech, which convinced the dead-enders there’s no need to compromise with Israel — that the US would shift its support to the Arab cause. That Cairo speech may prove to have been the most-destructive address in the history of American foreign policy.
IRAQ: Can’t say we didn’t try. After years of serious progress toward a national compromise, Shia political agents close to Iran recently banned over 500 influential Sunni candidates from standing in Iraq’s upcoming elections. Reconciliation has come to a screeching halt. The Shia are smug, the Sunnis feel betrayed, and the Kurds are still denied title to the traditionally Kurdish city of Kirkuk. Every faction’s fighting for a greater share of oil revenues. And the Obama administration’s AWOL (this was Bush’s war — we wouldn’t want a positive outcome).
This will be a crucial year. If upcoming elections fail to satisfy significant portions of the population, Iraq’s gears could go into reverse. There’s still hope that the Baghdad government will come to its senses — but the old blood feuds and thirst for vengeance go deeper than we thought.
Oh, and who’s behind the Iranian move to ban the Sunni candidates? Ahmed Chalabi, the man who convinced the Bush administration that we’d be welcomed with rose petals.
SAUDI ARABIA: Its two main exports are oil and fanaticism. Saudi funding supports a global effort to drive Muslims into the fold of its severe Wahhabi cult — and to prevent Muslims (including those in the US) from integrating into local societies. The Saudis care nothing for the fate or suffering of fellow Muslims (check out the Palestinians). They care only for their repressive version of Islam. The birthplace of Bin Laden, Saudi Arabia’s differences with his terror organization are over strategy and tactics, not over their mutual goal of forcing extremist Islam on all of humanity.
IRAN: Racing to acquire nuclear weapons, delighting in the prospect of a cataclysmic war that would lead to the “return of the hidden imam,” beating the hell out of its own people in the streets, murdering members of the intelligentsia, and explicit in its vows to destroy Israel, the government of Iran continues to be protected by China and Russia. There will be no meaningful sanctions. Over the next few years, we’ll see a nuclear test in the southeastern desert region of Baluchistan.
Will Israel strike first? Perhaps. Would the US? Not under this administration. The best hope is for a miracle that leads to a popular overthrow of the current maddened regime. But strategy can’t be based upon the expectation of miracles.
YEMEN: It’s Saudi Arabia without oil, running water or literacy. Perhaps the most-backward country in this stubbornly backward region, Yemen has harbored terrorists for years (we really didn’t want to know). Its government cannot control its territory, its tribes are so fanatical they alarm the Saudis (who have had to fight them), and Iran backs the Shiite minority in its revolt against the state. Throw in Yemen’s strategic position astride the world’s most-sensitive oil-shipping routes, and this pretense of a country looks far more important than Afghanistan.
DUBAI: The late Michael Jackson’s flirtation with this high-rise bazaar apparently couldn’t rescue an economy built on sand. Hyped as the model city of the future and a surefire investment, Dubai’s broke and surviving — barely — on handouts from Abu Dhabi. The bookkeeping’s suspect, but this tiny city-state’s at least $70 billion in the red — probably much more. It’s got the world’s tallest building and the world’s highest per capita debt. This is the Arab world’s “success story.”
......more
Nuke test?
TM? Gotta link?
NOT??
I thought we stopped making those.
bttt
Iran does not have to do much to close down oil shipping in the PG. Insurance companies will drop coverage on any kind of threat.
15 years ago China did the same thing with navy missle execerises off of Taiwan's 2 main ports, shutting down shipping when insurance companies refused to underwrite.
Folks, this is being misinterpreted I think.
The “harsh blow” (not his words but stated by the article writer are against global arrogance and is tied to the demonstrations.
I don’t see a threat here at all, just Freepers misunderstanding the article.
My gut tells me it will be late summer, early fall, right before November, 2010. . .
bk read at lunch break
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