This seems a good site if you’re interested in up to date info on Lebanon. If you look around, you’ll find a typically whacko statement from Shimon Perez, who says a) that the violence in Lebanon is part of Iran’s plan to dominate the region, and b) that it’s an internal Lebanese conflict, so Israel doesn’t have to worry.
Which of course doesn’t parse. But it’s rare that Perez utters two sentences in sequence that aren’t in conflict with each other. He was right the first time: Hezbollah equals Iran. And thus it most certainly threatens Israel. Doh.
For one who had a personal experience of the eastern mentality there is no contradiction in Shimon Perez’s statements (Shimon Perez is the oldest Israeli politician with the most experience). Israel isn’t only factor of violence in the Middle East as the Arabs and their western fans want to prove. The hate for a democratic State of western type, like Israel, is natural for the despotic oriental regimes. It is enough only example of Yemen War with 55,000 Egyptian troops in 1965. So the actual military activity of pro-Iranian Hezbollah only in part concerns Israel. I have read immediately reportage by Charles Chuman from Beirut (Pajamas Media). Situation is rather strange: central Beirut is occupied by Hezbollah, Christian suburbs north of Beirut were unaffected by the violence, Hezbollah is now marching on the Druze suburbs south of Beirut. There are also reports of clashes in the northern city of Tripoli. Charles Chuman reports words of a Lebanese: “Was this a coup? Hezbollah took land, but does not control the state. What happens, now?” Nobody understands what happens. Iranians or Syrian intrigues? Or spontaneous explosion of violence amongst thugs tired of peaceful silence? Indeed, when they cannot kill in Israel, they kill in Beirut or any other place, simple market, for example, or public school for handicapped children.
The entire region has been held hostage by the Islamic republic of Iran since 1979.
Actually it is not hard to work out that terrorism in its new form of Islamofacism has come about since the inception of the islamic regime in Iran when the terrorists got hold of Iranian gas and oil. Stupid Carter didn’t see that coming. Did he? I am afraid its Iranian oil that is supplying all these little groups of terror in ME. If Shimon Perez thinks the events in Lebanon is nothing for Israel to worry about he should check himself into an old peoples home to get some proper care.
Theofascism is the operating ideo/theology in control of Iranian governance; Lebanon is next, then eventually Syria. King Abdullah’s comment about a “shia crescent” forming is much derided, but every move by Hezbollah makes the crescent a closer reality.
With Olmert in Israel politically crippled, and an American president in the final months of ‘lame duck,’ this is the perfect time for Hezbollah to make a move.
This is a link to the site a Lebanese citizen sent to me earlier today:
Al-ManarTV :: News:
http://www.almanar.com.lb/NewsSite/News.aspx?language=en
I agree with Winston. Also, Islamic Republic of Terror in Tehran instigated this episode in Lebanon by instructing its lapdog Nassrollah to do its bidding. The purpose, in this poster’s opinion, may have been to show in action that if US or Israel carry out any military strikes on the Tehran regime’s interests, the regime will unleash more mayhem via Hezbollah in Lebanon for the Beirut government, as well as at the Israeli border. This is typical mode of operation for Tehran regime.
The sooner we go after this regime with the intent to decapitate it, the sooner the rest of the corps of Islamic-Fascism throughout the world will shrivel, dry, and die.
Here is some of the things we can do and should have done from a long time ago: Go after the regime top leadership by covert action and assassinations; give the mullahs a taste of their own exported medicine by sabotaging and destroying their centers of power: start commando asymmetric war against the Tehran regime in all major cities destroying regime centers of power; provide total and complete logistics, material, weapons, training, and political support for secular democratic forces of inside and outside Iran, i.e., officially declare a policy of regime change in Iran and aquire other countries support in that as well; etc.
The Iranian people en masse despise this regime and are ready to throw it to the trash heap of history. The majority of them (70% under 30 years old) love the west, are intelligent and resourceful people. Help them help us topple the Islamic Republic of Terror.
But the question is: Does Washington have the gumption to declare a regime change policy towards Iran, and actually do something about it before President Hossayn Obama invites Khamenei to the White House in ’09?
Ira Zad, and Winston…as a fellow Iranian, I am ashamed of both of you.
Iran is only doing what any other country would do, protecting its interests and trying to secure its survival and dominance. Not everyone wants to be the lapdog of the United States.
I love the fact that iran is standing up for itself and doing what is right. It is the right of any country to advance technologically and try to get as far as possible.
So do every iranian a favor ( the majority of whom is NOT against the regime) live your pretty pointless lives in the west, and leave us to our business at home. People in Iran consider you traitors to your own people.
To Ira Zad:
As a Russian political emigrant (from 1973) I can understand your abhorrence for the absolutely criminal regime of Iranian mullahs, and I share it completely. The political emigrants can never forget their traumatic experience in their respective motherlands (not in a Freudian sense, naturally) and lay down the arms. Solidarity between political emigrants is natural as well. I remember well the Islamic Revolution. Now I think that the US should have interfered directly in the affairs of Iran and supported militarily the Shah. I confess my sympathy for this man. His tragic destiny strikes my imagination. But it was time of two absolute nonentities: Jimmy Carter & Brzezinski. And now this rotten mummy, before to going Hell, wanted to meet his dear friends of Hamas.
I am not a fortune teller or “political analyst”, so I can speak only of my personal impressions and observations. I crave for the destruction the Islamic Republic of Terror. But I wonder about the practical way to realize it. No radical solution is possible, but only provisional and partial. The History is made from these solutions, and therefore still continues. In any case: DELENDA EST CARTHAGO!
President George W. Bush had the courage to make war against two absolutely criminal regimes: the Islamo-cannibalist of talibans and the National-socialist of Saadam Hussein. That is his enormous historical merit. But it isn’t enough to win a war only militarily, but also politically. The second (political) part is the most difficult especially in the oriental sphere. The Iraqi War demonstrates it: the military victory was brilliant, but the political process very long and tiring. The political war in Iraq was essentially won, even if still continues. So I think a military action would be insufficient without a direct American presence in Iran. In this moment this presence isn’t possible for “structural” reasons, but it doesn’t mean not supporting subversive actions and helping rebel ethnic groups, like Kurds, inside Iran. My impression (as an ex-soviet “citizen”) is that Iran’s interior situation is fragile. The mullahs had a hard blow in Basra from a military and political point of view. The actual Lebanese events can be interpreted as a classical expedient to distract attention from interior difficulties. In any case the monster, even mortally hurt, takes time to die, and other monsters come up from its corpse: communist revolution generated fascist revolution, communist and fascist revolutions generated Islamic revolution. I am not pessimist, but Ormazd and Ahriman chose the Earth for their Eternal Fight, and every man must take a part in this metaphysical (and physical) battle.
Hossayn Obama (or Obama from Ka-Ka-Ma as I call him): here I dissent from your pessimistic prevision. This creature of Black radicals, Islamofascists, Liberal-philoterrorists and so on is (I think) politically dead. There are objective reasons: all dregs of American society gathered around Obama like flies attracted by a putrid body; there is an explosive factor that should not be underestimated: Hillary’s deadly hate for this parvenu; the white working class that Obama have insulted; the political emigrants, like you, that see in a sympathizer of Islamofascist and communist regimes like Obama their natural enemy; the Christians that see in this new “messiah” the Antichrist. Here I would like quote to V.D. Hanson: “So while Obama is hurt in the primaries, and perhaps mortally so in the general election (the white working classes have a long memory), he will probably get the nomination, because his base will overlook all the above”. That is natural, because his “base” is that of all trash of society. The nomination of Obama or Hillary will provoke pandemonium and the dénouement will be extremely dramatic. So, I think, there is no alternative to McCain. Do not forget that McCain is old soldier who has fought the communists in Vietnam and, I am sure, will continue his courageous fight against Islamic dictatorships.
Iran’s influence keeps growing, yet not much is being done to stop them. Today war is fought like the medical profession. We don’t cure disease we just continually manage it. We don’t defeat the enemy we just continually manage them. America and much of the Western world is totally dependent on foreign oil. We continue to buy oil in record numbers therefore the Middle East oil merchants are raking in profits at record numbers. We cannot afford to create unphevals there or else we create one here due to oil embargoes. We must stop talk of American self-sufficiency and actually accomplish it. None of our dismal band of candidates has any effective plans to do so. Even McCain won’t dare touch “Pristine” areas. This is idiocy if not lunacy. Would he rather trade oil for blood? And if you’re ready to do that at least do it right. Will we keep listening to the left as in: no drilling in Pristine lands; and no oil for blood? Ethanol has proven to be a disaster. Let’s starve the poor to feed our autos! That was a brilliant plan lefties. So let’s add that to the no-can-do list. The next viable alternative is to create far more efficient engines. That should be done now! Oil companies don’t care about the auto industry, so why should the auto industry care about oil? 100 or more MPG would make a huge dent in consumption and cause the price of oil to plummet. Consumers (us) must make it clear we won’t buy gas guzzlers anymore. Less foreign oil means less capital for Iran and Saudi Arabia to spread their brand of hate and tyranny. Less dependence on their oil, modern man’s lifeblood, means we can wage effective war if we need to. That means indiscriminate killing and mass destruction. That is war. You might think I am a lunatic for saying it. Perhaps calling me a Chicken Hawk. Yes, war is not pretty so why are we trying to beautify it? If Iran knows Tehran will be flattened they might not send Hizballah to Lebanon and Gaza. But meanwhile they continue sending out their proxies to conquer the Middle east while remaining untouched in the process. This is unacceptable.
Perez is the last of the old Israeli statesment. His post IMO is basically cosmetic. His opinions are like Jimmy Carter’s. Maybe Israel is trying to keep the status quo of the past 40 years. It is evident, however, Israel faces renewed modernized threats to its existance. It’s reluctance to hurt Damascus and Tehran directly means the march toward Jerusalem will continue. The Middle East dominoes are falling into Iran’s lap. Like Chzeckoslovakia in 1939 and Poland thereafter, after Lebanon what country will be next? Jordan or one of the GCC states I imagine. Weaning ourselves off the tit of Mid East oil is crucial in dealing with belligerent countries in the Mid East effectively. Perhaps by then we might not even care what they do to each other.
To M.E. : I commend you for your vision and eloquence in portraying the large picture containg the battle between Ahuramazad vs. Ahriman occurring before our very eyes in what was the ancient Persian Empire territory.
I concur with you on the Iran issue, but I believe that the Iranian people who have sought a modern secular democracy since the time of Dr. Mossadegh in early 1950s deserve to have the best government in the region, not the worst as they have now. And in that effort, US and the west could play a historic role reversing and erasing their faux pas of the 1953 coup against Mossadegh and showing to the secular democratic forces in Iran that this time around they are with them.
Freedom seeking Iranians would rally around this support, and will rise up when they hear a clear, uncompromising, and unwaivering battle cry (regime change as stated policy) from the west against the Theocracy of Terrorists of Tehran.
Ira: I can only express my full solidarity with the people of Iran that fight against the forces of evil represented this time by the Theocracy of Terrorists, worshippers of Ahriman. Truly free people can’t be defeated by this garbage of History.
To Harry:
People who argue the US should ween itself off middle eastern oil for “security” reasons miss the point. Do you think the jihad will stop if we produce 100 percent of our energy right here? No, the problem is state sponsored murder. When Americans and the West finally realze that and find the will to confront it is when the BS emanating from the middle east will stop.
As an Iranian who follows the news everyday, it would take a retard mind not to notice how Ahmadinejad public statements against Israel are ALL synchronized and come RIGHT at the BEST MOMENT when Bush use against Iran.
To me, it looks like a hidden thermostat that as soon as ANY SIGNS of common sense wants to prevail, Ahmadinejad comes public and open his mouth. It is like Ahmadinejad is saying to Bush: I scratch your back when you desperately need some kind of outrageous public statement, and then you in return keep military option on the table, so we can crush any REAL opposition that exists against us in Iran. He does the same with his Israelis brothers that BADLY need him to come out publicly and saying things that make no sense at all. Dr. Ledeen agrees with me that is not what the statement is, but its impact and its dividends that must be counted.
That is why inside Iran lots of people are talking about how Ahmadinejad is indeed helping Israel than Iran, and they keep asking whose side he is working?
His timing reminds me of the EXACT second-planned release of hostages by Iran the nano seconds AFTER Reagan became President. It would take a RETARD not to acknowledge that those deals took place in Madrid, so Carter loses the election.
Now we are facing the same scenario, but different players and different plots. When I read some of the posts on this site that makes fun of Obama’s middle name, it reminds me of these VERY SAME people if one day they turn against the Jews, they will do worse to Jewish names. Dr. Ledeen, these people are the scariest people and you somehow attract lots of them to your board!
Now as I said before, we need to get creative and come up with scenarios that may take place BEFORE Nov. election that Republican or whatever names you want to call them will come up with plans to prevent the American REAL democracy takes its new REAL president.
One of my guesses is that Israel and Republicans will make secret DEMAND from Ahmadinejad to make more public statement in support of Obama. Similar to Hamas case, this one will have higher dividends. I also anticipate Bin Laden and his VP to come out and make public announcement in support of Obama, given the pressure they get from the Right wing sources. There might be more bad things that get cooked up by the Right before Nov. to make McCain the only alternative.
So let’s get imaginative and see what you could come up with. Dr Ledeen, any ideas?
Oh my, a typical Middle Eastern conspiracy theory, of the same sort that held Arafat must be an Israel stooge because his stupid acts gave Israel the excuse to come in and put down terrorists. Saddam and the Pharaohs of Tehran exchanged just such charges throughout their eight year war.
No Ali Reza, Ahmedinezhad doesn’t say the vicious, stupid, and evil things that he says because he is some stooge of Bush. He says those things because he either believes them or thinks it will bring him political profit to say them. You will never have a realistic understanding of international affairs so long as you remain mired in such fantastical conspiracy theories. Stupidity, inertia, and malevolence are much stronger factors than conspiracies. And the “conspiracies” that the conspiracy theorists identify are, almost invariably, fictional. People who concentrate on such fictional conspiracies have a tendency to overlook the rare real one right in front of their noses. You seem to be doing just that with Osama bin Laden, since you ascribe some deference and dependence on his part to Bush and America. Osama really did set up a worldwide conspiracy, but all too many try to explain it away and prefer the fictional ones instead. It’s a similar attitude to the one that left Stalin unaware of Hitler’s preparations for Barbarossa. Stalin had a preconceived fictional conspiracy firmly in mind, and so overlooked the real one.
As for American “REAL” democracy, we will vote ourselves, without any foreigners telling us what to do, thankyouverymuch. And one or the other candidate will win, according to how the voters of America essess him (or her, Hillary is still in). Senator Obama may win. After all, Jimmy Carter won. The voters do not always choose wisely. As Robert Heinlein once put it, “Vox populi, vox dei” often translates as “My God, how did we get into this mess?”
Hamas has already praised Senator Obama. In his talks about foreign affairs Senator Obama shows an astonishing naivete about the subject. For example, he seems to think that because the President of the USA is not directly sitting down with, say Hugo Chavez, to negotiate with him, that the US is not “talking to” Venezuela. If you take a good look at Senator Obama what you will see is that in the White House his Administration most likely will be the Second Coming of Jimmy Carter’s Administration. I think we all remember how much respect the Iranian theofascists had for him.
How much respect will Arabs and other Middle Easterners give to a national leader who, as Senator Obama has promised to do, runs away from a fight his country is in? What honor will he, or the nation he heads, retain? And will that lead to more war against the USA or less? I think the answers are: none, none, and a much bigger war. Senator Obama does not even understand the questions.
ML;
give it up. You’ll never wean an ME-er off fantastical conspiracy theories. It’s the Stuff of Life! Existence would be insufferably boring without them. The more intricate a theory you can concoct or comprehend, the higher your status and enjoyment of existence.
It may be somewhat effective, I suggest, to come up with even more elaborate and risible alternatives, in hopes of mock-shocking them into talking sense, but the risk is that they will simply take your exaggerated foolish idea seriously and run with it.
I think c-t addiction is something like obsession with pornography: even if your rational mind says this is all fantasy and pretense, you really wish it wasn’t — so you build imaginary worlds around it to live within.
It seems after US / Iraqi forces took care of Shi’it in Basra and then in Sadr City, it is all quiet in Iraq now. However, IRI established itself in poor Lebanon. I was wondering why France didn’t protect Lebanese, and why only US always must intervene.
Ira Zad, removing Mossadegh, you say, is the West’s “faux pas”, but the man was a practically a communist, having nationalized the oil industry and hurt tremendously the Iranian economy by depriving it of the foreigners who were running that industry. His appointment of the Minister of War and Chief of Staff were clearly intended to create a power struggle and those particular acts were illegal, and the end result of taking power was also illegal. Also, as you probably know, the Shah had not addressed the problem with those oil contracts because he knew they were coming due in a couple of years and he did not want an international confrontation, but Mossadegh needed precisely that. I don’t want to make this into a debate about Mossadegh and the Shah, though, and we can agree to disagree. This is a question which will remain for a long time in general. Its just that I usually agree with you but I do not see Mossadegh as this hero that many others think he is.
Alireza deserves a medal with his classical conspiracy theory.
So if Bush and the mullahs (through their agent Ahmadinejad who says convenient things at convenient times) are in league together, when Iran builds its bomb (and it will since you probably would say the U.S. is actually helping them build it), was it also their prior understanding that America and Israel were NOT targets of the weapon? Then what was the reason that Iran wanted the bomb?
And maybe Ahmadinejad’s convenient timing to saying convenient things is really far more simple: maybe Bush says things after Ahmadinejad says them, as a result of what Ahmadinejad said.
Alireza, ML’s board is nice because intelligent discourse occurs on it, contrary to you saying the board attracts the “scariest people” because they ask obvious questions that you think are inconvenient. Don’t pollute this board with your cockamamie politically-motivated dribble. Its your types who play on the Iranians to not revolt against their captors by trying to convince them that the mullahs are actually working for the U.S. and resistance to the mullah’s abroad is false. Alireza, you might as well wear a badge that says “I work for the Islamic Terrorist mullah regime.” Your post was almost a confession.
By the way, no one would say anything about Jewish names for the simple reason that I never heard of a “Mordechai”, “Joshua”, or “Binyamin” who tied a bomb to himself and blew himself up so he can go gangrape numerous virgins as God’s pereverted reward for the deed vioalating the 6th commandment, or flew airplanes into buildings because God wanted it done. Don’t play dumb.