Login Register Sign up for the GRM e-newsletter

Login to post Forums » Off-topic discussion » The Next War « 1 2 3 4 5 6 »
  • Dr. Hess

    July 21, 2008 11:06 a.m. Dr. Hess UberDork

    Debka sez: http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=5450

    Top US military chief is convinced Iranians seek atom bomb DEBKAfile Special Report

    July 20, 2008, 10:49 AM (GMT+02:00)

    Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, told Fox News he is convinced the Iranians are seeking to building an atomic bomb, “a very destabilizing possibility in that part of the world.” He stressed the US had the capacity and the reserves to attack Iran as a last resort

    DEBKAfile’s Washington sources stressed the special significance of Mullen’s statement on Sunday, July 20. The night before, a senior Israeli security official said that if the US-Iranian talks failed, President Bush planned to use the three-month period between the November elections in America and his exit from the White House in January for an attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities.

    Saturday night, too, Israel’s chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi arrived for a week’s visit as the admiral’s guest.

    Mullen warned that while the US has the capacity and reserves for attacking Iran, there could be “possible unintended consequences” and an unpredictable regional impact from any attack on Iran – a hint at a dangerous backlash from a possible Israeli strike uncoordinated with the United States.

    “I’m fighting two wars and I don’t need a third one,” said Mullen referring to Iraq and Afghanistan.

    So, lets take a fresh look at things:

    1. The Iranians want nukes. I can't say as I really blame them. All the big boys have nukes and they want some too.
    2. The Iranians "negotiate" that they aren't building nukes and will stop building them if they were, blah blah BS.
    3. If the "talks" go well, then the Iranians will become the problem of the next president, probabilities of 39% BHO, 60% Little Mac.
    4. If the "talks" don't go well, then W waits until after the election and then either tells the Israelies to go ahead and blast them or does it ourselves.

    Either way, it looks like we are in for no action until after November.

  • Dr. Hess

    Aug. 8, 2008 12:18 p.m. Dr. Hess UberDork

    The Jerusalem Post sez: http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1218104233164&pagename=JPArticle%2F...

    Two additional United States naval aircraft carriers are heading to the Gulf and the Red Sea, according to the Kuwaiti newspaper Kuwait Times.

    Russia plays down talks of tougher sanctions against Iran

    Kuwait began finalizing its "emergency war plan" on being told the vessels were bound for the region.

    The US Navy would neither confirm nor deny that carriers were en route. US Fifth Fleet Combined Maritime Command located in Bahrain said it could not comment due to what a spokesman termed "force-protection policy."

    While the Kuwaiti daily did not name the ships it believed were heading for the Middle East, The Media Line's defense analyst said they could be the USS Theodore Roosevelt and the USS Ronald Reagan.

    Within the last month, the Roosevelt completed an exercise along the US east coast focusing on communication among navies of different countries. It has since been declared ready for operational duties. The Reagan, currently with the Seventh Fleet, had just set sail from Japan.

    The Seventh Fleet area of operation stretches from the East Coast of Africa to the International Date Line.

    Meanwhile, the Arabic news agency Moheet reported at the end of July that an unnamed American destroyer, accompanied by two Israeli naval vessels traveled through the Suez Canal from the Mediterranean. A week earlier, a US nuclear submarine accompanied by a destroyer and a supply ship moved into the Mediterranean, according to Moheet.

    Currently there are two US naval battle groups operating in the Gulf: one is an aircraft carrier group, led by the USS Abraham Lincoln, which carries some 65 fighter aircraft. The other group is headed by the USS Peleliu which maintains a variety of planes and strike helicopters.

    The ship movements coincide with the latest downturn in relations between Washington and Teheran. The US and Iran are at odds over Iran's nuclear program, which the Bush administration claims is aimed at producing material for nuclear weapons; however, Teheran argues it is only for power generation.

    Kuwait, like other Arab countries in the Gulf, fears it will be caught in the middle should the US decide to launch an air strike against Iran if negotiations fail. The Kuwaitis are finalizing details of their security, humanitarian and vital services, the newspaper reported.

    The six members of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) - Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, the UAE and Oman - lie just across the Gulf from Iran. Generals in the Iranian military have repeatedly warned that American interests in the region would be targeted if Iran is subjected to any military strike by the US or its Western allies.

    Bahrain hosts the US Fifth Fleet, while there is a sizeable American base in Qatar. It is assumed the US also has military personnel in the other Gulf states, The Media Line's defense analyst said.

    Iran is thought to have intelligence operatives working in the GCC states, according to Dubai-based military analysts.

    The standoff between the US and Iran has left the Arab nations' political leaders in something of a bind, as they were being used as pawns by Washington and Teheran, according to The Media Line analyst.

    Iran has offered them economic and industrial sweeteners, while the US is boosting their defense capabilities. US President George W. Bush and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad have paid visits to the GCC states in a bid to win their support.

    So, things heating up again. What's our time line? Between November and mid January? August is a little early, but who knows. Maybe just getting used to the area. Meanwhile, at the ranch, the Russians are bombing Georgia (the other one). Georgia (the other one) has 1K Israeli military advisors there helping them out. Oil is at the root of this issue too, with pipelines from Georgia (the other one) to Turkey.

  • Dr. Hess

    Aug. 11, 2008 9:31 a.m. Dr. Hess UberDork

    In http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=5499

    Debka Sez: said:Three major US naval strike forces due this week in Persian Gulf

    August 11, 2008, 10:37 AM (GMT+02:00)

    DEBKAfile’s military sources note that the arrival of the three new American flotillas will raise to five the number of US strike forces in Middle East waters – an unprecedented build-up since the crisis erupted over Iran’s nuclear program.

    This vast naval and air strength consists of more than 40 carriers, warships and submarines, some of the last nuclear-armed, opposite the Islamic Republic, a concentration last seen just before the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.

    Our military sources postulate five objects of this show of American muscle:

    1. The US, aided also by France, Britain and Canada, is finalizing preparations for a partial naval blockade to deny Iran imports of benzene and other refined oil products. This action would indicate that the Bush administration had thrown in the towel on stiff United Nations sanctions and decided to take matters in its own hands.

    2. Iran, which imports 40 percent of its refined fuel products from Gulf neighbors, will retaliate for the embargo by shutting the Strait of Hormuz oil route chokepoint, in which case the US naval and air force stand ready to reopen the Strait and fight back any Iranian attempt to break through the blockade.

    3. Washington is deploying forces as back-up for a possible Israeli military attack on Iran’s nuclear installations.

    4. A potential rush of events in which a US-led blockade, Israeli attack and Iranian reprisals pile up in a very short time and precipitate a major military crisis.

    5. While a massive deployment of this nature calls for long planning, its occurrence at this time cannot be divorced from the flare-up of the Caucasian war between Russia and Georgia. While Russia has strengthened its stake in Caspian oil resources by its overwhelming military intervention against Georgia, the Americans are investing might in defending the primary Persian Gulf oil sources of the West and the Far East.

    DEBKAfile’s military sources name the three US strike forces en route to the Gulf as the USS Theodore Roosevelt , the USS Ronald Reagan and the USS Iwo Jima . Already in place are the USS Abraham Lincoln in the Arabian Sea opposite Iranian shores and the USS Peleliu which is cruising in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.

    So, looks like things are warming up again. And don't think the Ruskies didn't plan out their little Georgia excursion around this too.

  • John Brown

    Aug. 11, 2008 9:49 a.m. John Brown UltimaDork

    PREMONITION:

    Look for a massive influx of NATO military into Afghanistan real soon as well, they will be there as a "stabilizing force" sold as a force to stabilize Afg... we know where they will end up.

    Add the Russian debacle in Georgia and it COULD be a good week for Paliburton.

  • Dr. Hess

    Aug. 19, 2008 2:39 p.m. Dr. Hess UberDork

    So, in http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=5514 , we get a report that Iran sez they launched a satellite. Of course, we all know (remembering history) that launching a satellite means nothing except "Hey, World, I can drop a nuke on yo azz anytime I want anywhere I want," which is what Sputnik really said. You combine that with their nuclear weapons program and you have an "issue."

    Next, in http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=5516 we see that the Arabs are now getting seriously nervous over the Iranians. Kuwait is on full war alert, the US will have 3 carriers in the PG, and two others Real Close. "This deployment would be the largest naval task force the US and its allies had massed in the region since the 1991 Gulf War."

    The Russians are "fixing" their little Georgia issue, doing pretty much whatever the hell they want. The US isn't going to do anything about it. Can't say as it's our business anyway. That is all about the oil and the pipelines. Something like 3% of the world's oil flows through there? Yeah, we're talking Real Money here. I'd guesstimate that The Fix was In, Russia fixes Georgia, the US fixes Iran, still possibly through Israel as the actual party involved. Hard to say. This is August. Will it wait until November? Dunno.

  • Dr. Hess

    Sept. 2, 2008 10:22 a.m. Dr. Hess UberDork

    So, my Homeboys, Yo, have been busy playing in the sand too:

    From: http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1220186494776&pagename=JPost%2FJPAr...

    The Dutch intelligence service, the AIVD, has called off an operation aimed at infiltrating and sabotaging Iran's weapons industry due to an assessment that a US attack on the Islamic Republic's nuclear program is imminent, according to a report in the country's De Telegraaf newspaper on Friday.

    The report claimed that the Dutch operation had been "extremely successful," and had been stopped because the US military was planning to hit targets that were "connected with the Dutch espionage action."

    The impending air-strike on Iran was to be carried out by unmanned aircraft "within weeks," the report claimed, quoting "well placed" sources.

    The Jerusalem Post could not confirm the De Telegraaf report.

    General: Attack on Iran would cause WWIII According to the report, information gleaned from the AIVD's operation in Iran has provided several of the targets that are to be attacked in the strike, including "parts for missiles and launching equipment."

    "Information from the AIVD operation has been shared in recent years with the CIA," the report said.

    On Saturday, Iran's Deputy Chief of Staff General Masoud Jazayeri warned that should the United States or Israel attack Iran, it would be the start of another World War.

    On Friday, Ma'ariv reported that Israel had made a strategic decision to deny Iran military nuclear capability and would not hesitate "to take whatever means necessary" to prevent Teheran from achieving its nuclear goals.

    According to the report, whether the United States and Western countries succeed in thwarting the Islamic Republic's nuclear ambitions diplomatically, through sanctions, or whether a US strike on Iran is eventually decided upon, Jerusalem has begun preparing for a separate, independent military strike.

    Debka says drones, with a retaliatory rocket rain from Hizballah. I still say after the election, but if the Israelies do it all, it could be before.

    In other news, ( http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=74027 )it seems that al Quida has been having accidents lately, thanks to MI6, SAS and Delta Force. Before the SAS make an accident happen, it has to be cleared by a lawyer on the ground in Bagdad. So now we have lawyers running a war too. It is amazing that we are all not exterminated by the Pavement Challenged.

  • alfadriver

    Sept. 2, 2008 11:19 a.m. alfadriver Reader

    Any thoughts on how we should pay for action?

    Willing to pay more taxes? Or will there be enough people to do a War Bonds Drive to pay for it all?

    Just curious.

    Eric

  • Wowak

    Sept. 2, 2008 1:02 p.m. Wowak Dork

    So would the outbreak of WWIII justify GWB "postponing" the elections?

  • Dr. Hess

    Sept. 5, 2008 9:19 a.m. Dr. Hess UberDork

    The Plot Thickens: (from http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=5559 )

    Russian units raid Georgian airfields for use in Israeli strike against Iran – report DEBKAfile Special Report

    September 5, 2008, 12:58 PM (GMT+02:00)

    The raids were disclosed by UPI chief editor Arnaud de Borchgrave, who is also on the Washington Times staff, and picked up by the Iranian Fars news agency. The Russian raids of two Georgian airfields, which Tbilisi had allowed Israel to use for a potential strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities, followed the Georgian offensive against South Ossetia on Aug. 7.

    Under the secret agreement with Georgia, the airfields had been earmarked for use by Israeli fighter-bombers taking off to strike Iran in return for training and arms supplies.

    DEBKAfile’s intelligence sources report that flying from S. Georgia over the Caspian Sea to Iran would sharply trim the distance to be spanned by Israeli fighter-bombers, reducing flying time to 3.5 hours.

    Northern Iran and the Tehran region, where most of the nuclear facilities are concentrated, would be within range, with no need to request US permission to pass through Iraq air space.

    Russian Special Forces also raided other Israeli facilities in southern Georgia and captured Israeli spy drones, says the report.

    Israel was said to have used the two airfields to “conduct recon flights over southern Russia as well as into nearby Iran.” The US intelligence sources quoted by UPI reported that the Russian force also carried home other Israeli military equipment captured at the air bases.

    Our sources say that if the Russians got hold of an Israeli unmanned aerial vehicle complete with sophisticated electronic reconnaissance equipment, they will have secured some of the IDF’s most secret devices for spying on Iran and Syria.

    When this happened before, Russian military engineers quickly dismantled the equipment, studied it and passed the technology on to Tehran and Damascus.

    So, it looks like this whole Georgian fiasco was a win-win for the Ruskies, and also explains what all the Israelies were doing there. We had Gerogia trying to take back the pipeline (and oil fields?), trading an airbase to the Israelies to use to take out Iran (friends of the Russians) for hardware, advisors and who knows what else, the Israelies doing drone overflights of Russia, which really, really pisses them off (think Gary Powers), and the Russians moving in, taking full control of the oil facilities, kicking the Israelies out (helping Iran, their buds), and capturing the world's latest drone hardware in the process.

    How does this effect The Next War? Well, it makes it a lot harder for Israel to bomb-bomb-bomb bomb-bomb Iran, forces the US to "give approval" to fly over Iraq or make some other concession and probably postpones any action a few months, as you know this operation took months or a year or more to set up. Also note that all the other "training" runs where they would fly their aircraft so far to Turkey or over the Med and turn around we can now see were diversionary smokescreens. They really were just going to come down from the north and blow them away. I guess Little Mac can deal with Iran.

    I'm starting to wonder if the plan is to just let Iran have a few nukes. They can monitor the locations and if they start moving, make an "accident" happen and that's it for that one. And if Iran nukes their neighbors, well, there's always the Great Parking Lot solution, but I don't think that will happen. There is a reason that nukes haven't been used in the past 63 years of constant war, and they most likely will never be used going forward either.

  • Sept. 5, 2008 4:00 p.m. GeneralHavoc New Reader

    So, a question, Hess. What exactly is this DebkaFile source you keep getting these articles from? This same post from the ol' forum piqued my interest, and I signed up for RSS feeds from Debka. It doesn't come right out and say it, but being that the site available in Hebrew, one would imagine it's an Israeli site.

    Where do they get their super top secret information, to what end are they displaying it for all to see, and why in the heck should I trust anything they put out? The Israelis aren't exactly friendly with their neighbors over there; it seems like there's an awful lat of bias in these articles. It all has a very sharp tinge of conspiracy theory to my eyes. It's always an interesting read, but so are fiction spy novels.

  • Dr. Hess

    Sept. 5, 2008 4:13 p.m. Dr. Hess UberDork

    Debka lists itself as an Israeli "private intelligence" service. Yeah, I'd say they were slanted a bit, but they have a pretty interesting track record of coming out with stuff first and coming out with stuff that later gets picked up by the MSM. Also, we get to see an Israeli side to events. They tend to cover Middle East events a lot (go figger). I still remember their predictions for $100/bbl oil back when it was $25 or $30. I thought: no, way. Anyway, they are another piece of the picture.

  • Dr. Hess

    Oct. 21, 2008 1:01 p.m. Dr. Hess UberDork

    Two days ago, Biden says that The O will face an international crisis in his first six months in office (Dr.Hess' O success probability currently at 45%). Biden also said that The O will piss off his loyal anti-American supporters by not bending over for whatever crisis this is, and that they need to stick with him in this coming tough time. Nice to have these things planned out like that. So, today we find on Debka: http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=5660

    US intelligence: Iran will be able to build first nuclear bomb by February 2009 DEBKAfile Exclusive Report

    October 21, 2008, 5:58 PM (GMT+02:00)

    US intelligence’s amended estimate, that Iran will be ready to build its first bomb just one month after the next US president is sworn in, is disclosed by DEBKAfile’s Washington sources as having been relayed as a guideline to the Middle East teams of both presidential candidates, Senators John McCain and Barack Obama.

    The information prompted the assertion by Democratic vice presidential nominee Joseph Biden in Seattle Sunday, Oct. 19: “It will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama like they did John Kennedy.”

    DEBKAfile’s military sources cite the new US timeline: By late January, 2009, Iran will have accumulated enough low-grade enriched uranium (up to 5%) for its “break-out” to weapons grade (90%) material within a short time. For this, the Iranians have achieved the necessary technology. In February, they can move on to start building their first nuclear bomb.

    US intelligence believes Tehran has the personnel, plans and diagrams for a bomb and has been running experiments to this end for the past two years. The UN International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna last week asked Tehran to clarify recent complex experiments they conducted in detonating nuclear materials for a weapon, but received no answer.

    The same US evaluation adds that the Iranian leadership is holding off its go-ahead to start building the bomb until the last minute so as to ward off international pressure to stop at the red line.

    This development together with the galloping global economic crisis will force the incoming US president to go straight into decision-making without pause on Day One in the Oval Office. He will have to determine which urgent measures can serve best for keeping a nuclear bomb out of the Islamic republic’s hands - diplomatic or military – and how to proceed if those measures fail.

    His knowledge of the challenge colored Sen. Biden’s additional words in Seattle: “Remember I said it standing here if you don’t remember anything else I said. Watch, we’re gonna have an international crisis, a generated crisis, to test the mettle of this guy.”

    Israel’s political and military leaders also face a tough dilemma that can no longer be put off of whether to strike Iran’s nuclear installations militarily in the next three months between US presidencies before the last window closes, or take a chance on coordination with the next president.

    Waiting for the “international community” to do the job of stopping Iran, as urged by governments headed by Ariel Sharon and Ehud Olmert - and strongly advocated Tzipi Livni, foreign minister and would-be prime minister - has been a washout. Iran stands defiantly on the threshold of a nuclear weapon.

    and we find out that the crisis will be Iran likely demonstrating a nuke. Good thing that they don't have one, aren't building one and the UN is keeping a close eye on them and all that. Sure glad the UN is covering our back. Anyway, so the crisis will be Iran's nuke and what Isreal does about it, and what the US will do about it. 55% chance that Little Mac is elected come Nov 4. I'm sure that either way, the US would be a whole lot happier if Israel would just fix Iran sometime between Nov 5 and Jan 20.

  • Dr. Hess

    Dec. 12, 2008 2:49 p.m. Dr. Hess UberDork

    So, it looks like "the fix" was put in place. No blowing up Iran between presidents. Also, it looks like a nuclear armed Iran is being taken as the way it's going to be. Also, The O has now promised to go to war with Iran and give them the Parking Lot Treament (creating a nice glass lined parking lot for autocrossing) if they should nuke Israel. Really, I think the Israelies can take care of themselves with a 2nd strike capability, and Iran only has a couple of nukes anyway. In my book, 3 nukes doesn't make you a nuclear power. 3 nukes makes you a nuclear target. They are said to have their first bomb ready to go by January 20th, and 2 more by the end of the year.

    http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1045687.html says the Lizard Queen is promising to put Isreal under a "nuclear umbrella," along with our good friends the Saudies, always looking out after our best interests. All we really need now is for the Russians to put Iran under their "umbrealla" and we will have 1 day pre WWI duplicated as 1 day pre WWIII. Then we only need the Yugos/Serbs to go bump someone else off again and wooosh. How do we convince those pesky people in Kansas that a full on nuclear war over Israel is really in their best interest? Start the spinning.

  • John Brown

    Dec. 12, 2008 3:08 p.m. John Brown UltimaDork

    You can pump oil through glass as easily as you can through sand ;)

  • Mental

    Dec. 12, 2008 4:15 p.m. Mental UltraDork

    Last year we had a presentation to us from one fo those WA think tank guys. The discussion was on whether or not we wllow Iran to become a nuclear power. His assesment was "So what?" They won't use them. As fruitcakey as the leader is, that country likes trade and they like money. They like money more than they hate Isreal. They can just talk a lot of smack and increase their trade with other Isreal haters and life goes one. His subpiont was awful similair to your as well, Isreal can and has handled this is the past, and 3 nukes makes you a bigger target than a power. He was not alone in this belief and it would seem cooler heads have prevailed.

    Truth be told, the next war will and should be in Somalia. The place is in utter chaos and a breeding ground for Al Queda types. Many theorirst belive we actually first ran across Bin Laden there in 91. We have already become involved in combat operations, the pirate situation will only serve to annoy the world and gain favor. If the 2010 withdrawal goes as planned (stop laughing), we'll have battle hardened and capable troops freed up for the process.

  • stroker

    Dec. 12, 2008 8:59 p.m. stroker New Reader

    You're thinking our current crop of troops will want to stay in with the Big O in the driver's seat?

  • Dr. Hess

    Dec. 12, 2008 9:18 p.m. Dr. Hess UberDork

    Oh, I know they don't. I know a guy on another forum is a nurse and of fairly high rank. He put in his resignation, not wanting to take orders from a communist and thinking that it would take a year or so to work through. They told him flat out no, you're in until we say otherwise.

    Mental, I think you're right about Somalia. This whole pirate thing is getting out of hand. They have taken in something like $100 million in ransoms this past year, I read somewhere.

  • Dr. Hess

    Jan. 11, 2009 3:44 p.m. Dr. Hess PowerDork

    On Fox today, http://www.foxnews.com/politics/elections/2009/01/10/nyt-bush-protested-israeli-pl...

    Bush Protested Planned Israeli Strike on Iran President Bush reportedly revealed to the Israelis that he already had authorized a covert U.S. effort to sabotage Iran's nuclear capabilities.

    FOXNews.com

    Saturday, January 10, 2009

    Two well placed sources confirmed to FOX News that Israel last year made "various requests" for U.S. assistance with a planned Israeli air strike on Iran's nuclear program.

    Israel's plan, however, was scuttled when the United States rebuffed Israel in its request to fly through Iraqi airspace, according to a New York Times report on a covert U.S. program.

    The Times story, published Saturday, cites unnamed American and foreign officials in reporting that President Bush also turned away an Israeli request for bunker-busting bombs for use in its planned attack on the Iranian nuclear complex. The president then revealed to the Israelis that he already had authorized a covert U.S. effort to sabotage Iran's nuclear capabilities, the Times reports.

    The Bush administration was "particularly alarmed," the Times says, by the Israeli request for access to Iraqi airspace.

    Sources told FOX News that the Israeli requests were made directly to the White House because the Israelis were "disturbed and fearful" of leaks from the U.S. intelligence community and "did not trust" Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

    One source told FOX News the Israelis approached the Bush White House at least once last summer, possibly twice, and were "slammed down" because senior administration officials felt such assistance would "unravel our position in Iraq." President Bush was convinced by aides, sources said, that any such American aid to an Israeli strike on Iran's nuclear program would cause the Iranians "to foment great upheaval in Iraq."

    One source told FOX News the Israeli emissary sent to request Washington's help was Meir Dagan, head of the Israeli spy agency Mossad. Dagan was sent reportedly because the Israelis considered him "the only trusted channel."

    Back in the summer of 2007, shortly before the Israelis' now legendary September 6, 2007 air strike on a nascent Syrian nuclear facility -- built with the help of North Korea -- it was Dagan whom the Israelis authorized to alert Washington to the impending attack. (It is this timeline that accounts for the New York Times' reference to its work on this story dating back "fifteen months.")

    Sources tell FOX News the upper echelons of the Central Intelligence Agency are "royally peeved" that the Israeli requests for assistance last summer went directly to the White House and not through Langley. From the Israelis' point of view, that was because they believed that CIA had tried to force the Israelis to abort the 2007 Syrian strike hours before it was launched.

    According to one source: The "CIA leaked the impending raid [on Syria in 2007] the day before in order to, as the Israelis suspected, scuttle it. Israel almost called it off, but when their sources detected no heightened Syrian readiness or defensive measures, they were sure Syrian intelligence had not picked the leak up, and thus Israel decided to go ahead and do the raid. From that experience, Israel believed that the Iran raid would need to be through even more restrictive channels -- direct to the president by Olmert's most trusted channel, Dagan. They did not trust Condi."

    The refusal of the Bush administration to provide the assistance the Israelis requested occasioned sharp dispute among senior policymakers, who split along the now-familiar lines that saw Vice President Cheney and his aides favoring harsher measures against the Iranians and Secretary Rice and others opposing them.

    "It's yet another example," said one source, "of the Bush administration morphing into the Obama administration before Obama was elected."

    The Times report suggests that Bush is about to hand off to President-elect Obama a more advanced operation of counteracting Iran's nuclear capabilities than has yet been made public.

    So, we have the Israelies pissed off and not trusting us. Gee, the US leaked their last little nuke buster project to the Syrians and for some reason, now they don't trust the CIA or the State Department. Go figger. That also ties in with what we've seen and explains why the Iranians still have their uranium plants. The comment about Bush's administration morption to The O's administration even before the election was also telling. The Fix Was In for The O to be elected. Now, why? Guess we'll see. But, I could visualize the D's fully behind a plan from The O's to bomb Iran back to the stone age, "for the good of the world" or global warming or whatever. He already said to just bomb Pakistan and be done with it, and they have nukes.

  • Mental

    Jan. 11, 2009 9:34 p.m. Mental UltraDork

    stroker wrote:

    You're thinking our current crop of troops will want to stay in with the Big O in the driver's seat?

    Dr. Hess wrote:

    Oh, I know they don't. I know a guy on another forum is a nurse and of fairly high rank. He put in his resignation, not wanting to take orders from a communist and thinking that it would take a year or so to work through. They told him flat out no, you're in until we say otherwise....

    Been doing this for 18 years now, and I have heard that about every President elected. There might be a few that get out, but there will be others to take their place, and in this era of economic uncertainty, a great many of them will conviently remember their service oath is to the Constitution and not the President. Bear in mind as a demographic, the military has the worst voting percentage of anyone.

  • wherethefmi2000

    Jan. 12, 2009 1:25 a.m. wherethefmi2000 Reader

    stroker wrote:

    You're thinking our current crop of troops will want to stay in with the Big O in the driver's seat?

    I voted for the big O and i serve, have been to war and back and will gladly serve the next president as I do the current one. Though I will admit that I don't represent the majority, the economy being bad hasn't affected me a much as the rest of the country. though times are tighter, I can't see getting out just cause there's new leadership.

  • Dr. Hess

    Aug. 24, 2009 1:52 p.m. Dr. Hess PowerDork

    So, 2K dead, 150K homeless in 2 weeks and Nobody Heard A Thing About It. Most 'Mericans couldn't find Yemen on a map anyway, thanks to The Left's education system. From http://www.debka.com/article.php?aid=1402

    <em>Debka.com said:

    Yemen War: Where US and Iran Jockey for Regional Primacy

    DEBKAfile Exclusive Analysis

    The latest paroxysm of Yemen's five-year war with the rebel Houthis has left more than 2,000 dead in less than a month and up to 150,000 homeless. Yemeni government troops are battling around 15,000 Iranian-armed and trained Houthi rebels dug into the northern Sadaa mountains on the Saudi Arabian border. Saudi air force bombers are pounding the rebels and the Egyptian air force and navy are ferrying ammunition to the Yemen army with US encouragement and funding.

    This is the second war in less than a year in which US allies are pitted against Iran-backed forces. The first was Israel's three-week campaign against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, which ended last January.

    This strategically-located, poor Red Sea country, for years a critical stage for the war on Islamist extremists, has now become a key arena where the United States and Iran jockey for regional primacy. In that respect, the Yemen conflict compares in importance with the 2006 Lebanon War and the Gaza conflict. Its outcome will bear heavily on the relative strategic positions in the Persian Gulf and Red Sea regions of the US - as well as Saudi Arabia, Egypt and indirectly Israel too - vis-à-vis Iran.

    DEBKAfile's military sources point to eight salient features of the ongoing Yemen conflict:

    1. Two weeks ago, president Ali Abdullah Saleh's army launched the sixth round since the year 2000 of his war with the Houthis, deploying about 20,000 troops for a major offensive to dislodge the 15,000 Houthis from their mountain fastnesses (12-18,000 feet tall) in the northern province of Saada.

    2. The Houthis are Zaydis who claim they adhere to the purest form of Shiite Islam. They are fighting to bring the true faith to Yemen by restoring the Zaydi imamate overthrown in 1962. Their name derives from the movement's founder, Badreddin al-Houthi, who was killed by the Yemeni army in 2004. The Houthi Shiites and Iranian Shia have nothing in common barring Tehran's exploitation of the Yemeni rebels as a proxy force (like the Lebanese Hizballah) for gaining Iran a military foot through the door to the Saudi Arabian border and the southern Arabian peninsula.

    3. The sheer quantities of hardware the Iranians managed to transfer to the Houthis in two weeks amazed Washington, Sanaa, Riyadh and Cairo, even through Iran had previously displayed this capability by the speed with which it replenished and augmented Hizballah losses after the 2006 war against Israel. The Yemeni army is therefore hard put to quell the heavily-armed insurgents or even prevent the battles from spilling out of the Saada region into other parts of the country, including the capital.

    4. Fearful that the conflict and Zaydi influence may seep across Yemen's northern border into the southern Saudi regions of Najran and Asir, Saudi Arabia has sent its air force to help the Yemeni army by pounding the Houthi strongholds in Saada's mountain villages.

    5. The small 66,000 Yemeni army, lacking organized military stockpiles, soon began running out of ammunition and military equipment. The Egyptian army is running these necessary supplies to Yemen through a naval and aerial corridor.

    6. The Obama administration has pitched in with financial assistance for the Saudi and Egyptian efforts to help Yemen. This was agreed at the meeting the US and Egyptian presidents held at the White House last Tuesday, Aug. 18. In this fashion, US president Barack Obama is making a stand against Iran alongside Hosni Mubarak and King Abdullah.

    7. Just as the US and Israel were taken by surprise by the Iranian surrogate Hizballah's military capabilities in the 2006 Lebanon War, so too were the US and its allies astonished by the Houthi rebels' command of the battlefield. The Yemeni army's First Mechanized Infantry Division, fortified by every one of its six paratroop and commando brigades and Saudi air support, has proved unable in two weeks of combat to break into the rebels' mountain strongholds.

    8. Without this breakthrough, the conflict threatens to spread and escalate into the biggest and most dangerous war to strike any part of Arabia in the last 18 years, ever since Saddam Hussein ordered the Iraqi army to invade Kuwait in 1991.

  • John Brown

    Aug. 24, 2009 1:57 p.m. John Brown MegaDork

    All I know about Yemen I learned from Sean Morey.

  • ignorant

    Aug. 24, 2009 5:43 p.m. ignorant PowerDork

    Dr. Hess wrote:

    Most 'Mericans couldn't find Yemen on a map anyway, thanks to The Left's education system.

    but I thought no children were going to be left behind..

  • John Brown

    Aug. 24, 2009 6:10 p.m. John Brown MegaDork

    No child is left behind, they are all right behind the rest of the world.

  • oldsaw

    Aug. 24, 2009 6:18 p.m. oldsaw Reader

    ignorant wrote:

    Dr. Hess wrote:

    Most 'Mericans couldn't find Yemen on a map anyway, thanks to The Left's education system.

    but I thought no children were going to be left behind..

    They cannot be left behind if they are never taught or tested on using maps or about geo-politics.

    But they do have great self-esteem.

« 1 2 3 4 5 6 »  

You'll need to log in to post.