Cheney Says Israel Might 'Act First' on Iran

NYTimes ^ | January 21, 2005 | DAVID E. SANGER

[F14 Pilot]

ping

[wk4bush2004]

I think Israel may have a right to prepare to defend itself. Iran has threatened them. And they are a serious threat to America. Their government preaches "Death to America" to its people virtually every day.

[FBD]

This Iranian nuke threat is really heating up isn't it?

When Cheney comes out and mentions possible military action by Israel, he isn't saying it lightly.

hoo boy...scary stuff.

[ride the whirlwind]

Mr. Imus pressed: "Are you the president now?"
"No," Mr. Cheney said. "But that was a nice try."

Sly fox.

[Mo1]

WASHINGTON, Jan. 20 - Just hours before being sworn in for a second term, Vice President Dick Cheney publicly raised the possibility on Thursday that Israel "might well decide to act first" to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons

Well nice try of the NYT by starting their story out with this and taking Cheney's words out of context

[zbigreddogz]

Good ole Isreal. The world's smallest, and biggest, a$$kickers, depending on how you look at it.

We really owe them a lot. They take out the trash when nobody else will dare.

[PhilDragoo]

The New York Times takes Cheney's remarks out of context and Don Imus fires off a cheap-shot at the grown-ups: just another day in the sandbox with the morons of DENSA.

[SunkenCiv]

any such strike would leave "a diplomatic mess afterwards"

Heh... sure would be funny though. Main problems would seem to be that Israel doesn't have a viable air route (thanks in large part to the United States past and present) to the multiple targets. Attrition would also be high using planes. A missile attack can't be easily guarded against, but isn't likely to destroy the desired targets.

Also, it would likely pump up the Iranians against Israel. The Iranian public needs to keep its hatred focussed on the mullahcrats.

[American in Israel]

"You look around at potential trouble spots, Iran is right at the top of the list," he said.

And if you take out the word potential, Iran is still right at the top of the list. Car bombs, infiltrators and weapons into Iraq now, and open warfare in the past, Iran has always wanted to own Iraq's piece of the action.

But with Israel saying that they may act first, is it a statement about a preemptive strike, or a race between Israel and America?

I hope someone is going to act first, I suspect it may be Iran if the politicians keep discussing things...

[windchime]

Bump!

[momincombatboots]

I love to read about Israeli strikes... they never miss and they don't play around. Their Missiles for terrorist cars policy is awesome. Nothing PC about it.
If only America had the pair to unapologetically strike, detain and extract information.
Ah, but we hafta play the good cop, which I am seeing the advantages of.

[Convert from ECUSA]

Ping

[television is just wrong]

Well, why not?/ They are one of our strongest allies. As long as they are defending themselves.

[the invisib1e hand]

That's code for "if you even think they're gonna move, hit 'em first," isn't it?

[MeekOneGOP]

Here is the FULL version of that.

[SJackson]

If you'd like to be on this middle east/political ping list, please FR mail me.

[blackie]

Boom ~ Bump!

[NY Attitude]

You wrote: "Main problems would seem to be that Israel doesn't have a viable air route"

That certainly did not stop them when Israel took out the Nuclear Power Plant in Iraq.

[F14 Pilot]

Well, every country has a right to defend itself.