You very seriously underestimate ISRAELI intentions.
You very seriously underestimate Israel's intentions.
Its past agenda was for the US to attack Iraq and in this it succeeded with manipulated intelligence that was accepted around the world.
Its agenda now is to attack Iran. That there is a weight of opinion against such a strike, is of no consequence. Israel is determined that Iran should be attacked, regardless of the potential disastrous primary and secondary retaliation around the world - to the Gulf states, to Europe and to the US. Its secondary concern is to keep Israeli cities protected from the radioactive fallout, and its agenda makes due provision for that event.
But do not be fooled by propaganda. Israeli nuclear-armed, air and submarine crews are ready and waiting for the order to go. That could be at any time, but the informed consensus is before the end of December.
US warships are already in position, in the Gulf, for the expected blockade of the Strait of Hormuz and plans are ready for the battle to keep oil supplies open to the world.
Do not underestimate either the agenda, or the vast problems worldwide that will result from the anticipated military action that is expected to be of gain for only one country, and devastating to most others.
US warships are already in position, in the Gulf, for the expected blockade of the Strait of Hormuz and plans are ready for the battle to keep oil supplies open to the world
If you happen to be a U.S. president putting together a coalition threatening Iran with sanctions unless they play more straight with the IAEA, it would be stupid not to position U.S. ships to protect Hormuz, and this therefore is not proof of anything regarding possible Israeli plans, it only signals the U.S. getting serious about sanctions possibilities.
From Gasoline war with Iran looms, UPI, Oct. 1
October 25, 2009 8:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
I don't underestimate it for a minute. But AIPAC and others have hamstrung our foreign policy. It is wrong; it is pathetic; it is the reason we are under attack from Al Qaida.
October 25, 2009 8:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
It's certainly *a* reason and it's a real problem, but it's only one reason.
Other reasons are that the CIA using an old cookbook set up this home-grown opposition strategy to Soviet occupation of Afghanistan: sent religious nuts after them, these Wahabis or whatever term. Then, though, we just left the Wahabi nuts in place instead of trying to mollify/dismantle/reorient them and they decided they needed not only to get rid of USSR but other infidels as well, and we're infidel No. 1. Big, big policy failure there; hard to overstate it.
Bin Laden is the black sheep and misfit among some 54 children of a construction magnate whose other children liked USA ad did the old man. Both father and later the new patriarch, older brother, were killed in U.S. airplane incidents years apart; this is a *big* piece of Bin Laden's twisted world culminating in the aiplane assauts of 9/11. When U.S. staged in Saudi Arabia for Kuwait liberation, this provided a needed provocation for Bin Laden to hate the infidel even more and raise money for "the struggle" from idiotic Saudi princes and whatnot. That was 90-91; first WTC attack was 93. And yeah, the my-Isreal-right-or-wrong jazz helped fuel it (probably helped him raise money). That became a particularly obtuse strategy under Bush who used it for domestic political purposes, but there's a lot of other weird stuff behind the Al Qaeda nuts.
October 26, 2009 10:48 AM | Reply | Permalink
To me, bluecanary's claims seem extremely far-fetched, but I'm willing to reconsider. The problem is that he/she has made one dogmatic assertion after another without a scintilla of evidence to back them up, and so it's hard to take them seriously. Given the current interactions between the U.S., the Europeans, and Russia on one hand, and Iran on the other, with sanctions a possible outcome, a planned attack on Iran in the immediate future would make no sense. If efforts to halt Iran's nuclear weapons program fail, there would still be years before Iran could mount a credible nuclear threat, and so any contemplated attack would only materialize in the light of events that can't yet be predicted.
In any case, what would make this post worth taking seriously would be some actual evidence. In the absence of evidence, it comes across as an invitation to be ignored.
The claim that Al Qaeda is at war with the U.S. because of Israel is false, and is an unfortunate example of attempts to stir up anti-Israeli sentiment based not on legitimate criticism of Israel but on spurious allocation of blame for evils that belong on the doorstep of others - in this case including the malevolence at the heart of Al Qaeda. In the decades since Al Qaeda was created with the intention to forming a global network to extend Islamic rule to much of the world, it has carried out multiple terrorist attacks against civilians in many countries, including attacks agains American interests in the U.S., as well as Africa and elsewhere. It is striking that although it has exploited the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for propgaganda value, it has not conducted any serious operations to attack Israel. In fact, Al Qaeda and the Palestinian terrorist groups such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad have distrusted and disliked each other, with the Palestinians suspicious that Al Qaeda wanted only to use them for its global purposes rather than out of genuine desire to promote their cause.
Indeed, the ideological fanaticism of Al Qaeda and its vision of global domination has impelled it to be far more eager to shed Muslim blood than the blood of Israelis, an outcome not unnoticed in the Islamic world and responsible for dwindling support for Al Qaeda. "According to Pew polls, support for Al Qaeda has been dropping around the Muslim world in the years leading to 2008.[139] The numbers supporting suicide bombings in Indonesia, Lebanon, and Bangladesh, for instance, have dropped by half or more in the last five years. In Saudi Arabia, only 10 percent now have a favorable view of Al Qaeda, according to a December poll by Terror Free Tomorrow, a Washington-based think tank" -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Qaeda
October 25, 2009 9:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
This is scary ..and not without precedent or merit...With the old failed hawks back in the leadership--nothing should be ruled out...Though I was heartened when Russia's Medvedev thought the 'secret' meeting was silly or not necessary!
It will be interesting to see how BiBi's meeting go next week when he is in the US...I am with J Street on this whole claudestine BS...Sunlight is the best disinfectant!!!
October 26, 2009 12:35 PM | Reply | Permalink