The Spymaster: Meir Dagan on Iran's threat

http://www.cbsnews.com ^ | March 11, 2012 7:06 PM

[deek69]

Meir Dagan has been described as "hard-charging" and "stops at nothing." For more than eight years, Dagan made full use of those qualities as chief of Mossad, Israel's intelligence agency, where he focused on keeping Iran from developing a nuclear weapon. When that job ended, Dagan did something unheard of for an ex-Mossad chief: he spoke out publicly, voicing opposition to Israel launching preemptive airstrikes against Iran's nuclear facilities anytime soon. Dagan believes the Iranian regime is a rational one and even its president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad - who has called for Israel to be annihilated - acts in a somewhat rational way when it comes to Iran's nuclear ambitions.

[U-238]

There will be nothing of Tel Aviv in a war. Hezbollah has 50,000 missiles of all classes including Scud missiles aimed at targets inside Israel.

[navydad]

Just what Obama wants to hear!
Whatever you joos do... wait until AFTER I’m re-elected. Then I can skate through anything.

[Terry Mross]

I wouldn’t be surprised if Israel goes out in a blaze of glory and takes everyone with them.

I know telling Iran that Israel won’t do anything is sure going to make Iran think twice. sarc

[U-238]

I wouldn’t be surprised if Israel goes out in a blaze of glory and takes everyone with them.

The Samson Option

[jmacusa]

Right up until the end Jews at Auschwitz really thought they were going to take a shower even though they could smell the burning bodies. Before that people thought Hitler was a reasonable man. Chamberlin thought so. The Jewish people can’t let “Never Again’’ happen again and Iran’s leadership is determined to make it ‘’happen again’’. The world has had years to do something about Iran and it’s nuclear ambitions and the clock has been ticking away. If Israel is attacked with a nuke by Iran does anyone doubt we won’t be next? Seventy years ago the Jews of Europe were left to their fate and thus was The Holocaust. The Jews of Israel aren’t going to wait for a world that doesn’t care about their survival, they’ll act or they’ll perish.

[jmacusa]

I thought they called it “The Goliath Option’’?

[lurk]

“I wouldn’t be surprised if Israel goes out in a blaze of glory and takes everyone with them.”

That’s not the way scripture says it will end. It says that the Israelis will spend 7 months cleaning up the bodies and war debris of their vanquished enemies.

[editor-surveyor]

Incipiant alzheimer’s?

[editor-surveyor]

>> “There will be nothing of Tel Aviv in a war.” <<

.
Wake up and read Psalm 83. It is the prophecy of what is going to happen between Juda (present day ‘Israel’) and its neighbors that constantly torment her.

God says Israel wins.

[Chode]

i think the time has truly come...

Posted by David Bogner on July 16, 2006

A difficult lesson

When I was in the Navy, I once witnessed a bar fight in downtown Olongapo (Philippines) that still haunts my dreams.  The fight was between a big oafish Marine and a rather soft-spoken, medium sized Latino sailor from my ship. 

All evening the Marine had been trying to pick a fight with one of us and had finally set his sights on this diminutive shipmate of mine... figuring him for a safe target.  When my friend refused to be goaded into a fight the Marine sucker punched him from behind on the side of the head so hard that blood instantly started to pour from this poor man's mutilated ear.

Everyone present was horrified and was prepared to absolutely murder this Marine, but my shipmate quickly turned on him and began to single-handedly back him towards a corner with a series of stinging jabs and upper cuts that gave more than a hint to a youth spent boxing in a small gym in the Bronx.

Each punch opened a cut on the Marine's startled face and by the time he had been backed completely into the corner he was blubbering for someone to stop the fight.  He invoked his split lips and chipped teeth as reasons to stop the fight.  He begged us to stop the fight because he could barely see through the river of blood that was pouring out of his split and swollen brows.

Nobody moved.  Not one person.

The only sound in the bar was the sickening staccato sound of this sailor's lightning fast fists making contact with new areas of the Marine's head.  The only sound I have heard since that was remotely similar was from the first Rocky film when Sylvester Stallone was punching sides of beef in the meat locker.

Finally the Marine's pleading turned to screams.... a high, almost womanly shriek.   And still the punches continued relentlessly. 

Several people in the bar took a few tentative steps as though they wanted to try to break it up at that point, but hands reached out from the crowd and held them tight.  I'm not ashamed to say that mine were two of the hands that held someone back.

You see, in between each blow the sailor had begun chanting a soft cadence: "Say [punch] you [punch] give [punch] up [punch]... say [punch] you [punch]were [punch] wrong [punch]". 

He had been repeating it to the Marine almost from the start but we only became aware of it when the typical barroom cheers had died down and we began to be sickened by the sight and sound of the carnage.

This Marine stood there shrieking in the corner of the bar trying futilely to block the carefully timed punches that were cutting his head to tatters... right down to the skull in places. But he refused to say that he gave up... or that he was wrong. 

Even in the delirium of his beating he believed in his heart that someone would stop the fight before he had to admit defeat.  I'm sure this strategy had served him well in the past and had allowed him to continue on his career as a barroom bully.

Finally, in a wail of agony the Marine shrieked  "I give up", and we gently backed the sailor away from him.

I'm sure you can guess why I have shared this story today. 

I'm not particularly proud to have been witness to such a bloody spectacle, and the sound of that Marine's woman-like shrieks will haunt me to my grave.  But I learned something that evening that Israel had better learn for itself if it is to finally be rid of at least one of its tormentors:

This is one time an Arab aggressor must be allowed to be beaten so badly that every civilized nation will stand in horror, wanting desperately to step in and stop the carnage... but knowing that the fight will only truly be over when one side gives up and finally admits defeat.

Just as every person who had ever rescued that bully from admitting defeat helped create the cowardly brute I saw that evening in the bar, every well-intentioned power that has ever stepped in and negotiated a ceasefire for an Arab aggressor has helped create the monsters we see around us today.

President Lahoud of Lebanon, a big Hezbollah supporter and a close ally of Syria, has been shrieking non-stop to the UN Security Council for the past two days to get them to force Israel into a cease fire.

Clearly he has been reading his autographed copy of 'Military Success for Dummies Arab Despots' by the late Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt.  Ever since Nasser accidentally discovered the trick in '56, every subsequent Arab leader has stuck to his tried and true formula for military success:

1. Instigate a war. 
2. Once the war is well underway and you are in the process of having your ass handed to you... get a few world powers to force your western opponent into a cease fire. 
3. Whatever you do, don't surrender or submit to any terms dictated by your enemy.  That would ruin everything!  All you have to do is wait it out and eventually the world will become sickened at what is being done to your soldiers and civilian population... and will force a truce.
4. Once a truce has been called you can resume your intransigence (which probably caused the conflict in the first place), and even declare victory as your opponent leaves the field of battle.

This tactic has never failed.  Not once. 

In fact it worked so will for the Egyptians in 1973, that to this day they celebrate the Yom Kippur War - a crushing defeat at the hands of Israel -  as a military victory!  No kidding... it's a national holiday over there!

President Lahoud has already begun to shriek like a school girl to the UN Security Council to "Stop the violence and arrange a cease-fire, and then after that we'll be ready to discuss all matters."   

Uh huh.  Forgive me if I find that a tad hard to swallow.  He allowed Hezbollah to take over his country.  He allowed the regular Lebanese army to provide radar targeting data for the Hezbollah missile that struck the Israeli destroyer.  He has turned a blind eye while Iranian and Syrian weapons, advisers and money have poured into his country. 

And now that his country is in ruins he wants to call it a draw.

As much as it may sicken the world to stand by and watch it happen, strong hands need to hold back the weak-hearted and let the fight continue until one side finally admits unambiguous defeat.

[Sequoyah101]

Bravo! I agree but it will probably not be done.

Well written by Mr. Bogner though.

I saw a woman with a dog chain, produced from her purse, clear a bar in Tiptonville, Tennessee one evening. The carnage confirmed my maxim to never get in a fight unless it is to kill. Just not worth the trouble and risk otherwise.

[Verginius Rufus]

The Samson option would mean the Israelis were all dead too. Maybe some version of MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction) would work—if the Iranian leaders know that the Israelis will 10 Iranians for every one Israeli they kill (just using that figure because Iran has about 10 times as many people), they might be more deterred by that than by feeble warnings from the UN or the White House. There is no way the Iranians could take out all the sites from which Israel would launch its attacks so they would be very vulnerable.

[MarkL]

Unfortunately, it's not just Israel... The US has a terribly long history of doing the same thing. The only way to properly end a war is to destroy the ability of the enemy government and the will of the people to make war again. The last time this occurred was WWII.

And we've paid the price over and over again with senseless, never-ending wars.

A war is never really over until there's a complete and total loser. The problem is that "civilized countries" are loathe to do that, especially if the other country is "disadvantaged."

Mark

[Chode]

something has to give, one way or another...

[rednek]

Tehran will be a smoking hole in the desert if the Iranians launch an attack. Bibi’s only comment should be “Anyone else want some?” and then walk silently out of the press room.....red

[MarkL]

Maybe some version of MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction) would work—if the Iranian leaders know that the Israelis will 10 Iranians for every one Israeli they kill (just using that figure because Iran has about 10 times as many people), they might be more deterred by that than by feeble warnings from the UN or the White House. There is no way the Iranians could take out all the sites from which Israel would launch its attacks so they would be very vulnerable.

The problem is that the mullahs control the military, and the "grand ayatolla" was quoted as saying that it would be "worth it" to lose 100 million muslims if it meant wiping out Israel and the Jews. And they don't care how many arabs are killed; There's no love lost between Iranians (Persians) and the arabs (a different "race").

Mark

[Sequoyah101]

You would think wouldn’t you? I mean how long can we go on with the economy just barely hanging on, the decay of almost everything that makes us what we are and protects us, the continuous face off in the Middle East and lots of other places and the growing tension by China? And the list just goes on and on. I challenge people to name one really good thing done in this nation since the Interstate and Defense Highway System... they can’t. Name one success we have had since Regan and the military adventures of his day or the “defeat” of communism. I say “defeat” since I think the Trojan Horses they left behind are now doing their work on our country.

we are rotting as a nation and only a few know it.

[Chode]

yup, war is NOT a civilized thing... it is to kill the enemy and destroy his will/ability to make war again, or you can bet your bottom dollar, he will again given the chance

[Chode]

i heard that...

[hoagy62]

Exactly. When I read of anyone saying that Israel is going to be utterly destroyed, I remember my Bible and what the Lord God has said, over and over again...Israel is Mine. I will never completely forsake her, and I will defend her" (my paraphrase).

If Israel is wiped off the map and its' inhabitants killed, then (in my view) the Bible is a dead document and there is no God. If that's the case, there's no reason the whole world shouldn't just devolve into barbaric madness.

I believe that Israel is going to attack, and I think they're going to win so unbelievably huge that it'll stun the world.

[U-238]

Meanwhile you have to go through the Seven Seals and the Seven Trumphets.Yes, God wins and sends Satan “into the lake of fire”

[U-238]

Its called tbe Samson Option. It has been written about in two books: “The Samson Option” and “The Bomb in the Basement”.

[MarkL]

Yup, the Brits are seeing that coming to a head in the Faulkland Islands too.

Mark

[BigCinBigD]

Israel needs to worry about reality. Not believe in fairy tales .

[jmacusa]

Yeah, I’m aware of it. It’s just that years ago I heard it referred to as the “Goliath Option’’. In any event it’ll be a nuclear Massada.

[U-238]

The seven seals (Revelation 6:1-17, 8:1-5), seven trumpets (Revelation 8:6-21, 11:15-19), and seven bowls/vials (Revelation 16:1-21) are three succeeding series of end-times judgments from God.

[U-238]

I agree. They would do it.

[jmacusa]

I couldn’t imagine the mullahs in Iran being that crazy as to allow one man, ‘’Amadeani-whatever -his-name-is’’ to drag them all to Hell by doing something like this. Any Iranian Army officer with an ounce of brains, especially any who have ever lived in the US or studied here would have to know they’d be dead in a hour after a first launch. Anything is possible with bat-poop crazy Saracens but I’d have to think if it ever came to it the mullahs or at least one Army officer with the will to live would pull out a pistol and shoot Amadeani in the head.

[U-238]

Any Iranian Army officer with an ounce of brains, especially any who have ever lived in the US or studied here would have to know they’d be dead in a hour after a first launch

There has been several times between the US and USSR(Russia) in the last 60 years, both sides has come close to launching a nuclear attack. Read the book "War Scare" by Peter Pry. It chronicles several periods that the USSR has almost pulled the trigger because of false radar ecoes, errant missile tests,coupt etats,etc. In 1979, an Air Force airman loaded a wrong program in NORAD command computers that caused an serious alarm.To this day, both sides are ready to launch a nuclear war at a moments notice.

[Bshaw]

The conflict you so eloquently described herein, could be paralleled to the following video.

Here you have the - (1) instigators, (2) the forceful response to the aggressive instigation, and (3) the Stop! Stop! Stop — Western voice.

And in case you’re wondering. The responder was acquitted of his actions! Please forgive my first video link, I hope my attaching it meets protocols:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QhJzqH5INXc

[rmlew]

Dagan is a leftist idiot.
I wrote the following in 2010 about the US, but the logic applies to Israel. http://nycright.blogspot.com/2010/08/nuclear-iran-means-nuked-american-city.html

[MadMax, the Grinning Reaper]

Not “The Samson Option”. The “Big Bang Theory”.

Either way, it’s gonna be one helluva show, and a lot less Moslems to worry about.

[U-238]

The “Samson Option” is just the Israeli version of a doomsday machine.

[Nebr FAL owner]

There are more ways to skin a cat besides sticking it’s head in a boot jack & pulling real hard on the tail, the Israeli’s understand this. Ideally the Iranians will have a work related accident while preparing the nuke for testing taking out lots of the Iranian brain trust/production facility.

[Yehuda]

U-238
Since Feb 7, 2012

“There will be nothing of Tel Aviv in a war. Hezbollah has 50,000 missiles of all classes including Scud missiles”

You’re talking out of your hat. Hezbullah doesn’t have “all classes”.

Furthermore Israel has 220+ NUKES on top of the best AF in the region (if not #2-3 ON THE PLANET), plus 3 nuclear missile capable SUBMARINES.

If Hezbullah is stupid enough to join in with a war with Iran, at least half of Lebanon will be carpet bombed, obliterated, exterminated, and turned into a bloody desert before Tel Aviv suffers more than a thousand casualties.

[U-238]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hezbollah_armed_strength
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3995408,00.html
http://www.aei.org/article/foreign-and-defense-policy/regional/middle-east-and-north-africa/assessing-the-strength-of-hezbollah/

[cynwoody]

The Samson option would mean the Israelis were all dead too. Maybe some version of MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction) would work—if the Iranian leaders know that the Israelis will 10 Iranians for every one Israeli they kill (just using that figure because Iran has about 10 times as many people), they might be more deterred by that than by feeble warnings from the UN or the White House.

Ten to one is too low a ratio. The Iranian people should know that, should their country force the Samson option, the largest concentration of living Iranians would reside in Tehrangeles, CA.

[U-238]

http://www.meforum.org/2531/iran-syria-hezbollah-axis
http://www.irantracker.org/military-activities/estimates-hezbollahs-arsenal

[U-238]

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Threats_to_Israel/Syria.html

This is a must read

[U-238]

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Terrorism/hizrocketcapabilities.html

[U-238]

Second Lebanon War & Aftermath (2006-Present)
On July 12, 2006, the military and financial support that Hezbollah had been receiving from Iran and Syria was put to the test when its guerrilla’s perfidiously attacked an IDF patrol on the Israel-Lebanon border and abducted two soldiers, Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev. Simultaneously, Hezbollah units inside Lebanon began firing katyusha rockets to pound northern Israel and create panic and fear.

After more than a weeklong campaign of artillery and air fire to suppress Hezbollah targets, the IDF invaded southern Lebanon at the end of July with the mission to destroy Hezbollah’s military capability and kill as many of its terrrorists and fighters as possible. Though the war is widely considered to have ended in a stale-mate, with neither side producing a decisive victory, Israel maintains that it killed nearly 600 Hezbollah guerrilla’s and destroyed tons of their illegal weaponry.

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah mentioned in various interviews that he did not expect such a high level response and invasion by the IDF following the initial attack but that he believes his forces acted heroically and not only withstood the Israeli assault but inflicted their own damage, killing more than 120 Israeli soldiers.

In the aftermath of the month-long war in 2006, the United Nations was tasked with maintaining a UNIFIL force both on Israel’s border with Lebanon to prevent future skirmishes, but also on Lebanon’s border with Syria to prevent further arms smuggling into the Hezbollah stronghold areas. Unfortunately, UNIFIL’s mission has been compromised either by a lack of desire on the part of its soldiers to interfere or a lack of ability to stop the smuggling.

Israeli intelligence now believes that Hezbollah has completely rearmed itself from the 2006 war and has even enhanced its weapons stock further, despite UNIFIL’s presence. It is believed that Hezbollah’s weapons stores hold at least 10,000 katyusha and other short to medium-range rockets. In January 2012, the IDF further updated its operational assessment of Hezbollah to say that it believed the terrorist organization now had long-range surface-to-air missile systems imported from Syria that can match Israel’s aerial dominance. The upheaval in Syria during the winter of 2011/2012 enabled Hezbollah to obtain the weapons systems in addition to other various Russian-made air-defense units.

While Hezbollah is known to have a large quantity of shoulder-launched anti-aircraft missiles, the IDF now assumes that the Lebanese Islamist group has received the SA-8, a truck-mounted Russian tactical surface- to-air missile system reported to have a range of 30 kilometers. In addition to the possible transfer of air-defense systems, Hezbollah is also believed to have received several dozen more M600 long-range missiles, as well as additional 302 mm. Khaibar-1 rockets, which have a range of about 100 kilometers.

Unfortunately, it seems that only time will tell the true depth and breadth of Hezbollah’s arms cache.

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Terrorism/hizbollah.html#2000

[monkeyshine]

Except that the Iranians are not Arabs, they are Persians/Iranians. Maybe they are willing to sacrifice 100 million Muslims, and they are definitely willing to sacrifice 100 million Arabs, but they are not prepared to sacrifice every Persian.

[happygrl]

Jdg 16:28 ¶ And Samson called unto the LORD, and said, O Lord GOD, remember me, I pray thee, and strengthen me, I pray thee, only this once, O God, that I may be at once avenged of the Philistines for my two eyes.

Jdg 16:29 And Samson took hold of the two middle pillars upon which the house stood, and on which it was borne up, of the one with his right hand, and of the other with his left.

Jdg 16:30 And Samson said, Let me die with the Philistines. And he bowed himself with [all his] might; and the house fell upon the lords, and upon all the people that [were] therein. So the dead which he slew at his death were more than [they] which he slew in his life.

Called the “Samson Option” because, just like Samson, Israel would take down the entire Middle East if they were to die.

[happygrl]

the largest concentration of living Iranians would reside in Tehrangeles, CA. And most of them are Jewish Persians:-)

[TruthInThoughtWordAndDeed]

This is my take on what will happen:

http://unsealedprophecy.wordpress.com/2012/02/20/psalm-83-war-imminent/

The article has a link to a downloadable prophecy timeline spreadsheet. An updated version of that spreadsheet is available at:

http://unsealedprophecy.files.wordpress.com/2008/01/prophecy_v4-1-4.xls

[PhilDragoo]

the largest concentration of living Iranians would reside in Tehrangeles, CA. And most of them are Jewish Persians

[FreedomPoster]

The quick maxim for that is “too young to die, too old to take a beating.”

You see anti-gun types talking about “just a little fair fist fight”. Screw that, I want no part of it.

[happygrl]

He looks like he has the weight of the world on his shoulders.

[Chode]

100%