Don’t miss Omar at IRAQ THE MODEL. He has a firsthand view, of course:
Does the Iranian government really think that anyone will believe that hundreds of foreigners and thousands of Iranians pass the Iranian -Iraqi borders without their knowledge? And some of those traverse the whole country! It seems that the Iranian government is no longer afraid or concerned that their support for terrorism in Iraq may be obvious. Maybe they think because Iraqis are not willing to go for another war and because America is busy in Iraq and may not be able to take very aggressive actions against them, that they can go on with their filthy plan of destroying Iraq without being punished or stopped?
I think they’re playing a very dangerous game and pushing their luck, as such actions cannot go unquestioned and when combined with their refusal to stop Uranium enrichment, it’s hard to believe that the world (Even the European countries that have good relations with Iran) will leave those mad mullahs alone.
Let’s hope he’s right.
The mullahs think they have a three-month float now to take as much of the initiative as they can; they count óprobably correctlyó on the US not taking any decisive action towards them until after the election unless they mistakenly do something to galvanize the American public into demanding strong action on Iran. That is more possible than they think; it is in the nature of such men to continue to assume the weakness of the civilized world until the civilized world lands on their heads. The nature of their delusion is such that they must convince themselves it was Saddam’s weakness, not our strength, that brought about his decisive overthrow.
Certainly the Europeans and their craven, appeasement-driven conduct, coupled with France and Germany’s needs to find more markets for their war goods and an oilseller who doesn’t remember them as actively complicit in their oppression, give them no reason to think differently of that quarter.
I don’t think the story of Zahra Kazemi has been getting much attention outside of Canada. She was an Iranian-born Canadian photojournalist who died mysteriously in Iranian custody. It’s received more attention in Canada than any other story out of Iran in recent years.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/kazemi/
Unfortunately, the world has shown itself more than willing to pretend that Iran isn’t an issue. And one of two U.S. presidential candidates has indicated he wants to make nice with Tehran.
I don’t know how Omar will feel about it, but ultimately, I think it’s going to be Israel that turns that particular piece of Iranian property into a smoking crater.
Makes you wonder what the difference an all-volunteer Iraqi army might make in Iran-Iraq II.
IIII for short.
Don’t count on Europe to do something meaningful about Iran. One thing they are planning to do though… If something real bad happens in the future because of Iran, Europe plans to give humanitarian help and psychological comfort. That’s a lot !
What they are totally unable to realize is that they would need themselves all the help they could get. Treating a bunch of wolves as if they were pets doesn’t make you any safer. (Well, unless you are dilusional, which isn’t so rare nowadays)
On the subject of Iran, check out this thread over on LGF.
Irony is dead. I’m going home.
We have had more than a year to sneak our agents across the border into Iran to raise hell. Bush hasn’t done it because Bush has no policy worth talking about. He is flying by the seat of his pants with Rice (the expert on Russia, not the Middle East), Powell, and Rumsfeld throwing suggestions at him. A sorry spectacle.
Gee Howard, isn’t “raising hell” one of those typical “seat of the pants” sort of methods for handling problems?
And do you actually know that we haven’t been “sneaking our agents across the border into Iran”?
Perhaps we are and they are doing something more productive than “raising hell”. Maybe, just maybe.
You don’t actually know what is or isn’t being done, do you Howard. You just assume that Bush is clueless and that since Rice is an “expert on Russia” she can’t probably have any ideas wrt Iran.
Go stick another couple quarters in your membot.
Ken,
I understand that Iran has situated its facilities in the far north as far away from Israel as possible. I think that the Osirak mission was a one-time trump card. All the facilities in Iran will be dispersed and disguised and protected by huge quantities of disinformation, not to mention concrete.