The other Iranian time bomb

Gratuitous follow on comments..

The fact that Shiite Persian Iran is very likely to be the real winner of our foray into Iraq (60% Arab Shiite population) and the major threat to the Saudis (10 - 15 % Arab Shiite population, concentrated in the oil field regions) in our absence, explains our bellicosity even further.

They're a real (if only eventual, post oil depletion and outside actor withdrawal) threat to our buddies, the Saudis, and will (as I say) help the Israelis with a nice pretext to do lots more violence to their Arabs.

That's why we're hearing all this nonsense. Remember how Saddam was dangerous? It's the same lame line of bulls**t. The masters of propaganda now how to get us all in a tizzy.

Think about it. They're no crazier than the likes of Rick Santorum or Dick Cheny ..

Admittedly, that's pretty bats**t crazy.

Just not suicidal.

NO SERIOUS DISCUSSION can take place on nuclear arms reduction and non proliferation until full exposure takes place of the massive, secret ISRAELI nuclear arms arsenal in the Negev desert, that is currently completely outside of IAEA inspection.

To do so and ignore this ‘giant elephant in the room’, would simply be nonsensical.

It would lead to a situation whereby not only US foreign policy lies with the Israeli lobby but also global military and political control.
Such a decision would be indefensible.

There is an absolute imperative to control NUCLEAR WEAPONS and their proliferation.

The immediate danger that President Obama has to face is the reality of the fact that his immediate predecessor helped built Israel into possibly the 3rd most powerful nuclear state on the planet - the agenda for such totally irresponsible action, being incomprehensible.
To have made Dimona in the Negev the largest secret nuclear weapons store anywhere, cannot have been to ensure the safety of America, or Europe or the Middle East - but it has virtually ensured that, under the control of a political system that has little integrity, there will inevitably be a nuclear weapons strike in the region within the near future.

The region is now so unstable and the politics so unpredictable and the hatred so fierce, in the aftermath of the massacre in Gaza, that it is a merely a matter of time. That is the danger we face, in the UK, in Europe and eventually in the US and the Americas.

It will then not be a matter of oil or carbon footprints but of human survival on a planet blind to the dangers it faces and the absolute imperative to control nuclear weapons and the ambitions of those who will kill without compunction in order to achieve their aims. I have no doubt that Mr Obama is more aware of these dangers than I am - the point is, how far will he be opposed by the powerful, Israel lobby?
Iran is not the huge elephant in the room. Whilst America, Russia, France, China and Britain are considering reducing nuclear weapon stockpiles – Israel is increasing hers.

Whilst the UK is proposing to reduce its nuclear strike submarine fleet to three, Israel is reported to be increasing its nuclear strike submarine fleet to five!

Where is the logic in this Kafkaesque scenario?

Look at a map of the Middle East.

Then ask yourself which country - Israel or all or any of its neighbors - more needs an invulnerable defensive capability, one which includes "the best defense is a good offense"?

(And while you're doing that, list all the Israeli technological and agricultural and scientific and medical discoveries and advances and developments that you unthinkingly use every day as a vital and necessary part of your life and job and health. Realize that if Israel is bombed into the Stone Age, the rest of the world will soon follow. "Would you like charcoal with that flint knife?")

It's amazing to me how bellicose Israel can be in the media, and then we chide Iran for having a secret nuclear enrichment facility. Perhaps it is secret because Israel has publicly threatened to blow it up?

Iran has threatened to wipe Israel off the face of the Earth. Israel has threatened to blow up a facility. Disproportionate reaction?

For all those worried about Israel's nuclear capabilities, I don't see Israel threatening anyone with them.

Don't get suckered on the snow job the government's doing on Iran like you did on the same of Iraq. A second mea culpa will utterly ruin your professional credibility.

Bruce G,

Actually, the president and former supreme leader of Iran have said that "this occupation regime must disappear from the pages of time." Please note that Ahmadinejad was referring to the Israeli government when he said this (notwithstanding CNN's lousy translation). He was not referring to Israeli people. In other words, he is calling for regime change in Israel (sound familiar?). Indeed, Ahmadinejad has often likened his sought-after regime change to the end of the USSR - namely in that it was nonviolent. Iran has not threatened military action or violence of any kind against Israel. That being said, any possible connection with militant groups in Gaza needs to be examined, because such groups do perpetrate violence against the Israeli people.

I'm going to get the last word here, and say again, for the umpteempth time that any true Zionist (defined as someone who really cares for real Israelis and their safety) should oppose the Israeli Right/Likud.

Attacking Iran and pursuing increased settlements on the West Bank would - will - both have catastrophic consequences for Israel.

Not to mention for the United States, since we are seen throughout the Muslim World as being linked to the hip with Israel (2 billion + in aid every year folks, plus all sorts of diplomatic and other support - far and away our largest foreign beneficent, doubly so when you consider the 2 billion or so that we shovel Egypt's way to maintain Mubarak's corrupt regime, and so Camp David, which is more or less entirely to benefit Israel.

"Free Iran" - Dude, if you look at the map and see Iran's position from their point of view, you see two large U.S./NATO Armies on either side (Iraq & Afghanistan), American fleets in the Persian (or as the Arabs have "Arab") Gulf to the South, a more or less unfriendly Sunni regime in Pakistan, instability in the Caucuses and Central Asia to the North, haunted by both nuclear armed Russia and China not all that far away, a strong pro- Western/Israeli allied Turkey to the west..

I think the Iranians have a lot to be afraid of. Mostly, they're afraid of us. And our Israeli client state.

And they should be. All this talk is not a game. There's nothing the likes of Rumsfeld, Cheney, King Abdullah, and Netanyahu would like, than to bomb them, even start a ground war with them.

The Iranians remember what happened in 1980. Just as much as we remember what happened in 1979.

Everyone remembers violence done them, and tends to forget the violence done the other guy.

But if you really want to understand "your enemy" and either defeat him, or else make peace with him without violence, you need to remember history, and try (I say, please just try, Rod) looking at it from their point of view.

I used to be a Leon Uris "Exodus" Zionist, just like you, Rod.

Then I went and learned Arabic, lived in Turkey, lived in Egypt, traveled throughout the Middle East, met a lot of Arabs, a lot of Turks, some Israelis, a few Persians, Christians, Jews and Muslims, and realized..

That we are being fed a whole heaping load of propaganda.

The Iranians are rational actors. They will never attack Israel with an nuclear weapon. Neither will Pakistan (who already have the bomb, and are just as crazy as the Iranians, only you will never hear ablout it, because they are our "allies.."

But whatever. "Your Name's" probably right, Rod. You shouldn't get bellicose without understanding what you're talking about. Your support of the Iraq boondoggle has empowered your new bete noire in Iran.. It's a Shiite triumph, when we ultimately leave..

You get that right?

Bruce G wrote: "Iran has threatened to wipe Israel off the face of the Earth. Israel has threatened to blow up a facility. Disproportionate reaction?"

I take it, then, you're fluent in Farsi? Or, like most of us, do you simply take at face value whatever someone says Ahmadinejad says? I have heard quite a different interpretation of what Ahmadinejad said and prefer not to spill more American blood and waste more American treasure on a war based upon what someone said someone else said.