Well, if we did not already have enough reasons to declare Iran to be a member of the "axis of evil" we now have two more:
1. At least four Iranian military/diplomatic agents have recently been caught in a raid by Iraqi and American troops in Baghdad. At Iran's insistence, the two diplomats were released and immediately returned to Iran. The other two are still being held. All four were captured in a setting used by terrorists to formulate and carry out murderous attacks on both American troops and Iraqis. Have you read this in your local newspaper lately? I didn't think so.
2. It has become clear that Iran is funnelling large sums of money through Syria and into Gaza. The money is being used as an incentive for independent Palestinian terrorists to fire rockets into Israel from Gaza. Thousands of dollars are given as a reward for every rocket that is fired. Bonus money is given if the rockets kill or injure Israelis. Iran, who funds and supports Hizbullah in Lebanon, is now spreading its wings to create as much mischief in the Middle East as possible.
It has already been revealed that new guns and sophisticated "IEDs" manufactured in Iran have been repeatedly found inside of Iraq. These devices are specifically made with the intent of killing American soldiers. They have been successful in this far too many times.
It should be as plain as can be that Iran sees itself at war with the United States. It is killing our soldiers in Iraq and doing so with no shame or apology. They are placing the world at-risk by destabilizing Lebanon and undermining efforts to bring peace, of any kind, to bear on the conflicts between Israel and the Palestinian people.
Iran wants anything but peace in the Middle East. It also wants as many Americans dead as it can get away with.
Other writers have already commented on the irony of Iran demanding the release of their Iraqi diplomats after their unprecedented hostage taking of the entire staff of the United States Embassy in Tehran in 1979 and holding them for 444 days before finally deciding to release them.
Iran is led by a government that should be viewed as a pariah. The government of Iran should be shunned, humiliated and crushed by whatever economic and political sanctions that can be imposed by the United States and its allies--whether with the support of the United Nations and/or other regional alliances or unilaterally.
The isolation of Iran should be, after Iraq, the number one priority of the United States. The time is now. The sooner the better.
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Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Edmund Roche
absolute garbage. America's illegal and unjust warmongering will eventially bring it down as the history of previous dorminant powers demonstrate. How can any human with any feeling see what is happening in Iraq and wish to create the same utter maddness in Iran.
I am absolutely certain that the writer or writers of this piece or any their love ones will not involved in the fighting they so clamour. They want to con other people again to die for their greed and insecurity.
2 - Arch Conservative
Yeah you're right Ed.......
Iraqis were much better off under Hussein and every Iranian loves their current leadership and hates everything about the West...
Fucking idiot!
3 - In Fairness
Arch Conservative,
The US definitely doesn't love its leadership and it would be nice to see a Bush hanging right next to Saddam.
4 - D'oh
And so the ramping rhetoric up for yet another ill-advised and poorly thought out military adventure we both do not need and cannot afford.
Just for a moment, try and remember what the state of world affairs was the day before the "axis of evil" speech, and what it has become.
And if you are going to try and claim a "clear and present danger" made up from whole cloth....again, you had best have real proof, and not the kind of bullshit that was used last time.
5 - RedTard
Iran's killing of Americans and Israelis is smart. They know America and it's allies don't have the stomach to fight anymore. Our population is old, spoiled, and weak, theirs is young and hungry. History is indeed a lesson, when Romans became too decandent and unwilling to fight their own battles they were destroyed. So it will be with the west.
6 - D'oh
Did I miss where Iranians are killing Americans? I am guessing Red means in Iraq, and he is talking about the Iranians that are part of the Shi'ia militias/insurgency.
Interesting thing there is that there's not much need for anyone to help the Shi'ia, they are the majority of the population and effectively control the government, all they have to do is wait for the US to leave and they can finish their killing off of the Sunni population.
Iran itself is a whole different story, some there still harbor a grudge against the US for ousting their duly elected president and putting the Shah back on the throne, not to mention the US training and equipping SAVAK for all those years. Oh yes, don't forget we gave Saddam arms and WMD's (chemical) during the 8 year war between the two countries.
Simplistic, jingoistic bullshit is what has gotten the U.S. into the mess it's in over there right now, and what has lead up to that mess, perhaps we had best start to really think things through and work from there, rather than go backwards to some kind of bumper sticker foreign policy.
7 - In Fairness
D'oh
I agree with you but you are sharing a history lesson that most have never learned or just don't care. I say all that believe in American domination get your weapons and head to Iraq now. Why let others die in place of you to support your strong beliefs.
8 - RedTard
"Did I miss where Iranians are killing Americans?"
Apparently so. Try reading the article before commenting.
9 - zadeh
I like to know if you are a zionist jew or not,
1000000-1 that you are.
10 - D'oh
Red, you must be talking about the IED's? Has ti slipped your mind that the majority of the Sunni insurgents would NOT work with Iranian Shi'ia for anything? Or perhaps that , since the Sunni insurgents have a huge percentage of former Republican Guard and Iraqi military people in it, they already know how to make explosives?
From the perspective of actual Intelligence gathered rather than bullshit political spin, you might want to learn the difference between Sunni and Shi'ia, who hates who, and who is doing the fighting.
This will only help you in accurately assessing who is doing what, and why rather than conflating and confusing the various factions and players involved in this hideous conflict of a civil war.
You see, I did read the piece, I just don't agree with most of the things it has said, because they are either ill informed, or demonstrably false.
I agree, the U.S. now needs to fix Iraq, since we have fucked it up much worse than when we got there... women used to drive their cars with heads uncovered...they cannot do so now, over 100 Iraqis being killed every day, infrastructure problems which billions have been thrown at yet seem to never be fixed.
So much more, so much to be done and worked on. Yet this Administration, and the rank and file which follow them are doing the same thing they did with Afghanistan, leaving the task unfinished as the ADD driven policies go and start more shit before they finish cleaning up the mess they have already made.
Try thinking.
11 - Ruvy in Jerusalem
"I like to know if you are a Zionist Jew or not,
1000000-1 that you are."
And who are you asking, Zadeh? If you are asking the author, I'll let him answer for himself.
Now you and the rest of you can hear some views from a Jew, not a Zionist, but a believer in G-d, one who lives in Israel, and who wants to see
1) the Wahhabi cancer infecting the Arab world and the Moslem Umma destroyed;
2) peace between an INDEPENDENT Jewish entity in the Land of Israel and an INDEPENDENT Arab entity controlling Arabia, Syria and the land east to Iran;
3) the Iranian imperialists driven back to their own gates in Teheran, and their nuclear appetites curbed by force.
In short, I want to see everyone in my region free to live in peace, sitting under his own fig tree without fear.
Sanctions are garbage. They were tried in Mesopotamia and only reduced the population there to poverty while giving an imperialist coalition of America and Britain the excuse to invade. At this point, sanctions will do nothing at all to the elite ruling in Teheran.
The only solution here is a military one. This solution has to be executed not by some interfering outside power like America, or its present puppet regime in Jerusalem.
The successor to the IDF in a free and liberated Israel, must attack Iran and destroy Teheran if necessary, using its nuclear weapons. We have them, we might as well use them to promote good in the world, instead of evil as has the USA, and the USSR and its successor state, the Russian Federation.
But we must go further. The oil wells that sustain Shia terror must be destroyed, the oil wells that sustain Wahhabi terror must also be destroyed. If this means that Riyadh goes up in nuclear smoke and turns into glass in the desert, so be it. Thus, we will know that the financial underpinning of the Saudi regime will disappear, and the financial underpinning of the murderer in Teheran, Ahmadinejad will also disappear.
At that point, it will be possible for Moslems who honestly want peace and not war to step forward without fear, for the warmongers in Islam will no longer have a paymaster. At that point, real solutions for peace may have a chance.
12 - Bird of Paradise
Ed, You who are so "absolutely sure" are "absolutely wrong." I have at least 30 personal friends who either have served or are currently serving (on your behalf) in Iraq or Afghanistan. Some of them have picked up body parts of their friends. One counted 25 mortars and RPGs sail over his head while on guard duty one day (back in 2004). Others have put bodies back together in the Green Zone hospital. Others, in intelligence units, have met with and shared meals (often in homes) with hundreds of Iraqis. Every one of them felt that we were doing the right thing in being there and every one of them who finished their deployment returned with a deep empathy and varying degrees of respect for the Iraqi people. I also know these soldiers' wives, husbands and children. I correspond with them while they are deployed and meet with them when they are home on leave (my next-door neighbor just returned home for two-weeks leave from Iraq on December 23. His wife and 4 children had Thanksgiving Dinner with me and my family).
I write with intimate knowledge of the situation and the situations of those who are most intimately involved "on the ground."
You might also be interested to know that I am a Christian pastor who registered as a 1-AO during the Vietnam draft (that means I was a conscientious objector willing to serve in the military but not bear arms). I have also taught on Islam, have had my curriculum vetted and approved by the Principal of the local Muslim school and have had a Pakistani Pashtun Muslim lead my adult Sunday School class on the subject of Islam on two ocassions.
Unlike yourself I do not blow hot air or make ignorant accusations against those who hold opinions different from my own.
If you can provide even the smallest shred of evidence that refutes the information given in my article then please share it with us. Otherwise . . . well . . . I think I've said enough.
13 - Bird of Paradise
D'oh, You say that I am "ramping rhetoric up for yet another ill-advised and poorly thought out military adventure." How odd since my post title and content refer to "SANCTIONS."
Iran has repeatedly and consistantly committed acts of war against the United States for nearly 30 years. To my knowledge, with the exceptions of the accidental shooting down of an Iranian passenger jet (which we apologized for) and the take-over of an Iranian oil platform in the Persian Gulf (I believe this was in 1993) we have not responded militarily in any way whatsoever . . . except with rhetoric, modest sanctions and international diplomacy.
We have even shown them the "courtesy" of taking out their primary competetor and rival in the region. (Who we once supported in their war against Iran in the same way that we supported the Soviet Union in their fight against our common enemy, Nazi Germany, in WW II).
It is the United States that has shown remarkable and inexplicable patience and long-suffering with the revolutionary, terrorist-sponsoring, theocratic Shi'ite Islamist Ayatollahs and their spokesmen (such as Ahmadinajad).
These folks have promised to rid the world of both Israel and the United States. All we have sought for is "regime change." This is not even a "Bush doctrine" but one that has been our national policy since the early 1980s (once Carter left the White House . . . I'm not sure he ever formulated a "policy" on Iran . . . he mostly seemed to "wring his hands" in indecisive angst over the matter).
But I've said enough.
Tough sanctions are what I have asked for.
What do you suggest?
14 - Ruvy in Jerusalem
Bird,
I'm sorry if I sound cold. All those people who you know in Iraq were meant to lose by an administration serving its masters in Riyadh and bowing to the money they pay. There may have been some level of success by Americans attempting to rebuild the infrastructure in Mesopotamia. We have writers at Blog Critics who can answer to this subject, soldiers in Iraq.
But a better solution to Wahhabi terror could have been implemented in 2001 and wasn't because of the dependence of the Bush family on Saudi (Wahhabi) money. You know this as well as I do.
To back you up, no, you do not vent steam, nor blow hot air through your hat. But the American effort was executed to be a failure in many ways, and it in many ways, it is.
15 - Bird of Paradise
Zadeh, You lose your bet (read my response to Ed). I am neither a Zionist nor a Jew. My Christian faith does not compel me to either support or oppose the existance of Israel as an independent nation.
I have friends who are Jewish (including the local Rabbi) and friends who are Muslim (most of whom oppose the existance of Israel).
It seems that you need to rethink your own prejudice and stereotyping in the area of religion and politics. Including people like me whose thoughts and ideas and facts you so easily dismiss with a bigoted prejudgment.
Please, if you wish to disagree with me give me something of substance to chew on intead of simply demonstrating your lack of having any.
16 - Eaken
Don't worry Ruvy, you don't sound cold - you sound incompetent.
You think that attacking these countries with nuclear weapons and taking out the main source of income for these countries will solve your problem? Ha.
Iran has not forgiven the US for all it has done in the past 50+ years and you think the people of the region will forgive Israel for nuking their country and taking out their oil wells? Instead of peace they will *all* seek the annhialation of Israel. On top of that Israel will be condemned by every other country in the world that for better or worse, relies on Oil imports from the middle east (which effectively is all of them given the pricing power middle eastern oil has).
First time on this blog, and I must say, some of you people crack me up - especially the Israelis who think dropping some bombs is going to solve your problem.
17 - D'oh
Bird, I am with you on sanctions, and if what you are stating is NOT indeed an attempt to ramp up for war in the exact same manner as we saw a few years ago in Iraq, then I would apologize. However, I will wait to do so for a bit, since appearances and circumstance in combination with the Administration's rhetoric share eerie similarities.
I would say that the Iranians, as a people not the political entity of their government, have some bones to pick with the U.S., since we deposed their duly elected president to install the Shah as well as helped Saddam and sold him chemical weapons during their 8 year war.
How about we sit down with them first? Start from there and then apply sanctions or treaties as it works out?
As for regime change, we have fucked up Iraq quite a bit trying that shit. Perhaps we should walk away with the Lesson learned that the ONLY real regime change occurs when the people involved do it themselves.
You know, like the American regime change we did in the 1700's.
Just a thought.
18 - Bird of Paradise
Ruvy, my friend, You do not sound cold . . . but, perhaps, a bit cynical! I do not personally believe that the Bushs' desire for money is the be-all end-all of this conflict. Access to oil? Certainty. The coinciding of national and personal interests in removing Saddam from power? Certainly. The removal of a long-term destablizing presence in the Middle East? Certainly. The strategic geographic and political isolation of Iran from the rest of the Muslim world? Certainly. The potential establishment of a free, moderate and nominally democratic government in the midst of a region monopolized by despotic, tyrannical, backwards, scheming, deceiptful, violent, corrupt and disfunctional Muslim nations that have created nothing but poverty, conflict, bitterness, hopelessness, hatred and radical Islamist movements desisgned to destablize the region and threaten the existance and prosperity of the "Western world?" Certainly.
The United States has many in our government who are just a petty and short-sighted as the ones you have in Israel.
But to suggest that this is all about Saudi oil money and the Bush family? I think you are getting close to tinfoil hat territory with that theory!
As for Israel, it is in the United States' interests to find a successful and peaceful resolution of the conflict that includes a free and independent Israel remaining more or less where it is.
This is not viewed by any of the surrounding countries as being in their best interests.
That, in a nutshell, is the issue and the conflict. The United States has to work WITH countries who are in conflict with the United States' interests on Israel in order to naintain our access to oil supplies (which is also in our national intersts). This is a juggling act that costs me a great deal of tax dollars each year.
Israel gets the biggest financial benefit from this. Egypt, second.
19 - troll
economic sanctions serve little purpose other than to punish the poor and feed anti-american sentiment
20 - D'oh
Excellent point, troll.
Hence my admonition to actually sit down and talk first. Any approach must be comprehensive and far reaching.
It was the Persians who invented chess, and in the political arena, are "playing" it now. Unfortunately, the WH is still "playing" checkers.
21 - Ruvy in Jerusalem
Eaken,
You write like a fool.
All the Wahhabi influenced Arabs have ever sought is the murder of Jews, and the annihilation of Israel. This goes back to the massacres of the Jewish community in Hebron in 1929 and the various Arab riots that took place that year. So taking out their money source is of no worry to me; they hate us already. I don't give a damn if they hate us some more. It's nothing new. If they hate us, they can eat our bullets, and burn into ash by our nukes. It couldn't happen to a nicer bunch of people.
As for gratitude, the Arabs will get peace when they learn to love their children more than they love death. And we Jews will have peace when we stop worrying about the gratitude of goyim. It is what WE do that matters, not what they think. That is why the leadership of this country has to swing on the noose, just as did Saddam Hussein today, for treason.
The Wahhabi have been singing the same song for 250 years in terms of "my way or the highway" for Moslems, and their prescription for non-Moslems since they wrested control of the Moslem Brotherhood is no different. The Union Bank (via Prescott Bush) and the British imperialists who gave power to the ibn Saud family in the early 1920's made a huge mistake backing these heartless bastards, and now American soldiers and civilians (remember all those thousands who died when the WTC came toppling down?) are paying the price.
There is no negotiating with these bastards. Either you convert or you die. That is the position of the Wahhabi funded madrassas that they teach Moslems throughout the world. The only solution that you have is their death. This means murdering off the Wahhabi princes. YOUR country and the elites who run it haven't got the balls to do this.
So, the elites who run America are not paying the price, the common man is. But that is your problem.
OUR problem is to wean ourselves of the American aid tit, and to wean the Arabs of the oil tit. That is what my solutions are aimed at, something I could not expect you to comprehend at all.
22 - Ruvy in Jerusalem
D'oh,
The Indians invented chess. The Persians only gave the game the name. And nukes burn both Persians and chess boards.
23 - troll
not to mention all other living things
24 - D'oh
Ruvy, it would depend on what you call "chess"..I am not speaking of "go" or other early forms, but chess as we know it today.
As for your own psychotic expostulations about nuking innocent human beings along with the guilty, I chalk it up to too much pressure coupled with messianic politics and leave it as an example that neither "side" in the Arab/Israeli conflict of fundamentalists has anything resembling a "moral high ground".
25 - Ruvy in Jerusalem
D'oh,
I don't give a shit about "the moral high ground". That's what fools go after. Also, I don't give a shit about killing my enemies. I can't afford to. I follow the Talmudic injunction, "He who raises his hand to bless you, bless first. He who raises his hand to kill you, kill first.