Summer 2008 War on Iran/Syria/Hizballah

[fatman]

Hey now, I thought the photo was the most, er, attractive part of his post. (Yes, I know what he meant, but still...)

In all fairness, I can understand what you meant, but being a gay man, it just doesn't do much for me.   

[Xavier_Onassis]

I think that this is not a perfect world. The US could not take Czechoslovakia away from the USSR without incurring the deaths of many Americans, being as Slovakia borders on the USSR itself. I think the US did all it could with the Marshall Plan to help a large part of Europe recover from the war. There was not a choice of rescuing the Czechs or not.

[Christians4LessGvt]

Analysis:
CIA chief confirms Syrian reactor could produce fuel for "1-2 weapons" not bombs
April 29, 2008, 12:34 PM (GMT+02:00)
 
DEBKAfile's military sources note that the CIA director Michael Hayden said: "In the course of a year
after they got full up they would have produced enough plutonium for one or two weapons." Speaking
to reporters after a speech at Georgetown University, Hayden did not say "bombs" - but "weapons."

This would appear to confirm the conclusion of US and Israel that Syria was on the way
to producing radioactive "dirty bombs" not a nuclear bomb - at the facility which
Israel destroyed last September.
(OH NOT TO WORRY LETS NOT BOMB ANYONE & ALLOW THEM TO HAVE THEM  )

Its product, radiological dispersal devices (RDD) - which cause more disruption than destruction -
would have been made available to terrorist groups for use against Israel, used
by Syria itself or if Iran so decided, against American or other targets.

Israeli air force commander Maj. Gen. Eliezer Shkedy warned in a CBS interview Sunday,
April 27, that Iran?s schemes are a danger not only to Israel, but to the world.

Last week, US officials disclosed that the covert nuclear reactor Syria had been building
with North Korean assistance was modeled on the shuttered North Korean reactor at
Yongbyon, which produced a small amount of plutonium. This disclosure turned the heat
not only on Damascus but also on Pyongyang to make good on its denuclearization pledge
and come clean on its nuclear ties with Syria. Washington wants North Korea on record
as promising to refrain from similar acts of proliferation in the future.

Monday also, the US opened a new front against Iran and Syria when its UN ambassador
Zalmay Khalilzad accused them at the Security Council of destabilizing Iraq. He urged them
to stop the flow of weapons and foreign fighters to their embattled neighbor. The Iranian
Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps known as the al Qods Brigade continues to arm, train and
fund illegal armed groups in Iraq, the US ambassador charged. "This lethal aid poses a
significant threat to Iraqi and multinational forces and the stability and sovereignty of Iraq."

Khalilzad pointed out that Syria is the only entry point for ?90 percent of all known foreign
terrorists in Iraq, adding "we know that al Qaeda terrorist facilitators continue to operate
inside Syria."

DEBKAfile's sources at UN headquarters stress the exceptional severity of the US ambassador's
charges against Syria, with the potential of laying the ground for US military or other reprisal.

http://debka.com/index.php

[Xavier_Onassis]

Israel thinks it is somehow useful to the world. DEBKA is a propaganda organization.

Israel seems to be a bit of a danger to the world, actually. I don't think that 9-11 would have ever happened had not Israel been grabbing territory from the Palestinians and treating them like sh*t for the past 50 years.

Sirhan Sirhan would be an accountant and would never have thought about shooting RFK. Lebanon would have avoided two terrible civil wars.

[Christians4LessGvt]

"DEBKA is a propaganda organization"

So now it's the source?
Debka bad, US Bad, Terror supporting Syria making dirty nukes deserves no mention.
It isn't about terror supporting Syria making nukes, it's about Debka?
Are you denying the US CIA Chief made the statements about Syria and nukes?
Is the Associated Press a propaganda organization too?



Hayden: Syrian site could have produced fuel for 2 weapons
By PAMELA HESS ? 11 hours ago

WASHINGTON (AP) ? CIA Director Michael Hayden said Monday that the alleged Syrian nuclear reactor destroyed by an Israeli airstrike in September would have produced enough plutonium for one or two bombs within a year of becoming operational.

U.S. intelligence and administration officials publicly disclosed last week their assessment that Syria was building a covert nuclear reactor with North Korean assistance. They said it was modeled on the shuttered North Korean reactor at Yongbyon, which produced a small amount of plutonium. The Syrian site, they said, was within weeks or months of being operational.

"In the course of a year after they got full up they would have produced enough plutonium for one or two weapons," Hayden told reporters after a speech at Georgetown University.

Almost all reactors produce plutonium, even those dedicated to peaceful purposes, according to David Albright, president of the nonprofit Institute for Science and International Security. Albright analyzed commercial satellite imagery of the bombed facility last fall and surmised then it was a nuclear reactor.

Neither the United States nor Israel told the International Atomic Energy Agency about the Syrian site until last week, about a year after they obtained what they considered to be decisive intelligence: dozens of photographs from a handheld camera that showed both the interior and exterior of the mysterious compound in Syria's eastern desert.

From the CIA's perspective, that intelligence was not the United States' to share with the U.N. nuclear watchdog, Hayden said.

"We've made it clear we did not have complete control over the totality of the information because obviously it was the result of a team effort," he said. "One has to respect the origin of the information in terms of how it is used."

The head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency chastised the United States on Friday for withholding information on the alleged Syrian reactor. One of the IAEA's missions is to try to prevent nuclear proliferation, and it depends on member states for information.

A senior administration official told reporters last week that the United States kept the information secret after the Israeli strike because it feared revealing it might provoke Syria to strike back at Israel.

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gwu1N6NdbI7MThXmiNHyFH-ZMHygD90B8VU00

[Xavier_Onassis]

Did the US have to start a war to deal with Syria's alleged reactor?

And yet, there you are, drooling to start a war.

[Christians4LessGvt]

"Did the US have to start a war to deal with Syria's alleged reactor?"

Uh? You lost me.
Israel bombed the Syrian nuke factory, not the US

"And yet, there you are, drooling to start a war"

I am "drooling" to see the United States defeat the enemy (Iran)
with air power which it has the full capability to do.

[Plane]

Hey now, I thought the photo was the most, er, attractive part of his post. (Yes, I know what he meant, but still...)

In all fairness, I can understand what you meant, but being a gay man, it just doesn't do much for me.   

http://www.depresident.com/gallery/viewphoto.asp?file=overflow.asp&dir=/gallery/overflow/&viewphoto=George_Bush_as_Cheerleader.jpg&page=1

[fatman]

Vintage, but not bad Plane!  Thanks

[_JS]

"Did the US have to start a war to deal with Syria's alleged reactor?"

Uh? You lost me.
Israel bombed the Syrian nuke factory, not the US

"And yet, there you are, drooling to start a war"

I am "drooling" to see the United States defeat the enemy (Iran)
with air power which it has the full capability to do.

Short-term thinking is what made Afghanistan a problem. Short-term thinking is not a solution in Iran today.

Destroying Iran's nuclear site with bombs will only force them to separate it and bury it deeper into their mountains the second time around (that's what Pakistan did). It will absolutely not prevent them from building anything, only delay it in the short-term. What it will do is turn the Iranian people towards supporting both the construction of nuclear arms as a deterrent AND cause more of the people to support the right-wing clerics and politicians who have an erosion of support from the people currently.

Once you start dropping bombs on their soil, killing their people, destroying their buildings, then you'll see them rally around the clerics and politicians who have been telling them this whole time that the United States and western Europeans are their enemies. They'll point to the damage, to the child or woman who has been blown to hell by our bombs and say, "look, I tried to tell you all, but none of you would listen!!" That is exactly how a militant regime survives and even thrives.

Shit. Buildings can be rebuilt. The centrifuge technology they're using is from the 1960's. It will be rebuilt. Next time, it will be built in much more hidden and deeper locations. What cannot be rebuilt is our relationship with the Iranian people once you start letting those bombs fly with enthusiasm (or even without) like Dr. Strangelove. Do that, and you've guaranteed more decades of war down the road.

[Xavier_Onassis]

I agree, JS, attacking Iran would be counterproductive. And it is very unlikely to happen, for which we should all be grateful.

[Christians4LessGvt]

destroying an enemy is the answer
they dont rebuild anything unless told if they are destroyed
we have the capability of destroying Iran from the air
we can destroy their infrastructure from the air
as soon as they rebuild, if needed we would redestroy if they were "uncooperative"
we can "stair step" it
and give them the opportunity to say "I give"
but because "they'll get mad"
is not enough reason to not destroy the enemy
we set the rules not them
the rules aren't
if you dont bomb us we build nukes, if you bomb us we get really angry and rebuild
no we dont accept those "JS rules" and will destroy you if you continue to be uncooperative and spread terror
luckily General Sherman was not ruled by JS logic
"The South will get really mad if we burn and destroy Atlanta and destroy them"
baloney
the enemies we completely destroyed faired better than the ones we wussed out before finishing
The Confederacy, Japan & Germany were destroyed
Today they are wealthy models of modern life

[Christians4LessGvt]

Gates says 2nd carrier in Gulf is "reminder" to Iran
By LOLITA C. BALDOR | Associated Press Writer
8:07 PM EDT, April 29, 2008

MEXICO CITY - Defense Secretary Robert Gates says the latest move to add a second U.S. aircraft carrier
in the Persian Gulf could serve as a "reminder" to Iran. But he says it's not an escalation of force.

Gates is insisting that the U.S. is not laying the groundwork for a strike against Tehran.
But he says Iran is giving the Taliban in Afghanistan a continuing flow of support.

Gates spoke to reporters in Mexico City after meeting with Mexican leaders. His comments come as U.S. officials
continue to complain that Iran is increasing its efforts to supply weapons and training to militants in Iraq.

http://www.newsday.com/news/politics/wire/sns-ap-gates-iran,0,4217641.story

[Plane]

I agree, JS, attacking Iran would be counterproductive. And it is very unlikely to happen, for which we should all be grateful.

Didn't something simular happen in Syria recently?

The response was a rapid Syrian move to cover up the evidence that anything had happened at all.

The Iranian people need to be in controll of the Iranian government , but till they are what we do to the government we can truely claim is not done to the people.

[Rich]

>>Israel thinks it is somehow useful to the world.<<

Certainly much more useful than the Muslim countries surrounding it. What exactly does Jordon produce? Syria? I mean other than suicide bombers and rocks? Israel is far more productive and and technologically advanced than it's Muslim neighbors and is particularly useful when it's killing terrorists by the truck load.