Starting a war with Iran?

[mr.jaynes]

Yes, a military/naval/economic blockade on Iran and North Korea may be just what the situations call for. No trade nor supplies going in to either of these 2 countries, and nothing going out of them either. Unilaterally quarantine them to the point that they will capitulate on their own.  The result should be regime change, and this is a good way of acheiving this. It worked for the Union during the War of Northern Agression, it should work here.

[FOTD]

Is Dick Cheney Listening? "Iraq will not allow its territory to be used to attack Iran, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki has said during a visit to Tehran. Mr Maliki met the foreign minister and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who pledged to help with Iraq's security." So our puppet government in Iraq is talking with Iran but the Neo-Cons won't. Huh?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7441329.stm

[FOTD]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/06/24/israel-pushing-us-to-stri_n_109043.html

Israel Pushing US To Strike Iran

"Israel's message is simple: If you don't, we will. Israel held a dress rehearsal for a strike earlier this month, but military analysts say Israel can not do it alone."

People-we have GOT to stop this insanity!!!!

[FOTD]

WOW!
Seymour Hersh: The Bush Administration steps up its secret moves against Iran.  


http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/07/07/080707fa_fact_hersh

EXCERPTS!!!!!!!!!!!!

"Military and civilian leaders in the Pentagon share the White House's concern about Iran's nuclear ambitions, but there is disagreement about whether a military strike is the right solution. Some Pentagon officials believe, as they have let Congress and the media know, that bombing Iran is not a viable response to the nuclear-proliferation issue, and that more diplomacy is necessary. "


"A Democratic senator told me that, late last year, in an off-the-record lunch meeting, Secretary of Defense Gates met with the Democratic caucus in the Senate. (Such meetings are held regularly.) Gates warned of the consequences if the Bush Administration staged a preëmptive strike on Iran, saying, as the senator recalled, "We'll create generations of jihadists, and our grandchildren will be battling our enemies here in America." Gates's comments stunned the Democrats at the lunch, and another senator asked whether Gates was speaking for Bush and Vice-President Dick Cheney. Gates's answer, the senator told me, was "Let's just say that I'm here speaking for myself."

"Too many people believe you have to be either for or against the Iranians," he told me. "Let's get serious. Eighty million people live there, and everyone's an individual. The idea that they're only one way or another is nonsense."

"Obey declined to comment on the specifics of the operations in Iran, but he did tell me that the White House reneged on its promise to consult more fully with Congress. He said, "I suspect there's something going on, but I don't know what to believe. Cheney has always wanted to go after Iran, and if he had more time he'd find a way to do it. We still don't get enough information from the agencies, and I have very little confidence that they give us information on the edge."

"Fallon's early retirement, however, appears to have been provoked not only by his negative comments about bombing Iran but also by his strong belief in the chain of command and his insistence on being informed about Special Operations in his area of responsibility. "

"In recent months, according to the Iranian media, there has been a surge in violence in Iran; it is impossible at this early stage, however, to credit JSOC or C.I.A. activities, or to assess their impact on the Iranian leadership. "

"Earlier this year, a militant Ahwazi group claimed to have assassinated a Revolutionary Guard colonel, and the Iranian government acknowledged that an explosion in a cultural center in Shiraz, in the southern part of the country, which killed at least twelve people and injured more than two hundred, had been a terrorist act and not, as it earlier insisted, an accident. It could not be learned whether there has been American involvement in any specific incident in Iran, but, according to Gardiner, the Iranians have begun publicly blaming the U.S., Great Britain, and, more recently, the C.I.A. for some incidents. The agency was involved in a coup in Iran in 1953, and its support for the unpopular regime of Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi—who was overthrown in 1979—was condemned for years by the ruling mullahs in Tehran, to great effect. "This is the ultimate for the Iranians—to blame the C.I.A.," Gardiner said. "This is new, and it's an escalation—a ratcheting up of tensions. It rallies support for the regime and shows the people that there is a continuing threat from the 'Great Satan.' " In Gardiner's view, the violence, rather than weakening Iran's religious government, may generate support for it."

"The irony is that we're once again working with Sunni fundamentalists, just as we did in Afghanistan in the nineteen-eighties."

"The C.I.A. and Special Operations communities also have long-standing ties to two other dissident groups in Iran: the Mujahideen-e-Khalq, known in the West as the M.E.K., and a Kurdish separatist group, the Party for a Free Life in Kurdistan, or PJAK. "

"America's covert operations, he said, "seem to be harming relations with the governments of both Iraq and Pakistan and could well be strengthening the connection between Tehran and Baghdad."

"The White House's reliance on questionable operatives, and on plans involving possible lethal action inside Iran, has created anger as well as anxiety within the Special Operations and intelligence communities."

""The Special Ops guys are pissed off because Cheney's office set up priorities for categories of targets, and now he's getting impatient and applying pressure for results. But it takes a long time to get the right guys in place."

"A Gallup poll taken last November, before the N.I.E. was made public, found that seventy-three per cent of those surveyed thought that the United States should use economic action and diplomacy to stop Iran's nuclear program, while only eighteen per cent favored direct military action. Republicans were twice as likely as Democrats to endorse a military strike."

"The continuing impasse alarms many observers. Joschka Fischer, the former German Foreign Minister, recently wrote in a syndicated column that it may not "be possible to freeze the Iranian nuclear program for the duration of the negotiations to avoid a military confrontation before they are completed. Should this newest attempt fail, things will soon get serious. Deadly serious."

"Scheunemann, who is known as a neoconservative, is also the McCain campaign's most important channel of communication with the White House. He is a friend of David Addington, Dick Cheney's chief of staff. I have heard differing accounts of Scheunemann's influence with McCain; though some close to the McCain campaign talk about him as a possible national-security adviser, others say he is someone who isn't taken seriously while "telling Cheney and others what they want to hear," as a senior McCain adviser put it. "

[FOTD]

Iran ready to strike at Israel's nuclear heart

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article4232021.ece

"Although the visit had been planned well in advance, we got the feeling he was coming to make sure we'll obey the strict timetable agreed with the US," said an Israeli defence source. He refused to elaborate. "

Tag says "sabre rattling" -- it's also "Sabra rattling" to native Israelis -- who really don't want this warlike stance of the Likudite Luddites. Get rid of Olmert and his Bushevik neocon warmongers and the prospect of a real peace becomes more possible.

[FOTD]

Iran discovers billion-barrel oil field

http://www.news.com.au/business/story/0,23636,24015554-31037,00.html

[FOTD]

Here's a good read from Nat. Geo.

Something FOTD said way back when war drums were loud and their leader feared.

Persia: Ancient Soul of Iran
A glorious past inspires a conflicted nation.

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2008/08/iran-archaeology/del-giudice-text

[FOTD]

Obama to House Dems: If Sanctions Fail, Israel Will Likely Strike Iran

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/07/obama-to-house.html

"The notion that Israel is preparing for such an action against Iran's myriad nuclear facilities is not new, with conjecture heating up in May after an Israeli military exercise featuring 150 aircraft flying almost a thousand miles over the Mediterranean Sea in what was seen as a dress rehearsal for an air strike. "

Obama has promised to support Israel if attacked. But if Israel does the attacking then where does that leave Obama? Will Israel continue to be the tail that wags the dog in his administration? And if Obama does take the bait and supports Israel militarily then we should all make plans to convert our cars to run off of electricity becasue you won't be able to afford to fill it up anymore.

The further Obama gets ahead in the polls the more likely the attack. Which will be followed by an national security emergency decree, followed by the cancellation of the '08 elections. Hail to the permanent Chief. I give it a %20 chance of becoming reality.

Strike on Iran still possible, U.S. tells Israel
Ehud Barak, the Israeli defense chief, is visiting as Washington is perceived to be softening its stance toward Tehran.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-usisrael30-2008jul30,0,625643.story

[Teatownclown]

Iran Threatens to Block Oil Shipments, as U.S. Prepares Sanctions

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/28/world/middleeast/iran-threatens-to-block-oil-route-if-embargo-is-imposed.html?_r=1&hp

"Iran's economic problems seem to be mounting and the whole economy is in a state of suspended expectation," said Abbas Milani, director of Iranian studies at Stanford University. "The regime keeps repeating that they're not going to be impacted by the sanctions. That they have more money than they know what to do with. The lady doth protest too much."

could be trouble brewing.....Iran threatens to close the Straits of Hormuz. That would be war.

[Conan71]

North Korea: A Nuclear Threat
Is Kim Jong Il ready to provoke a regional crisis? An exclusive account of what Pyongyang really wants. Oct. 16, 2006 issue

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/15175633/site/newsweek/

"The Bush administration says that this sequence of events was a coincidence. Whatever the truth, I found on a recent trip to Pyongyang that North Korean leaders view the financial sanctions as the cutting edge of a calculated effort by dominant elements in the administration to undercut the Sept. 19 accord, squeeze the Kim Jong Il regime and eventually force its collapse."

I love thread dredge. 

Five years later, Kim Jong Il is finally deposed by a heart attack.  Now his moron, alcoholic, skirt-chasing son will take over.  I'm sure relations would improve if we just went over there for a few weeks with an American Express card.  And a plane-load of hookers.

[Conan71]

Iran Threatens to Block Oil Shipments, as U.S. Prepares Sanctions

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/28/world/middleeast/iran-threatens-to-block-oil-route-if-embargo-is-imposed.html?_r=1&hp

could be trouble brewing.....Iran threatens to close the Straits of Hormuz. That would be war.

I hope not.  What ever happened to the days when the CIA would depose a dictator in 9 days or less rather than 360 days then 9 years to clean up the mess?  

[dbacks fan]

Conan, union regulations, they're all members of SEIU now.

[Gaspar]

All we really need to do is leak a media campaign saying that CIA officials have been secretly meeting with Un, discussing opening the borders.  A few days after that circulates through the international media, he will be dead.

[we vs us]

Won't happen.  The damage to the world economy would be immeasurable, and Iran doesn't want to be seen as responsible for that.  It would be an undeniable cause for war on the part of the US, Europe, parts of Asia, etc etc.  A move like that would provoke a very quick and very strong response, IMO, from pretty much everyone and Iran doesn't want to provoke a possibly terminal threat to its current regime.

[Red Arrow]

Won't happen.   ...and Iran doesn't want to provoke a possibly terminal threat to its current regime.

Let's hope so.  I'm not so sure the Iranian clergy and what's his name (can't spell it) recognize the potential reality of turning Middle East into a glass wasteland.  Or maybe they just don't really care compared to their supposed ultimate goals.