Posted on 04/22/2006 12:16:23 PM PDT by Iam1ru1-2
The president of Iran again lashed out at Israel on Friday and said it was "heading toward annihilation," just days after Tehran raised fears about its nuclear activities by saying it successfully enriched uranium for the first time.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called Israel a "permanent threat" to the Middle East that will "soon" be liberated. He also appeared to again question whether the Holocaust really happened.
"Like it or not, the Zionist regime is heading toward annihilation," Ahmadinejad said at the opening of a conference in support of the Palestinians. "The Zionist regime is a rotten, dried tree that will be eliminated by one storm."
Ahmadinejad provoked a world outcry in October when he said Israel should be "wiped off the map."
On Friday, he repeated his previous line on the Holocaust, saying: "If such a disaster is true, why should the people of this region pay the price? Why does the Palestinian nation have to be suppressed and have its land occupied?"
The land of Palestine, he said, referring to the British mandated territory that includes all of Israel, Gaza and the West Bank, "will be freed soon."
He did not say how this would be achieved, but insisted to the audience of at least 900 people: "Believe that Palestine will be freed soon."
"The existence of this Israeli regime is a permanent threat" to the Middle East, he added. "Its existence has harmed the dignity of Islamic nations."
The three-day conference on Palestine is being attended by officials of Hamas, the ruling party in the Palestinian territories.
Iran has previously said it will give money to the Palestinian Authority to make up for the withdrawal of donations by Western nations who object to Hamas' refusal to recognize Israel and renounce violence.
Who is the greater bull$hitter? has the greater delusion? Dean that the rats will take the house-senate-and white house, because of one storm? or the other rat in Iran proclaiming Israel will be gone in one storm?
Talk is cheap. Mahmoud is the one who will experience a storm.
talk is cheap, I say bring it on rag head! and maybe we can finally actually fight the war on terror the way we should have from the beginning.
We will have the need to fight it IF Iran will not back down on its nuclear program.
Aside from the threat to Israel and regional stability (Saudi Arabia has already said it may have to develop a nuclear bomb also), a nuclear armed Iran poses a grave and multipronged threat directly to the United States.
Positive developments in Iraq should have spill over benefits. The positive developments in Iraq are what we are fighting for now, and the spill over effect will make the whole Iraq war worthwhile. Military action in Iran is not what I would suggest.
I doubt military action will happen within 12 months. However, unless there is a diplomatic breakthrough I'm guessing it will happen within 36 months. Russia and China are unlikely to go along because of economic ties to Iran. Therefore it will likely be a "coalition of the willing" again.
The good news is that Iran will not remain a meaningful military power after the first month of the war. I hope the Iranian people will throw down their current government before it becomes necessary.
Negotiations only work with sane, reasonable states. Their government is at no real risk of falling to internal pressure. Only war will solve the Iran problem. The sooner we face this fact the better. There are only two choices, war, or Iran with nukes. We tried what you suggest with North Korea, and look how that turned out.
BUMP!
Even the reporter seems to get into the act.
He ignores the larger part of the original area of "Palestine", Transjordan, aka Jordan...
I'm a big fan of both Michael Ledeen and President Bush. It seems unlikely that one could support both. But ... I think Bush knows more than we do, and it sure seems like this Iranian lunatic is doing all that he can to provoke the US. I'm not convinced that we should bite, and I wonder if the leaders are feeling very, very insecure at their hold on power and see provocation as their best chance to survive. In this case, we should avoid helping him achieve what he wants.
Negroponte just came out and said Iran is years away from having the bomb. I was surprised. But if this is the case, then perhaps the best strategy is the velvet glove. Hammer, hammer, hammer until the regime implodes of its own shortcomings. The Bush Administration needs to be relentless, but along the lines Ledeen proposes (supporting dissidents within Iran) rather than through immediate military action. That time will likely come, but let's do it at a time of our choosing rather than this nut's.
Someone needs to ask this man what his plan will be seconds after he's launched his first strike as the missiles of retaliation rain down on his country... and any country that may have supported him.
Even if he managed to escape the retaliation in a bunker miles below the earth, he will have created his own living hell "in earth"
Holy Moly Batman.....another resurrection?
Stinky is more delusional. The American people could elect RATS if they believed that gas prices could go down.
Believe it or not, his religious cult of the 'twelvers' believes that they must create death and chaos in the middle east before the '12th Imam' returns. When he returns he will create an Islamic Shiite world paradise on earth. So they think that a nuclear holocaust and the destruction of Israel will bring about paradise.
These 'Twelver' Iranian mullahs are clearly delusional and need to taken out.
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