Obama: "I'm ready to negotiate with you, Iran." Iran: "Fuck you."

[xoxoxoBruce]

Remember, the Iranians aren't Arabs, they're Persians and traditional enemies.

[piercehawkeye45]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

Remember, the Iranians aren't Arabs, they're Persians and traditional enemies.

I'm sure economic incentive is lower on the list, if on at all, of reasons why Arab countries would want to prevent Iran from becoming a nuclear power. Being surrounded by nuclear power Israel and a probably soon to be nuclear power Iran is not making them feel secure. I'm just curious if there is any economic incentive behind it.

Originally Posted by TheMercenary

Don't forget, Iran has very limited production for domestic oil by-products, specifically, gas. They would be cutting off their nose to spite their face. A few well placed cruise missiles would cripple their country in a matter of days.

Good point. Despite how their politicians come off, I don't see Iran as a suicidal country but I do feel they could do some damage if they really wanted too. We could easily beat them one on one but I really doubt they would choose to fight that way.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Iran is already doing damage through their support of Al-Qaeda, The Taliban, Hezbollah, and who knows how many other terrorists.

[piercehawkeye45]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

Iran is already doing damage through their support of Al-Qaeda, The Taliban, Hezbollah, and who knows how many other terrorists.

True, but this all a balancing act on a very unstable board. Yes, Iran is doing damage right now and yes it will be bad for US and other interests if they get the bomb. But we have no idea how they will react to an attack or if we can actually stop their nuclear bomb program and that needs to be taken into consideration.

[TheMercenary]

Originally Posted by piercehawkeye45

Something I just thought of with Arab nations supporting the bombing of Iran's nuclear facilities...

If the US bombs Iran's nuclear facilities and in response Iran cuts off the Strait of Hormuz, sky rocketing the price for oil, how much money would Arab nations make off that?

There is much more that goes into consideration for supporting an attack on Iran but I'm curious to know a ballpark prediction for that.

Don't forget, Iran has very limited production for domestic oil by-products, specifically, gas. They would be cutting off their nose to spite their face. A few well placed cruise missiles would cripple their country in a matter of days.

[TheMercenary]

A Gang-of-one.

If their neighbors had any balls they would do it for the rest of us. But isn't that the way of the Middle East? Convince the US that it is their problem and let us donate our lives for their shit problems?

[Undertoad]

I imagine the price will go up on day one due to the futures markets, but I've also read that if they try it, we can open up the Strait pretty damn quick.

[classicman]

No matter what happens it will be "our" fault.

[TheMercenary]

Originally Posted by classicman

No matter what happens it will be "our" fault.

Does that mean that we can then blame "Bush"?

[classicman]

Don't start that again!

I mean that no matter whether it is or isn't, it will be portrayed as America's fault.
In that regard we are such an easy target.

[TheMercenary]

Fuck off.

[Undertoad]

1. Wikileaks information says

A 2009 American government cable released Sunday by the WikiLeaks website quotes Defense Minister Ehud Barak as telling visiting American officials that a strike on Iran's nuclear facilities was viable until the end of 2010, but after that "any military solution would result in unacceptable collateral damage."

But that can now be delayed, because

2. Wired reports that

In what appears to be the first confirmation that the Stuxnet malware hit Iran’s Natanz nuclear facility, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Monday that malicious computer code launched by “enemies” of the state had sabotaged centrifuges used in Iran’s nuclear-enrichment program.

And how! The code was written to slowly change centrifuge speeds, so that nobody would notice until it was too late:

Stuxnet targets only frequency drives from these two companies that are also running at high speeds — between 807 Hz and 1210 Hz.

Frequency-converter drives are used to control the speed of a device. Although it’s not known what device Stuxnet aimed to control, it was designed to vary the speed of the device wildly but intermittently over a span of weeks, suggesting the aim was subtle sabotage meant to ruin a process over time but not in a way that would attract suspicion.

“Using nuclear enrichment as an example, the centrifuges need to spin at a precise speed for long periods of time in order to extract the pure uranium,” Symantec’s Liam O Murchu told Threat Level earlier this month. “If those centrifuges stop to spin at that high speed, then it can disrupt the process of isolating the heavier isotopes in those centrifuges … and the final grade of uranium you would get out would be a lower quality.”

Could this also be why N.K.'s tests have fizzled so nicely?

3. Wired also repeats the earlier news from today about a Bond-esque assassination:

...assassinations on Monday could indicate that whoever targeted Iran felt the malware was insufficient to halt Iran’s nuclear program.

According to news reports, the scientists were targeted in separate but nearly simultaneous car bomb attacks near Shahid Beheshti University. Majid Shahriari and Fereydoun Abbasi, along with their wives, were driving to work when assailants on motorcycles zipped by their vehicles and slapped magnetized explosives to the cars, which were detonated within seconds.

Shahriari, who was head of an unnamed Iranian nuclear program, was killed. Abbasi, a high-ranking Ministry of Defense official who reportedly holds a Ph.D. in nuclear physics, was wounded. Both wives were wounded in the attacks.

Two other Iranian nuclear scientists have been killed in recent years. A senior physics professor at Tehran University was killed in January, when a bomb attached to a motorcycle exploded near his car as he was leaving for work. A second nuclear scientist died in 2007 from gas poisoning.

Ahmadinejad blamed it on the US. The rest of the world yawned.

[classicman]

similar deaths were carried out in the previous weeks against targets elsewhere in the world. I posted the links somewhere on here...
I was thinking that the others were sort of like practice for these two.

[TheMercenary]

During a conversation with French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner in 2008 about encouraging China to sign a resolution condemning Iran, Gates said the Saudis "always want to 'fight the Iranians to the last American,' but that now it is time for them to get into the game," according the cable.

Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah repeatedly urges the U.S. to "cut the head off the snake." The foreign minister of the United Arab Emirates says "Ahmadinejad is Hitler" and told one U.S. top State Department official that "the threat from al Qaeda would be minor if Iran has nukes."

http://abcnews.go.com/US/official-wi...ry?id=12263971

[skysidhe]

The government had to know WAY before toppling Hussein ,that Iran was always,THE problem.

If I stopped to think about it, I could get very pissed off. I could see this could be a problem for our future,and the future is upon us, to waste our resources going on a wild goose chase, and have nothing, for when the time came to clamp down on Iran, but I am a simple minded person, and apparently great minds call the shots.