DELETED_74993

[TJM]

Lebanon, Afghanistan, Iraq? You sure Iran hasn't committed any aggressive acts?

Those are all countries that have been invaded by Western forces, who have threatened Iran repeatedly. From Iran's point of view, it would be madness not to do something to weaken the occupying forces' grip. We wouldn't tolerate a hostile government setting up a proxy state next door and I don't see why Iran should have to either.

Grand Ayatollah Rafsanjani put it something along the lines of this; if Israel were to be wiped off the planet, the West would retaliate and Iran would be also wiped off the planet but while the state of Israel would be gone for good, Islam would still be around a thrive.

That is just sabre-rattling - Iran is one of the very few Shia Islam governments in the world and by far the most powerful. If they committed suicide by attacking Israel, their particular faith would suffer enormously.

Cant see why we or the US would see Iran as a major threat.

Iran isn't a military threat, but its ascendency does threaten the dominance of the Persian Gulf by pro-Western states. If Iran develops nuclear weapons then the West won't be able to launch a risk-free attack, which will give Iran a free hand to pursue its interests in whatever way it wants.

Anyone that doesn't think the government manipulates the media is a fool. Jesus Christ they published a book on it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propaganda_(book)

The Century of the Self, a good documentary series, points out that 'public relations' only came into use after Goebbels discredited the word propaganda. The name was the only thing that changed - its function remains identical today.

 

[doodah]

When people talk about the crazy things Ahmadinejad have said, do we not remember the tripe that often came out of Bush's mouth? It's probably a mixture of sabre rattling, some misquoting/language barrier issues and to comfort the people in Iran/ME who like to hear anti-American rhetoric.

 

[doodah]

Iran isn't a military threat.....

Surely a damn sight harder than Iraq, Afghan and Libya and then the inevitable insurgency.

 

[Castiel]

What would be the point of spending billions to produce nuclear weapons that could not be delivered to anywhere but your allies?

I don't think it is that kind of delivery of Nuclear weapons that Syria et al quite have in mind.....if it was then Israel would probably fully support an Iranian Nuclear program....

However, this only illustrates the futility of an Iranian Nuclear Weapons Program, they as yet do not have the capability to deliver such a weapon easily and there are regimes and governments with Nuclear Capability that are far more dangerous than Iran to world security. Pakistan for example. It doesn't take too much to produce a dirty bomb with an improvised delivery system and in the case of Pakistan and to some extent India there are significant links between Government and Insurgent Militias and Terrorist Organisations globally but again despite popular media belief Dirty Bombs are impractical and of little real use except psychologically.

Nuclear weapons are a bit of a useless weapon in the grand scheme of things, the response to Iran (or any country for that matter) using a nuclear weapon in an act of aggression on another would be so great that it is primarily only of use as a deterrent to other nations with such weapons. It is the fear of their use rather than the use itself that is productive, so even if Iran is seeking to produce a nuclear weapon it is highly unlikely to actually use it and we should be more concerned with the more immediate effects of prematurely attacking Iran on both the stability of the region itself and the global economy as a whole.

 

[Xiler]

Iran isn't a military threat, but its ascendency does threaten the dominance of the Persian Gulf by pro-Western states. If Iran develops nuclear weapons then the West won't be able to launch a risk-free attack, which will give Iran a free hand to pursue its interests in whatever way it wants.

Yeah I agree with that. Basically it's you do it our way or you're a bad guy. All these ifs and buts make the western powers seem no different from the paranoid soviets.

 

[CaptainRAVE]

Not another war

 

[Dave85]

I think it would be better for everyone involved if nobody in that area attacked anyone else in that area. And that includes us.

Someone send fox down to the PM to give him a damn slap and say that sentence and then tell him to pass it on because its exactly what we should do

 

[StriderX]

Silly double post.

 

[StriderX]

Americas little lapdog again are we?

As if it isn't already humiliating enough from the last time.

I really dont care about Iran, Nuclear terrorism will happen no matter what we do, its just one of those "kick the can down the road" deals we seem to be going, which i guess is good enough.
But frankly the catch 22 here is that if we goto war, it gives them infinitely more reason to use/create/whatever a nuclear bomb.

I wouldn't be surprised frankly if Iran set off one in their own nation just to kill our troops, is it all worth it?
No, the worlds turning upside down and markets aren't going to stabilise any time soon.

The real problem here is that Israel...ahem, Zionist morons (In case someone wanted to grate me on calling out Israel as a whole ;P) simply don't want a perceived enemy having the ultimate protection.
The faster we give up this charade of "protecting the world", the easier it will be for everyone to calm down and think about more pressing issues...you know like stability in our own nations.

I wont even go into the assured difficulty of having the war in the first place, Iran is no push over, that much is a fact.

 

[Stag]

Someone send fox down to the PM to give him a damn slap and say that sentence and then tell him to pass it on because its exactly what we should do

Shame we can't tell Israel what to do, it's not as if the Americans can either. In fact it's usually Israel that tells the Americans what to do, check out Netanyahu's speech to Congress earlier this year.

 

[Tefal]

Not to Israel they do not. Their current MRBM would barely reach the Israeli Border and even then they would have very limited warhead weight capability because of the distances and due to the impracticalities of retrofiting them for nuclear warheads and the significant risk of them hitting a neighbouring allied nation to Iran negate the practical use of them in anything other than limited conventional defensive posturing.

To all intents and purposes, Iran is in no position to deliver a nuclear weapon to Israel by conventional means.
.

bomber?

or the one the uk is always worried about smuggle it in.

 

[StriderX]

bomber?

or the one the uk is always worried about smuggle it in.

Pfft im pretty sure Israel is watching the skies above Iran, doubtful.

Second one, well cant do anything about it, scanners aren't precise enough in certain scenarios (Catfood is a false positive).

Just going to have to deal with it.

 

[Tefal]

Pfft im pretty sure Israel is watching the skies above Iran, doubtful.

And I'm sure Egypt were watching the skies over Israel too.

or they could stick a short range missile in a sub like Israel did.

 

[Chives]

I disagree with those saying that our armed forces are too overstretched for an invasion of Iran. The manpower would be found somewhere, people seem to forget that we still have one of the finest armed forces in the world.

 

[ennogs]

WW3 here we come sigh.....

I agree. So now they are saying we must get Iran because they have nuclear weapons (it's ok for us to have nuclear weapons though). What you mean like we had to get Saddam Hussein because he had weapons of mass destruction?

I think if Iran is attacked by either the US or Israel then either Russia or China will step in to help Iran. This could be our generation’s version of the killing of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. Personally I think the most likely scenario is that Israel will attack Iran.

As Gerald Celente says I cannot understand how any thinking adult believes anything a politician tells them.

 

[[TW]Fox]

So now they are saying we must get Iran

Are they?

 

[trigger-happy]

I agree. So now they are saying we must get Iran because they have nuclear weapons (it's ok for us to have nuclear weapons though). What you mean like we had to get Saddam Hussein because he had weapons of mass destruction?

I think if Iran is attacked by either the US or Israel then either Russia or China will step in to help Iran. This could be our generation’s version of the killing of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. Personally I think the most likely scenario is that Israel will attack Iran.

As Gerald Celente says I cannot understand how any thinking adult believes anything a politician tells them.

this. I got a feeling that Russia may just jump in, they are a major arms dealer to Iran.

 

[George Hincapie]

I disagree with those saying that our armed forces are too overstretched for an invasion of Iran. The manpower would be found somewhere, people seem to forget that we still have one of the finest armed forces in the world.

Our Armed Forces, particularly the Army have been overstretched for at least the last 8 years. Morale is at an all time low. Retention is a massive concern - the Forces are haemorrhaging Senior NCOs and Captains/Majors - the ranks you most certainly don't want to lose.

As if this is not bad enough, our Navy and Air Force have been decimated through successive years of tight budgets.

Our Armed Forces need a rest, not another deployment to a country they have no place going.

 

[StriderX]

I disagree with those saying that our armed forces are too overstretched for an invasion of Iran. The manpower would be found somewhere, people seem to forget that we still have one of the finest armed forces in the world.

Our forces aren't "overstreched" but our money and resources at our disposal are.

We also don't want to be in Iran for the next decade either, fightin off highly trained forces with much better knowledge about the area and no doubt hidden caches of weapons. There's also the Scorched Earth policy i bet they would use. We also know that Iran hides many military installations inside population centres as well as nuclear research.

If we accidentally blow one up, whichever way the wind blows, radiation will travel and i doubt anyone in the area wants that...including Israel.

Plus peoples opinion of war in the UK atm is extremely low and no one wants another decade of dead soldiers.

 

[ennogs]

They're a load of nutters developing nuclear weapons?

How do you know that they are nutters? I doubt even people in Iran are stupid enough to start a nuclear war.