Also a must-read at Hot Air is this: Ahmadinejad’s mentor, considered an extremist even in Iran, may replace the “moderate” chief mullah of Iran. n a move that would push Iran even further into the diplomatic wilderness, Ayatollah Mohammad……

Considered an extremist even by fellow mullahs…

…boy! How screwed up do you have to be to be described like *THAT*? I wonder if he can dress himself, or does he just sit around in a diaper muttering “Kill Zionists! Death to America!” all day.

Maybe we can work out a deal with Iran that we’ll provide them with the tooling, etc., to build a couple of light-water reactors, including sending them fuel…if they promise to take Seymour Hersh.

They can do what they want with him. Maybe they can team him and make him bunk-bed-buddies with this Mesbah-Yazdi guy…get Sy a diaper, and you probably wouldn’t be able to tell ‘em apart.

…Is it that no one has the will – or that it is being allowed to happen on purpose and for a reason?

You mean in terms of the UN, etc.? Obviously, the vast majority of them relish the notion of a nuclear Iran undermining US influence (and in many cases even the genocide of Israel).

For our part, though, it is simply because we lack the will.

As for comparisons with Nazi Germany, it is obviously the case that Iran is not an industrial and technological powerhouse to rival the Third Reich. However, one should also note that the Reich lacked oil (quite conspicuously so–hence that entire invasion of the Soviet Union thing). Indeed, at no point did it ever possess anything that any other nation in the world truly needed to function (well, it did possess France, which France needed to function…but you catch my drift).

There is no technology without fuel, and the more expensive the fuel the weaker the modern nation. In the end, I suspect the ability to influence middle eastern oil supplies will prove a greater power than that ever fielded by any German army.

Madness as usual.

Strike while the infighting distracts them.

No nukes.

For Iran, at least.

(Not until they remove the chance of apocalyptic lunatics from gaining the saddle. And even then, why would the Iranians want to put up nuclear power plants in a country rife with earthquakes? Are they suicidal?)

While we shouldn’t underestimate Iran, comparing them to Nazi Germany ignores incredible power, speed, and efficiency of German war machine and gives the Iranian military much, much more credit than it deserves.

JaHerer22 on November 20, 2006 at 9:18 AM

Dude, with a nuke, Iran can blackmail the entire Middle East, gain control over all their oil, and get precisely the military capability you described.

I hope you were not angered, or offended by my “obvious sarcasam” in my previous post, I intended no malice.

So I append the following:

A long time ago, ‘way back in the sixties, I stumbled across the “English language service of Radio Moscow”, on short wave. It was very early in the morning, and I was spinning the dial on my short wave receiver looking for something interesting to listen to. It was funny, listening to what was being said, but it was also a little scary. Funny, because it was so untrue, so distorted, but scary because I knew a very large number of people on the planet would believe it.

Another time, while spinning the dial, I stumbled into a radio teletype broadcast out of North Korea. It was the most extreme internet vent, flame war, street gang bellicose bravado you could imagine. Now North Korea has an estimated 10,000 artillery pieces, some type of nuclear device, and a million man army aimed at Seoul, just on the other side of the DMZ, and that same street gang hostility.

Now you can get these broadcasts over the internet.
Radio Moscow http://www.vor.ru/world.html
Radio Havana http://www.radiohc.org
Radio Netherlands http://www.radionetherlands.nl
Radio Pyongyang (wikipedia) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voice_of_Korea
The BBC used to be a good source for news. . . but now. . .its unapologetic socialism.

It really is quite stunning to hear, and read what gets broadcast or written, and what is believed. Google for shortwave broadcasts, or newspapers in Pakistan. That is why I’m so sensitive to what gets broadcast on US media, and appears in Hollywood films, or on internet blogs.

And I really do recommend reading pages in the iran-daily, especially the economic news. They don’t realize what they reveal.

So the issues are when (not if) Iran goes nuclear and when (not if) the world sits back and lets it, what might be the real repercussions? I don’t actually know. I don’t hear a lot of talk about the subject, maybe because it’s unpleasant, but perhaps it’s time to get over that and start exploring the coming reality rather than hopelessly wishing that it just won’t be so. It just will be so, and it would be interesting to hear some coherent thoughts on just what it will mean.

Well I’d imagine large swathes of the Middle East and parts of Africa will resemble a large bloc like the Soviet Union. The Arab League countries will essentially be controlled by Iran. An oil crisis will ensue. Europe will be subdued by fear. It’s Muslim immigrant community might take to opportunity to create massive civil disorder.

Lebanon (under Hezbollah), Syria, the Palestinians, the al-Qaeda network based in Gaza and possibly even Eygpt and Jordan will launch a collective 1967-style all-out assault on Israel which it may or may not survive, assuming it isn’t nuked by Iran.

For all the talk of Iran’s unpredictably I actually find it harder to make predications on what action Bush and the US might take. It could spark off a world war: more US intervention in the Middle East, Balkans-style civil wars on the Continent, all-out Somalian jihad against Ethiophia, increased terrorism in Asian Muslim countries like Thailand, Indonesia etc.

Or it could be more like the Cold War, a tense stand-off and 50 some years of deterrence, ideological struggle and proxy wars with inward subversion from CAIR, Marxist professors etc.

- The Cat

At this stage I think we can be certain of at least one thing: Iran is going to become a nuclear-armed power. Period. Soon, and even if there’s anything that could be done about it, nobody will have the will to do it.

The only questions, then, are what are they actually going to do with the weapons, and how will the US and Israel respond? Is Israel actually going to cease to exist within our lifetimes, or is Iran simply going to use its power to leverage its influence over the Persian Gulf and a fair portion of world’s oil supplies? What will nuclear Iran really do with its power?

Don’t get me wrong: It’s obviously well within the power of the US alone to make Iran cease to exist as a functioning nation tomorrow, more-or-less permanently, and I’d actually support doing so. But that’s simply not going to happen, so there’s not much sense dwelling on it. One might as well fantasize about a well-placed asteroid impact.

So the issues are when (not if) Iran goes nuclear and when (not if) the world sits back and lets it, what might be the real repercussions? I don’t actually know. I don’t hear a lot of talk about the subject, maybe because it’s unpleasant, but perhaps it’s time to get over that and start exploring the coming reality rather than hopelessly wishing that it just won’t be so. It just will be so, and it would be interesting to hear some coherent thoughts on just what it will mean.

Blacklake on November 20, 2006 at 12:17 AM

Is it that no one has the will – or that it is being allowed to happen on purpose and for a reason?

Just a thought.

On the rest, our leaders seem to be content to sit back – talk, and then talk some more. All the time making out to some degree as if they’re doing something.

We, the people, are being played for fools.

Interestingly enough – years ago, people said that that nice Mr. Hitler was just silly and wasn’t to be taken seriously. Even that stalwart defender of the Czech nation, Neville Chamberlain .

several years later………..
well, you know, it couldn’t happen again……………..right?

The only questions, then, are what are they actually going to do with the weapons, and how will the US and Israel respond? Is Israel actually going to cease to exist within our lifetimes, or is Iran simply going to use its power to leverage its influence over the Persian Gulf and a fair portion of world’s oil supplies? What will nuclear Iran really do with its power?

Don’t get me wrong: It’s obviously well within the power of the US alone to make Iran cease to exist as a functioning nation tomorrow, more-or-less permanently, and I’d actually support doing so. But that’s simply not going to happen, so there’s not much sense dwelling on it. One might as well fantasize about a well-placed asteroid impact.

So the issues are when (not if) Iran goes nuclear and when (not if) the world sits back and lets it, what might be the real repercussions? I don’t actually know. I don’t hear a lot of talk about the subject, maybe because it’s unpleasant, but perhaps it’s time to get over that and start exploring the coming reality rather than hopelessly wishing that it just won’t be so. It just will be so, and it would be interesting to hear some coherent thoughts on just what it will mean.

It must be a wonderful place to live.

rockhauler on November 19, 2006 at 11:33 PM

You’re kidding us, right? This post was tongue-in-cheek, no?

Mehdi Karroubi, a reformist cleric, accused the council of “injustice” and misjudgement, saying that it would lead to “people’s distrust in the authorities and the clergy”.

Who are these “people’s” they speak of? The mindless suicide bombers? The sheep who buy the crap these cleric’s spread? As for ‘distrust in the authorities’, I think it spreads farther than they publicly admit. Iran is ripe for another revolution, if only, the west would UP the anty. It could happen.

Rejoice and be glad. Iran is a model of a modern authoritarian nation. If you think that Ahmadinejad was bad, Mesbah-Yazdi might rock the world with his hate for zionist. His name sounds cool. The word Dictator is obeselete if it were to be used as a decription of his personality. We need a new word. We are living in intresting times.

Ouabam on November 19, 2006 at 11:29 PM

How about – Furhrer?

Nah – the Germans would probably sue for trademark violations.

I don’t know how Israel could destroy these sites from the air without using nukes themselves; my understanding is that these structures are deep underground, unlike the site Israel destroyed in Iraq so many years ago.

With Israel’s help and with US troops in Iraq already and if we were able to locate all of the sites, it seems we could temporarily capture the sites long enough to destroy them, no matter how deep they were.

Maxx on November 19, 2006 at 11:23 PM

I love your optimism, Maxx, but you seem to be on your own here. I haven’t heard a peep from the military or administration that hints at the notion of striking Iran. Wouldn’t we at least be hearing something?

The other thing I hate about this is that AhmInaWhackJob seems to be spoiling for martyrdom and flames. Sure I’d love to see him on fire, but he seems hell bent on lighting the whole world on fire.

I don’t want to go all Vizzini on this one, but I’m afraid of giving him what he seems to want…