Re: Middle-East Events watcher I think you should visit some of Iran's cities like Isfahan or Susa. Jews, Christians and Muslims that have been living peacefully together in these cities for several centuries now. Unfortunately, it is just too convenient and naive to blame all these conflicts on religion. The bottom line is, there are people out there that want oil--and they will go as far as playing religions off of each other. They capitalize from the aftermath of civil wars during the rebuilding phase.
This is an important video, highlighting the looming problems that are starting in the Arab nations. As I said, the Muslim brotherhood is hijacking the arab nations and they will instigate a war with Israel. The Arabs will be so gullible to accept this war once Iran is attacked. The Arabs will think this is all a war against Islam. Saudi Arabia will also have a revolution. [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GXHxWc_u5Y"]'US-backed Sunnis push Arab Spring to rule Muslim world' - YouTube[/ame]
Regarding military options... Iran would lose the war quickly but such a war would do a lot of damage in the process. Closing the Strait of Hormuz really is just a minor option, but one that gets mentioned a lot by Iranian politician since threats against it are not directed at any country in particular. The best option for Iran really is to destroy the oil production and exporting facilities in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states. Facilities like this one are fixed targets that are not easy to defend. A few dozen missiles hitting here would set this tinder box on fire and take 5 years to rebuild. http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Ras+T...anura,+Eastern+Province+Saudi+Arabia&t=h&z=14 The US needs to get off it's dependence on oil anyway. So a few year recession and an oil shock to get everyone driving fuel efficient hybrid cars, while painful in the short term, is a change we need to make.
I simply responded in kind. You post lengthy, meaningless comments, without insight. Verbosity is not analysis. Perhaps you are, the one who is clueless. US plans to attack Iran are well-developed. IMO, the USA will not engage in nation-building in Iran. As I said earlier, a US attack will target & destroy Iran's military & infrastructure, not its people. http://www.vdare.com/articles/what-war-with-iran-means "To prevent a counterattack, the United States would have to take out Iran's 14 airfields and all its warplanes on the ground,... sink every warship and submarine in Iran's navy and destroy some 200 missile, patrol and speedboats operated by the Revolutionary Guard ... hit Iran's launch sites and missile plants ... the Silkworm anti-ship missile sites on Iran's coastline ... Revolutionary Guard barracks" There will be a lack of electricity, railroads, bridges, harbors and pipelines. No threats or posturing here. I am not in favor of a war with Iran. You appear to be in favor of an Iran at war. You have no knowledge of Iran's military strategy, but are full of hints that it will be big and successful, when it most likely will be neither. An attack on Israel would lead to the destruction of Iranian cities. An attack on Arab countries, such as Kuwait or Saudi Arabia, would only deeper the Persian/Arab & Shia/Sunni rifts. I'm not sure that the US military shared Pres. Bush's & Sec'y Rumsfeld's optomism on Iraq.
No, I don't think Iran will suffer as much as some people here think. Iran is not like Iraq, remember that. Iran is full of mountains with hidden regions. It's very difficult to do anything through air strikes. One of the reason why US is leaving Iraq, is because it is too difficult to have a ground war with Iran in that region. Most of the fight will probably be in Bahrain, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.
The real debate on the issue of war against Iran, from an informed US perspective that even has a clue about the basics, is reflected these two articles by Foreign Affairs. You can read the articles for yourself and reach your own conclusions. FOREIGN AFFAIRS Published by the Council on Foreign Relations http://www.foreignaffairs.com/features/collections/the-iran-debate-to-strike-or-not-to-strike# Note: Even Kroenig recognizes that Iran has significant retaliatory options that could lead to a very costly, full-fledged, war for the US that would in the process threaten the global economy and put it in a tailspin. Unlike this nonsense that the US could somehow destroy Iran's retaliatory options, the whole premise of Kroenig's argument is that Iran could be dissuaded by a combination of threats and assurance from any ferocious retaliation. As for the polemics posted from drivel by Senator Lindsay Graham, saying the US should take out, among other things, Iran's "Silkworm missile" sites to deprive of it of its retaliatory options, lets just say that besides Silkworm missiles being so 1980s, the more fundamental truth is that the US has no reliable means to even protect its own forces (much less neutral commercial shipping) from Iran's missiles etc. Which is why a recent report from a think tank close to the Pentagon suggested the US move out of Iran's range altogether! http://www.military.com/news/article/report-calls-for-dispersing-us-bases-in-mideast.html
Nah, why would you have war in land worth of billions. Oil fields would be in great danger with a full out war going out, hell oil fields are in danger just because of their position in a volatile region, let alone a full out war lol. Security in the Eastern Province, Qatar, Kuwait, and UAE is a must for any "side". Iran would be a better battlefield, probably the regions bordering Afghanistan. Obviously USA can deal with that, thanks to their drones, machines that fly and kill anything that moves. So they don't need to send any troops or air strikes. They have already used drones to attack Yemen, a country with many mountains too. In the end, I believe Iran is no real "enemy" for the United States. Just a little game to divide the Middle East more and gain more influence and access to this important region. Thats for both USA and Israel.If it was a real enemy, then I'd think they could easily find a way to just assassinate Ahmadinejad or something.
There is simply not going to be a war so why even bother talking about it. US opinion is almost unanimously against it unless Iran strikes first. For the regime, absolute suicide as they have already proven their inept diplomatic skills. I.E., threatening the entire world's oil supply while advocating cutting Iran's artery... absolutely retarded
Re: Middle-East Events watcher Its not oil or religion. Its the fear of a region with all this oil united under one nation or country. Imagine if all the countries located on the persian gulf were one nation. Can you imagine how powerful that country would be? Of course you can't because of all the race and religious issues and division that has been caused by ignorance, hatred, and probably external factors, divide and conquer. This is why Sunni/Shia has been focused on, why Iraq was attacked because it had the best balance of both, and can easily begin a division of these 2 different yet similar ideologies, that of course began way way back. But they have to hit on this point as hard as they can to make sure no one united state rises, because that state would easily be a world power, and probably take over and finish the western domination. One country with all that resources and a large influence with the religion of Islam throughout the world is probably the only threat to US domination in the near time future, or as long as oil stays as it is.
http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/Canada/20...alifax-shipbuilding-agreement-reached-120112/ http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/story/2012/01/21/pol-canada-welcomes-f35-support-from-panetta.html http://www.you tube.com/watch?v=hZLLJQ-bcck ramping up for war
LOL you are back? why does your location still read 0-8? you said you were in the USA and loved it remember?
Just ignore the kid , he has a habit of accusing others of " one liners " but fails to see he is the biggest abuser of his own accusations. Oh did I forget he cherry picks what post to reply to when he loses an argument .
Again your just validating the exact words of the regime to comfort the western audience ( this forum ). This lady was cleard of all charges and then the judge reopened the case and charged with bunch of BS accusations and was set to be stoned . What you fail to see is that sometimes its not about " having value for the regime " since in Iran justice doesn't exist and alot of innocent people suffer because of this . Why did they arrest her son ? Because he gave an interview to BBC that saved his mothers life from the barbaric act of stoning . Do you know how many innocent people are sitting in Irans jail as we speak ? Some times the goverment does these things to send a message to people like you mention " prostitutes " . And the reason why the goverment can't control prostitution is the same reasons why they can't control drugs , traffic , pollution , inflation , unemployment . They are just too corrupt to do anything and like I said at the end of the day innocent people pay the price .
I do not give a monkey's about the opinion of the "western audience". I knew about the details of the case in question long before it became an international news story, because I used to read and follow the blog of the lawyer who was representing her, Mohammad Mostafaei. He was the one who made a political issue out of an otherwise criminal judicial case against the best interest of his own client, knowing how the regime would react to such move, in order to make a name for himself in the West, so that he could move abroad easily. Where is Mr. Mostafaei now? Living comfortably in Europe, and working with Reza Pahlavi, the son of Shah, and a darling of neocons. They had a joint press conference a couple of weeks ago. That tells you all you need to know about how much Mostafaei really cares about human rights. Many of these issues are politically-motivated, and you are naive if you think there is no political agenda involved in many of these cases. Ultimately, politicizing and mixing criminal cases with real human rights cases, only helps the regime dismiss any genuine criticisms of human rights as political by citing these examples. That means that, to the delight of the regime, some morally-corrupt woman who was screwing a male relative of her husband, and assisted him to electrocute his crippled husband to death, or some notorious drug trafficker who had already been jailed in Holland for 3 years, get more attention and sympathy in the mainstream media than someone like Abbas Amir-Entezam, a real political prisoner and victim of human rights, who has been sitting in IRI jails for 32 years now. Either way, this is my last reply to you, I have no interest in wasting my time arguing with you. You and I both know that you are not interested in any of these issues. Nima is the only reason you are here. You have a personal feud with Nima, and you only show up here once in a while to make a comment as soon as he says something. You two have been going at it for sometime, even in music threads. Carry on though.
What whenever I leave saudi arabia I'm supposed to login to Bigsoccer and change it? I was in the 0-8 recently and now I'm in the USA whats your point, what does me loving USA have to do with my post?
0-8 brings back a lot of memories. The good old days in the Asian Rivalries. Welcome back Saudi64. You make a valid point about the divide and conquer tactic, which has always been the real agenda behind the smokescreens.
Iran to extend UN inspections upon requests: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/31/world/middleeast/iran-offers-to-extend-un-nuclear-inspection.html Very positive development. Hopefully it does not turn out to be deceptive. Anyways, I think it would be wise for the US politicians to start arguing about whether or not to end the embargo if the program does indeed truly become transparent... before this development gets thrown in their faces. But politics is politics and if I were a good politician I would be a politician.
Agreed, this is a good positive step in the right direction. It will be worth watching to see just how far these inspections get and what the results show.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-16784711 It is only going to get worse there, hopefully the other arab states will step up and help the Syrian people remove this dictator from power.