The impending war with Iran

[Miulang]

Re: The impending war with Iran

Gee, I don't know how he got the interview. Maybe because they knew they could run circles around a 'useful idiot' who would serve the purpose of spreading their propaganda? Do you really think our government talking to him is some how going make everything better? He's not even the one running the country, it's the mullahs. Rapprochement with the West is NOT the goal of the mullahs. Ushering in an era of fundamentalist Islamic rule is.

For one of the very few times in recent history, I am agreeing with one person in the White House (heaven forfend). The Secretary of State believes that the way to get things to quiet down in the Middle East is to be in open dialogue with both Syria and Iran. Her bosses both say no. So I guess she can't do her job, and we, the citizens of this country and all citizens of the world, are in greater peril because of them. Our experience in Iraq and the Israeli experience in Lebanon should teach us that force alone will not stop our enemies, unless we intend to use the ultimate end game, which might mean the end of life itself.

Miulang

P.S. You do agree that Wallace was a pretty poor excuse for an interviewer, though, right?

[Miulang]

Re: The impending war with Iran

One of the ways people like Nasrallah and Ahmadimejad become popular with their own people is because they come across as caring about the needs of their constituents.

A CNN reporter yesterday said amidst the rubble that is now South Lebanon, he saw Hezbollah operatives with clipboards in hand, talking to residents about what their needs were and asking how Hezbollah could help rebuild their homes. Nasrallah gave a speech in which he said Hezbollah would help rebuild apartments and rebuild schools and hospitals for the people. Everyone thinks that the billions it will cost to repair South Lebanon is coming exclusively from Tehran, but it's not. Every Shia family is tithed, and a portion of that money will be channeled to Hezbollah to help in the rebuilding efforts.

Then BBC reported that Ahmadimejad had set up a website and encouraged his people to send in questions they had. Because of the strict censorship rules that exist in Iran, it'll be interesting to see how many Iranian civilians actually do post questions.

To me, though, that's just basic customer service. If you treat your customers well, and make them feel like you care about them, they will remain your loyal customers. Nothing really revolutionary about that, except that more American companies could practice more of it.

Miulang

[kamuelakea]

Re: The impending war with Iran

One of the ways people like Nasrallah and Ahmadimejad become popular with their own people is because they come across as caring about the needs of their constituents. Miulang

Ahhh, isn't that nice. A friendly terrorist. As opposed to a rude one. I like my terrorists a little glib and sarcastic when they aren't indiscriminately murdering innocent men, women and children.

How about the rest of you. How do you like your terrorist? Cute, smart, confident. Do you like when your terrorist can play a musical instrument? Or do you go for the soccer guyz terrorist?


Everybody share now.

[MadAzza]

Re: The impending war with Iran

Everybody share now.

OK, I'll share.

Miulang said "they come across as caring about the needs of their constituents." Not that they actually *do* care.

Dunno if that answers to the point you were making, though. Your point might have been lost in all the ... whatever that was.

[kamuelakea]

Re: The impending war with Iran

Dunno if that answers to the point you were making, though. Your point might have been lost in all the ... whatever that was.

My point is that Miulang is a terrorist sympathizer. She is actually making the case that thinking individuals, be they Lebanese or American, should be able to see the good side of the Nazi’s (terrorists). Hey, they may have murdered millions of Jews, but other than that they were really nice guys. That’s what Miulang said in her description of Hezbollah with clip boards. She’ll deny it. But that’s what she said.

[chriscollado]

Re: The impending war with Iran

Ahhh, isn't that nice. A friendly terrorist. As opposed to a rude one. I like my terrorists a little glib and sarcastic when they aren't indiscriminately murdering innocent men, women and children.

How about the rest of you. How do you like your terrorist? Cute, smart, confident. Do you like when your terrorist can play a musical instrument? Or do you go for the soccer guyz terrorist?


Everybody share now.

I'm really beginnning to like you.. You make me laugh.

[nachodaddy]

Re: The impending war with Iran

My point is that Miulang is a terrorist sympathizer. She is actually making the case that thinking individuals, be they Lebanese or American, should be able to see the good side of the Nazi’s (terrorists). Hey, they may have murdered millions of Jews, but other than that they were really nice guys. That’s what Miulang said in her description of Hezbollah with clip boards. She’ll deny it. But that’s what she said.

I will agree that there appears to be strong evidence to support your above claim.

I will also say that if you, as well as anybody else, wants to bring attention to this charge, all they need to do is google "DHS", go to the web page, hit "contact us" and follow the directions.

Let the authorities judge. As Muilang has claimed, it is the patriotic thing to do.

And that is all I am allowed to say in this matter. This is not going to be turned into a discussion, at least by me.

[Leo Lakio]

Re: The impending war with Iran

I will agree that there appears to be strong evidence to support your above claim.

I will also say that if you, as well as anybody else, wants to bring attention to this charge, all they need to do is google "DHS", go to the web page, hit "contact us" and follow the directions.

Let the authorities judge. As Muilang has claimed, it is the patriotic thing to do.

And that is all I am allowed to say in this matter. This is not going to be turned into a discussion, at least by me.

And let us hope that such statements are not used against posters in a harassment filing. People: be careful what you are suggesting. It is one thing to have a heated disagreement with each other on an internet forum - it is quite a different step to waste the time of federal authorities with a frivolous report.

[Miulang]

Re: The impending war with Iran

I will agree that there appears to be strong evidence to support your above claim.

I will also say that if you, as well as anybody else, wants to bring attention to this charge, all they need to do is google "DHS", go to the web page, hit "contact us" and follow the directions.

Let the authorities judge. As Muilang has claimed, it is the patriotic thing to do.

And that is all I am allowed to say in this matter. This is not going to be turned into a discussion, at least by me.

I would only worry about this if I believed I lived in a paranoid, fascist country, which thankfully, I know I do not. I'm pretty sure I've already come under their scrutiny for having participated in peace marches in the past.

Miulang

[Leo Lakio]

Re: The impending war with Iran

I'm pretty sure I've already come under their scrutiny for having participated in peace marches in the past.

So THAT's where we've met before --- our files are near each other at the FBI!

[Miulang]

Re: The impending war with Iran

So THAT's where we've met before --- our files are near each other at the FBI!

Yup! And I hope they took my picture, they got the good side of my face too! ROFL

Miulang

[Miulang]

The Military's "wise men"

Thank god there are at least 21 retired military officers who know that starting a war with Iran is not in this country's best interest.

"We call on the administration to engage immediately in direct talks with the government of Iran without preconditions to help resolve the current crisis in the Middle East and to settle differences over an Iranian nuclear program," their letter read.

"An attack on Iran would have disastrous consequences for security in the region and U.S. forces in Iraq," they argued. "It would inflame hatred and violence in the Middle East and among Muslims everywhere."

In a telephone news conference Thursday morning, the former security officials took particular aim at the Bush Administration's policy of refusing to negotiate with terrorists or with states that support them.

...The generals further argued that the Bush Administration's invasion of Iraq is at least partially responsible for Iran's drive to develop a nuclear program.

"When you announce an axis of evil of three countries and invade one and then say that Iran should take that as a lesson, it does seem that it may give them an incentive to do precisely what they don't want them to do," Guard said, "develop a nuclear weapon."

...At the White House, Bush's spokesperson Tony Snow dismissed the letter.

..."Until we get away from the idea that we can solve these problems through the use of military force and begin to change the political problems causing discontent by providing security and services, we're not going to win this war," he (General Joseph Hoar, the Commander in Chief of U.S. Military Central Command under presidents Bill Clinton and George H. W. Bush) said.

Miulang

[Miulang]

Recognizing Iran as a Strategic Threat: An Intelligence Challenge for the United Stat

That is the title of a report that was just released last week to Congress on what we publicly know and don't know about Iran's attempts to build up a nuclear weapons arsenal.

The bottom line is we don't know more than we do know about what Iran is doing. There are still critical gaps in the intelligence. This is exactly what happened prior to our invasion of Iraq.

What this report also tells me is without better honest intelligence, if Bushco want to stir something up with Iran (i.e., not making up facts to fit the proposed action planned), they will get us into some really big opala. Most experts believe that if Israel by proxy for us started an aerial assault against suspected nuclear sites in Iran, it wouldn't even make a dent in their program. If WE went in ourselves, we'd dent the program but wouldn't eliminate it. In the meantime, we'd be seeding nuclear rain clouds that would eventually make their way around the world and surprise surprise, end up poisoning us too.

Miulang

[Miulang]

The seizure of Iranians in Irbil, Iraq

This is how the Iranian press is reporting the US invasion of a building in Irbil, Iraq that housed some Iranian nationals.

BAGHDAD, Iraq, Jan. 12--A night-time swoop by US forces on an Iranian office in northern Iraq triggered strong criticism Friday, with Kurdish leaders and even Moscow branding the raid unacceptable.
The raid on Thursday in the northern Iraqi city of Arbil was “absolutely unacceptable“ and “the crudest possible violation of the Vienna Convention on consular relations,“ ministry spokesman Mikhail Kamynin said in a statement, AFP reported.
In the early hours of Thursday, US troops dropped from helicopters and stormed an Iranian liaison office in Iraqi Kurdistan and detained six Iranian employees.
The US military later said it had freed one of the six people detained in the controversial raid on the Iranian government building in Arbil, the capital of the northern Iraqi Kurdistan region. Iraq’s Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said the office had not yet become a full-fledged consulate.
“It is a liaison office. There was a request to change it into consulate,“ Zebari told AFP, adding that the office had been operational for 10 years.
“We had already agreed with the Iranians to open consulates in Arbil and Sulaimaniyah in return for opening (Iraqi) consulates in (Iranian cities) Mashhad and Ahvaz. These procedures have not been finalized,“ he said.
Asked about the remaining five detainees, Zebari said: “They are not with us. They are with the Americans.
The US military confirmed that the five employees were in its custody. There were no clashes with security guards but US grenades shattered windows of the two-story building as troops ordered all those inside to surrender before lowering the Iranian flag and abandoning the premises. Fuad Hussein, a senior official in the Kurdish presidency, said the regional government, one of the staunchest US allies in the Middle East, had not been given advance warning about the arrest operation.
The office of the Iraqi Kurdish party leader, Massoud Barzani, in Arbil on Thursday condemned the US military raid and called for immediate release of Iranians detained during the operation.

[Miulang]

Re: The impending war with Iran

And this is what the Israelis are reading about the same incident. So who's lying? The Kurds or us?

An order from U.S. President George W. Bush authorized a series of U.S. raids against Iranians in Iraq as part of a broad military offensive, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Friday.

Bush issued the order several months ago, Rice told The New York Times as she prepared to visit the Middle East. She said the president acted "after a period of time in which we saw increasing activity" among Iranians in Iraq "and increasing lethality in what they were producing."

Five Iranians were detained by U.S.-led forces this week after a raid on an Iranian government liaison office in northern Iraq because of information linking the facility to the Revolutionary Guards and other Iranian elements who are engaging in violent activities in Iraq. The move further frayed the relations between the two countries.

Deputy State Department spokesman Tom Casey said there was no truth to reports that Iran was carrying out legitimate diplomatic activity at the site. "It did not have the standing of a consulate nor did it have any other international diplomatic standing to speak of," he said.

Casey's comments contradict Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari, a Kurd, who said Friday that the Iranians were working in a "liaison office" in Irbil that had government approval and was in the process of being approved as a consulate.

Miulang