Juan Cole
Iran's military budget is a little over $6 billion annually. Sweden, Singapore and Greece all have larger military budgets. Iran spends less per capita on its military than any other country in the Persian Gulf.
Belief: Iran is aggressive and has threatened to attack Israel, its neighbors or the US
Reality: Iran has not launched an aggressive war modern history (unlike the US or Israel), and its leaders have a doctrine of "no first strike." This is true of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, as well as of Revolutionary Guards commanders.
Iran, via Ahdmijahd, has questioned the viability of the "jewish state" and has said, on numerous occassions, that it must be destroyed. He also said the holocaut never happened. (at least twice)
ReplyDeleteIran sent iranian youth forward in suicidal attack waves during their pathetic war against Iraq. Is that "in its doctrine"? LOL
Everyone understands Iran wants nuclear weapons. Of course they would be foolish to use them because US and/or Israel would literally wipe them off the planet if they did.
Iran has called Israel a "One Bomb" country. Meaning it would only take one nuke to effectively destroy the country. Iran's possession of such a weapon would make it an existential threat to Israel and put Israel at the the mercy of Iran's bakcward ass/dumb ass mullahs.
Frankly, Im OK with Israel taking a hit in order the US has cover to rain down nukes on Iran-ville. We still owe those shitheads for the bombing of the US marine barracks in Lebanon, the killing of US troops in Iraq, and other such bullshit.
Not completely true. Khomeini substantially backed the Iraqi resistance against Saddam starting in 1979. By 1980, Iranian assistance was so great that Saddam felt the only way for his regime to survive was to invade Iran and take out the sanctuaries of the Iraqi resistance. {Admission: I thought that Khomeini backing the Iraqi resistance was cool. I give him credit for this.}
ReplyDeleteWhen the Takfiri Salafi extremists mass murdered Hazara Shia and Iranian Shia for the crime of "being Shia" in 1998, Iran nearly invaded Afghanistan and took out the Taliban and Al Qaeda. Considered invading Afghanistan in 1997 as well. Back then the Taliban and Al Qaeda were Pakistani and Saudi proxies (used to mass murder Indians, Russians, Shiites and their allies); it was the threat of Pakistan and the Pakistani nukes that stopped Iran from invading Afghanistan.
Personally, I think it would have been great for the world if Iran did solve the Al Qaeda linked networks/Taliban problem for the world back in the late 1990s. Unfortunately idiots in the Clinton administration (I say this as someone who has a lot of good things to say about Bill Clinton), criticized Iranian "aggression" back then; the same way they sometimes seemed sympathetic with AQ linked Takfiri salafi wahhabis in their terrorist campaign against the great Russian people and the Stans. Many Clinton folks were complete morons because of these two mistakes.
I think America should try to form an alliance with Iran. {Ideally an alliance between Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, India, China, Russia, Stans, NATO, Hezbollah, Hamas.} I am not concerned about the much ballyhood "Shia bomb" except for three issues:
1) Iran isn't yet a free democracy
2) Takfiri crazies in Saudi Arabia will use the "Shia bomb" as an excuse to go nuclear themselves
3) UAE, Kuwait, Iraq, Turkey, Egypt, Jordan, Ukraine, Kazakstan, Syria and other countries will also go nuclear. {I am especially worried about UAE, Egyptian, Jordanian and Syrian nukes; given their good for nothing dictators.}
Here's something that not many people know about Iran: Ahmadinejad was born a Jew.
ReplyDeletehttp://rawstory.com/2009/10/report-mahmoud-ahmadinejad-was-born-a-jew/
that was me...haloscan forgot me again.
ReplyDeleteYes I saw that posted on the Palestinian Pundit..As it seems his family converted to Islam after his birth.
ReplyDeleteMaye that is why he overcompensates with his rabid anti Jewish and anti Israeli comments. Ahmenijad's words are extremely wrong; he is an idiot.
ReplyDelete<span> his rabid anti Jewish</span>
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Proof please! Where are the quotes that you consider anti Jewish? Many are anti Israeli, that doesn't make them anti Jewish!
Needless to say that I'm sick and tired of this despicable procedure of confusing one for the other.
<span><span>his rabid anti Jewish</span>
ReplyDelete---------------
Proof please! Where are the quotes that you consider anti Jewish? Many are anti Israeli, that doesn't make them anti Jewish!
Needless to say that I'm sick and tired of this despicable procedure of confusing one for the other.</span>
<span><span><span>his rabid anti Jewish</span>
ReplyDelete---------------
Proof please! Where are the quotes that you consider anti Jewish? Many are anti Israeli, that doesn't make them anti Jewish!
Needless to say that I'm sick and tired of this disgusting procedure of confusing one for the other whether on purpose or not!.</span></span>
Now that they've realized their error in creating a shiite-dominated iraq, the neocons want to up the ante and attack iran, thus turning the middle east into an even larger murder scene than it is now.
ReplyDeleteBTW
ReplyDeleteAnyone heard of the 5 dancing Israelis on 11/Sept.
Apparently .On the day of the 9-11 attacks, former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was asked what the attacks would mean for US-Israeli relations. His quick reply was: "It's very good…….Well, it's not good, but it will generate immediate sympathy (for Israel)"
OK TGIA. Over the coming months, I'll make sure to note them when I come across them.
ReplyDeletePM Maliki ROCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Go GoI (Gov of Iraq) :-D I don't care if the neo cons get credit for Iraq's and the GoI's success; what matters is that Iraq is winning. The IA and IP are fast becoming the most capable in Arab history; and they are loyal to the GoI.
ReplyDeleteGo Iraqi Army (IA)! Go Iraq! Inshallah.
BTW, hope Iran isn't bombed.
The ease with which they lie
ReplyDeleteLet us travel back to a well documented case, Israel’s invasion of Lebanon in 1982. In his 1983 book The Fateful Triangle: The United States, Israel and the Palestinians (Pluto Press), ex-kibbutzim Noam Chomsky devotes two pages (pp224-5) to Israel’s systematic destruction of hospitals in Beirut. He begins:
Beirut: Precision Bombardment
“Repeatedly, Israel blocked international relief efforts and prevented food and medical supplies from reaching victims. [* Chomsky’s note: The International Red Cross, World Vision International, UNICEF and other relief agencies report long delays in supply of food and medicines caused by Israeli interference. This is confirmed by Israeli officials responsible for relief … .] Israeli military forces appear to have gone out of their way to destroy medical facilities – at least, if one wants to believe Israeli government claims about “pinpoint accuracy” in bombardment. “International agencies agree that the civilian death toll would have been considerably higher had it not been for the medical facilities that the Palestinian Liberation Organisation provides for its own people [David Lamb, Los Angeles Times, 18 June 1982] – and, in fact, for many poor Lebanese – so it is not surprising that these were a particular target of attack.”
Chomsky goes on to detail lethal attacks on 14 named hospitals or medical institutions, several of them suffering multiple attacks, and further attacks on unnamed hospitals. He continues:
http://antonyloewenstein.com/2009/02/04/the-ease-with-which-they-lie/#comments
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Abbas,Maliki,Karazai Same shit different smell
ReplyDeleteAn interesting comment found on the article:
ReplyDelete"Oh, c'mon -- our minds are already made up. The Policy Juggernaut, rolling downhill, building momentum, on wheels greased by years of studied ignorance and deception, is going steadily in the Right direction, finally. No fair trying to confuse us with facts. Resistance is futile!"
I'd swear it's famingo! Ha ha!
<span>An interesting comment found on the article:
ReplyDelete"Oh, c'mon -- our minds are already made up. The Policy Juggernaut, rolling downhill, building momentum, on wheels greased by years of studied ignorance and deception, is going steadily in the Right direction, finally. No fair trying to confuse us with facts. Resistance is futile!"
I'd swear it's flamingo! Ha ha!</span>
"Ahmadinejad was born a Jew"
ReplyDeleteMaybe, maybe not. I'm a bit dubious about all that etymological stuff on the name Sabourjian. Jian means weaver in Farsi? Can anyone confirm that? Sabour is Farsi for the talith? Hmm.
I have heard that Ahminajad was born with another surname, but surnames did not exist in Iran/Persia before 1929. Then some Iranians had non-Islamic surnames imposed on them as part of a campaign to eradicate the Arab influence from Iranian culture and create a phony Aryan identity (Iran means Aryan land, I believe). No doubt some devout Muslims would have wanted to discard such names if the opportunity arose.
I do know that -ian is a fairly common surname ending in Iran. It's also very common among Armenians. Is it possible that Sabourjian is an Armenian surname, and Ahmadinajad's family was hiding another (Christian) ethnic background?
As far as I know Jian is Armenian.
ReplyDeleteI'm very dubious about this whole business..As soon as I heard the name I knew ir's speculation. Jian could be many things reall.
Sabor has a connotation of the Arabic Saber meaning Patient.
ReplyDeleteThere aren't any. His rhetoric has been always directed at Israel and the Israeli "regime". BTw, Iran has a big and well to do Jewish community.
ReplyDelete<span>There aren't any. His rhetoric has been always directed at Israel and the Israeli "regime". BTw, Iran has a big and well to do Jewish community. They have the option to move to Israel, why don't they do just that if they were miserable?
ReplyDelete</span>
<span>different smell</span>
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You mean different color? Because s..t always smells like s..t.
On As'ad's blog there was a guy called 5 dancing Shlomos..He was viciously funny.
ReplyDeleteThis obvious canard has been around for years. I mean even if by some bizarrre logic Israel had planned the 9/11 attacks do you think Netanhauy would be so dumb as to sort of hint at that in public?
ReplyDeleteIts what Tom Friedman said today. Much anger is largely from the feelings of humiliation by arab/muslim youth. They realize their culture/people have no economic, cultural or military power in the world anymore, and its only getting worse. Shoot, even an eency weency state like Israel, which is largely modernized, can humilate the entire arab world and aint nothing they can do. Hurts deep inside dont it VAA? Awwwwww.
http://www.youtube.com/v/ZUqrdDtC9wA
ReplyDeleteMaliki rocks! Any Arab leaders better than him?
ReplyDeleteI supported Yunus Qanuni in 2004 and Abdullah Abdullah in 2009 against Karzai. Why do you think Karzai is so bad?
I don't like the way Karzai followed the leads of his close friends and backers Ahmenijad and Khamenei in allowing fraud during the Afghan election.
No strong views on Abbas. He and Hamas seem determined to fight each other rather than serve Palestinians, or unify to stand up to Israel.
ReplyDelete