Economic sanctions by the European Union and the United States can only be allowed a limited time period to prevent Iran from attempting to acquire a nuclear arsenal before a military strike must be contemplated, Israeli leaders have declared. The tough public stance from Tel Aviv comes amid conflicting reports on the readiness of the Israeli military establishment to carry out an attack on Iran.
One account claims that Israel’s security agencies have concluded that the turmoil predicted from a strike, and the likely response from Tehran, has been widely exaggerated. However, a senior British official told The Independent that the hierarchy of the intelligence service, Mossad, and the armed forces continued to have deep trepidation about conflict in the region.
Speaking at the Davos economic summit yesterday, the Israeli Defence Minister, Ehud Barak, yesterday warned that a situation could be rapidly reached when even “surgical” military action could not block the Tehran regime from getting the bomb. “We will know early enough whether the Iranians are ready to give up their nuclear weapons,” following measures such as the recently announced EU oil embargo, he said.
Mr Barak continued, “We are determined to prevent Iran from turning nuclear. It seems to us to be urgent, because the Iranians are deliberately drifting into what we call an immunity zone where practically no surgical operation could block them”.
And then there’s us with our “mothership” on its way. Here’s one guy’s analysis of that.
They are the main and the first target of potential Iranian nuke, so they should have every right to protect themselves as they see fit.
They will not use nukes inside of the borders of Israel due to the nation being too small and the rick to one of the holiest places of Islam so great.
It would be like Catholics nuking St Peters.
They will continue to use conventional tactics. They have no real choice. So you can stop parroting the Zionist garbage. They are just as bad as the Islamists.
IF the muslims had REALLY wanted to nuke Israel they would have from Pakistan. There are plenty of Muslims there, many are Taliban, that could have made a scud and sent it to Lebanon and launched it from there. You can drop the nuke bogeyman crap.
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The belief in 13th imam of the ruling elite of Iran makes their view of reality rather more complex than yours in ways I don’t think you can ever hope to understand.
These people want to trigger what might be regarded as their version of Armageddon. Any causalities that might occur along the way are unfortunate but acceptable. Dying a martyr in the service of Allah is life’s highest reward.
I can see some of the elders leading this faction doing bleeping well anything to bring about this much prayed for event in their lifetimes.
That this point of view is way outside the box for most westerners is a given but it doesn’t change the fact that the leaders of Iran have such a point of view and many are old enough they have very little on the line in going for it. As a senior you already know that a wretched death is your immediate fate anyway.
Others may wish to defer things because of the next generation but they aren’t going to say that. It would result in their immediate ouster.
Sorry charlie but the clerics in Iran has chastised I’m A Dinner Jacket about this 12th Imam and 13th rubbish. He doesn’t hold much clout religiously as he was a Jew at birth anyway. So he has to watch his step there ot the old guys will replace him with a rigged vote.
The Twelver stuff is as weighty in Islam as the prophecies of Hal Lindsey or Harold Camping. You have had too much of internet rubbish to feed from. Put the fork down and stop eating it.
They will not risk that place in Jerusalem for that means they will NOT go to Paradise should they defile it in such a way.
Too risky, not worth having to explain to Allah.
On top of that they know as well as we and the Chinese and the Soviets did if they use a nuke, they will get one back. They are cowards and would not kill themselves. They drug up young stupid men to go and kill themselves so they will not have o die themselves.
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“Dying a martyr in the service of Allah is life’s highest reward.”
We should expedite this.
Maybe you’ll loan me your copy of the Protocols of the Elders of Islam?
Cursor–always soooo aggressive, not as often so wrong. Lets parse:
They will not use nukes inside of the borders of Israel due to the nation being too small and the rick to one of the holiest places of Islam so great. /// Or just the opposite: The nation of Israel is so small it CAN BE wiped off the face of the map with ONE Nuke==consistent with their often repeated goal to do so. Holy places of Islam–gee, they can all be rebuilt, there are plenty of others as well. Muslims have no problem attacking holy sites of their religion when it fits the larger goal.
It would be like Catholics nuking St Peters. /// Thats just plain stupid. Jerusalem is one of many holy Muslim Places==isn’t Mecca the St Peters of Muslims? St Peters is not overrun by Protestants or Jews or a Scientific Organization which would get your analogy closer. Also–I’ll just assume Jerasalem Palestinians are a different sect. You know sects?==Like insects? Alike but very different too?
They will continue to use conventional tactics. //Yes as long as they have no option.
They have no real choice. /// Choices you think are ill advised are still “real” choices.
So you can stop parroting the Zionist garbage. /// What Zionist garbage? You mean the Mullahs in charge of Iran??? Its the Iranian Mullahs pushing the Nuke Program while saying they aren’t WHILE repeating their desire to wipe Israel from the face of the map. They aren’t Zionists. Just how confused are you?
They are just as bad as the Islamists. /// More stupidity==equating the victims with the aggressors.
IF the muslims had REALLY wanted to nuke Israel they would have from Pakistan. /// More Gross dull witted stupidity. All Muslims aren’t the same. Sects. You know insects. Like the bug you are.
There are plenty of Muslims there, many are Taliban, that could have made a scud and sent it to Lebanon and launched it from there. /// Connect the dots: how do the Taliban who are hunted as Terrorists against the State of Pakistan have access to Pakistani Nuke Weapons?
You can drop the nuke bogeyman crap. /// You are an idiot.
Really, you’re falling for the WMD thing again…really. Who is an idiot? One hint of a nuke would be the end of Iran. Do you understand GONE..FOR.FUCKING.EVER.
Even scary men with beards have families, asswipe.
OMG Weapons of Mass destruction. we must have another war..then what asshole, Pakistan, then, and then.
FTW.
It is unreasoning fear that leads to blind hatred. And we all know where the path goes from there.
To malice and then to death.
The Iranians in government and in their religious councils are not willing to die for any cause. But they will send the young to do so. That spells conventional war, not nuclear.
They are forgetting the history of the cold war. They are still men under those clothes, men that fear death.
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Mackthedulledgedknife==lets parse:
Really, you’re falling for the WMD thing again…really. /// You don’t think Iran has a Nuke Weapon Program? Why are peaceful nukes not allowed to be monitored? Why are peaceful nukes built deep in the ground? Why are peacful nukes built in areas removed from the electrical power grid? Yes-I’m falling for the WMD threat for the first time. Didn’t fall for it the first time. Evidently YOU have a perfect record of failure.
Who is an idiot? /// Ha, ha. Too easy. You’re the one being parsed.
One hint of a nuke would be the end of Iran. /// Its that very hint, moreso the history of recent hints that we are talking about.
Do you understand GONE..FOR.FUCKING.EVER. /// Thats no one’s goal. Just dissuaded from building nukes. Much less than “gone” whatever in detail that might mean in your defective analysis.
Even scary men with beards have families, asswipe. /// Pedro said it best.
OMG Weapons of Mass destruction. we must have another war..then what asshole, /// Not WMD but Nukes. The “real” wmd of concern not to be confused with other propaganda programs. And not a war. Surgical strike at most. Iran wants to retaliate after that, then of cousrem more strikes would follow. But war as in ground troops and occupation?….Never Again.
Pakistan, then, and then. /// Opportunity, ability, and world opinion permitting, I agree. Right now, that doesn’t appear in the immediate and medium future.
HISTORY: A thinking man’s occupation.
Your hatred of Islamists blinds you to the fact that they are still men.
Men that wish others to go and kill and die for them, just like our leaders.
Let us set aside their religious convictions which will stop them from using nukes on a Holy Site that will make sure they will not see paradise if they defile it; and just focus on the real human condition.
Just like the US, Soviet and Chinese, NONE of their leaders wish to risk being killed in a nuclear exchange. They are cowards. They know nukes will be answered with nukes. Un-winnable situation.
Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam. Learn about it. It is in Pakistan and highly regarded in the West of the country and very Pro-Taliban.
It is gaining power. Like I said if the Muslims that want Israel really gone wanted to they could have used their ties to the military that are sympathetic to the cause to smuggle a nuke and fix it to a scud from Iran to Hamas in Lebanon. But they have not.
They KNOW what would happen. Just as our Soviet and Chinese bogeyman was a myth, so too is the Iranian one.
Lies, myths and hogwash. Effective sabre rattling for those easily cowed because of general ignorance.
Your hatred blinds you. And it is the very same blinding hatred that people had against the Hun in WWI, the Nazis in WWII and the “Communists” in the rest of the 20th century.
Unreasoning, illogical hatred that makes you think like a animal and not as a man.
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Cursor==lets parse again. Congrats you have the first ever double parse. What do you get?===Only a second chance.
Your hatred of Islamists blinds you to the fact that they are still men. /// No, thats the very concern.
Men that wish others to go and kill and die for them, just like our leaders. /// I agree they do that.
Let us set aside their religious convictions which will stop them from using nukes on a Holy Site that will make sure they will not see paradise if they defile it; and just focus on the real human condition. /// Ok.
Just like the US, Soviet and Chinese, NONE of their leaders wish to risk being killed in a nuclear exchange. /// No. Each situation is unique. Other and previous similar situations are not controlling. Why would atheist calculating regimes be a model for religiously driven intolerant isolated old men concerned only about what the voices in their heads tell them?
They are cowards. /// Even if true, cowards with a nuke constitute a risk of First Use of Nuke Weapons.
They know nukes will be answered with nukes. Un-winnable situation. /// Yeah, so I assume they think they will be “clever” and sneak a nuke across the border by truck. I don’t think they will use a traceable missile.
Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam. Learn about it. It is in Pakistan and highly regarded in the West of the country and very Pro-Taliban. /// I’ll take your word for it. Its relevancy to some equally obscure group in Iran is what?
It is gaining power. Like I said if the Muslims that want Israel really gone wanted to they could have used their ties to the military that are sympathetic to the cause to smuggle a nuke and fix it to a scud from Iran to Hamas in Lebanon. But they have not. /// I assume there are lots of reasons they have not, and the risk still exists they may in the future. But why have another such group in Iran doubling the risk? Quadrupling the risk? Is the Worlds Concern about loose nukes just completely ill placed then? We should not be spending money to secure weapons and uranium from all over Russia? No need to coerce South Africa and KayDaffy to give up Nukes? Let everyone have a Nuke? More gun nut crazy talk going on. Make Nuke Power Government Leaders take a course in gun safety from the NRA? Ha, HA.
They KNOW what would happen. Just as our Soviet and Chinese bogeyman was a myth, so too is the Iranian one. /// Idiot!! There is no myth==they were and are a threat. Cuban Missile Crises. Near Launches based on false alarms. Theft by terrorist groups. All real.
Lies, myths and hogwash. Effective sabre rattling for those easily cowed because of general ignorance. /// While I agree its bad, putting one’s head firmly in the sand is probably worse.
Your hatred blinds you. /// Who do you think I hate?===besides the abysmally assuming like yourself?
And it is the very same blinding hatred that people had against the Hun in WWI, the Nazis in WWII and the “Communists” in the rest of the 20th century. /// Hun or anyone else bombing your country justifies a response. How much history are you willing to rewrite in your desire to present yourself ass first to the world? The commies have always presented a more nuanced threat that we did not deal well with. More a communist form of government and what else?
Unreasoning, illogical hatred that makes you think like a animal and not as a man. //// Tedious. Its unreasoning and illogical to just assume a threat can be ignored. Hatred is not required to protect oneself. Why do you try to recast the geopolitical reality in such personal and psychological terms? Besides, its not what you and I might think: its what the Israeli’s think. Some still carrying the tatoo numbers on their forearms. I guess they are unreasoning and illogical to think it could happen twice within one person’s lifetime?
Cursor_/// More “Acursed.”
Please understand the thinking of the local Musloids in Iran. The destruction of Israel is Devine providence. Any consequence of this unavoidable fate will just have to be taken. The Iranian Musloids are at internal war with their rebellious youth anyway.
Prepare for unbelievable events and NO petrol soon.
Sadly, nukes can be pretty “surgical”, and a uranium-based nuke without some kind of yield enhancement will blow in the 10-15 kiloton range, which means a blast radius of destruction of about 5 miles or so with a ground-level explosion (an airburst would have a greater kill radius but a lower property damage due to shock wave attenuation at distance). As tiny as Israel and Jerusalem are in relative terms to the world, they are still pretty big pieces of real estate that can easily have 30-50 square miles FUBARed. Think of Fukishima and the footprint it has, a nuke wouldn’t have nearly that ecological impact, several pounds of BadStuff(TM) vs. several tons.
The real sick sad part of this equartion is that it is a deathrace. Any powert not aligned with us and our allies MUST have a nuke NOW or it will be oblitherated or otherwise dealt with before it gets nukes and the respect they carry (think the opening of the movie “Grand Canyon”).
“IF the muslims had REALLY wanted to nuke Israel they would have from Pakistan.”
Crusty Cursor, you’re logic is often circumspect and more often suspect and seldom worth spending time to refute but this statement just begs for redress.
You act as if all muslims are members of one group? Your logic is as far off as saying that if the protestants wanted to do something, blah, blah, blah. Which protestants? Alabama Southern Baptists? Ohio Mennonites? Minnesota Lutherans?
So, when you say “muslims” are you referring to Sunnis? Shi’ites? Wahabbis? Sufis? Or one of the many other sects? Just like christians, they come in liberal, moderate, conservative and nutty flavors. Oh, and just like christian sects, most of ’em think the others are going straight to hell.
I am talking about a group large enough to:
1 Secure a nuke without some intelligence group of some kind not knowing it
2. Smuggle said nuke from Pakistan to several other nations in a chain to get it to Lebanon whithout detection
3. Prepare such a weapon to have the greatest effect when used.
4. Have all the finances and people on hand that can pull this off and it work.
That kind of engineering is far beyond the capacity of a one tenth of one percent of Twelver Muslims that wish to start the procedure for Muhammad ibn al-Ḥasan al-Mahdī to then come back to the world and settler everything.
The sect is tiny, does not have as much pull as other sects of the religion. Would be tantamount to winning the lottery 3 times, while being hit with space junk whle collecting the check.
And we even waste our breath on such a thing when the majority of Muslims are more than happy to just wait for al-Mahdi.
This is why the cleric in Iran keep shooting down this nonsense when their president spouts this garbage.
How about we concern ourselves with REAL issues not “what ifs”? It is so easy to just de-humanise a people by saying they are evil and nuts so that way you don’t feel anything when you kill them. You feel justified.
So rather than do what truly evil people do and make people objects and not people, how about we resolve the issue with humanity and not fear and anger?
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“It would be like Catholics nuking St Peters.”
Wouldn’t that be great?
Jerusalem is not st Peters.
Mecca and Medina are Musloids equivalent.
The ‘Rock’ is a boondoggle aimed at all non-beleivers. The Profit went his way elsewhere.
fuck off and die already Israel and the USA, go fix your own countries.
spreeuw? What kind of name is that? I assume is must be from Venezuela or Cuba where there are perfect governments.
it’s dutch, but my country of origin is not of importance
“And then there’s us with our “mothership” on its way. ” Furthermore, in the news this am, I read the Sec Defense thinks our bunker buster (30,000 pounder!) might not be powerful enough for some of the Iranian nuke facilities. So, we’re at least a few weeks away while Boeing beefs ’em up. I predict we’ll be attacking Iran along about late September or early October…
Just a feeling.
Some conspiracy minded people think an “October surprise” is in the works to help Obama keep his job.
Yep. A poltician will go to ANY length to keep their job.
They’d yank out their grandmother’s gold tooth if it would help them get re-elected.
This blog touted the same thing when Obama was running for the job so Bush could remain in office under emergency powers.
Yeah, they all say it. It is all bunk.
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I
What about you?
Dumbfounded.
http://pjmedia.com/barryrubin/2012/01/26/israel-is-not-about-to-attack-iran-and-neither-is-the-united-states-get-used-to-it/
read something by someone who knows what they’re talking about
When is Israel NOT preparing to attack somebody?
Friend or foe, they don’t care. Israel has always used the same terrorist tactics that they condemn other countries for using. One of the problems with terrorism is that’s it’s strategic warfare rather than tactical warfare (i.e. attack the enemy’s willingness to fight as opposed to their ability to fight.) In strategic warfare non-combatants are killed regularly, even disproportionately. In fact, you could say that you can’t tell the difference between terrorism and strategic warfare until after it’s over: by definition the winner employed strategic warfare and the loser employed terrorism.
I recall seeing a post on an MS Flight Simulator website a guy who said he was an IAF pilot…his id pic showed a formation of F-16’s flying over a Mideastern mountain range, in desert camo, with the caption underneath:
“The Second Masada Will Not Fall”
Ah, okay. Look, I’m a goy guy who looked at photos of Nazi officers shooting naked women in a field (and many others like it), and I can certainly empathize with the outrage over such things as that. How could anyone not?
If there ever occurs an exchange of nukes in the Middle East, though, whether it’s because of religious or tribal issues or whatever…it will surely be a demonstration to the rest of humanity the utter folly and stupidity of modern militarism.
For once and for all.
Any Rabbi worth his salt will tell you the problem is with Islamists and Zionists. Not with the spiritual people of Islam or with Jusdaism.
They can tell you accounts of how prior to 1948 both Jew and Arab lived side by side watching each other’s property and children equally and lived in peace.
But thanks to secular, politically motivated people whom have hijacked the two religions they make war on everyone. They are a disease and a pestilence on the whole region and no decnt Jew or Muslim would side with them.
When you hear Israel attack someone or someone attack Israel you are seeing non-religious wolves garbed in religious sheep clothing.
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Then there are way to many people who aren’t decent living in the region.
Well Cursor that almost makes up for your top post.
Sadly, when I religion gets hijacked and steals or is handed or develops a Nuke Weapon, you are still dealing with that hijacked religion. What the pure original intent of the religion was is no longer relevant.
Its often said that history moves along?
Ha, ha. so comfortable in the rut of history. “But that was …..yesterday.”
That really is the sad thing. Few religions are evil at their core. It is the people who corrupt it for power that are the problem.
Why Animby–that is a key insight. Same with all the other isms we can name.
Ha, ha. We can start a list with GREED–one of the few hooman attributes that is evil from start to finish and all the way through?……….All we have to do is keep distinct the very admirable attribute of being motivated?
Ha, ha.
Same as it ever was.
How many countries DONT LIKE Israel?
Let them.
It will start a new Major war in the middle east. 4-6 other countries will jump into it. WHICh will cut oil to almost NOTHING. and the price of gas will go thru the ROOF(even tho we dont use oil from that area)..
ANY excuse to force the price of OIL up.
I’d think a continuing and stepped up program of assassinations and covert ops against the infrastructure of the Nuke Program could be an effective response. Why the reliance on bombs dropped from Jets?
Caught in that rut of history I suppose. I wonder how many “agents” Israel could field as an internal force against Iran? More than the US–but anywhere near enough?
One bomb in a reactor to make the middle of Tehran radioactive for 10,000 years? Nice bit of poetic justice.
The more Israel and the West threaten Iran, the more a nuclear weapon will become attractive to Iran in order to defend itself from threats from Israel and the West. The Iranian government might be tyrants, but they are not stupid.
As a previous poster suggested, this is that old WMD chestnut again. Jokes on you, sheeple. If you really want to see Iran fall, sign up to be boots on the ground and stop the cowardly war mongering.
>one of the holiest places of Islam
Jerusalem is not a holy place for Islam. They have done this in many countries where they take holy sites, raze them, and put up a mosque and declare it a holy site.
Holy sites in Islam are Mecca and Medina.
Al-Aqsa Mosque in Old Jerusalem, read up on it.
I saw this posted on the series of tubes…
http://tinyurl.com/7rbn27v
An N.A. producer perhaps?
What an interesting world we live in today… on the verge of something amazing!
Iran will cave. The American Sheeple should not fret.
Thanks to Obama’s leadership, diplomacy and cooperation with Europe and virtually the rest of the world this will not happen. Even the Saudis and the rest of the Persian cesspool does not want Iran to have a weapon. They are cornered and are merely negotiating for best terms.
The aggressor here is clearly not Iran but Israel and the Police States of ‘merica. Iran hasn’t done anything other than allegedly call Israel out for what it is.
You forgot one teeny tiny thing…Iran is a party to the NPT but was found in non-compliance.
K?
I’m not a diplomat nor do I play one on TV. But, Iran ratified the NPT in 1969 or 70 and then essentially became a new nation in the late 70s when they overthrew the existing government, wrote a new constitution and became an Islamic republic. Did they ever REratify the NPT? Seems to me when a nation becomes a new nation with a different form of government and a different constitution, prior treaties probably have no force. Not sure, just sayin’.
I am equally ignorant and uninformed but seems to me that international bank loans and business deals and all other kinds of treaties and relationships stay in place UNLESS and until they are objectively revoked?
Like corporations: nations have an ongoing life regardless of new regimes.
Thats why we gotta keep our eyes trained on The Third Reich, The Rising Sun, and the USSR–still a bunch of invading Vikings I tells ya.
I was a former diplomat in the Reagan administration. I know for sure Iran just can’t back away from its NPT treaty and remain in the UN because it changed its Ayatolla.
And so we become known, little by little, as the blog blogs on.
congrats. Quite the admirable background “but” once a diplomat: always a diplomat.
Some things are not easily beat out of a person: just observe the Pedro.
A nice memory.
I was just about to take a nap, now I am too upset after reading all this.
A nuke really isn’t that special of a bomb. Sure it covers a lot more ground, of destructive force. But it takes a whole lot more to make and deliver one, than conventional bombs. So you can’t make very many. And you have to guard the things like they were made of pure platinum. Very expensive, in every respect. Plus the fact that the US is the only nation to ever use two of them, back in WW2. And since, every nation that’s wanted them, only uses them in tests, to prove they do have them. I think the world’s oceans and deserts have been nuked enough, for that purpose, don’t you? Such a weapon simply become a political tool. A threat that is highly unlikely to ever be carried out, but may be if said nation is backed into a corner. Israel itself, supposedly already has nukes. Which is probably why Iran feels it needs them too. And Israel doesn’t want Iran to have equal or greater bargaining power, to its own. Having nukes is like having extra queens on a Chess board. You’re more likely to win the game, even if neither queen is used. Your opponent will probably resign at some point, realizing they’re out gunned. Unless they truly want to go down fighting, to their last piece. And it looks bad to Israel’s citizens, that their leaders have allowed this loss of a power advantage. Whistling up the America navy, is their interim solution. And if it goes wrong, the US is to blame, not Israel. Nice, huh?
Thanks, Dallas. I hadn’t considered the UN-status issue.
Bobbo: also good points.
Pedro: Feel free to make comments on the topic but MUST you post three or four ad hom attacks on Dallas every time he posts? Daily you become more and more annoying and less and less amusing.
The Great Dvorak Uncensored Looping Comment Style Sheet has misplaced my reply. It was intended to be somewhat higher.
Here, I would like to ask Glenn to rethink his idea that nukes are not particularly special. Sure. we have “conventional” bombs now that wreak almost as much death and destruction but no other weapon holds the promise of sending us back to the 19th century so easily.
Just think, a high altitude burst over Jerusalem would leave all the holy sites intact, not directly kill a single person and still send the entire middle east into a new dark ages and severely deplete the world access to it’s oil. A lot of ultra-conservative muslim groups would love to see that happen.
Glenn–you start with: “A nuke really isn’t that special of a bomb.” and then you continue with what makes it special and unique among weapons.
You might resolve that opposition in your own mind and then post again with your considered opinion?