Officials Shifting Focus to Iran

Militay.com ^ | April 11, 2008 | Staff

[freerepublic_or_die]

The hours of congressional testimony, the speeches and the press conferences this week were all, nominally, about Iraq. But another, equally explosive question - what to do about Iran - loomed over the presentations by Army Gen. David Petraeus, the American military commander in Iraq, over U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker and over U.S. strategy for the Middle East. Petraeus and Crocker, arguing that there has been progress in stabilizing Iraq since President Bush ordered a troop build-up there last year, fingered Iran's support for Shiite militias in Iraq, which they called "special groups," as the No. 1 threat to Iraq's security. "Unchecked, the special groups pose the greatest long-term threat to the viability of a democratic Iraq," Petraeus told the House Armed Services Committee. Iran also announced this week that it has begun installing 6,000 high-speed centrifuges to enrich uranium that could be used for nuclear weapons. While U.S. officials cast doubt on the claim by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the announcement underlined Tehran's refusal to abide by U.N. Security Council demands that it suspend uranium enrichment. Concerns also have been growing over the unpredictable consequences of a possible attack on Israel by the Iranian- and Syrian-backed Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah. The militant Shiite Muslim group blames the Israelis for a car bombing in Syria that killed one of the group's longtime leaders, and anti-terrorism experts in the U.S., Israel and Western Europe think that some attempt at retaliation is almost inevitable. The Bush administration has been divided over Iran policy almost since the day the president took office and, according to a variety of officials, it remains so today.

[freerepublic_or_die]

Excerpt Iran also announced this week that it has begun installing 6,000 high-speed centrifuges to enrich uranium that could be used for nuclear weapons. While U.S. officials cast doubt on the claim by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the announcement underlined Tehran's refusal to abide by U.N. Security Council demands that it suspend uranium enrichment.

Excerpt One faction, led by Vice President Dick Cheney and including a sprinkling of officials at the Pentagon, State Department and elsewhere, has argued that before President Bush leaves office in January, the administration should use military force to destroy Iran's nuclear facilities and punish Iran for supporting international terrorism and thwarting U.S. aims in Iraq.

It is disconcerting, to say the least, to see the dithering that goes on in Washington on how to effectively contain Iran short of nuclear annihilation. These Iranians are the wiliest bunch of misfits and ne’er do wells to be seen in quite some time having made the most of a limited hand in engendering one geopolitical success after another. Iran has never been punished for any of its foreign interventionist schemes, every success only seems to embolden them with ever-increasing audacity and contemptuousness. The strategies for dealing with Iran presents a Pandora’s Box of scenarios all unpalatable.

As the situation in Iraq has demonstrably illustrated the best-laid plans are inevitably prone to the monkey-wrenched realities of Murphy’s Law, and the more complex the scenario, as say the strategy attacking Iran, the exponentially greater opportunity for things to go haywire, the repercussions the Iranians would certainly unleash is horrific to no end.

The ever punitive Israelis chose to look the other way in the aftermath of Hezbollah’s bombing of its offices in Argentina knowing all-too-well the cost of matching wits with these satanic beasts.

The sobering fact is that Iran is the greatest threat to world peace and stability ever and nothing is going to effectively resolve this issue short of an all out military option.

[karnage]

The U.S.-trained Iraqi army will be ready to eat Tehran’s lunch in a year or two.

[husky ed]

On the other hand:

The U.S. trained Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines would eat Tehran’s lunch in a week or two, if not already occupied.

ED

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

It’s difficult to imagine they are so blatantly antiAmerican!

See this :

Unholy Alliance: Radical Islam and the American Left

And a review:

**********************************

By	Kat Bakhu (Albuquerque, NM United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Unholy Alliance: Radical Islam and the American Left (Hardcover)

I had long wondered why people on the Left had the propensity to speak more positively about people who would slit their throats than they do about their own country, which affords them more freedom and opportunity than anywhere else. David Horowitz has answered that question thoroughly and convincingly in his Unholy Alliance. Where I felt bewildered and confused, I now feel crystal clear. Unholy Alliance is such a great book.

It begins with the leftist movements at the beginning of the 20th Century, and works its way up to the present day, exploring the anti-American attitude of these movements in detail. Horowitz shows that the enemies of the US back then are largely the same group today, operating under the same misperceptions, making the same mistakes, and pursuing the same impossible utopia.

Individual chapters are included on the Patriot Act (I was persuaded that it is a GOOD thing); the democratic flip-flop on Iraq once G.W. Bush implemented what they agreed with Clinton needed to be done; the driving components of the current anti-war movement; as well as chapters on individual personalities who are major spokespeople of the Left. Horowitz covers a lot of ground, and he covers it concisely and clearly. Unholy Alliance is richly informative without ever being boring or plodding.

This book is so illuminating that I simply cannot do justice to it here. I love people who reason so clearly that they help me get my own reasoning clear. Horowitz is just that type of person! In the terrain of mindless clichés (no-blood-for-oil, etc.), he is a breath of real fresh air.

[karnage]

Yup.