Let's Cut to the Chase - Iran Must Be Stopped

reply to post by MI5edtoDeath

Let us hope Israel yet again attacks another country, Iran. When it does, the US should not get involved and leave Israel's backside hanging in the wind.

Didn't Israel get stuck trying to fight 5000 Hisbullah fighters in the Lebanon and had to have the US and UK bail it out by giving it access to Nato munition stores?

What can Israel do to Iran besides kill its unarmed citizens?

I don’t presume to know what the outcome will be but I know that Israel is quite capable of defending itself. They may not have the capability to deliver bunker busters to take out Iran's underground nuclear sites but they have enough clout to make Tehran an uninhabitable underground site.

I hope Iran is crippled by sanctions and the Iranian people throw the radicals out so that life returns to normal. If that doesn’t happen then we may very well find out just how capable (incapable) Iran’s military is…

Originally posted by seabag

I don’t presume to know what the outcome will be but I know that Israel is quite capable of defending itself. They may not have the capability to deliver bunker busters to take out Iran's underground nuclear sites but they have enough clout to make Tehran an uninhabitable underground site.

I hope Iran is crippled by sanctions and the Iranian people throw the radicals out so that life returns to normal. If that doesn’t happen then we may very well find out just how capable (incapable) Iran’s military is…

edit on 16-3-2012 by seabag because: (no reason given)

I don't presume to know the outcome of another Israeli war that will be on this occasion directed against Iran but I know Iran is capable of defending itself.

Iran is not Gaza where the killing is so easy for the Israelis. While Israel will deliberately target unarmed civilians, it does not have the capability to attack all of Irans's infrastructure like it did with tiny Lebanon.

I just hope the Israelis bite off more than they can chew, that the war they start comes to their home front and they get the kicking they deserve.

Their squeals, whinging and weaseling will be like music to my ears. Their comeuppances are overdue.

reply to post by MI5edtoDeath

I don't presume to know the outcome of another Israeli war that will be on this occasion directed against Iran but I know Iran is capable of defending itself.

Iran could never gain air superiority over Israel. Iran’s air force would be taken out quickly. Without air superiority, Iran could never win.

Iran is not Gaza where the killing is so easy for the Israelis. While Israel will deliberately target unarmed civilians, it does not have the capability to attack all of Irans's infrastructure like it did with tiny Lebanon.

SURE! Don’t believe the hype.

Like I said, Israel would quickly gain air superiority at which point they could take out targets at will.

I just hope the Israelis bite off more than they can chew, that the war they start comes to their home front and they get the kicking they deserve.

Their squeals, whinging and weaseling will be like music to my ears. Their comeuppances are overdue.

That sounds very compassionate.

So you take pleasure in the death of Israeli’s, huh? I wonder about the level of outrage if someone said the same thing about the Iranians…can you imagine??

Originally posted by MI5edtoDeath


Their squeals, whinging and weaseling will be like music to my ears. Their comeuppances are overdue.

Pure Hatred.

The peoples of Iran,and the peoples of Israel,don't want war. Its their Governments. People like you lump EVERYONE into the same problem.


Deny Ignorance indeed.

i think all of the wealthiest peoples children should be the first "boots on the ground" iin the front row armed with rifles. the richer you are, the more combat you see, and have all countries demand this of their own wealthy individuals...i think wars would end very quickly.

Originally posted by nenothtu
Yeah, Rhodes was a prick, but he never did that to his own people's money supply.

But, a money supply has to be weighted against something in order for it to have value. Mugabe could do that against diamond revenues, if he was allowed to do so. Zimbabwe has no significant trade to give value to their currency, and further, by victimising and expelling the white farmers, he undermined the economy and it’s ability to service it’s own people. Which again is bound to have a detrimental effect on currency values. Though Mugabe is most definitely a tyrant, with seemingly little regard for his people’s welfare and prosperity, the sanctions against Zimbabwe, combined with the internal removal of national institutions, mean that there is no realistic ability amongst the people to organise any kind of resistence, political or otherwise. Lifting sanctions would at least enable to economy to regenerate to some extent, and provide stimulus to produce once again. Mugabe was allowed back in, and is kept in power by means greater than the resources that he has at his disposal.

Originally posted by nenothtu
I can agree that it's a government policy problem here, too, but probably for different reasons. It's not so much that it's a mass migration, but that it's a continuous mass migration, which isn't allowing any refractory time for assimilation between generations now. The last immigrant in my family came around 1760, and on my dad's side we've been here for well over 10.000 years. What is going on now is uncontrolled, and that IS a government policy problem. I'm not against immigration - even mass immigration - but there need to be some controls in place and enforced. The last time we saw this kind of uncontrolled immigration, they were coming in wooden sailing vessels from Europe. I don't expect this current wave will have a different outcome from what that one did. The old immigrants will be the new natives.

Britain used the colonies, during the 1700s and into the mid 1800s as a means of solving it’s own social problems, most especially those caused by overcrowding by offering free and assisted passage to the poor, as well as using them, particularly in the later period Australasia, as penal colonies. Also, because the British lower classes would not tolerate slavery within Britain, it was also a means of establishing Anglo-friendly businesses overseas amongst peoples that would permit slave use, and therefore enable British subjects to exploit that highly profitable Trans-Atlantic slave trade. Even after Britain abolished slave trade in it’s colonies, many British subjects still by-passed those laws by trading with the US, as well as with the Spanish and French. What occurred in Palestine/Israel was very much of the same mindset, given the regions strategic importance to trade, Churchill was willing to lift restrictions on Jewish immigration in the hope that the resulting population would be friendly to the Brit’s needs. The question that you are better able to answer than I am, therefore, is what, in terms of social engineering, are they trying to do to the US? Or indeed, to the countries from which the immigrants are coming.

Originally posted by nenothtu
Unions came through here a few years ago and tried to organize the immigrant workers, with less than a sterling reception from them. As it turned out, the unions would have REDUCED their wages, but they are probably working in different industry here than they are there. At the time they were mostly working in tobacco fields here.

As I understand it, and correct me if I am wrong, that the Trade Union system in the US is quite different to that in the UK. In the UK it is very much about improving the lot of the worker in relation to the wider system, with the emphasis on fair pay and conditions, and representation in employer/employee disputes or such things as unfair dismissal . In the US, I was under the impression that as often as not they are more about setting up closed-shops, and ensuring that none union members are not given the ‘good’ jobs and squeezing out the competition, such as would be the case with the tobacco workers, probably lowering wages so that they got their ‘cut’ from the employer.

Originally posted by nenothtu
As far as I know, they still recruit under 18's here, too. recruiters have always been like that - pick people too young to know any better, and fill their heads with crap dreams of glory and honor. It's easier for them to mislead the young, so that's who they target. My son is in that age group, and is exploring that possibility, but he's not doing it with his eyes closed and his mind open for the filling. There ain't no glory in it - there's just mud, and blood, and smoke and dust that will choke you near to death, there's trying to dig a trench in the dirt with the buttons on your blouse because that guy over there is really trying to KILL you, like he means it! I've impressed all of that on him beyond words, and installed an advanced mistrust of recruiter's lies. He's got his own reasons for exploring the possibility, but they have nothing to do with Glory, King, Country, or God.
I'll U2U you with what I mean by "more than words". Too long a story to drop into this post.

Do so as I am interested to hear. I am not anti-military per se, and fully understand the attractions, but simply put, if a system involves any kind of hazing, or brutalising, in order to instil discipline, it is starting off on the wrong foot. Brutality breeds brutality, and that is not, in modern warfare at least, what is required. Confidence in your unit, in your commanders, cannot be gained by ritual humiliation, or rather it can, but not with any permanence. Taking recruits at an age when they are so malleable, and inflicting mental punishment, rather than mental hardening, is only asking for future mental breakdowns, which is no good in any situation, let alone one when the individuals concerned are armed.

Originally posted by nenothtu
They're given NO preparation for that possibility. NONE. If you think it'll mess up a kid's mind, you ought to see what it'll do to a grown man, old enough to already KNOW it's not supposed to be that way, but there it was. I've known people who were in both situations - as a child and as an adult. The guy who taught me Arabic was a 10 year old soldier in Syria at the Golan Heights, but I don't think he faced any kids on the other side of the lines. I've known other guys who faced kids in a kill-or-be-killed in Central America. You do what you have to do, and then try to live with it for the rest of your days OR you just let the kid pop you right there, and don't have any more days to worry about it. There's not much time to make that decision when it's right there on you, and there isn't anything they can do to prepare you for the raw reality of that beforehand.

I have been reading about a guy called Dallaire, a retired Lt-Colonel, he served with the UN in Rwanda during the genocide there and is now working as a senior fellow at the Montreal Genocide Institute. He is trying to address this issue at a state level, most particularly in trying to convince forces to at least consider non-lethal means of dealing with child soldiers in combat. No-one wants to even discuss it though. But then they don’t have to deal with it on the ground, and the after-effects of that. It is the soldier or combatant that does. He describes these children as ‘low technology, end to end weapons systems’. And I can see his reasoning, but what has to be overcome, is that just as those who use the children have no vested interest in protecting their lives, they can after all always get more, so the nation states who face these children, feel a similar attitude of expendibility towards their own personnel and their mental health. Neither side ‘cares’ about anything other than the job being done, and the subsequent gains.

Originally posted by nenothtu
In an Iran war, they can count on facing child soldiers if they're dumb enough to go in on the ground. Iran used unarmed kids as minesweepers and as human waves in the Iraq-iran war. gave them little plastic keys and told them if they died in battle that was the Key to Heaven for them.

It was reading about that very instance that spurred me on to read up on the current policies of UN and Nato forces to child combatants. Khomeini actually changed the law, to allow children as young as twelve to sign up for the military without parental consent. And then combined with propaganda and persuasion, they did so in their droves. Cheap and effective mine clearance, and no wastage of trained personnel. Lovely world we live in, ain’t it?

Originally posted by nenothtu
Well, when you pay the bills, you call the shots, even if those shot calls are relayed. And now, Hezbollah has a firm foothold in the Lebanese government...

Well funny you should say that, though the formation was initially a co-agreement between Khomeini and Fadlallah, Iran consistently worked to undermine the representation of the Lebanese factions, pushing them further and further out until it was what Iran wanted and only what Iran wanted that got authorisation. With Fadlallah’s death two years ago what function the Lebanese had seems to have been totally eclipsed by Iranian interests. Or rather, as seems to be more the case, a narrow band within Iran who’s interests Hezbollah seems to represent and enforce. A band which has been working consistently over the past three decades to eradicate all opposition both within Iran and outside of it, particularly within it’s ex-patriots.

Originally posted by nenothtu
I recommend Russian small arms - You can still get AK-74's factory-direct for 230.00 USD, still in the cosmoline, and they're a damn sight better at killing and operating through just about any crap than the US small arms. I've carried both, and I'd trade any 5 M-16's for one AK-74. I understand Venezuela took delivery of around 500,000 of them not long ago, and I have to wonder what they have planned for that many of them...

Haha, I’m not looking to buy at the moment but I’ll bear that in mind. Hmm...with Chavez not in peak physical condition, I should imagine that internally some may be expecting trouble, and externally some who may want to be providers for that trouble.

Originally posted by nenothtu
Kashoggi dealt more in high volume and hi-tech, but seemed to have a finger in every pie there for a while. I'd have hated to be in Aitken's shoes when the DNA testing of Petrina Kashoggi was done - I bet he sweat bullets for a while. I don't know much about that situation, but Kashoggi isn't the sort of fellow I'd want to have pissed off at me.

Perhaps...but really, Aitken is one of the slimiest toads ever to grace this earth and Khashoggi can hardly have the best of moral characters...what sort of skank does that make the mother, Soraya (or rather Sandra) Khashoggi? I doubt Khashoggi even batted an eyelid, these women are just contractual prostitutes, and soon break contract when a better line of credit comes onto their horizon. Unless it cost him money, he probably would still pat Aitken on the back and do business with him if it suited. The women they use (and allow to spend their money)in between are of no real consequence and no good reason to fall out over. Besides, Aitken’s career was in the gutter by the time it came out, I bet Khashoggi laughed his pants off at yet another nail getting hammered in.

Originally posted by nenothtu
I hear that Syria is running short on munitions to kill off it's civilains with, and that Iran is resupplying them. Someone needs to give Kashoggi a call and see about dropping some of those hi-tech anti-tank missiles in to the rebels to counter those shiny new Iranian-supplied tanks. Ignore the voice-overs on the smuggled footage of the Iranian smuggler planes in Syria, though - the civilians that the tanks are meant to kill aren't "UNarmed civilians", they're just severley UNDER armed. The "unarmed" bit is just a propagandistic sympathy play, as if the reality isn't bad enough.

It is bizarre, I remember there being a thread on here a good while back, before Libya kicked off, with the OP claiming that they had heard a rumour that the US had plans to ‘occupy’ a list of specified ME countries, Syria included. And US occupation aside, I’m not embarrassed to admit that I replied ‘no way Syria’. I was obviously incredibly wrong in some regards, but at the time...well...anyway. I know a couple of Syrians, and when it did kick off, they were as surprised as I was, they are on the wealthier side, western educated and permanently living over here, but they had family over there, all having since taken refuge elsewhere, having the means to do so. What was telling though is how it started panning out. Those with families outside of Syria were gradually and systematically pushed out, and those that they had contacts with inside Syria, their business contacts and employees just started disappearing off the street...then their families. These two I know, even down to the guy who used to pick them up from the airport and run the around when they went to visit. All just gone. And, effectively, those Syrians living outside of Syria have no idea what is going on inside.

Geopolitically Syria is important for keeping the Suez transit route running smoothly and I assume that the answer to all these ‘insurrections’ lies somewhere in that reasoning. Whether it is about controlling or undermining or both, I don’t know, but certainly Russia, and China would both benefit dramatically if oil trade had to go overland. And the US and Europe would be collectively sunk. So I would guess that if anyone is going to be giving Khashoggi a call, it’ll be Putin, but somehow I think he’s too busy sat back, feet up, munching on popcorn and watching the show.

Originally posted by nenothtu
That is PRECISELY why recruiters prey on the young - they haven't been far enough through the wringers yet to be able to make that distinction, and are more likely to do as they are told without thinking over much about it - until later. That's when problems arise, and some guys can't live with themselves - all because some dumbass pushed them beyond their boundaries before they even figured out what their boundaries were.

It makes no difference to them though, keep enough people on the edge economically, and you have enough of the young, dumb and expendable , to keep the cannons well fed. Makes you wonder if they have recruiters working on a cash commission basis these days though. It wouldn’t surprise me at all. Sadly.

Originally posted by nenothtu
Boundaries can be pushed pretty far and horrendously distorted in a war situation, but a man who truly has none is nothing more than a psychopath. He's as dangerous to his own as he is to the enemy. They can be found in every war, and I won't say much more about that other than to say they sometimes get left where they lay - for the good of your own men.

I can pretty much imagine, problem being, when numbers are all that matters, sometimes the psychopath gets put in charge. We had a situation in the UK a few years back, young recruits on training committing ‘suicide’ with alarming frequency, turned out to be a few bad apples amongst the NCOs. Often in the UK such types (psychopaths) are ear-marked for Special Forces, having as they do, a taste for it, if they can learn to control it, so they get bounced around, and in the meantime are left doing damage to those that can be easily manipulated who fall into their little ‘power sphere’. A ‘friend’ of mine fell into that category, the Paras wanted him but he never learnt to control it, lost his stripes as quick as he got them, eventually got kicked out, he’s now hiding out in Ireland on a warrant for seriously assaulting his girlfriend, on top of numerous GBH cautions, and shovelling as much coke up his nose as he can afford to. I expect one day to hear he’s been found in a ditch. It won’t be a huge loss.

Originally posted by nenothtu
he was a trainer, but not in a national military - just working for the UN. Some of the "bad guys" decided to take him out, and the UN left him to that fate - one unit commander, a Turkish unit I believe - offered to give him some Turkish patches to disguise himself with, and that was about it. he refused the disguise (that's against the Geneva Conventions, and he could be shot as a spy) and it turned out that the local townsfolk turned out to defend him. The UN was "over the hill" and GONE. Their "training exercise" isn't going to do them much good if they never get close enough to even smell the smoke.

It is astonishing at how narrow the loyalties are in this situation. That you can get someone that is attached to a unit in an advisory or training capacity, and yet because he isn’t one of ‘them’ he isn’t worthy of protection and support? Kind of makes you realise why so many civilians are allowed to move into the crossfire.

Originally posted by nenothtu
That seems a common problem. I've heard the charges against several outfits, public and private, but I've never actually seen it in action. I think in the Balkans both DynCorp and Wackenhut's "Armor Group" were accused of that, as well as the UN units. Wackenhut in particular has been the subject of a lot of bad press along those lines. In one case a guy with PTSD who shouldn't have been there to begin with went off in a drunken rage against his own, and had to be shot, and in another case there were accusations of Alcohol and worse in an Islamic country. I don't know how true that is, but tend to give some credence to it, if not full credence. I know some of their guys have been flown out of hot spots in a hell of a hurry, so there must have been something to it.

It is interesting, in tackling child soldiers there are a number of DDR (Disarmament, demobilisation and re-intergration) programmes operating in particular hot spots. These work on the basis that if you turn up with weapons you can access those services. These DDRs regularly turn girls away for the very reason that often they have no weapons to hand-over. Often these girls then have to go back to the group they escaped from, or find another, and exchange sex for a weapon in order to access the services. Girls, it is estimated, make up in some areas, 40% of child soldiers, they may at times be used mainly as ‘bush wives’, but also as spies and mine clearers. Given the opportunity to go home, they are often shunned because they are considered unclean because of the rapes that they endured, and therefore have no choice but to go into prostitution. And that is quite despite the damage that has been done to them physically as a result of rape and early pregnancy, and there is no rehabilitation specifically aimed at these girls, let alone any kind of rape counselling or treatment. They just go from one exploiter to another it would seem, because there is no alternative to their survival. How can, in the long term, these countries ever hope to recover, when that is the mentality of those supposedly over there to provide ‘help’?

Originally posted by nenothtu
In the spirit of disclosure, I have to admit to working for Wackenhut for a few years. While I never saw anything like those situations, I did see things that were questionable as far as hiring practices went, which would make me wonder if some of those reports might not have a grain of truth in them. Some of the guys I ran across there had no damned business at all behind a set of sights - but they might have had a place in front of them.

Just reading up about the company, it does indeed seem to have a very chequered past, and as you say chiefly based on lax hiring practices that allow the bad apples to get through when demand for it’s services reaches a point where supply is outweighed. And, also, they would be an example of a company taken over by foreigners. We have had some problems in the UK with their current owners, though none as serious as some of the allegations against Wackenhut, but again, often as not, our small size can work against such widespread corruptibility, and the problems here are more based upon the cutting corners to increase profit margins, often at the expense of providing the security that they promise. We have a number of civilian and voluntary watch-groups in the UK which make actual mistreatment a little harder to get away with.

Originally posted by nenothtu
It ain't pretty, but I call 'em like I see 'em.

No it ain’t...that’s for sure, but I for one, appreciate your honesty. Too often it is easier to shy away and pretend everything is fine and dandy and that the world is full of people trying to be good, but the truth of the matter is, that there are a lot of people being bad and trying to drag as many as they can along with them so that they aren’t lonely in their misery.

Originally posted by nenothtu

My British ancestors were all Scots and Irish, and it's my understanding that they came over here in the first place because they were already so low on the totem pole that they had to lie flat on their backs at high noon to even see the sun. I doubt they had much vote in any matters other than the vote of the sword, either, and eventually voted with their feet.

My ancestory is a mixed bag from start to finish. My maternal great-great-grandmother was a ‘mulatto’, and there is Black Irish (immigrants from Spain to Ireland) on my paternal side, and various shades in between. All of them fleeing from something worse than what they found in England, so sticking here with the sinking ship, and eventually, with my parent’s generation at least, escaping from the factories, servitude and the illiteracy of the land...proof that perseverance can pay off. I come from a very long line of damn hard workers, both sides, who were able to look a little bit further than their own lot in life to the next generation and I feel that in who I am, and try very hard not to take those qualities for granted.

reply to post by jimmyx

i think all of the wealthiest peoples children should be the first "boots on the ground" iin the front row armed with rifles. the richer you are, the more combat you see, and have all countries demand this of their own wealthy individuals...i think wars would end very quickly.

I know you’re being funny. That’s nothing more than a make-believe scenario that makes you feel good. That would never happen for one reason: We have an ALL VOLUNTEER FORCE.

The morale of warfighters was very low during Vietnam. According to many accounts this was due in part to the draft. Nobody since Vietnam has been forced to fight.

Sorry!! You don't get to see rich kids shot.

Sounds like Obama is getting a little more sancions, not Bombs, support:

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www.niacouncil.org...

Thirty-Seven Members of Congress Urge Obama to Redouble Iran Diplomacy, Warn Against War
Saturday, March 3, 2012
By: NIAC News

Members of Congress sent a letter to President Obama on Friday calling for direct, sustained diplomacy with Iran to resolve the nuclear issue and to prevent war.

Washington, DC - Thirty-seven Members of Congress sent a letter to President Obama on Friday supporting diplomacy with Iran to resolve the nuclear issue and prevent war. The Members urge for a redoubling of bilateral and multilateral diplomatic engagement efforts with Iran to achieve transparency measures that can ensure Iran’s nuclear program remains a civilian one. The letter also warns that pressure alone could lead to unintended and potentially devastating consequences, including war. The letter, below, was led by Reps. Keith Ellison (D-MN) and Walter Jones (R-NC):

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Sounds like Isreal's Iron Dome doesn't work and the Islamic gang is working Israel with Rockets:

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debka.com...

Israel ultimatum: Stop the missiles by Saturday night. Hamas leader in Tehran

DEBKAfile Exclusive Report March 16, 2012, 1:51 AM (GMT+02:00) Tags: Palestinian terror missile attacks Israel Gaza Iran Egypt Mahmoud A-Zahar of Hamas welcomed in Tehran After five days of non-stop missile fire on a dozen towns and villages, Israel Thursday night, March 15, gave Egypt and Hamas two days to halt the shooting or else the Israeli Defense Forces would go into action against Gaza. debkafile’s military sources report that neither Egypt nor Hamas can be expected to go up against the missile shooters now. The attacks have now been taken over from Jihad Islami by a small group of Salafi Palestinians calling itself Haraka Muhaheddin, which belongs to Jalalat, the al Qaeda roof organization in the Gaza Strip.

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reply to post by MagnumOpus


The current kill rate between the Palestinians and Israelis is 0 to 40.

Israel kicked off the shooting match on Thursday by assassinating some Palestinians in Gaza. Thursday was the start of Purim. Israel traditionally conducts assassinations during Purim.

There is a lot of stuff going on----as the Iran New Year is March 15.

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rense.com...\

Heading For War With Iran
By Stephen Lendman
3-16-12


Israel wants it. So does Obama, but not until after November elections. Policy now focuses on winning. Waging more wars can wait, except for Syria, despite strong public support for Assad's reform agenda promising real change.

On March 15, marking one year since Western-generated violence erupted, millions of Syrians in Damascus, Aleppo, and other cities nationwide publicly expressed regime support and anger at outside interference stoking months of violence. Political analyst Afif Dalleh called the day "a declaration of victory by all accounts."

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www.informationclearinghouse.info...

The End Of Israel

Israel Too Small to Last Even One Week of Real War

Salehi: Iran's Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi says despite Tel Aviv’s escalating war rhetoric against Iran, the Israeli regime is too small to survive even one week of real war.

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www.dailymail.co.uk...

What would happen if a nuclear bomb hit Washington D.C.? The terrifying report that predicts damage a terror attack would wreak on the nation's capital

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You people are hating on iran and want it bombed .. even so israel has nukes and you people dont care about it
why is it that you people only investigate what you hear and not a little beyond

for all you saying attack iran realy start thinking about your own country most countrys have nuke projects running you just wont hear about your home town image what would happen if your own people rise agianst their home towns there is noway they can win so just leak other countrys first then show your self making them as so called defensive maneuvers dont believe everything your read or hear try to search your selfs :p

Iran is going to play hard ball---buy a bicycle now.

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rt.com...

SWIFT reaction: Iran 'will retaliate', closing Hormuz Strait


Tehran’s threats to block the Strait of Hormuz in response to sanctions are not mere words, warned Iran’s senior spokesman on sanctions. As long as the West ignores international law to promote its interests, Iran will retaliate, he said.
­Closing the strait would be a response equal to the West’s unlawful severing of Iran from global commerce, believes Iran’s senior spokesman on Western sanctions and former intelligence minister Ali Falahian.

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Appearances: Russia is moving to play hard ball in Syria, which likely means they are going to shoot to kill the CIA and Mossad backed insurgents. And the region will come under Russia's nuclear protections.


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www.zerohedge.com...

That may or may not be the case, but has not stopped ABC from blasting, minutes ago, a headline that "Russian anti-terror troops arrive in Syria" a development that a "United Nations Security Council source told ABC News was "a bomb" certain to have serious repercussions." Which begs the question: is everyone now dead set on having war in Syria, and by proxy, Iran?

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Things moving into the Danger Zone:

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www.wired.com...

Gunboats, Super-Torpedoes, Sea-Bots: U.S. Navy Launches Huge Iran Surge

Sending more aircraft carriers to the waters near Iran, it turns out, was just the start. Yes, the U.S. currently has more seapower aimed at Iran in the Persian Gulf than in the fleets of most countries on Earth, Iran included. But that was just the Navy cracking its knuckles.

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rense.com...


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This method using Facebook as the public outreach war preventer is most interesting:

mondoweiss.net...


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Looks like Iran's Oil Exports are increasing. Sounds like even Japan is buying up Iran oil.


www.presstv.ir...

I think some of the factors on the Iran issues is that it is election season in both the US and Israel, so Israel is trying to jack up Obama to get votes for his election and so on. The Iran Facebook page is running interesting comments.

And lots more news:

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www.bloomberg.com...

Israelis Grow Confident Strike on Iran’s Nukes Can Work

Unclothe the Emperor
A widely held assumption about a pre-emptive strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities is that it would spur Iranian citizens -- many of whom appear to despise their rulers -- to rally around the regime. But Netanyahu, I’m told, believes a successful raid could unclothe the emperor, emboldening Iran’s citizens to overthrow the regime (as they tried to do, unsuccessfully, in 2009).

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www.newsmax.com...

Iran Warns It Will Attack Anyone Who Attacks It

Tehran will retaliate against any attack by Israeli or American forces "on the same level," Iran Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Tuesday in a defiant address just moments after President Barack Obama appealed directly to the Iranian people with a message of solidarity.

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www.guardian.co.uk...

Iraq bombs kill scores before Arab League summitCar and roadside bombs explode in cities and towns across Iraq, killing nearly 50 people and wounding more than 200

At least 26 explosions have hit cities and towns across Iraq, killing at least 49 people and wounding more than 200, despite a security clampdown before the Arab League summit in Baghdad next week.

The day was Iraq's bloodiest in nearly a month, with the breadth of co-ordinated bombs in more than a dozen cities showing an apparent determination by insurgents to prove that the government cannot keep the country safe.

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I think some of the factors on the Iran issues is that it is election season in both the US and Israel, so Israel is trying to jack up Obama to get votes for his election and so on. Israel wants to force Obama to think his getting elected is dependent on Obama blowing up Iran. The Iran Facebook page is running interesting comments.

The theme for the US being dragged into eternal wars is below, And lots more news:

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www.newsmax.com...

US War Game of Israel Striking Iran Projects Regional War, Hundreds of American Deaths

“General Mattis told aides that an Israeli first strike would be likely to have dire consequences across the region and for United States forces there,” according to the Times, which reported that the war game “played out a narrative in which the United States found it was pulled into the conflict after Iranian missiles struck a Navy warship in the Persian Gulf, killing about 200 Americans, according to officials with knowledge of the exercise. The United States then retaliated by carrying out its own strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities.


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www.bloomberg.com...

Israelis Grow Confident Strike on Iran’s Nukes Can Work

Unclothe the Emperor
A widely held assumption about a pre-emptive strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities is that it would spur Iranian citizens -- many of whom appear to despise their rulers -- to rally around the regime. But Netanyahu, I’m told, believes a successful raid could unclothe the emperor, emboldening Iran’s citizens to overthrow the regime (as they tried to do, unsuccessfully, in 2009).

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www.newsmax.com...

Iran Warns It Will Attack Anyone Who Attacks It

Tehran will retaliate against any attack by Israeli or American forces "on the same level," Iran Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Tuesday in a defiant address just moments after President Barack Obama appealed directly to the Iranian people with a message of solidarity.

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www.guardian.co.uk...

Iraq bombs kill scores before Arab League summitCar and roadside bombs explode in cities and towns across Iraq, killing nearly 50 people and wounding more than 200

At least 26 explosions have hit cities and towns across Iraq, killing at least 49 people and wounding more than 200, despite a security clampdown before the Arab League summit in Baghdad next week.

The day was Iraq's bloodiest in nearly a month, with the breadth of co-ordinated bombs in more than a dozen cities showing an apparent determination by insurgents to prove that the government cannot keep the country safe.

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strengthandtolerance.com...

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reply to post by seabag


Don't you think that Israel, who has the only nuclear weapons program in the world that denies IAEA inspections, and has bragged about secretly planting nukes in European and American cities to use as blackmail, is a much bigger threat to world security than Iran, who allows IAEA inspections and does not attack its allies (re: liberty incident, lavon affair, and many others)?

We are barking up the wrong tree here. Israel is a clear danger to the entire world, and must be forced to give up their WMDs and allow uninhibited inspections.

Right On !!


More:

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www.independent.co.uk...

Pentagon predicts Israel will drag US into war with Iran
Secret US simulation assumes Tehran would retaliate against ships if nuclear sites bombed

Classified war games conducted by the Pentagon have sketched a scenario in which an attack by Israel on Iran's suspected nuclear facilities would lead to Tehran launching a counter-strike against a US ship in the Gulf. That in turn would drag a reluctant US into a fresh war in the Middle East.

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I believe that Iran's leaders are very dangerous, and should have been stopped back in the early eighties when they invaded our Embassy (an act of war). These people developing nuclear weapons is truly frightening. I am not a martyr for some abstraction called "peace."

My concern is that once war happens governments can create all new pretexts. Our own government cracks down in times of war, and implements all manner of insidious agendas. Already we are seeing the police state in America, deep and dark. We might also see aggression against allies like Iran such as Hugo Chavez, which would be more in the interests of global corporations than our own safety.

Iran is much less a threat than Israel. Isreal blew up the USS Liberty, spied and got high level US people killed with Pollard, and they were right in the middle for the cause of the JFK assassination.

America needs to help Israel like it needs a lobotomy.


More News:

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uk.reuters.com...

Special Report - Intel shows Iran nuclear threat not imminent

(Reuters) - The United States, European allies and even Israel generally agree on three things about Iran's nuclear program: Tehran does not have a bomb, has not decided to build one, and is probably years away from having a deliverable nuclear warhead.

Those conclusions, drawn from extensive interviews with current and former U.S. and European officials with access to intelligence on Iran, contrast starkly with the heated debate surrounding a possible Israeli strike on Tehran's nuclear facilities.

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english.farsnews.com...

Russia Deplores West's Hostile Attitude towards Iran

TEHRAN (FNA)- A senior Russian diplomat lashed out at the West for its hostile approach towards Iran, and warned that the attitude will undermine the unity of the international community.

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For some reason I see much more common sense coming from the Russians, Chinese, and Cubans, who don't owe their allegence to Zionist and that money machine...

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The Burial Of Our Species
The Roads Leading to Disaster

Reflections By Fidel Castro

March 23, 2012

This Reflection could be written today, tomorrow or any other day without the risk of being mistaken. Our species faces new problems. When 20 years ago I stated at the United Nations Conference on the Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro that a species was in danger of extinction, I had fewer reasons than today for warning about a danger that I was seeing perhaps 100 years away. At that time, a handful of leaders of the most powerful countries were in charge of the world. They applauded my words as a matter of mere courtesy and placidly continued to dig for the burial of our species.

It seemed that on our planet, common sense and order reigned. For a while economic development, backed by technology and science appeared to be the Alpha and Omega of human society.

Today, everything is much clearer. Profound truths have been surfacing. Almost 200 States, supposedly independent, constitute the political organization which in theory has the job of governing the destiny of the world.

Approximately 25,000 nuclear weapons in the hands of allied or enemy forces ready to defend the changing order, by interest or necessity, virtually reduce to zero the rights of billions of people.

I shall not commit the naïveté of assigning the blame to Russia or China for the development of that kind of weaponry, after the monstrous massacre at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, ordered by Truman after Roosvelt’s death.

Nor shall I fall prey to the error of denying the Holocaust that signified the deaths of millions of children and adults, men or women, mainly Jews, gypsies, Russians or other nationalities, who were victims of Nazism. For that reason the odious policy of those who deny the Palestinian people their right to exist is repugnant.

Does anyone by chance think that the United States will be capable of acting with the independence that will keep it from the inevitable disaster awaiting it?

In a few weeks, the 40 million dollars President Obama promised to collect for his electoral campaign will only serve to show that the currency of his country is greatly devaluated, and that the US, with its unusual growing public debt drawing close to 20 quadrillion, is living on the money it prints up and not on the money it produces. The rest of the world pays for what they waste.

Nor does anyone believe that the Democratic candidate would be any better or worse than his Republican foes: whether they are called Mitt Romney or Rick Santorum. Light years separate the three characters as important as Abraham Lincoln or Martin Luther King. It is really unheard-of to observe such a technologically powerful nation and a government so bereft of both ideas and moral values.

Iran has no nuclear weapons. It is being accused of producing enriched uranium that serves as fuel energy or components for medical uses. Whatever one can say, its possession or production is not equivalent to the production of nuclear weapons. Dozens of countries use enriched uranium as an energy source, but this cannot be used in the manufacture of a nuclear weapon without a prior complicated purification process.

However, Israel, with the aid and cooperation of the United States, manufactured nuclear weaponry without informing or accounting to anybody, today not admitting their possession of these weapons, they have hundreds of them. To prevent the development of research in neighbouring Arab countries, they attacked and destroyed reactors in Iraq and Syria. They have also declared their aim of attacking and destroying the production centres for nuclear fuel in Iran.

International politics have been revolving around that crucial topic in that complex and dangerous part of the world, where most of the fuel that moves the world economy is produced and supplied.

The selective elimination of Iran’s most eminent scientists by Israel and their NATO allies has become a practice that motivates hatred and feelings of revenge.

The Israeli government has openly stated its objective to attack the plant manufacturing Iran’s enriched uranium, and the government of the United States has invested billions of dollars to manufacture a bomb for that purpose.

On March 16, 2012, Michel Chossudovsky and Finian Cunningham published an article revealing that “A top US Air Force General has described the largest conventional bomb – the re-invented bunkers of 13.6 tones – as ‘fantastic’ for a military attack on Iran.

“Such an eloquent comment on the massive killer-artefact took place in the same week that President Barack Obama appeared to warn against ‘easy words’ on the Persian Gulf War.”

“…Herbert Carlisle, deputy chief of staff for US Air Force operations […] added that probably the bomb would be used in any attack on Iran ordered by Washington.


“The MOP, also referred to as ‘The Mother of All Bombs’, is designed to drill through 60 metres of concrete before it detonates its massive bomb. It is believed to be the largest conventional weapon, non-nuclear, in the US arsenal.”

“The Pentagon is planning a process of wide destruction of Iran’s infrastructure and massive civilian victims through the combined use of tactical nuclear bombs and monstrous conventional bombs with mushroom-shaped clouds, including the MOABs and the larger GBU-57A/B or Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP) that exceeds the MOAB in destructive capacity.

“The MOP is described as ‘a powerful new bomb that aims straight at subterranean Iranian and North Korean nuclear facilities. The giant bomb –longer than 11 persons shoulder to shoulder, or more than 6 metres from end to end’.”

I ask the reader to excuse me for this complicated military jargon.

As one can see, such calculations arise from the supposition that the Iranian combatants, numbering millions of men and women well-known for their religious zeal and their fighting traditions, surrender without firing a shot.

In recent days, the Iranians have seen how US soldiers occupying Afghanistan, in just three weeks, urinated on the corpses of killed Afghans, burned copies of the Koran and murdered more than 15 defenceless citizens.

Let us imagine US forces launching monstrous bombs on industrial institutions, capable of penetrating through 60 metres of concrete. Never has such an undertaking ever been conceived.

Not one word more is needed to understand the gravity of such a policy. In that way, our species will be inexorably led towards disaster. If we do not learn how to understand, we shall never learn how to survive.

As for me, I harbour not the slightest doubt that the United States is about to commit and lead the world towards the greatest mistake in its history.

Fidel Castro Ruz - March 21, 2012

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