Iran V US The Real War

Annie

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Nov 22, 2003
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Seems about right:


http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2006/07/the_war_comes_to_us.html
July 14, 2006
The War Comes to Us
By Robert Tracinski

If, in the face of repeated threats and provocation by an aggressive dictatorship, you refuse to go to war, the war will eventually come to you.

That's the meaning of Iran's de facto declaration of war against Israel--which is, ultimately, a new war Iran is waging against the US. Iran is so desperate for war with the West that it is bringing the war to us, openly and willfully initiating a regional conflict that may soon involve three of Iran's proxies--Hamas, Hezbollah, and Syria--fighting against America's proxy, Israel.

The danger for us is that, in seeking to avoid an unavoidable war with Iran, we have allowed Iran to start the conflict on terms that it believes will be most favorable to it.

The current American strategy for dealing with Iran has been something of a conundrum--there is some question about whether we have any strategy at all--but I think it is best guessed at by Robert Kagan in yesterday's Washington Post. He describes it as "Zeno's diplomacy," after the famous ancient Greek paradox, which holds that you cannot cross a room, for example, without first crossing half that distance, then half the remaining distance, then half the remaining distance, etc., ad infinitum.

The Europeans will try to carry out a kind of Zeno's diplomacy, moving halfway toward decisive action, then another quarter of the way, then an eighth, then a sixteenth, and on and on, to avoid choosing between their two worst options: taking action against Iran, or visibly and embarrassingly retreating from taking action against Iran.

The likely failure of diplomacy would not deter Bush from pursuing it, however. If and when it failed, he would be able to choose the military course, and no fair person could accuse him of not having tried to bring the world along to do what had to be done.

Kagan premises this argument on the assumption--which he describes as "hypothetical," but which I think is realistic--that President Bush actually does intend to stop the Iranian nuclear threat before he leaves office. But Bush is clearly acting on the assumption that he has plenty of time to puzzle through diplomatic paradoxes before he takes action. Yet it is worth noting that the conclusion of Zeno's original argument was that the process of crossing the room would go on to infinity, so that you could never get there--implying that all motion is impossible. That's a pretty good description of how things work at the UN Security Council.

In practice, the danger of incremental "Zeno diplomacy" is that it gives the enemy time to take the initiative and begin the battle on terms of his choosing, not ours. That appears to be what Iran has done in Gaza and Lebanon.

It is important to grasp that Iran is deliberately, intentionally drawing Israel into a war with its proxies. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has been making increasingly ominous statements warning about a "conflagration" involving Israel, then two Iranian-funded organizations run out of Syria, a close Iranian ally, launched incursion into Israel to kidnap Israeli soliders--a provocation that cannot merely be shrugged off, but which demands extended Israeli military action. Neither Hamas nor Hezbollah would have launched these attacks without Iranian permission and support.

As David Twersky in the New York Sun concludes, "The war with Iran has begun." He describes the Iranian strategy with a chess analogy:

Each one of these players--Hamas inside Gaza and in Damascus, Hezbollah in Lebanon, and the Assad dictatorship in Syria--are chess pieces on the Iranian board. The pawn moves, drawing in the Israeli bishop; the Lebanese rook challenges; the Syrian queen is in reserve.

Twersky adds, with ominous eloquence, "Years from now, the kidnapping of Corporal Gilad Shalit will be regarded like the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand"--the event that triggered World War I.


Similarly, Michael Ledeen reminds us:

The important thing to keep in mind is that both the Gaza and northern Israel attacks were planned for quite a while, which means that Iran wanted this war, this way. It isn't just a target of opportunity or a sudden impulse; it's part of a strategic decision to expand the war.


Iran has been at war with us all along, because that's what the world's leading terror state does. The scariest thing about this moment is that the Iranians have convinced themselves that they are winning, and we are powerless to reverse the tide. As I reported here several months ago, Khamenei told his top people late last year that the Americans and Israelis are both politically paralyzed. Neither can take decisive action against Iran, neither can sustain prolonged conflict and significant casualties.

In my view, the issue is not why Iran chose to begin a shooting war now; the issue is where it chose to do so. Iran is striking at the point where it thinks it is strongest and the West is weakest.

This is an Iranian strong point because it controls a whole network of proxy forces that can attack Israel on two fronts. As for the weakness of the West, the craven Europeans, crushed by leftist self-loathing over their "colonialist" past, seek to apologize for their sins by offering a scapegoat for sacrifice: the Jews who fled Europe to establish the one outpost of Western civilization in the Middle East. As for America, Israel is the one area where we have consistently suspended every virtue of American war policy.

Worse, the Palestinian Authority is the one area where we have tolerated the creation of a new Islamist terrorist regime, on the grounds that it is "democratically elected." As I explained in "The Weapon of Democracy," in TIA's last print issue, this is how the US has been disarmed by the dangerously vague concept of "democracy": if we claim that we are fighting for liberty, and then we equate liberty with "democracy"--then how can we condemn a "democratically elected" terrorist regime?

Thus, predictably, the Israeli invasion of Lebanon split the West, with the European Union taking its usual anti-Israel stance, even as the US vetoed a proposed Security Council resolution condemning Israel.

The Iranian provocation of Israel is also calculated to roll back one of the recent achievements of US foreign policy: the Syrian withdrawal from Lebanon. After Syrian troops were forced to withdraw from Lebanon last year, the advocates of Lebanese independence began calling for the disarmament of Hezbollah, the Shiite militia in Southern Lebanon that has long served as a Syrian ally and proxy. But, using the "weapon of democracy," Hezbollah has long had a large representation in Lebanon's parliament.

More important, nearly every Lebanese political faction has paid lip service to an anti-Israel policy. So while they demanded that Hezbollah disarm, they also praised Hezbollah's past battles to "liberate" Southern Lebanon from Israeli occupation. Now, by provoking a new Israeli incursion into Lebanon, Hezbollah seeks to justify its military power. More broadly, this is Hezbollah's bid to become the dominant power in Lebanon, a fact revealed in a Los Angeles Times analysis:

As Lebanon's largest political party and most potent armed force, Hezbollah has long been described as a "state within a state"--a Shiite Muslim minigovernment boasting close ties to Iran and Syria. But Wednesday's move across the border to capture two Israeli soldiers went a step further: Hezbollah acted as the state itself, threatening to drag Lebanon into a war.

The country's elected government was still in meetings Wednesday, arguing over what to say in public, when Hezbollah chief Sheik Hassan Nasrallah went before television cameras with a pointed threat for the ruling elite. "Today is a time for solidarity and cooperation, and we can have discussions later. I warn you against committing any error. This is a national responsibility," the cleric said, looking every inch the head of state.

Any criticism over the capture of the two Israeli soldiers would be tantamount to colluding with Israel, Nasrallah said, making it clear that he expected citizens and officials to heed his orders. "To the Lebanese people, both officials and non-officials, nobody should behave in a way that encourages the enemy to attack Lebanon, and nobody should say anything that gives cover to attack Lebanon," he said.

Finally, all of this is a distraction from the issue of Iran's nuclear weapons program. Just at the point when the US is trying to get the UN Security Council to condemn Iran, Arab and European nations are now trying to get the Security Council to condemn Israel. More broadly, Iran is trying to make itself and its proxies into champions of Islam in its long jihad against Israel. The Iranians believe that they can head off a war with America by initiating a war with Israel.

For all of these reasons, Iran thinks it has the upper hand. It thinks it can re-assert control over Lebanon and gain the support of the Arab and Muslim nations--while Israel and the US are paralyzed and fail to do anything about it.

But the Iranian regime, blinded by fanaticism, has a tendency to miscalculate and especially to overestimate its own advantage. The situation may rapidly get beyond their control, and it may--and certainly should--hasten American action against Iran.

First, there is some doubt about whether the Arab and Muslim nations will rally around this latest conflagration. They will sympathize from the sidelines and offer "moral support." But it is doubtful that the rest of Lebanon, or Jordan, or Egypt will actually join in the fighting. The days in which Palestinian provocateurs could hope to spark a pan-Arab war to wipe out Israel are long gone. Operationally, Iran and its proxies are on their own.

Militarily, this Iranian axis is too weak to defeat even tiny Israel. All they can rely on is the assumption that Israel will remain politically paralyzed, that it will hold its fire and refuse to take decisive action against Hamas, Hezbollah, and Syria.

But Israel has a history of becoming bolder when it is under attack. The only alternative, for a small nation in such a hostile neighborhood, is suicide--and the Israelis are far from being so broken as to accept such a suicide. Hence, there are signs that the recent Hamas and Hezbollah attacks are discrediting the policy of "disengagement," Israel's strategy of retreat and surrender. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, the main political front man for "disengagement," has gone so far as to declare the Hezbollah attack an "act of war." Yossi Klein Halevi draws the obvious conclusion:

The ultimate threat, though, isn't Hezbollah or Hamas but Iran. And as Iran draws closer to nuclear capability--which the Israeli intelligence community believes could happen this year--an Israeli-Iranian showdown becomes increasingly likely. According to a very senior military source with whom I've spoken, Israel is still hoping that an international effort will stop a nuclear Iran; if that fails, then Israel is hoping for an American attack. But if the Bush administration is too weakened to take on Iran, then, as a last resort, Israel will have to act unilaterally. And, added the source, Israel has the operational capability to do so.

For Israelis, that is the worst scenario of all. Except, of course, the scenario of nuclear weapons in the hands of the patron state of Hezbollah and Hamas.

Similarly, Israeli military officials have been openly describing Southern Lebanon as Israel's "front line" with Iran.

And that may be the biggest impact that this conflict will have: to demonstrate, if further demonstration was needed, Michael Ledeen's point that this is a regional war. It is a not a series of isolated conflicts in Gaza and Iraq. It is all one battle, with America and its allies on one side--and Iran and its agents on the other. As Ledeen puts it:

No one should have any lingering doubts about what's going on in the Middle East. It's war, and it now runs from Gaza into Israel, through Lebanon and thence to Iraq via Syria. There are different instruments, ranging from Hamas in Gaza to Hezbollah in Syria and Lebanon and on to the multifaceted "insurgency" in Iraq. But there is a common prime mover, and that is the Iranian mullahcracy

To demonstrate how obvious this is becoming, consider that this thesis--which folks like Ledeen and myself have been propounding for years, while no one listened--is the central thesis of an analysis of the current conflict in yesterday's New York Times. Steven Erlanger writes:

The expansion of the Gaza crisis into southern Lebanon, confronting Israel with a conflict on its northern and southern borders, has demonstrated that the central issue at stake is regional, not local.

For Israel the issue is not simply the Palestinians and their actions, including the rocket fire into Israel. It is the broader problem of radical Islam--of Hamas, as a part of the regional Muslim Brotherhood, and of Iran, a serious regional power with considerable influence on Syria, Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad, and the military wing of Hamas....

Iran is...considered to be the main sponsor of Khaled Meshal, the exiled Palestinian leader of Hamas's political bureau and the man widely considered to be in charge of Hamas's secretive military wing--which was instrumental in carrying out the seizure of Cpl. Gilad Shalit, touching off the latest explosion....

An Arab intelligence officer working in a country neighboring Israel said it appeared that Iran--through Hezbollah--had given support to Mr. Meshal to stage the seizure of Corporal Shalit.... Itamar Rabinovich, former Israeli ambassador to Washington and chief negotiator with Syria on a peace treaty that never quite materialized, sees Iran "on a roll, looking for regional hegemony."

Iran has revealed its hand, challenging the US and its allies and openly demonstrating its desire to dominate the Middle East through force and terror. While we have been trying to delay the war with Iran, it has brought the war to us, in a manner so obvious that even the mainstream media cannot evade it.

In doing so, they have made their threat to America and its interests more obvious and more urgent--providing a stronger case for war than their nuclear program could provide. There can be no question here about whether Iran really has aggressive designs in the Middle East, whether it really seeks the weapons to attack the US and its allies, and how long it might take for such a threat to materialize. The threat is here and Iran's newest war on the West has already begun.

Iran is risking everything on this new strategy, and the only hope they have of success is the expectation that, as they bring the war closer and closer to America, we won't fight back.

But that means that we have an easy way to blow their strategy to smithereens.

All we have to do is to start fighting back.
 
I don't have my finger on the nuke button cause they would all be glowing in the sultry moonlight. I really believe a good dose of 500 and 1000 pounders for about three evenings next week would fix the problem.
 
Emmett said:
I don't have my finger on the nuke button cause they would all be glowing in the sultry moonlight. I really believe a good dose of 500 and 1000 pounders for about three evenings next week would fix the problem.
I think Iran would take more than that, but I agree that the PM Gorilla is calling the shots right now and Bush better start taking control of the situation.
 
Kathianne said:
I think Iran would take more than that, but I agree that the PM Gorilla is calling the shots right now and Bush better start taking control of the situation.

Don't you think Israel can handle the situation?
 
dilloduck said:
Don't you think Israel can handle the situation?

Israel may have its own problems with Iran, but WE have had a problem with Iran since 1979.

Iran, under its current leadership, is a threat to WORLD peace, not just Israel's existence. Look at what a moron like Kim Jong-il can do with the threat of nukes. You think those religious whackos in Iran won't be worse?

We need to hit them ... hit them hard and hit them NOW while the advantage is still ours.
 
GunnyL said:
Israel may have its own problems with Iran, but WE have had a problem with Iran since 1979.

Iran, under its current leadership, is a threat to WORLD peace, not just Israel's existence. Look at what a moron like Kim Jong-il can do with the threat of nukes. You think those religious whackos in Iran won't be worse?

We need to hit them ... hit them hard and hit them NOW while the advantage is still ours.

Rumor has it that it is ripe for internal revolution. There are awlays behind the scene activities taking place. We may be able to neutralize Iran without destrying it. Wouldnt' that be preferrable ? Israel can handle Hamas and Hezbollah and has not asked for any further intervention from America so far.
 
When the chips are down, does anyone really believe Russia and China will be our allies?
 
I say that we should take the hands off position. This isn't our war yet. The Israelis have shown time and time again that they are big boys. They even came back during the Yom Kippor War. If Israel takes care of Hizbollah, possibly throws Syria out of Lebanon, and either destroys Iran's nuclear program or at least bloodies their nose, then we get all our objectives accomplished without having to spend a dime. Just let Israel do their work. Urge them to show restraint and protect civilians publicly, and guarantee US support privately. That way we get all the benefits of the conflict no cost to us and without any damage to our relations with moderate Arab countries such as Jordon and the UAE. Then we broker a peace treaty and come out looking great.
 
Mr.Conley said:
I say that we should take the hands off position. This isn't our war yet. The Israelis have shown time and time again that they are big boys. They even came back during the Yom Kippor War. If Israel takes care of Hizbollah, possibly throws Syria out of Lebanon, and either destroys Iran's nuclear program or at least bloodies their nose, then we get all our objectives accomplished without having to spend a dime. Just let Israel do their work. Urge them to show restraint and protect civilians publicly, and guarantee US support privately. That way we get all the benefits of the conflict no cost to us and without any damage to our relations with moderate Arab countries such as Jordon and the UAE. Then we broker a peace treaty and come out looking great.


I just wonder what the world will be like with jews controlling the oil. I think we should get involved so we have more influence when it comes time to divvy up the spoils.
 
Mr.Conley said:
I say that we should take the hands off position. This isn't our war yet. The Israelis have shown time and time again that they are big boys. They even came back during the Yom Kippor War. If Israel takes care of Hizbollah, possibly throws Syria out of Lebanon, and either destroys Iran's nuclear program or at least bloodies their nose, then we get all our objectives accomplished without having to spend a dime. Just let Israel do their work. Urge them to show restraint and protect civilians publicly, and guarantee US support privately. That way we get all the benefits of the conflict no cost to us and without any damage to our relations with moderate Arab countries such as Jordon and the UAE. Then we broker a peace treaty and come out looking great.
:clap: :clap: :clap:
 
Mr.Conley said:
I say that we should take the hands off position. This isn't our war yet. The Israelis have shown time and time again that they are big boys. They even came back during the Yom Kippor War. If Israel takes care of Hizbollah, possibly throws Syria out of Lebanon, and either destroys Iran's nuclear program or at least bloodies their nose, then we get all our objectives accomplished without having to spend a dime. Just let Israel do their work. Urge them to show restraint and protect civilians publicly, and guarantee US support privately. That way we get all the benefits of the conflict no cost to us and without any damage to our relations with moderate Arab countries such as Jordon and the UAE. Then we broker a peace treaty and come out looking great.

Syria is 'out of' Lebanon, since the Cedar Revolution. However, Hizbollah is a proxy of, as is Hamas. Hizbolla has a significant minority vote in their legislature. Syria is a proxy of Iran. Iran wants this war, they are not going to let Syria be pushed anywhere they don't want it to be. I expect more and better weapons to show up.
 
Kathianne said:
Syria is 'out of' Lebanon, since the Cedar Revolution. However, Hizbollah is a proxy of, as is Hamas. Hizbolla has a significant minority vote in their legislature. Syria is a proxy of Iran. Iran wants this war, they are not going to let Syria be pushed anywhere they don't want it to be. I expect more and better weapons to show up.

Agreed---on both sides. Ity will be interesting to see how good each side is at using them. I'm better Israel is better, personally.
 
rtwngAvngr said:
When the chips are down, does anyone really believe Russia and China will be our allies?

In no way Russia will be an ally.

With the following quote i do not want to confirm my above sentence as it has nothing to do with my prediction. It is anyway funny.



Bush said it was wrong to expect Russia to look like the United States but pressed Putin on issues such as a free press and free religion and suggested war-torn Iraq might be a model for Moscow. "I told him that a lot of people in our country would hope Russia would do the same thing," he said.
To which Putin retorted, to laughter: "We certainly would not want to have the same kind of democracy as they have in Iraq."

http://www.metimes.com/articles/normal.php?StoryID=20060715-073359-3311r

1:0 for Russia.
 
canavar said:
In no way Russia will be an ally.

With the following quote i do not want to confirm my above sentence as it has nothing to do with my prediction. It is anyway funny.



Bush said it was wrong to expect Russia to look like the United States but pressed Putin on issues such as a free press and free religion and suggested war-torn Iraq might be a model for Moscow. "I told him that a lot of people in our country would hope Russia would do the same thing," he said.
To which Putin retorted, to laughter: "We certainly would not want to have the same kind of democracy as they have in Iraq."

http://www.metimes.com/articles/normal.php?StoryID=20060715-073359-3311r

1:0 for Russia.

LOL ya Putin had a pretty good comeback for Bush on that one. Russia would dearly love to see the US fall on it's face so it could make a grab for Arabian oil. ( and maybe even get a warm water port thrown in as a bonus!)
 
dilloduck said:
LOL ya Putin had a pretty good comeback for Bush on that one. Russia would dearly love to see the US fall on it's face so it could make a grab for Arabian oil. ( and maybe even get a warm water port thrown in as a bonus!)


Russia has no motives in Arabian oil. Russia is after Saudi-Arabia, in 2005 even for some months, most Barrel-producer of oil. Further Russia has by far the biggest reserves in natural gas.
Gazprom even left Microsft behinf it in terms of market capitalisation.
And Gazprom ist not alone there are Lukoil and others.
Where do you think Russia has all the money from to step up from day to day more self-confident on the World-politics arena. Russia has currently over 250 Billion in gold and foreign exchange reserves.

Jelzin era is definetly over with Putin.
 
Kathianne said:
Syria is 'out of' Lebanon, since the Cedar Revolution. However, Hizbollah is a proxy of, as is Hamas. Hizbolla has a significant minority vote in their legislature. Syria is a proxy of Iran. Iran wants this war, they are not going to let Syria be pushed anywhere they don't want it to be. I expect more and better weapons to show up.

Syria has had its army till the Rafik Hariri incident in Lebanon.
In the current governemtn of Lebanon there are 3 Hizbullah-ministers but they are not important for state politics.
 
canavar said:
Russia has no motives in Arabian oil. Russia is after Saudi-Arabia, in 2005 even for some months, most Barrel-producer of oil. Further Russia has by far the biggest reserves in natural gas.
Gazprom even left Microsft behinf it in terms of market capitalisation.
And Gazprom ist not alone there are Lukoil and others.
Where do you think Russia has all the money from to step up from day to day more self-confident on the World-politics arena. Russia has currently over 250 Billion in gold and foreign exchange reserves.

Jelzin era is definetly over with Putin.

Canavar----Are you telling us that Russia would not like to control Arabian oil?
Seriously? They have all the oil and money they need and don't care who controls it?
 
canavar said:
Syria has had its army till the Rafik Hariri incident in Lebanon.
That is what caused the Cedar Revolution. What I said.
In the current governemtn of Lebanon there are 3 Hizbullah-ministers but they are not important for state politics.
Yes, but the legislators are in day to day knowledge of what is going on, which is what proxies give.
 
dilloduck said:
Canavar----Are you telling us that Russia would not like to control Arabian oil?
Seriously? They have all the oil and money they need and don't care who controls it?

Haveing Reccources is good. Controlling Reccources of others is even better. And Russia is exactly doing this. Be it Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and other Central Asia States, Russia conrols the Reccources of these states around the caspian sea. The reason for this is, that almost all Pipelines except the new BTC was build in Soviet times and all Pipelines lead to Russia.
For example Russia buys 1.000 m3 of natural Gas from Turkmenistan for about 60 Dollars and sells it to Europe for over 250 $.

Russia is a big big player in Energy in this world. USA is now undermining this position of Russia in the newly independent CIS-states. Think of Cheneys visit to Kazkhstan. So Russia would want to control Arabian oil, but we have to detail here the word "Arabian Oil".

There is no such thing that if Israel would occupy for example Syria or Lebanon, which is when we see USA in Iraq very doubtfull to achieve, would controll "arabian Oil".

Arabian Oil is:
Saudi-arabia
Kuwait
UAE
Katar
Iraq
and all other Gulfcountries.

So controlling Arabian oil goes over controlling the Gulf including the street of Hormuz.
Israel's actions has no effect on "Arabian oil" besides raising Oilprices for exactly these mentioned countries.
The only chance of controlling "Arabian oil" is either exploiting these countries which are very very rich and have the money meanwhile for exploiting all their reccources themself or to occupy them.
In therms of Iraq Occupation was done. But why? Because Iraq was under Oil-for-food programme and had a restricted Barrel-Output for world markets. Only Food and medicine was exchanged for Oil. So Iraq had no impact on any world economy.

But Saudi-Arabia and all Gulf countries have not these restrictions. Saudi Arabia produces 9 Mio Barrel. When such country is being occupied, even 1 month fluctuations (which is when it is being occupied a blue-eye scenario) in Oil production has a devastating effect on world economy.

Caspian sea has rich reccources, too. And Russia itself being a major player in Energy has full controll over this region through its pipeline-systems from Soviet times.
So yes Russia would want to controll Mid-East oil. Which country would not want to? But this is, i think, not major motives of Russia. For Russia it is keeping and expanding influence on the Ex-Soviet states. Influence on these states which USA does not want (look at Ukraine and soon) will automatically boost Russia in some Years to its older might where it de-facto ruled these territories.

That USA does not want this is clear when we look at the Velect and Rose Revolutions of Ukraine and Georgia and the US' interest in Central Asia and Black Sea.
So for Russia, as it is strong but in analogy to USA not yet strong enough, motive is binding the USA in none-Russian influence zones such as Iran. And as Russia is a giant in Reccources raising prices for Russia by conflicts like Iran is off course in Russia's interest.
 

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