BREITBART
AP JERUSALEM
Washington’s envoy to Israel says the U.S. has plans in place to attack Tehran if necessary to prevent it from becoming an atomic military power.
In remarks before the Israel Bar Association, Dan Shapiro said the U.S. hopes diplomacy and economic sanctions will pressure Iran to abandon its suspect nuclear program.
He says the U.S. prefers not to resort to military force “but that doesn’t mean that option is not fully available. Not just available, but it’s ready. The necessary planning has been done to ensure that it’s ready.”
The Associated Press obtained a recording of his remarks on Thursday. Shapiro spoke Tuesday.
World powers are to meet with Iran for a new round of nuclear talks in Baghdad next week. Iran denies it is building bombs.
@ BlandOatmeal:
BlandOatmea writes: “What is Iran? At its most dangerous, it’s a firecracker”
I am afraid BlandOatmea does not understand why Iran is dangerous. It is dangerous because it wants to use the atom bomb regardless of the consequences, actually because of the consequences. It is looking forward to starting a nuclear war, however preposterous this may sound to us.
Let’s remind ourselves what this is all about:
Here is a video of Bernard Lewis on the doctrine of mutually assured detruction and Iran in 2009:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fPoMAz2KgA&feature=BFa&list=PL89283053379203E9
and he is not alone
http://www.madisdead.blogspot.com/2011/07/mad-is-dead-another-iranian-nuclear.html
and what Charles Krauthammer wrote about the reasons for the unity government:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/echoes-of-67-israel-unites/2012/05/10/gIQA9tUaGU_story.html
Israel must have a way to determine if the US naval forces are where they are supposed to be. Shapiro stated emphatically that the US is ready!
Oh, I’m sure the U.S. plans are all “ready”. Ready to go as soon as TWO things happen:
1. Iran’s defenses, both passive and active, make the prospect of a successful Israeli strike unlikely, to the point where Israel would not risk it.
2. Israel accepts an Obama-sponsored diktat in the form of a Saudi-style “peace” [surrender] agreement with the PA.
THEN, the U.S. will act. To defend Saudi Arabia and the other Gulf Arabs, of course, after their other goal has been met of castrating Israel.
And, if #2 above doesn’t happen, and the U.S. delays until even a U.S. strike is unrealistic, then too bad for Israel. They can wait for Iran to strike and hope their missile defenses will work well enough to survive. As far as the U.S. under Obama & Co. are concerned, they can “contain” a nuclear Iran if need be (maybe by giving them more candy?). Sure, the Gulf Arabs will be really wetting their pants over Iran then, but Obama perhaps will compensate them by punishing Israel for her “intransigence” by supporting the PA’s unilateral statehood bid on the UNSC (Why oh why has that not been voted on yet, pray tell?). From there, once Israel defends herself against the inevitable Intifada, she gets the “Rhodesia Treatment”, to be booted out of the UN, and strangled politically and economically until she cries “uncle” to the MB/Obama/EU-backed PA/PLO.
If the world becomes a more dangerous and unstable place due to the emergence of a nuclear Iran, Obama & Co. will simply blame Israel. After all, were it not for those intransigent Israelis, who REFUSED to “make peace with the Palestinians”, why, Iran would have been taken care of. Yep, all Israel’s fault (Obama’s answer to every foreign policy problem he can’t or won’t solve).
If the window has not yet closed on the possibility of effective Israeli action, she MUST NOT let that happen, under any circumstances.
If the US strikes Iran–it will be many years too late [2002 was the time for that] and with an incompetent political and military structure will make things far worse for the USA!
I just sat back and yesterday, and gave the Middle East situation a good overall look. As I said in another post, the major actual POWERS in the area, i.e. countries with over a thousand nuclear weapons, huge militaries and big economies, are:
1. The US, which heads NATO, including Turkey, is the major arms supplier of the GCC, and is currently staging the largest military maneuvers since the Gulf War with Pakistan, Egypt, GCC, Turkey and NATO countries, and
2. Russia & China, who are allied to each other and with Central Asian countries, and support Iran & Syria diplomatically, economically and militarily
That’s it. The other players in the area, including Israel, Iran, Turkey, Hizbullah, Hamas, etc. are simply flies buzzing around and bothering the Big Power picnic.
If we can crawl out of our myopic Israel-centered worldview (which the MSM, etc. wants EVERYONE to be stuck in because it distracts from the big picture), what is Iran? At its most dangerous, it’s a firecracker. One really serious sign of trouble from them, and the Americans will send a B2 bomber over Tehran and squash them like a bug.
The Americans are not concerned about Iran, nor are the Russians. The biggest military item afoot, though it tangentally involves the Middle East, is actually an encirclement movement around Russia by the Western Allies. After the latest joint exercises in Jordan, another, hardly noticed, exercise will take place later this month in Macedonia, including not only familiar faces like the US, UK, France, Greece and Turkey, but Russian allies Kazakhstan and Armenia, along with the Ukraine and other former Soviet countries. The global reach of this exercise is so great, only a blithering fool would see it as a “defensive” measure. The United States is not interested in DEFENDING itself from Iran nor anyone else. The US and its allies, who together account for some EIGHTY PERCENT of the world’s military expenditure, are interested in snuffing out the remaining 20% (the “BRICS”) and issuing in a
NEW WORLD ORDER
of peace and prosperity. Understand that by “peace”, we mean a peace that allows the world’s multi-billionaires to travel from their office to the bank, and thence to the spa, unmollested. There is NO real plan for peace in the Middle East (except in that it keeps the oil shipping lanes open), nor in Africa or the rest of the Third World. A nuclear Iran? It’s of no consequence. Israel destroyed? A matter of no import. Closure of the Straits of Hormuz? That merits some attention.
If Israel believes that stopping Iran from getting nukes is in its national interest, it had better be seriously considering doing it themselves — and soon, perhaps immediately.