Iran and Nukes

[Annie]

http://www.coxandforkum.com/archives/000822.html

The words under "Pretty Please!" are Farsi for "I Plead You to God." Our thanks to Banafsheh Zand-Bonazzi for the language advice.

From FoxNews: Tehrean Treatens West With Homicide Bombers.

Iran has formed battalions of suicide bombers to strike at British and American targets if the nation’s nuclear sites are attacked. According to Iranian officials, 40,000 trained suicide bombers are ready for action. ...

Dr. Hassan Abbasi, head of the Centre for Doctrinal Strategic Studies in the Revolutionary Guards, said in a speech that 29 Western targets had been identified: “We are ready to attack American and British sensitive points if they attack Iran’s nuclear facilities.” He added that some of them were “quite close” to the Iranian border in Iraq.

From TIA Daily: Time to Fight the Real War by Robert Tracinski.

Four and a half years after September 11 -- which was supposed to awaken us to the threat of devastating attacks by state-sponsored terrorists -- America is finally beginning to confront the world's largest and most dangerous state sponsor of terrorism: the Islamic Republic of Iran.

For the past week, newspapers and magazines have been filled with discussion of possible military action against Iran. The debate, so far, is between those who merely want to "threaten" the use of force, and those who argue that the Iranian threat is illusory. No one is yet willing to face the fact that Iran is already at war with the United States -- and that Iran is the central enemy we have to defeat if we are going to win the War on Terrorism. ...

[Iranian president] Ahmadinejad isn't interested so much in joining a nuclear club as he is in wielding a nuclear club. He has openly boasted that Iran wants to "wipe Israel off the map." Is Ahmadinejad just a wild-eyed "radical," out of touch with the rest of the Iranian regime? A few years ago, Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani—a man considered "moderate" by the standards of the Iranian regime—boasted that "a single atomic bomb has the power to completely destroy Israel." In case you don't think they're serious, Iran's religious establishment recently released a fatwa sanctioning the use of nuclear weapons. ...

There is no need to invoke the doctrine of pre-emption against Iran. Iran is already fighting a war against the United States. We just haven't been fighting back. We have held our fire as if Iran were protected by a shield of nuclear weapons. How much more aggressive will the Iranians become when they are actually protected by such a nuclear shield? ...

Iran's global ambitions are as grandiose as anything put forward by Osama bin Laden -- but they are backed by control of a country of 70 million people with an army, navy, and air force, a vast network of terrorist organizations across the Middle East, and, very soon, nuclear weapons.

If America's failure to act against the comparatively minor threat from Bin Laden in the 1990s resulted in the horrors of September 11, we can expect far worse if we fail to act against Iran.

From City Journal: Facing Down Iran by Mark Steyn.

So the question is: Will they do it? [Will Iran use a nuclear bomb?]

And the minute you have to ask, you know the answer. If, say, Norway or Ireland acquired nuclear weapons, we might regret the "proliferation," but we wouldn't have to contemplate mushroom clouds over neighboring states. In that sense, the civilized world has already lost: to enter into negotiations with a jurisdiction headed by a Holocaust-denying millenarian nut job is, in itself, an act of profound weakness -- the first concession, regardless of what weaselly settlement might eventually emerge.

Conversely, a key reason to stop Iran is to demonstrate that we can still muster the will to do so. Instead, the striking characteristic of the long diplomatic dance that brought us to this moment is how September 10th it's all been. The free world's delegated negotiators (the European Union) and transnational institutions (the IAEA) have continually given the impression that they'd be content just to boot it down the road to next year or the year after or find some arrangement -- this decade's Oil-for-Food or North Korean deal -- that would get them off the hook. If you talk to EU foreign ministers, they've already psychologically accepted a nuclear Iran. Indeed, the chief characteristic of the West's reaction to Iran's nuclearization has been an enervated fatalism.

And from The Telegraph: The frightening truth of why Iran wants a bomb by Amir Taheri.

Last Monday, just before he announced that Iran had gatecrashed "the nuclear club", President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad disappeared for several hours. He was having a khalvat (tête-à-tête) with the Hidden Imam, the 12th and last of the imams of Shiism who went into "grand occultation" in 941. ...

In Ahmadinejad's analysis, the rising Islamic "superpower" has decisive advantages over the infidel. Islam has four times as many young men of fighting age as the West, with its ageing populations. Hundreds of millions of Muslim "ghazis" (holy raiders) are keen to become martyrs while the infidel youths, loving life and fearing death, hate to fight. Islam also has four-fifths of the world's oil reserves, and so controls the lifeblood of the infidel. More importantly, the US, the only infidel power still capable of fighting, is hated by most other nations.

Posted by Forkum at April 16, 2006 11:36 AM

 

[Rico]

against Iran. I don't see other countries aiding us in this one. The Chinese and the Russians want to befriend Tehran and the Euros have lost the ability to act. I cannot see President Bush leaving office without addressing Iran. There is a window of opportunity before the insane Persians actually obtain/create enough fissible material to create a bomb. That is a long way from putting a warhead on a missile but that is clearly not Iran's immediate goal. They want to be able to threaten, intimidate, and coerce others to their will. Of course the near theatre threat is to Israel but President Foaming at the Mouth has made it clear the US is a target as well.
The United States has tarried long enough in standing up to the Iranians. Time for action. Bomb the hell out of them. Blockade their oil shipments. Bomb their oil wells and means of production. I'm afraid it's too late in the game for diplomacy. And if diplomacy were even tried the Iranians beleive now that no one will call their bluff. It will mean more world wide condemnation of the United States but at this point I believe we have no choice.
Much as the Europeans did before World War II by allowing Hitler to prattle on and annex Austria and occupy the Sudentenland that resulted in horrifying war and death for millions many now want only to appease Iran. I hope for the sake of the lives of millions the United States steps in NOW and takes action. Begin with economic sanctions. Move the Navy into position to halt all shipping. Then start the bombs falling.
Those who believe that we can wait for regime change can join Zbigniew Brzezinski and his foolhardy group of appeasers. That thinking has not resulted in anything positive since 1979. The problem has been allowed to fester too long to now engage in diplomatic appeasement.
History has proven time and again that blustering dictators must be dealt with quickly and harshly.
Let the bombs begin to fall. After we contain the Iranians the world can cease it's belly aching and thank us.... but I won't bet on any gratitude.

 

[Adam's Apple]

A related article by one of our favorite guys, Kathianne. All I can say to Steyn is "Welcome to frustration city."

Policy on Iran Nukes Seems to Be Off-Target (or "The Dance of the 7 Vials")
By Mark Steyn, Chicago Sun-Times
April 16, 2006

http://www.suntimes.com/output/steyn/cst-edt-steyn16.html

 

[Annie]

A related article by one of our favorite guys, Kathianne. All I can say to Steyn is "Welcome to frustration city."

Policy on Iran Nukes Seems to Be Off-Target (or "The Dance of the 7 Vials")
By Mark Steyn, Chicago Sun-Times
April 16, 2006

http://www.suntimes.com/output/steyn/cst-edt-steyn16.html

Thanks, you might enjoy this, it's frightening in its logic. It shows just how sharp Steyn is:

http://www.city-journal.org/html/16_2_iran.html

 

[Adam's Apple]

Thanks, you might enjoy this, it's frightening in its logic. It shows just how sharp Steyn is:

http://www.city-journal.org/html/16_2_iran.html

Excellent, inspired presentation from Steyn. This is definitely one of his best.