Counterpunch:
If you want to understand the policy of a country, look at the map - as Napoleon recommended.
Anyone who wants to guess whether Israel and/or the United States are going to attack Iran should look at the map of the Strait of Hormuz between Iran and the Arabian Peninsula.
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ISRAEL'S PECULIAR POSITION by Eric Hoffer (LA Times 5/26/68)
Other nations drive out thousands, even millions of people, and there is no refugee problem. Russia did it, Poland andCzechoslovakia did it. Turkey threw out a
million Greeks, and Algeria a million Frenchman.
Indonesia threw out heaven knows how many Chinese--and no one says a word about refugees.
But in the case of Israel, displaced Arabs have become eternal refugees. Everyone insists that Israel must take back every single Arab.
Other nations, when victorious on the battlefield, dictate peace terms. But
when Israel is victorious, it must sue for peace.
Everyone expects the Jews to be the only real Christians in this world. Other nations, when they are defeated, survive and recover; but should Israel be defeated it would be destroyed. Had Nasser triumphed last June [1967] he would have wiped Israel off the map, and no one would have lifted a finger to save the Jews.
No commitment to the Jews by any government, including our own, is worth the paper it is written on.
The Jews are alone in the world. If Israel survives, it will be solely because of Jewish efforts, and Jewish resources.
We can rely more on Israel than Israel can rely on us. And one has only to imagine what would have happened last summer [1967] had the Arabs and their Russian backers won the war, to realize how vital the survival of Israel is to America and the West in general.
yawn
The author is an idiot or prevaricator or both.
You're right.
We can't afford the gas.
The last thing Bush will do on his way out the door will be to push the Button and let the next shmuck try to juggle the hot potato and clean up the mess.
In Pentagon-speak the Iranians have "escalation dominance". Basically, they can make things more complicated for us than we can for them. That's why the Pentagon really doesn't want to attack Iran right now.
If Isreali's feel they need to they will attack Iran with or without the U.S., and I'm sure that Iran will be bombed but not by us.
The problem is that we most likely get pulled into it. The Iranians would probably not limit their retaliation to Israel. They can hit every base we have in that part of the world. Even if they only targeted the Israelis, we would very likely come to the aid of our ally.
This has the potential to get much bigger than we or the Israelis want it to. The enemy has an annoying tendency to not go along with your carefully laid plans. That's why they're called "the enemy".
I think President Obama will be the one to drop the bomb on Iran. This would be an utter reversal of his diplomacy philosophy, and would seem unthinkable, but I just have this feeling he is not the messiah that he professes to be. I could be wrong, but anytime someone is hyped this excessively, disappointment usually follows.
Every disincentive helps, of course, but if rational thought prevailed, the planet would not be in this situation in the first place. Bush is both mentally deficient and a sociopath. He does not care how many people's deaths he causes, and he certainly is not the least bit interested in preventing rises in the price of oil, nor does he seem to understand that propaganda cannot fool the people on the scene. Besides, Iran's ultimate weapon isn't miltary force in the Straits of Hormuz or anywhere else - it's selling oil in euros, precipitating the collapse of the US dollar.
Precisely. I seem to recall Saddam Hussein used that same practice before his removal and death. He surely must have seen that the Euro was, and is, dominating the Dollar.
Or selling oil in Yuan.
Iran will be the Shrub's biggest frog.
This attack has been planned for years.
Israel will attack from the north, btw.
Everyone including this Uri Avnery assumes that the Bush Administration and the NeoCons are rational, sensible people.
Over the last few years, we have had plenty of evidence that this is just not true.
We can not trust the Bush administration to do (or not to do) anything that may seem completely rational and logical to the rest of us.
So there is no way to predict what they will do in Iran.
The only solution is to keep them so busy fighting other fires that they will not have time to plan and execute the Iran attack.
If Nancy Pelosi had any sense, she would start impeachment hearings, That may keep the Bush administration occupied.
It's more provocation tactics generated by the NeoCons to force Iran into striking the first blow so the US can "run" to the aid of their poor, innocent ally. Then, obliterate Iran and gain control of their oil fields.
Iraq: No Euros, No oil. Zing, no more Iraq
Iran: No Euros, No oil. ???
And as far as the congress doing anything, dems and repubs alike, don't hold your breath. They are all bought & paid for to do what they're told, otherwise, something would have been done about this administration long ago.
Makes you wonder about Americans and how long are they going to just sit back and let all of this happen without doing anything about it? To coin an old phrase "Actions speak louder than words".
"The only solution is to keep them so busy fighting other fires that they will not have time to plan and execute the Iran attack."
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don't you understand that iran has been game-planned since carter was in office, and updated frequently?
I read Avnery all of the time on Counterpunch and I usually agree with him. Unfortunately I think this time his column is wishful thinking. I think an attack is coming and will happen before the election.
The French have invented a tweaked to radars to detect B2s.
it should give em just enought time to yell 'sacre bleu!' and raise the white flags
Does irsael really want iran to bomb them with the150 nukes they have in that little country One would be all it takes..I agree saner heads will prevail..
2008 is not 1986 when George Bush Sr. sank the Iranian Navy in a single day (in response, you may recall, to an attack on us by our allie Iraq!). China has been selling first-rate anti-ship missiles to Iran, one of those missiles actually hit an israeli warship during their failed invasion attempt in 2006. Russia's been selling them front-line anti-aircraft missiles. The U.S. could drop ten thousand tons of bombs on the country but a single downed B2 bomber or one crippled aircraft carrier would turn any 'victory' into a total fiasco.
Clarify, please.
Sank the Iranian Navy in 1 day? I don't recall the story from then --Stark, a commercial airliner....? 1986 Reagan was Prez, not Bush I
"one of those missiles actually hit an israeli warship during their failed invasion attempt in 2006"
During Israel's (?) invasion of whom?? Failed? I have no idea what you're talking about. Something to do with Lebanon?
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First Posted: 07-14-08 03:48 PM | Updated: 07-22-08 05:12 AM