I was just thinking that now that we’re theoretically pulling out of Iraq that we’re going to need another war:
TEHRAN, Nov. 8 (UPI) — Israel will learn the true meaning of “hell” if it decides a military strike against Iran is worth the risk, an Iranian national security official said.
Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is said to have been reviewing strike plans against Iran’s nuclear infrastructure as the International Atomic Energy Agency expressed concerns about Tehran’s nuclear ambitions.
Iranian officials have said any attack on its nuclear infrastructure would be suicidal.
I’m sure Obama will stand firm against the war drumbeat, right?
Iran presents Barack Obama with the biggest international test of a presidency mired in underachievement. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/nov/07/iran-workin… Having fluffed his lines on Afghanistan, climate change and the Arab spring, http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/barack-obama he is under growing pressure to fulfil his pledge to prevent Iran obtaining nuclear weapons. A report by the UN’s nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, is expected to indicate that Obama is steadily failing in this objective, too. So what should he do? A wrong move now, and all the disappointments of the past three years could be wholly eclipsed by the most profound of moral ruptures.
It all comes down to Obama because, in the end, the US alone has the military firepower to stop Tehran in its tracks. Now Libya, supposedly, is done and dusted, Israeli officials have turned hyper, talking up the Iranian threat and arguing the time for diplomacy has all but passed. Those glum doomsayers, prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu, defence chief Ehud Barak, and president Shimon Peres, are frantically ringing alarm bells like a trio of demented churchwardens. Something, they say, must be done, preferably involving some very large American bombs.
Republican hopefuls in the 2012 presidential election are beating the war drums too, sensing that Iran is a bunker-buster issue that could penetrate Obama’s strong record on national security. Governor Rick Perry of Texas, a leading candidate, is saying he would fully support a pre-emptive strike on Iran’s nuclear installations. Another aspiring commander-in-chief, former senator Rick Santorum, describes Iran as the “enemy”. It is campaign-trail nonsense, but it is dangerous nonsense – and it ramps up the pressure on Obama.
Obama will stand firm? Hah! Hahahahahahhahahahahaha
yes, i actually think there is zero chance that obama will get the u.s. into a war with iran.
whether he permits israel to bomb iran on their own is another question.
Noway………………..PBO may be a center right nuttie, but he damn sho’ ani’t going to war before Nov. of ’12. Bethcha’……….!
I can’t predict whether he will or won’t, snuzy, but I can’t imagine what makes you so secure in your assessment. The only things I know with certainty is that the democrats are absolutely craven in their subservience to Wall Street, the Israel lobby, and the military/industrial complex. They stand for absolutely no principal and nobody but the powerful. The D’s in congress will do whatever Obama tells them to do (as long as it’s not too liberal), whether it’s ending Social Security or invading Canada. Right now it just seems like the only thing in the way is who will make the first act of aggression. I think Israel wants us to do their dirty work for them. Once they decide to do the dirty work themselves, the US will undoubtedly cosign those actions.
I can’t imagine what makes you so secure in your assessment.
a couple of reasons:
first, an attack on iran would be a total disaster, something the president knows because he has said so himself in the past.
second, for the past three years the obama administration has been blocking an israeli attack against iranian nuclear facilities by refusing to allow the israelis to fly over iraqi airspace to make their bombing run (the u.s. controls iraqi airspace, although that control lapses in 2012)
third, the administration itself is currently talking about sanctions, not war. that is not what it would be doing if it was gearing up for a war. remember the bush administration spent 1.5 years building the case for an invasion of iraq, including spending much of the nine months prior to invasion talking about little else. the administration hasn’t even started making the case. if it were suddenly to switch to war talk, it barely has enough time to make the case before the 2012 election, on top of that it knows that such talk would do obama no favors in his re-election bid.
there’s a tendency for people who think the president sucks on certain issues to assume that he will do the worst thing imaginable on all issues. that’s not how things actually work.
I actually feel better after reading that. Thanks, Noz! No, my biggest worry isn’t the president. It’s the full might of the military-industrial complex being brought to bear on this that worries me.
This makes me very tired. What the fuck are you people talking about?
That’s all I’ve got right now. Money. War. That’s that.