Real easy to say pull the trigger, when you're not the one holding the effing gun. All I can say is thank god he and Palin aren't running the country.

The time for overt action has now passed; they will develop nuclear weapons and the world will be even a more dangerous place.

Military action can only take place with the permission of Russia, since the nuclear fall out will spread over southern Russia and cause many fatalities; we waited to long, we will now pay the price of that delay.

I would simply ask McCain, and anyone else on the Right that follows his lead, which of your family members are going to enlist in the military to fight in Iran. And how much of their millions of $$$ are they willing to pay for it to be done?

@EGlide McCains son is currently serving in the military in a combat unit. So the answer to your question is: Yes.

I do not, however, feel that Iran be allowed to develop nukes under any circumstances and immediate neighbors, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, UAE, and especially Israel will allow that to happen.

otm

Real easy to say pull the trigger, when you're not the one holding the effing gun. All I can say is thank god he and Palin aren't running the country.

Are you an idiot? What do you think would happen if Iran had a Nuke? Do ya really think it would be that much of a stretch for that nutbag Ahmanutjob to pull THAT trigger? Really? What is going through peoples heads in this country? Yeah, you can have obama and get rid of all the nukes. Sure go ahead, 'cause if we dont have them, nobody would use anything against us. Nope. We would be unarmed, unprotected. No country in the world would fire on a defenseless country. Would they?

Pure

Nobody is suggesting unilateral disarmament.

It's hard to say if Ahmadinejad would actually use a nuke. I doubt even he would be that suicidal, but it is still a serious concern. However, bombing Iran is not going to solve the overall problem. It probably wouldn't even solve the nuclear probelm.

Eglide you are very ignorant. John McCain is third generation navy and a decorated combat vet. Two of his sons are in right now one navy, one marine corp. Jack McCain graduated from Annapolis like the three past generations and Jimmy McCain is an Iraq war vet.

You do not have to like his politics but he is not asking of you anything he has has not done more of!

Look, so what if Iran has the bomb, if they use it on us we will nuke them back into the stone age. If other nations do not like what is developing in Iran then let them step up to the plate, WE ARE NOT THE WORLD'S COP. That said, if we are attacked then we blow them to H!@#.

The last thing we need is yet a third front in the war on terror but if terror they want we can (if we have the cojones) deliver a short sharp chop. And to really drive home the point that they need to live with the rest of the world I would take out mecca and madina as well.

And make darn sure they understood that if they continue we will use larger and larger nukes until even the dumbest of them understand that to screw with us is counterproductive.

In a very real sense we are at the same point now as the period just before WW 2 we appease, bluster, etc. yet do nothing. If we simply hammered them now (and not rebuild them) problem solved.

Ok, for some reason you all are going on about McCain. But that is not the issue, fact is no one want Iran to have nuclear weapons. But the United States is the only country that can remove Iran's capability and research program without resorting to nuclear weapons.

Because the US is the only country capable of violating another's air space destroying a heavily fortified target and getting out unseen.

I agree, Boomer. I'm not terribly worried about any nation, even a so-called rogue nation like Iran, getting nuclear weapons. They want to use it as a deterrent from further American aggression, but no country is stupid enough to start an unwinnable war. Iran knows if it gets a nuke, the U.S. can't invade it as we did in Iraq.

My worry is terrorists getting hold of nuclear material and making a dirty bomb or even a true nuclear weapon. These religious zealots who do not represent a country have nothing to lose by launching an atomic weapon at the U.S.

For this reason, I support the President's aim to reduce the worldwide stockpiles and make sure all nuclear countries keep better track of their material. The less stockpiles the countries have, the more difficult it will be for the religious nuts to steal it.

McCain reminds me of the grandpa on the Simpsons.

So Pure Capitalism, are you, and any of your kids going to enlist to fight, or are you just running off your mouth like so many who react to the fear tactics of politicians?

Not that I'm advocating that Iran should be allowed to develop a nuclear weapon, but when you think about it, what's the worse case scenario? Maybe they'll try to nuke Israel, a country which is not exactly behaving in a particularly friendly manner toward its neighbors, in which case they will nuked out of existence by Israel. A shot at the US from Iran is just not realistic, since the missile carrying it wouldn't survive the trip. A shot at Europe would also end in the devastation of Iran, and as someone else already mentioned, they are right next door to China, a country which will not take a military attack from them lightly. Iran can beat its chest all it wants, but militarily, we have very little to fear from them. The only thing our politicians are concerned with is Iran's oil... period!

So for those of you who want to wage war on yet another front, please hurry down to your local recruiting office and sign yourself and your family up for the duration of the war, because the soldiers we have fighting now are stressed out from fighting on too many fronts, for too long, having done more tours of duty than should be expected of any soldier. Otherwise, stop hiding in a corner of your living room, waiting for the big bad terrorists, commies, or whatever your favorite boogie man is, and go back to watching your John Wayne war movies instead of overreacting to the politics of fear.

Clotho,

And who rules Iran? A panel of religious zealots. What if they wake up one day and decide to give a nuclear weapon to terrorist or even a lump of uranium to put in a bomb. What are we going to do then? I'll tell you the first thing everyone will say, reduce Iran to a flat glass parking lot.

Reminds me why I voted against McCain - he's crazy, besides being ignorant of economics.

""Are you an idiot? What do you think would happen if Iran had a Nuke? Do ya really think it would be that much of a stretch for that nutbag Ahmanutjob to pull THAT trigger? Really? What is going through peoples heads in this country? Yeah, you can have obama and get rid of all the nukes. Sure go ahead, 'cause if we dont have them, nobody would use anything against us. Nope. We would be unarmed, unprotected. No country in the world would fire on a defenseless country. Would they?""

PURE:
North Korea currently has nukes. Has had them since the Bush administration.

NO ONE proposed ridding the USA of all nuclear weapons.

Try arguing with some facts instead of your fears.

Thinking:

North Korea is currently possessing nukes, and they are even crazier than the Iran zealots.

Iran has MILLIONS of innocent people who are currently at the brink of a revolution. Shall we get in the middle of this one???

I'm surprised that numbnuts didn't break out into another chorus of "Bomb, bomb, bomb...bomb, bomb Iran." Senile ol' bastard.

I used to think McCain was just senile, but now I see he is deranged!

North Korea is on China's leash and while China is a lot of things, crazy is not one of them. Iran is ruled by religious nuts and we all know what religious nuts can justify. Also North Korea's military leadership would like to live and see another sunrise, while Iran's leadership may be contented with going to "heaven".

OMGosh! Could someone explain to these people that we are NOT playing "Cowboys and Indians"?And this is not a John Wayne movie. That's what got us into Iraq and why we have to continue to fight the real enemy in Afghanistan. In Hollywood the good guys always win and the bad guys ALWAYS lost.

Yippee! Look at us! We can overthrow a loud, paranoid, and brutal dictator. But, because of our head cowboy, my son is living in a "cave" in Afghanistan trying to capture or kill the people "John Wayne" could have taken care of eight years ago.

Gee I guess all the analysts were right when they said we needed Iraq to keep iran in check.

It kind of seems like we are in a far far worse national defense position than ever. We now have a teetering nuclear Pakistan and an unchecked Iran. What did we gain from Iraq again? We are IDIOTS for not pursuing the money trail and charging these people who usurped our country and robbed us blind. These people from the Bush admin, these republican warhawks are nothing short of traitors and should be in prison at a minimum. Look how they are behaving now that they are out of power. They really thought they were running a dictatorship I suppose. Now their members are threatening a militia? We need to go and look at EVERYTHING THEY DID since 9-11.

Nice work Republicans but at least all your KBR and Haliburtons made big $ from Iraq. If there was any justice we would string you all up for treason. Your historical legacy will show it on into generations however

EMP attack comming soon???

Iran claims batch of higher enriched uranium
updated 30 minutes ago

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36515328/ns/world_news-mideastn_africa/

Iran Launches Omid Satellite Into Orbit

The orbits range in altitude from low points of 153 miles to high points of 235 miles and 273 miles. The orbital inclination is 55.5 degrees, according to U.S. military tracking data.

Anyone who does not know what EMP is

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electromagnetic_pulse

The leaders of both North Korea and China are nutty. Both can control their own citizens, but saying North Korea is on a leash with China is not a guarantee of anything.

Iran's leader is not in synch with it's people. The Iranian people are not happy with their leader and are on the brink of a revolution. We need to stand back and let nature run it's course. We are not going to be able to disarm Iran without killing many, many innocent people.

This is not acceptable for McCain to shoot off his mouth in this manner, causing diplomatic problems for the Obama administration.

bob,

If Iran can launch a small nuclear device into LEO it can deliver a EMP attack. However if it takes said pile of Uranium and gives it to someone who knows what they're doing you got a dirty bomb.

Nit,

Yes revolution in a country with a radioactive pile. That just sounds like a bad idea. Throw in religion and you got a bloodbath at the bare minimum. North Korea is a lot of things, off China's leash is not one of them and China is stable before all else.

NiteOwl,

No, we absolutely should NOT get in the middle of any political unrest currently happening in Iran. That would be the worst possible choice, with possibly the exception of mounting a direct strike against their nuke facilities because it would instantly unite all the Iranians against us, as once again, the imperialistic invaders.

The political forces inside of Iran continue to evolve. Many reformists argue against the influence and power of the religious elites. I'm-a-dee-nut-job probably will not win the next round of elections, which will be even more closely watched for fraud that the last. If and when a real reformist government wins, things will begin to change for the better, including the "Wipe Israel off the map" rhetoric that the hard liners spout.

There's plenty of problems over there, but we will certainly not make things any better by getting in the middle of it.

I see McCain just like another W. Bush disaster, since you want war with Iran, a country so far away from here!!!!, when u go to war with Iran please be the head of the army not the end of the army since you have a big mouth.

America is struggling now to keep up with rebuilding it's economy and reputation with the world and you McCain don’t have a clue what's going on here with us!!! the people who's working hard for this country, please don’t use my tax money to kill more people again, we all know Iraq war was unnecessary and our tax money was used to kill hundreds of thousands of them not including all those Americans who gave their life for unnecessary war just so W. Bush AND HIS WEALTHY friends can make more profits from oil and weapons.

Iraq was no treat to us but if W Bush was concern about the safety of the world, why didn’t he took the war to Iran and N Korea!!! he knew that the war with them will be very difficult but No No NO, he chose Iraq because it's a war to win easy plus I get to revenge my father and invade oil and make good business with my wealthy friends.

God will burn you with that oil mark my word for it

McCain is not president!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Obama is and Iran is still running its nuclear program. We either do something about it or the Israelis do. Take your pick, conventional weapons and little risk or nuclear attack?

So I wonder....If Iran will have enough eriched Uranium to build a bomb doesn't that mean it would then be "usable", but just not on a warhead??

Clotho...Do you really think that Iran would abide by any agreement?? NK sure hasn't...

BobYoung.....I've seen what an EMP can do...It was on 24 a few weeks ago!!

I completely support any group inside Iran that seeks to rid their country of Ahmawindbreaker and his Mullah handlers. I also support any effort to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. If Iran acquires them it is only a matter of time before there is a nuclear attack in the region. It could be Iran attacking Israel,Saudi Arabia, India or Pakistan or it could be Pakistan, India or Israel (Israel is the least likely to actually use a nuke but the most likely to attack Iran using conventional forces). We need to hope for the best but plan for the worst when it comes to Iran. As long as Aquavelvajhad is in charge Iran is a threat to regional as well as global stability!!

You know why Iran and every other small, yet modern country wants a nuke? It is because of nutcases just like John McCain and several crazy GOP/Tea Bag posters on this thread! Bulletin! World to you ignorant radical, right wing con artists. Iran wants nukes because we have supplied Israel (their arch-enemy) with nukes! If your next door neighbor had an arsenal of Sherman tanks and constantly threatened to cross your fence and blow you to smithereens, what would you want? You bet! A few big blipping Sherman tanks. And this has absolutely nothing to do with Obama, you idiotic morons. He is trying to make an omellete out of all the cracked eggs left by the incompetent Bush/Reagan legacy. President Carter had us going in the exact right direction with the brave Sadat/Begin peace initiative. And that was completely undone by Reagan/Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld/North/Weinberger et al illegal trafficking in Arms for hostages with the very people in Iran you idiotic GOP turds are complaining about. It wouldn't even surprise me if we learned that our rogue GOP administrations past, even supplied IRan with the very technology you are whining about. After all, it's a fact that the same above mentioned GOP Pols, partnered with Osama Bin Laden in the 1980's, to create & supply the Muhjahaden in Afghanistan to fight the Soviets. But that turned out to be a big oops too didn't it. The Muhjahaden sadly became Al Qaeda and the Taliban and the rest is a tragic history. You Republicans are way too dangerous, hateful, evil and unstable to be entrusted with the power of our government any time soon. Your stupidity, incompetence, and blinding hatred of anything unlike yourselves make you suicidal, dumb and risky. As risky as IRAN with NUKES!

Fed, Plenty of Liberals have fought and died in wars, I knew a few, including an Uncle. Please refrain from Liberal bashing. Some wars we have fought were not worth it. Oil is not worth dying for. The Gulf war you were in was not a war that helped keep America safe, unlike WW1 and WW2. Those real men from WW1 and WW 2 are the truly Courageous, and fought to keep us safe. These other wars were political. So don't get high and mighty on Liberals cause you chose to fight in a war that did not accomplish anything except men and women dying unnecessarily.

It's just a good thing McCain is not President, we'd be fighting in Iraq, Afghanistan and Iran.

No doubt a dirty Bomb would be Really bad.However Only reason I can see for Iran to develop a rocket to deploy a satellite is EMP Device. Russia has already launched and deployed there satellites at much lower cost than they can ever do for themselves.. Dirty Bomb would have to be some what accurate and the declining orbit for re entry would be observed by our military. Could orbit EMP Device for months or even years and re entry is not required before a detonation.

Thank the lucky stars this senile man did not win the Presidency!

Just what we need another War started by us based on Fear rather than retaliation.

Didn't we learn our lesson from Iraq?!!!!

McCain is done. He literally is an old senile man. He recently told Newsweek that "I never considered myself to be a Maverick." lol Really? You ran on being a Maverick. You wrote a book titled "Maverick." lol

Why the hate? Are Democrats and Republicans not both free Americans .Freedom! is what is despised and feared by North Korea,Iran Osama Bin Laden etc. They do not want there people to be free, if they were then they would be gone. To say Israel wants to attack its neighbor is foolish there a tiny dot in the sea of Islam.Attack there neighbor for what cause? To make them Israeli? your Logic is confusing. Even with the nukes, thats if they even have them, would be suicide for that tiny country to use them.

otm: my feelings exactly

This country, along with other civilized countries like Israel, Russia, even Pakistan and India, have owned nukes and haven't used them (since WWII). Since WWII nukes have been used as a deterrent, and civilized nations have feared their use and therefore not used them

If a terrorist organization that has no respect for life gets hold of a nuke, it would be solely for the purpose of mass destruction and they would use it.

So the question is where Iran falls. Certainly, the majority of people who hate the clerics and Ahmadinijad would likely not chose to use a nuke. Would Ahmadinijad and the clerics? I think so. I think they belive it is the purpose to die and take as many people with them, and to destroy Israel. Nukes would suit that goal.

Do we need to invade Iran. Not if we can get the people of Iran to get rid of the clerics. The creation of a freer Iraq next door is helping incent the population of Iran to overthrow their "leaders' Anything we can do to expedite this would be great. I think the invasion of Iraq has served many purposes, including helping in Iran. I don't think invading Iran is right at this point. They are likely more prepared than Sadaam's soldiers were.

No, the person running the country has a spine like a wet noodle and wants to give up all our advanced nuclear weapons so the Muslims can walk right in and take over. They want this land minus everyone on it and don't care who dies that is here already.

McCain is not senile. He predicted the housing problems nearly 10 years ago and the Liberal laughed at him. He, at least, served in the Military. the last two Democratic President have not and one ran up to Canada and hid instead of serving in Viet Nam along with his wife.

The problem with this country is that they let immature kids who have never worked a day in their lives vote. The age for voting should be raised to 25!

otm

Real easy to say pull the trigger, when you're not the one holding the effing gun. All I can say is thank god he and Palin aren't running the country.

Versus say being some little dumb@!$%# junior Senator from Illinois that still has his name sewn in his underwear by his mom and his bus number pinned to his suit (undoubtedly pinnned where the American flag should have been worn) making comments about bombing Pakistan?

I agree with his comments but I disagree with who is sying them. McCain is doing nothing but trying to move to the right from the left where he pitched his tent during the Presidential campaign. He showed that he is too damn liberal for the right and now he is trying to show how touch he is. Save it Johnny boy and start packing, the right is no longer buying it. Maybe you and Specter can go in together on a nice place at the Villages in Florida.

Amazing how many leftists/progressive/liberal goofballs are suddeenly opposed to some Senator speaking out when they are not the President. But yet they are the same ones that fully supported Pelosi's little Middle Eastern trip while Bush was President and undermining him.

FedUpInNYS, I only see one bully around right now and it ain't Iran. It's the US.

Here is another Republican ready to go to war at the drop of a hat. Spend billions to fight but nothing to help the people at home.

Iran is unstable, religiously motivated, and has clear times to terrorism. Do you really want that country to have a nuclear weapon or even radioactive material to be used in a dirty bomb(something someone can load on the back of a truck and drive into America).

ghost - big deal mc shames kid is in the military - how many other republicans kids are in it - you could count them on 1 hand and still have a couple of fingers left over

as for mc shame - i spit on that traitor - if it was not for his 4 star admirals grand father and father he would have been sent to leavenworth after his courtmartial for consorting with the enemy. yep, he got special treatment and ask any vietnam veteran and they will say the same unless they are die hard right wing conservatives with no brains

Lars:

Good points. But expecting the Islamic countries to get rid of their radical right clerics is the same as expecting America to rid itself of its radical right christian clerics! It ain't happening. This just may be the conflict that reaches the boiling point that could destroy the world. Because all of the big global religions think they are soooo right. What if they are all wrong? Too bad for us. Becuase they seem determined to create their own prophetic Armageddon. And it just may be a despotic old crackpot like McCain that "pulls the trigger" and take us all over the edge.

Just think about what all of the clerics from the big 3 religions espouse.

1. Jesus condemned the jews of his day for being wrong
2. Jews condemned Jesus for being a "false Messiah", anti-Messiah or what could be construed as "The Anti-Christ" himself
3. Christians condemn Jews for being murderers of God himself and Moslems as Satanists
4. Moslems condemn Jews for being illegitimate and irrelevant to the modern world and they claim Jesus was only one of the "great prophets". And they view Christians as European Infidels with no legitimate claim to the lineage of Abraham.

Now you stir all of this volatile stuff up in a cranky, senile old militaristic crackpot with an arsenal of nukes, who doesn't really believe anything but himself and power (John McCain) and you are one step closer to oblivion! One thing is certain. One day sooner or later our country will cross a tipping point and elect a Palin type to power. And we will finally know what the real end game is.

Yes indeedy. Iran with Nukes are extremely dangerous. But so are we right now if our arsenal is put in the wrong hands.

And Angry White Male-1740531:

You embarrass the entire white race with your dumba$$ stupidity. An ignorant blogger on a site like this with obviously a retarded IQ calling a PHD in Law from Harvard (#1 in class) dumb, especially when his intellect is marvelled by all of the world leaders (including France and Russia), is equal to a dung beetle calling an elephant tiny! What an amazing, stupid,A$$hole you must be.

It's past time to put the old, deranged fool McCain out to pasture. He's obviously lost his mind and no longer serves any useful purpose.

McCain states the simple facts. Either we decide we should make a stand or we should stop kidding ourselves that we honestly care.

Obama's policy is one of making sure we can not be blamed for the current path of events. He is following a path that for the past 10 years has not resulted in anything but empowering the current Iranian leadership. So its time to put up or shut up...stop the games and decide one way or the other.

Jesus christ people!!!!

Please move past the last election. In case you didn't notice Obama is President. And now Obama has to do something about Iran before Israel does. Keep in mind Iran not having nuclear weapons is the only thing both Israel and the Arab States agree on.

Ghost

So what if a military tradition family has a son in the service? What McCain and other loudmouths dont have the courage to call for is a Military Draft since they seem to be looking for wars everywhere. And you lack the courage to call for one to. This is the general view of what Glide said. everybody who would post a political message knows all about McCain and Palins sons.

Another thing is that the USA cannot afford to 'pull the trigger' on Iran. A lot of your relatives and neighbors are suffering though they may try to pretend they are not. You will be likely to put a gun in ur mouth after the economic disaster most of you are the cause of plays itself out when gas is up to 10/gallon because Knuckleheads keep causing turmoil in the oil producing regions.

Iran can barely enrich thier uranium isotope for electricity to 3%, and a bomb needs a whole different, harder to make, isotope of uranium than what Iran is enriching, and that type of uranium needs to be 90+% enriched. I remember back in 2002 when they said Iran would have a nuke in 2-3 years...8 years later now and Iran can only get 3% enrichment or the wrong type of uranium...now "they" say they are "5 years away" again. funny...sounds like Iraq all over again to me...lies, lies, and more lies.

Some of you are so clueless. This is based on ur racist and Christian ego-centric view that Iran is a suicidal nation because its Islamic. Your rush to find wars on every continent while the western economy is in turmoil is suicidal on a much grander scale than anything Al Qaeda like Islamists could come up with. In fact these wars are the pathetic current version of the same old Crusades vs. Jihad conducted by mass hysterical egocentric religions more comfortable with Millennialist BS then should be allowed to exist in the 21st Century.

Iran is not going to commit suicide by attacking Israel you dumb clunks. Persia is one of the oldest civilisations on earth and they are proud of it beyond their Islamic beliefs. The entire world knows the US will protect Israel. That does not mean a person can declare the Zionist state illegal and contradictory to the very laws the UN boasts of.

That does not mean they are going to attack Israel. Iran and Iraq never did join in any of the wars against Israel did they? No! This is all a bunch of BS and this is why Obama s,,ks because he's following the same gameplan you Knuckleheads voted for in 1980 with Reagan and Bush only some cannot recognise it past his Blackness. Dont worry, he's just better at serving your insane interests better than your Fake Heroes Reagan, Bush and W.Bush.

That We the People are being held hostage in the 21st Century by 2 nutcase religions which have no problem ending the world because of a stupid faith in the afterlife is a damn shame.

What do you guys know about our defense systems these days? I haven't read or heard about them in years. They must be mind-blowing by now. Could Iran even launch or clear their own mountain tops if they tried an attack on a country?

Israel has what we know via spies plus their own advancements in defense - wouldn't they be the first to react?

Funny how when we discuss bombs, we think of the threat of them raining down on us or how we can woo-wee mother-of-all-whatever them more than we consider the effectiveness of our defense systems. It makes me think of the old fallout shelters when I was growing up. And duck and cover drills - LOL! Now I think of how the fallout can drift on air currents into other countries and around the world. It would actually be very good if no nukes happen anywhere and I am glad Obama considers that.

I need to read up on this - any good suggestions which will provide history and current events on the subject? Books? Articles? A certain reporter? Historian? Online or inhand?

Dorrit, I am going to make this real clear. Any Anti-Ballistic Missile has a one in three chance of hitting its target. So assuming an even number of missiles and interceptors two of three will get through. Two of three American cities going to ash is a bad thing. Even less when you smuggle a bomb into Mexico and sneak it across the border before blowing it and yourself up.

Sorry, I did not make this clear. I am interested in current knowledge re: our defense systems, yes.

I am also interested in good information sources concerning Iran -especially in regard to the last 10 years.

Thanks.

I understand, outloud thinking. But even the space shuttles are far ahead in capabilities today than say Alan Shepard's rocket. Have there not been advancements...at least of which the public is aware?

I'm only asking about launched - like from Iran's mountains.

See, this is the problem with America today. Too many damn soft liberals that would rather pander to those that would do us the most harm, rather than continue to be the strong nation we once were. You can say 'Russia' all you want, but it is mute! We should have already turned that region into a glass bowl. Now, we just need to remove that entire regime...kinda like the one running this country! Hurry up November!!!

Hmmm...good information on Iran. CIA factbook has basic information, but most is just opinion since the Iranian government controls a good amount of the flow of information.

As for ABM systems...try Global Security online(I think its called that). Much of the system is classified, but there has been a little in the news. Its pretty simple stuff, the hard part is hitting an object moving at 4 km/s.

Several points to remind people of:

1) If we "pull the trigger on Iran", we will have to buy the gun from China. Our military is down below the 60% combat effectiveness range and still dropping. Troops and equipment are worn out and in need of rest, refurbishment, and replacement. We simply do not have a "go it alone" force capable of dealing with Iran. And NATO will not support us unless we do something about Israel first (which we won't.)

2) We have had no objections to our "Iran", Israel flaunting its nuclear weapons in a threatening way. In fact, we covertly helped them acquire the weapons and continue to ignore their existence. This stands as a major obstacle to any U.S. position concerning Iran's nuclear development. Why is it more wrong for Iran to have a nuclear weapon than Israel (and don't say because their neighbors threaten to annihilate them because they have U.S. guaranteed peace treaties with Jordan and Egypt and would have more except for their bellicose attitude --- and remember that Iran must feel the same way since Reagan backed and armed Iraq against Iran during their war, even supplying Iraq with chemical weapons production facilities that were actually used against Iran.)

3) Most of Iran's nuclear facilities are dispersed and hardened. Tough by anyone's standards and almost impossible to take them all out. Their real vulnerability is their oil import and export facilities.

4) Israel will not take care of it for us. They simply do not have the operational capability to do anything significant that far away. And the intermediate countries like Kuwait and Saidi Arabia, and Turkey, and even Iraq will not allow them to overfly.

5) McCain has long had a thing about Iran (Bomb, Bomb Iran) very similar to Bush Jr.'s "Dad's unfinished business" with Iraq. This is just something that he surfaces now and again. Right now he is in danger of losing his Senate seat and his wife's money at the same time. So it is time to sound the alarm to the wing-nuts and rouse their paranoia.

6) And why are we listening to McCain anyway? He is a turncoat and traitor who sold out his fellow prisoners and airmen by trading information (primarily about the downed pilot rescue system) for high-end medical treatment and preferential treatment. Even his commanding officer and his deputy at The Plantation (McCain was not at the Hanoi Hilton) have stated that they never knew of him being tortured and never saw any signs of anything except preferential treatment. Both the Vietnamese and U.S. military intelligence referred to him as "The Songbird." And as a Senator he used his influence on the Commerce Committee to swap his support of normalized trade with Vietnam for their agreement to permanently seal the "Blue Files." Go to any Vietnam POW/MIA site and ask in the forums what they think of McCain. He screwed those families who were hoping that something in the Blue Files might tell them what became of their loved ones.

JohnnyB...Wow...So Iran, NK, Hamas, Hezbollah want nukes because of people like McCain....Man...And to think the world has been wrong....We just need to blame the Republicans for those people wanting to kill Westerners...Thanks for setting me straight.....

Interesting, Chris. Your question of why is it more wrong for Iran to have a nuclear weapon than Israel identifies what has been bothering me about it. Why, indeed!

What is Russia's stance on this? Am I correctly getting a sense of a change in their stance somewhat?

I had forgotten about the "Blue Files"! How could I or any of us forget that! So many families had the door of information literally slammed in their faces just for McCain's ambition. I was in a position to meet a few of them back then. It was sad and maddening - faces of disbelief and horror. McCain robbed them of their only hope. We need to remember how blind ambition hurts the innocent and the brave. McCain hasn't changed a bit - talk about selfish! and "anything to get elected".

---------------------------------------

Thinking aloud: Great! The Factbook maps and demographics alone will help and the Global Security site looks interesting. Thanks for the suggestions.

No problem and if you have Brittanica they have some interesting stuff on Russia and Iran.

Thinking,

Do I want them to have nuclear weapons and radioactive materials? No.

But, do I understand and respect the fact that Iran is a sovreign nation with a history going back thousands of years before the US even existed, with it's own right to govern itself and develop technologies as they choose.

Who are we, or any one else, to tell them what they can and cannot do? We are in fact, the only nation which has ever actually used atomic weapons in an act of war, not once, but twice (Hiroshima & Nagasaki). And now we go getting up on our high horse telling other nations what they can't do in terms of developing a supposedly peaceful nuclear program? What rank hypocrisy!

Now then, if they were to actually attack another country that would change things. But since that hasn't happened yet, we simply have to honor their word (which may very well be lies, but there's nothing we can do about that), and utilize what diplomatic means we have, which they will continue to ignore. Tough beans.

Iran will likely have viable nuclear technology, possibly including a bomb, within 5 years. We must learn to live with it. And so must the Israelis (who have had the bomb for decades, since we gave it to them). These two neighbors can then "rattle their sabers" back and forth at each other fairly.

Oh, but no! the hawks will protest. We must attack first, before they get the technology and it's too late. And what does that make us? Once again, the world's over-egotistical enforcer trying to bend the rest of the world over the back of the couch so we can have our way with them. It's no wonder we are so hated around the world.

With his present efforts at nuclear diplomacy, Obama is actually trying to shift that dynamic to a more eqalitarian and mutually responsible mode of cooperation, and if successful, will begin to achieve something Reagan himself advocated, a world mostly free of nuclear weapons.

Mike,

Iran founded and continues to fund Hamas and Hezbollah. While would we want them to have nuclear material or nuclear weapons. Such things are not just technology they are so dangerous the entire world gets a say in who has them.

Israel recieved them to end the fighting in that area. And to a large extent major wars stopped, because of that. And no the French sold them the nuclear reactor what you're looking for is where they got the expertise to assemble a nuclear weapon. And no such a thing like that doesn't happen unless the Soviet give tacit consent.

Occasionally one must act in the best interests of all. Letting a country lead by religious zealots develop nuclear weapons is dangerous, for everyone. Obama is going to have to do something and quickly, or the Israelis might and that will be bad.

As for American use of nuclear weapons, that was in a declared war against a formal enemy. It also saved the lives of a couple million Japanese citizens. See X-Day plans here. Normally I can't stand wikipedia, but it was just faster in this case.

I personally believe it's immoral to send kids to fight a war, then expect them to also pay for it later, since those of us too old to fight also refuse to pay for it - and indeed expect tax cuts at the same time. For those of you thinking we SHOULD go to war (again!), just how much of a tax increase will you be willing to vote for, or encourage your representatives to vote for?

I'm sick & tired of so-called Conservatives continuing to put so many wars on the Federal credit cards, while refusing to investigate war profiteering, running rampant under the current wars. Halliburton's no-bid contracts have been lucrative, and KBR's showers deadly. Frankly, if I was young enough I'd refuse to serve, simply due to the way we treat our soldiers. Too many tours of duty, too many soldiers' families losing their homes, trying to live on food stamps, all the while hearing so-called Conservative b*tch about welfare losers not pulling their weight. One man's welfare loser is sometimes a soldier's wife & family. If the Blackwater jackboots get paid six figures, shy not our duly sworn fighting men & women of the US Military? All this, and LAST (above) wants to take away their right to vote.

It probably is too late to stop Iran from building an atomic bomb. However, no matter what, the Iranians are unlikely to build more than one warhead. Why? Because Iran is a very poor country, that cannot afford a nuclear program in the first place. Ahmadinejad wants something to threaten the US and Israel with. Being an idiot, he fails to understand that all he is doing is signing his own death warrant, and guaranteeing the extinction of his people.

If Iran attacks Israel, Israel will respond "disproportionally." If it is a nuclear attack, I doubt that Israel will hold back one little bit. To hell with the UN. Israelis are praying for a war against the blue helmets. The UN knows this, that's why they never send "Peace-keepers" to Israel. The United Nations is Israel's primary enemy. Behind the UN, the real enemy is concealed behind the mask of Bilderbergers and the G-7 cabal. Jews are not famous for being stupid. Read, and consider. Iran is a problem that Israel can solve permanently. I would rather it doesn't come to that. Yes, I will be called up in the event of a war with Iran. I would rather not soak up radiation and die slowly and painfully. Given the choice, I'd rather die in battle. McCain may have his heart in the right place, but I fear it is too late.

Iran is no longer a problem for America. Iran is now an Israeli problem. Before the shooting starts, I would like to remind all that Russia supplied both the technical experts, and the uranium for this final experiment in Persian nationalism. This fool Ahmadinejad is doing his best to make his people extinct. Inshallah.

"BobYoung.....I've seen what an EMP can do...It was on 24 a few weeks ago!!"

Yeah! How about the boogie smoke on Lost. That's gonna kill us all....Moron.

McCain is just posturing for the fringe. He no more believes this crap he is spewing than anyone else. Kind of like "I never considered myself to be a maverick." Might want to look at almost all your ads a year and a half ago, John. Such a shame the guy is just not willing to stick to his principles and either get elected on what he has always stood for, which I did not always agree with but respected, or go out with the dignity after a overly long career. Go home and enjoy life John. You are starting to sound way too desperate for the job by just going the crazy talk route just for your state party nomination.

It looks like 99% of you don't get the point.

Iran is developing material to build nuclear bombs that go "boom" and kill people.

That material carries a high price, especially when they begin selling to rogue islamic fanatics, and they will!

Additionally, should Iran drop a bomb themselves, (for example) what would be their punishment? More useless sanctions? Give the thinking people a break here. McCain's right. If you have to pull a weapon be sure you are going to use it. Threats do not bring about progress whatsoever. All ultimatums are intentionally broken... eventually.

Shut up, McCain.

You lost.

Now let the adults handle this.

BTW, Dr Mike-, we all "get the point."

JohnnyB,

You embarrass the entire white race with your dumba$$ stupidity. An ignorant blogger on a site like this with obviously a retarded IQ calling a PHD in Law from Harvard (#1 in class) dumb, especially when his intellect is marvelled by all of the world leaders (including France and Russia), is equal to a dung beetle calling an elephant tiny! What an amazing, stupid,A$$hole you must be.

Do you feel better now that you attempted to insult me? Make your attacks personal against me? Gosh, I feel so put in my place. You actually want to gauge Obama's intellect based on what the world leaders think of him? Not all are looking at him like you are, like a little teeny bopper staring at her Justin Bieber Teen Beet poster on her bedroom wall.

Now back to the topic, care to address the issue of dip@!$%# Obama making his comments while he was just a newbie Senator trying to sound tough? The left going high to the right while Pelosi was undermining the entire state dept with her Middle East campaign? You want McCain to shut up because he is not the President, and I agree but where were all of you boot licking lefties when this was being done to Bush? You fully supported them but now that it is being done to your President suddenly it is wrong?

And yes, I am calling him a dumbass. If he were to have made the same accomplishments but had an (R) behind his name you lefties would be yelling that his daddy bought him the grades. Save your outrage for someone that is impressed by it. Maybe scatter that at the next frat party to impress the girlies while you play your guitar and try to act as though you were in touch with your emotions and all of the injustices of the world were just to much to bear.

rch101196

LOL!! You talk of TV shows and then say Boogie smoke. Yep! I am a moron?? . ROFLMAO!!!!!

Posted: August 20, 2009
1:00 am Eastern

Iran, the world's leading sponsor of international terrorism, has practiced launching a mobile ballistic missile from a vessel in the Caspian Sea. Iran has also tested high-altitude explosions of the Shahab-III, a test mode consistent with EMP attack, and described the tests as successful. Iranian military writings explicitly discuss a nuclear EMP attack that would gravely harm the United States.

Thinking,

I know all the justifications for using the bombs in WWII. The point is, WE DID IT, and now we act like any other nation who tries to develop nuclear technology is a threat to the rest of the world. Some on this blog call it "getting tough" to preserve our superiority. I call that egotistical hypocrisy.

BTW>rch101196

Know you are confused by my pun.

pun

noun, verb,punned, pun·ning.

–noun
1. the humorous use of a word or phrase so as to emphasize or suggest its different meanings or applications, or the use of words that are alike or nearly alike in sound but different in meaning; a play on words.
2. the word or phrase used in this way.

bo·gy

¹ 

 /ˈboʊgi; for 1, 2 also ˈbʊgi, ˈbugi/ Show Spelled[boh-gee; for 1, 2 also boog-ee, boo-gee] Show IPA

–noun,plural-gies.

1.a hobgoblin; evil spirit.

2. anything that haunts, frightens, annoys, or harasses.

boog·ie

 /ˈbʊgi, ˈbugi/ Show Spelled [boog-ee, boo-gee] Show IPA noun, verb,-ied, -ie·ing.

–noun

1.Slang: Disparaging and Offensive. a black.

2.boogie-woogie.

3. a lively form of rock 'n' roll, based on the blues.

mo·ron

 /ˈmɔrɒn, ˈmoʊr-/ Show Spelled[mawr-on, mohr-] Show IPA

–noun

1. rch101196
2. a person who is notably stupid or lacking in good judgment.Psychology. a person of borderline intelligence in a former classification of mental retardation, having an intelligence quotient of 50 to 69.

NiteOwlette, OMG are you still around? What facts do YOU have to present? Ahmanutjob certainly is crazy enough to pull a trigger as is KJI. I would rather be safe than sorry. Which is what you seem to be. Sorry.

Go look up the 'Dunning Kruger' effect wouldjya.

Mike, while I believe the United States is capable of a lot of stupidity, its not run by religious fanatics. Look at the countries developing or then new members to the nuclear club. North Korea, Iran and Syria. If you had to name three country that shouldn't have nuclear weapons they're the ones.

is equal to a dung beetle calling an elephant tiny! What an amazing, stupid,A$$hole you must be.

Hey Johnny...It's all in perception......An elephant may be small to a dung beetle if the dung beetle is more intelligent than the elephant......So uh...yeah....He's the dung beetle and Obama is an elephant...

What is it with these blood thirsty repubs..?? Pull the trigger--lock and load---! Mccain caved in 2 days when captured and the Quitter shoots from airplanes...Wonder what they could do if on the ground like our soldiers are there with someone aiming back--wet their drawers I am sure..? Not much but talk! The Iranian RG and Basji are not much for small men who turn traitor and big mouthed women!

It is significant that China and Russia have come around...Thank you Mr. President!

Reagan...have they really come around?? By just sayign "Yeah that's a good idea" means nothing unless steps are REALLY taken...Which we have seen before they are never in agreement.....

And btw...Have you ever been a prisoner of war?? Have you ever been captured by an enemy?? Have you ever served in the Military?? I'm sure you're so tough you'd break an enemy before they broke you, right?? Even after torturing you, you'd stand strong until you found out a way to kill them with your super death mind grip....

Your comments in regards to him being a POW just makes you POS....

AIPAC must have sent a big bag of money to McCrazy, with a note that read," please protect us, everyone hates us, and we don't know why".

Thinking,

three country that shouldn't have nuclear weapons...

I'd pick Uganda, Myanmar (Burma), and Libya if ya ask me. But if it became clear that Qaddaffi was developing nuclear technology, would I advocate invading Libya? Nope. Not our job. The US needs to stop acting as 'world cop' and mind our own business.

Well, if this country would stop buy the muslim worlds oil then we wouldn't be in this situation. So, America keeping paying for their oil and you supply every terrorist group with weapons to kill our men & woman in uniform over seas. I blame this country for creating a monster like Iran, Yemen, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, ect... who hates us so dear.

Mike,

Libya gave up its nuclear arms program after you know the big bad US said, if you don't we're going to bomb you. Seems to me this violence thing works.

Not necessarily... They will agree to sanctions after extorting as much political capital as they can. I'm sure we had to agree to give up some oil contracts with Saudia Arabia, back off of the currency dispute, and probably turn a blind eye to some illegal subsidises to make it happen...but it will happen. The administration will claim a political victory at the expense of the well being of American jobs and wallets at the pump.

Personally, this is how I get Russia and China on board with sanctions against Iran. I give them the opportunity to do what is right and back the sanctions because it isn't in anyone's interest to allow state sponsors of terror to obtain nuclear weapons. If they want to politicize it for their own interest then these are the options I leave them with:

1) Support sanctions against countries that want to proliferate nuclear weapons

2) We will start supporting the proliferation of nuclear weapons to Chechen and Tibeten rebels

Decide...

Of course this would never happen. Our country is now too big of a collection of p**sy's to do something like that.

china schmina. was checking in to see how many koolaid drinkers were going to bash mccain for this, then in a few months when obama says the same thing, they'll all be saying what a great idea it is, just like they did with the surge after mccain said it was the way to go in afghanistan.

Fairly certain Obama said it was the way to go when he first started campaigning - he was always of the opinion that Afghanistan was the focus of the WoT, not Iraq.

As for this, I am glad Mccain isn't in. We don't need another war and there are plenty of self-interested nations right in the area capable of keeping "the bomb" out of Tehran. You honestly think Israel would sit there and allow it to happen? Fairly certain the Saudis would have a few opinions about that as well.

McCain is dead wrong but so is the current administration. Our problem is and has been (for longer than I've been alive) our borders. Our government (in cooperation with big business) has allowed exports to undermine domestic prices of goods while simultaneously allowing jobs to go overseas. In addition our department of immigrations has allowed all the big threats to freely walk in and out of this country with impunity. Who allowed the 9-11 hijackers in? Who DIDN'T consider their muslim leanings as a threat? Who also allowed in the Russian mob and the worst criminals in Fidel Castro's prisons? Who currently allows Hispanic immigrants a free pass and (given time) citizenship regardless of their potential threat and cost of resources? It wasn't Iran, Iraq or Afghanistan.

Yes, those countries may do things we don't like, particularly if 'we' is an oil company exec who wants to get contracts from the middle-eastern fields at rock bottom prices, but at the end of the day we have the final say on who steps on American land and who doesn't. We are the ones who allow cargo containers with heaven knows what (counterfiet merchandise, drugs, weapons, people, 'dirty' bombs) or the ones who stop them. The ball is in OUR court, not Iran's, but our eyes always seem to be diverted overseas.

Good points, capt. Sure there are a lot of nations interested in keeping the bomb out of their hands. Without Chinese and Russian support, the UN is even more useless than with it. I think the 20 or so un-enforced sanctions against Iraq during the 90's proves that...but I digress. So...

Let's turn to Saudi Arabia and Israel. What military might do the Saudi's posses? They couldn't inflict slight damage on Iran without ensuring their own destruction. So the Saud's are out of this equation. That leaves Israel. They don't have the ordinance to penetratethe bunkers where half of these sites are in Iran. What are they going to do? Ask the Obama administration for it? Sure... Our administration snubs them every chance they get. Would Israel pre-emtively use their nukes? I doubt it...or they would be igniting WW3.

Bottom line, Capt... We can't sit on the sidelines on this one...especially when talking about a country that cries "Death to America" at every rally while developing nukes.

Movingout... We had a national policy of isolationism on several occasions. It worked out great for us in the 2 most recent occasions. Most historians refer to those occasions as WWI and WWII. Thanks, but no thanks. I'd like to keep an eyey on the world this time.

There's a big difference between keeping an eye on the world and sticking your finger up their a$$ to see if something stinks. There's also a big difference between a well equiped/trained fighting force watching the gates and one camping out around the globe swatting at hornets nests.

Well Israel has the capability to penetrate hardened enclosures. Where are you getting your information from? A large part of their strategy is denying their neighbors the ability to use nukes against them - trust me they are as capable as we are in that respect, against local threats anyway. And the Saudis would probably do things diplomatically, remember that recourse? They have more pull in Tehran than we do, while still being our nominal allies.

Our options are the sidelines or war - I'm all for sitting this one out and letting parties with a lot more at stake handle it.

China will barter for oil prices / subsidies to offset any economic loss...guess who will pay folks!

China gets about 10% of its oil from Iran and very conveniently pays for it primarily with refined petroleum products. It is very important to China that they secure every bit of oil they can get on a regular future basis because that is a resource they have very little of. But China is caught between a rock and a hard place. Iran is making nuclear noise and China does not like to see this on its doorstep --- having two rogues (counting North Korea) is nearing an intolerable situation for China. Right not North Korea is keeping a lower profile, but Iran is continually raising its profile. So the Chinese are left with a choice as to whether to deal with these two countries now and get it over with or deal with them later, in a crisis mode, and one at a time. I think the Chinese are pretty much ready for both Iran and North Korea to disappear forever.

If China thinks they have something to bargain with, they will. Only a fool would not. But they don't have much to hold over our heads. If they do anything untoward with out debt, they will be hit just about as hard as us in terms of a devalued dollar. They might try to get some sort of Hong Kong-like initiative going with Taiwan. Or the might try to get agreements that we would allow the yuan to continue to be pegged artificially low on the trade market and artificially high on the common exchange market. But those are just what countries do.

But I think that China will agree to some pretty severe restrictions on Iran's imports of refined petroleum products. And I think they will start pushing Iran along with everyone else until finally the government is destabilized and the next government is amazingly willing to cooperate with both the U.S. and China. Sanctions do work ---- that was the $200 billion lesson we learned from Iraq.

10 years ago, Iraq was a repress country, Afghanistan is a mess, priests are raping little boys, the militia movement in the United States wanted to kill any sign of authority, North Korea was Shooting at the South, Israel had 140 nuclear weapons, and we were still boycotting Iran.

Is you point the world doesn't change?

then there was a balance of power in the middle east through Iraq and now we have bin laden was roaming free in pakistan radicalizing the 60million muslims there, with their 100 nukes so actually, the world DID change - where were you? voting Bush I assume?

Iraq was the balance to Iran and it still is. Because the government of Iraq will have the backing of the Gulf States, who like Iran even less than they liked Saddam. Pakistan has always been unstable, and its campaign to reclaim a nearly independent area of its country just highlights that fact.

The World keeps going...never changes much.

thinking aloud.

Just a little correction: Iraq used to be a counterbalance to Iraq for several reasons that have since vanished: a) It was only a counterbalance when the Sunii ruled Iraq, because Iran is Shiite. Now Iraq is Shiite-controlled and there is some likelihood that there will be come reconciliation. You have to remember that most of the rest of the Muslim world is Sunii. b) we backed Sadaam against Iran. He was Reagan's and Rumsfeld's best buddy. We even supplied American equipment for Sadaam to make chemical weapons to be used against Iran. That has now changed. c) We used to get a lot of our oil from the Middle East because it was cheap, but that has long changed --- we get virtually all from domestic production, Canada, Mexico and Venezuela. d) The rest of the Muslim world backed Sadaam because he was a Sunii. They avoided Iran because not only were they not Arabic, but they were Shiite. The only thing that separates Iran from Iraq is they Iraqis speak Arabic and Iranians speak Farsi. Otherwise they are pretty much isolated off to themselves from the rest of the Arab world.

Chris, the modern Iraq has gotten a lot more complicated. The Iraqis don't like the Iranians because of that long bitter war they fought and they have an historic friendship with the Gulf States. Now Iraq could back Iran, but that would be costly and hurt their historic friends and more importantly their financial backers. Not only that they need Arab naval strength to keep Iran off their doorstep.

Its going to be interesting.

Who wrote the article? Was it in a magazine,newspaper,or online? Please identify your source - I'd like to read it, too. Thanks.

China will do what is best for China in the long run. A nuclear armed Pakistan is a wonderful counter-weight to India. But a nuclear Iran(run by clerics) is dangerous for them...given their track record with Muslims.

getalifevirginia-892326 is quoting information that has been on virtually every newspaper in the world!

The sanctions must be pointed to refined crude and armaments ---Directly at the Revolutionary Guard and Basij and the Govnr't of selected leaders...Since the internet and news is cut off --the Green Revolution must be kept informed as to what is truely Happening! Hard but not impossible!

It can be done --to impair the Govrnment and China and Russia know it! Iran has no refineries and no access to good technology! Food is a big issue but have heard that the runt can not cut off food and water or the revolt will take more to the street> Also cuting off the borders to Afghanistan is an issue for the Govn't!

It can be done...

i live in a remote area, Mike..have to work at it to get information
assumption is interesting tho

Pasted twice, sorry

Iran, like all Islamic radicals, would put scores of innocent women and children at all suspected sites and would bring the world news media down on our heads. At present, all Iranian nuclear research and manufacturing facilities are under schools and hospitals for that very reason. They will sacrifice all the lives for the praise of Allah, their fake god.

charles you seem pretty stupid to me.talking about killing Innocent,take a good look at what we have done and also look inside the country here in us.open your eyes and say something worth reading.

I agree with Charles. That is the mind set of every radical Muslim country, or terrorist organization, who places their fanatical ideology above the lives of their citizens.

We witnessed that not long ago after their fraudulent elections.

"They will sacrifice all the lives for the praise of Allah, their fake god."

its those remarks on both sides that cause these messes, people need to wake up and see religion is a farse from top to bottom.

Alex613

There are at least 3 problems with that scenario:

1) Destroying their power grid would do the same thing that harsh sanctions would: hurt the people without fazing the government.

2) Attacking Iran would rally the entire populace around the hard-liners, and kill any possibility of future reform or cooperation.

3) Iran has had plenty of time to get ready for us. We could probably disrupt their power, but I doubt we could destroy their entire nuclear program from the air.

I do not understand what good bombing "polls" AKA surveys would do. Now "poles" are another story but it would take a whole lot more than "5 or 8" going down.

Actually most modern power grids are very, very vulnerable to attack on strategic locations. Look at the second great New York black out, traced back to one lightning strike.

You don't think destroying their power infrastructure would cause the loss of civilian life? How, exactly, did you come to that miraculous conclusion?

Same way we did when we considered bombing the USSR's power infrastructure. Generally the most crucial terminals are far from civilian populations and the weapons involved are smaller than normal.

there is enough displeasure with the leadership and a lot of young people that are well educated. a quiet internal overthrow is what we need, get rid of the extremist religious right (hmmm seems familiar...)

Yes David, nuclear material has never gone missing during a revolution...

Unfortunately the well educated youth are not all that well armed, where as the Iranian government has tanks and guns to back it.

Charles,

All gods are fake, including yours.

I mean civilian casualties from the sudden loss of power.

And I don't think there would be anything quiet about a revolution in Iran.

Capt,

Hospitals and the such have back up generators. People would crash, but not all that many would die.

No there would be a lot of shooting and hopefully at the end the crazy clerics would be dead and a military junta in charge. Wait that isn't progress is it?

The power grid hurts the people...not so much the govrnment--they have generator backup... We kill civilians and we are playing into the govrnments hands...The West against the PEOPLE of Iran ..It must be directed at the Gov-Basij and Revolutionary Guards---who have the money! The Runt has been trying to sell this to the people who are not buying it now but would for sure if we bomb anything without provocation! Israel is using this as a diveresion from thier atrociies in Gaza and the West Bank!

We must not let the runt win by bombing and hurting the people!

So instead we bomb military bases and kill hundreds of civilians...instead of taking out a notoriously faulty Iranian power grid. Most of the people may not notice it is gone.

You're going to need 300 million bullets. One for each and every American, those idiots who voted for the idiots that over spent and got Foreign countries to buy our debt.

Let's see, Bush sold them 3 Trillion dollars worth of Treasuries to finance his off budget wars. That easily qualifies as treason and deserves a death sentence.

MarineVet

Exactly. We Americans got ourselves into debt, because we demanded to have everyuthing without paying for it. And we still do

I agree completely that 'We the People' need to take some responsibility for our current condition. Me, us, we have been acting like whores for a long time. We run up credit card debt buying imported flat screens, buy homes we can't afford, talk a lot about buying American and then head to Wal-Mart; but worst of all we NEVER take personal responsibility. It's ALWAYS someone elses fault.

I, for one, am sometimes ashamed of my personal behavior. I had my credit card debt up to $80,000 with a mortgage and two car loans. I saw the light about 5 years ago and still have some debt left. Soon i'll be down to just a mortgage and one car loan.

"Let's see, Bush sold them 3 Trillion dollars worth of Treasuries to finance his off budget wars. That easily qualifies as treason and deserves a death sentence.'

I bet you somehow believe that the hatred comes from the right and think this statement is justified.

Thank God McCain lost the election. He and that fruit loop Palin would have us all living in caves and hoping the radioactive soil could grow something.

Tell em Gunny...

and soon, we will be paying Russia $ 51,000,000 per astronaut to go to space. ass

Well maybe if McCain won he could have Sarah "forign policy" Palin run naked through the streets of Iran with a bunch pigs chasing her and really upset the poor opressed Iranian people.

Fed Up,

That's the best I've read in a month! After Iran, we could send her to Iraq to help shore up their nascent government, and Afganistan to eliminate corruption. You know, there's nothing like a little nudity to djinn up support for a weak government!

Heck, we could make it a world tour... next stops: Darfur and Uganda. I'm sure the religious fanatics there would love her! She could assist in their campaign to exterminate the homosexuals.

After that, a brief humanitarian stop in Haiti and then on to Tibet. She and the Dalai Lama could do naked fire yoga together. Vizualize Whirled Peas!

are you serious?

and you wonder why they want the nuke? listen to you,so ready to nuke 70 million people.for someone who doesn't want anybody else to have nukes you sure are waving it at others very easily big ass bear.

Oh hell yes. If were not going to deal with them directly and let them slowly build nukes then sell/give them to rouge nations or terrorist and to to avoid another Iraq yes blow them off the map.

All the appeasers kept sticking their heads in the sand regarding Saddam Hussein, allowing him to bully the Clinton administration and the weapons inspectors if they stuck to their guns we would have known there were no “WMD” left in Iraq. They are the ones to blame for Iraq GW Bush just did what he had to do to end the cat and mouse guessing game.

You guys just keep appeasing these dictators; I’m sure they will come to their senses and never use them. I live way out in the country far from any desirable targets for a dirty bomb, so me and my big ass are safe. Good luck with that hoping they don’t target you. Stop it now and we can all be safe.

Also these are countries that their leaders say would wipe out other countries and all their citizens if they had the weapons. We had them for 70 years and only used them twice (we are smart enough to realize the destruction the can do) which is why they are used as threats.

If it were only that simple. The US supplied both Iran and Iraq with military hardware during the Iran / Iraq war. The chemicals that Saddam Hussein used on the Kurds were sold by US companies to Iraq with US government approval. If my recollection is correct GW Bush senior was the head of the CIA when all that went down. With that being said, I don't believe that we can idly stand by and do nothing but it makes you wonder how much of the geopolitical challenges we face now are due to poor foreign policy in the past. Iran has been rattling the sabre ever since the take over of the US embassy and the world has essentiallydone nothing. Personally I believe we try the sanctions with or without the rest of the worlds involvement and have a set time line in mind and if Iran fails to comply then, and only then, we go in unannounced to Iran or the world and get it done. It is obvious that the so called leader of Iran wants to take out Israel and us.

Big Bear - but we DID know there weren't any...the UN told us so over and over. Don't try to rewrite history pal.

I remember reading comments from people saying kick the UN out of NY because they contradicted the Presidents assertions and rationale for invading Iraq.

So no,it's not at all the same.

BigBear,

Which ones are the "rouge" nations? Are those the pink ones on my map?

I'm just going to throw this out there, but wasn't it LBJ who got us into Vietnam? Can someone confirm this for me: The only wars the Republicans are pretty much responsible for getting us into are Afghan and Iraq, right?

"The only wars the Republicans are pretty much responsible for getting us into are Afghan and Iraq, right?"

Well, those are kind of the important ones right now. And unless you suggest Republicans would have NOT wanted to fight in World War II, I think that one was fairly bipartisan.

So were Afghanistan and Iraq. How many senators voted against military action again? This is a mess of our making, we got to clean it up.

Jay: Ike was the first one to put adivsor's into Viet Nam . If that answers your question.

Jay Brown-1274507............No, actually it was Eisenhower who first got us involved with the "Domino Theory", then Kennedy, then Johnson escaladed to 500,000 men, then Nixon eventually got us out, but not quickly enough.

Actually the Vietnam war started back when Eisenhower sent is covert ops to support the French before Dien Ben Phu. and like all little wars it just grew up to be a big flipin fiasco with LBJ playing armchair general along with Macnamar's band. The only thing our leadership should supply in time of war are their first born children, we would have less of them (wars) if we forced them to do that.

He needed to build up his foreign policy resume. You will hear that during 2012 elections.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who recognized that Russia and China are pretty much laughing at us. It's like we won the Cold War on paper, but in reality what exactly did we win? Who owes who trillions? Who has all the oil fields (and white collar credit card scam rings)? Who thumbs their noses continually at this country?

I agree with you guys that Russia and China are laughing at us, pretty sure all that laughter started around the time we attacked and occupied Iraq for no reason. Well other than the fact that curious george got that guy that attacked NY....oh right he got the guy that threatened his daddy. They were certaintly laughing when Bush sold us out to the chinese so he could appear to have a brass pair.

I was in desert storm, USAF long range tactical recon., everyone, I repeat everyone involved in Desert Storm understood that Iraq was a broken joke militarily.

they have oil and refineries..they have more than enough gas..lol

Currently Iran does not have enough refining capacity to meet their own needs and do import refined petro;eum products. They are working to increase capacity and hope to meet own demands by 2013. So the time for sanctions on gas is now!

No but maybe she can spell it!

Holy crap its the war of the Toms.

Tom Toms (as in battle of the bands)

just wondering if the dunce can find it on a map

Yeah, it is right next to the 57th state.

Didn't you hear, he never considered himself a maverick those 10,000 times he called himself one.

nothing like going out with a bang!

When some declares war on you generally you hit back and hit back hard.

Ironically, this time they could actually be right, but after crying wolf with their lies about Iraq, nobody believes them.

Six month led up to invasion and Saddam did what sit on his hands...

Yes, that is the only language they seem to understand: Kill the Muslims; Kill the liberals; Kill the uppity black guy. "reload" "pull the trigger"

Are we a civilization, or a pack of wolves?

Rome is burning.

Jesus come quickly.

NoMoreLies,

Jesus come quickly

I think that's what Mary Magdelene said when she got a little tired out 'cause he took too long.

China doesn't "team up" with anybody. The U.S. doesn't do it all that well either.

One of many reasons we don't invade North Korea is that they have enough missiles pointed at Seoul to wipe it out before we could stop them. Another reason is that they have one of the largest armies in the world and we just might lose.

Iraq had no nuclear program to export.

That all makes sense about north Korea. Although what they have in manpower we have in technology. Fighting wars are becoming more like video games and less one on one.

And keep in mind WE helped build pretty much every country WE have a problem with. Read your Iranian history, who we backed and how he was terrorizing the Iranian people. For that matter read up on Iraq, Vietnam and Cuba as well. Eisenhower was big on puppet regimes that loved to terrorize it's citizens while looting the tax coffers. And who do you think trained Al quaida? Here's a hint, they have a nice set of offices in Langley, Virginia. These aren't conspiracy notions, they're public record.

One thing I do believe is that trying for peace through war is kind of like a junkie acheiving sobriety through more drug use. Pointing fingers doesn't help. We need to look for causes, and work respectfully and honestly from all sides. I don't think that people in China, Korea, America, Isreal, Iran or North Korea want to live in fear anymore or less than anyone else.

The question I have is:How do we work with countries to achieve peace, not have to live in fear of a nuclear holocaust?

Maybe my views are very simple but if all countries work from common view points then we maybe able to acheive this.

eflo - all the technology in the world will not win any war - just like convential bombing never won a war either - it takes ground troops

we brag about that we are so superior in technology but in reality we are so damn far behind other countries that it would take a miracle to catch up. france, japan and a few others have had high speed rail systems for decades - we got amtrack and that is just 1 of many examples that we lack in

big deal - our military has technology that goes boom at 1 million per pop - what the hell good is if if they are not all accurate which they are not. for everything our military does the other countries have counter measures - we are not the only ones with a superior military. too much technology on the battle field can come back and bite your a ss so hard that it will scare you. give me a bunch of grunts over technology any day because they know how to get things done

vietnam vet

Dan: I love Viet Nam Vets BOTH my mother and father are Viet Nam Era Vets. My father served two tours. I appreciate your input.

Now I feel old Eflo...

Typical, they point out a problem but never offer a solution that isn't war related. They expect others to come up with a solution and then bash them for not starting a war. STFU and retire already.