Washington's Debate: What To Do With Iran?
Tensions Rise As A New Report Claims The Pentagon Is Redrawing Strike Plans Against Iran
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No Military Action In Iran
Governor Bill Richardson tells Bob Schieffer that U.S. military action in Iran would be enormously unwise.
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Roundtable On Ahmedinejad
The Washington Post's Robin Wright and Danielle Pletka of the American Enterprise Institute weigh in on the Iranian president's visit to the U.S.
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War Of Rhetoric At The U.N.
When President Bush addressed the U.N., he largely avoided Iran. But when President Ahmadinejad spoke, he targeted the U.S. Jim Axelrod reports.
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Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad speaks to the media during a news briefing upon his arrival at the Mehrabad airport in Tehran, Iran, Friday, Sept. 28, 2007, after his trip to New York for attending U.N. General Assembly. (AP)
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Timeline
The U.S. And Iran
Key events in once friendly, now contentious relationship between Washington and Tehran.
"It would be enormously unwise for the Bush administration to start another war before ending this tragic war we're in today," Richardson told Bob Schieffer. "And it does sound like the administration is ramping up - you can just see it."
The White House has long claimed that Iran is secretly enriching uranium to build nuclear weapons, but U.S. officials have shifted their focus toward claims that Iran is supporting anti-American forces in neighboring Iraq.
While Iran denies both accusations, the U.S. Senate voted Wednesday 76-22 in favor of a resolution urging the State Department to designate Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps a terrorist organization.
The proposal attracted overwhelming bipartisan support, but a small group of Democrats said they feared labeling the state-sponsored organization a terrorist group could be interpreted as a congressional authorization of military force against Iran.
In a new article in the New Yorker, Seymour Hersch writes that the focus of the Pentagon's new plan is not Iran's nuclear facilities but other bases that allegedly send terrorists - and explosives - into Iraq, to kill Americans.
"The focus of the plans had been a broad bombing attack, with targets including Iran's known and suspected nuclear facilities and other military and infrastructure sites," Hersch writes. "Now the emphasis is on 'surgical' strikes on Revolutionary Guard Corps facilities in Tehran and elsewhere, which, the Administration claims, have been the source of attacks on Americans in Iraq."
President Bush acknowledged the chance for military confrontation with Iranian forces in a speech last month, saying, "I have authorized our military commanders in Iraq to confront Tehran's murderous activities."
But, in a meeting with CBS News executives on Friday, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said, "We still believe that the diplomatic track has legs and can still resolve this if we remain very tough on that track."
Rice also said, however, that the president hasn't taken the military option "off the table."
Two foreign policy experts who appeared on Face The Nation said that the debate over Iran was definitely heating up in Washington, but that no one seemed ready to take any military action.
"There's almost kind of a small hysteria in Washington about what we do with Iran," said Robin Wright, a Washington Post reporter who has written three books on Iran. "The reality is that largely because of Iraq and to a certain degree Afghanistan, we now find our selves in what is a kind of cold war with Iran for regional influence. And this is likely to define the region, I think, for the next decade."
The reality is that largely because of Iraq and to a certain degree Afghanistan, we now find our selves in what is a kind of cold war with Iran for regional influence. And this is likely to define the region, I think, for the next decade.
Robin Wright, The Washington Post"We need to have an effective sanctions regime. We need to have one that actually bites," Danielle Pletka, who is vice president for foreign and defense policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute, said. "We need to give a lot more effort to that before we begin to consider military operations, because they're not the silver bullet that some people want to suggest that they are."
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told world leaders at the U.N. General Assembly earlier in the week that his country would defy attempts to impose new sanctions by "arrogant powers" seeking to curb its nuclear program, accusing them of lying and imposing illegal penalties on his country.
As for Iranian activities in Iraq, Pletka said chaos in Iraq benefits the Iranians and Tehran would not want to see a stable Iraq as "either as a democracy or as a counterbalance to their own influence in the region."
Richardson said he would not threaten Iran with military strikes, but there were two issues on which the U.S. would be forced to deal with Iran.
"We cannot have Iran have nuclear weapons, but I believe we can work with them to develop a civilian nuclear fuel cycle, perhaps with the Russians," he said. "We cannot have them, obviously, continue helping the Revolutionary Guards in Iraq."
"But calling them names, labeling them terrorists, drawing up military options is just making the situation worse and inflaming the Muslim world at a time when we need in the Persian Gulf, in the Middle East, and in Iraq a political solution," Richardson said.
Richardson said if he were to become the president, he would engage Iran. "But I would go around Ahmadinejad," he said. "I would go to the moderate Muslim clerics, Islamic clerics. I would talk to students. I would talk to university professors, business leaders."
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See all 225 CommentsIran - shia (shi''ite).
Afghanistan - mixed, sunni & shia.
Iraq - mixed, sunni & shia.
Al-Malaki - shia.
al Qaeda - sunni.
ALL the REST of Islam - sunni with a few pockets of shia.
The US taxpayer - paying for an ill conceived, ill executed strategy put forth by a clueless administation. Helping preserve shias around Iran, the only predominately shia nation on the planet. The rest of Islam hates Iran as much as most Christian nations.
Not true, half of Lebanon likes them, the Syrians like them, Hamas like them, Chavez likes them. So do a lot of race baiting idiots who post on this site don''t you read the stuff.
The Axis of evil, one down two to go.
Some people, Churchill was one, wanted to take Hitler out in the mid 1930s while it was possible they were called crazies and war lovers, by people like you, look what happened in Europe through inaction 60 million dead.
Only psychopaths kill their neighbor because they buy a gun.
Fear/cowardice is not justification for murder.
Only criminals kill their neighbor to take their money/oil.
For all practical purposes we have become a dangerous psychopathic criminal serial killer nation.
We really should stop.
It would be better.
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Posted by Kaelinda at 07:07 PM : Sep 30, 2007
Better order your Burkha while you have time.
Only psychopaths kill their neighbor because they buy a gun.
Fear/cowardice is not justification for murder.
Only criminals kill their neighbor to take their money/oil.
For all practical purposes we have become a dangerous psychopathic criminal serial killer nation.
We really should stop.
It would be better.
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Posted by CBS_Oliver at 07:29 PM : Sep 30, 2007
Your ignorant or stupid, Iran has been killing Americans for 25 years, starting with the Marine barracks in Beiruit and continuing through to killing GIs in Iraq with bombs under trucks. You''re Yellowdog Progressive.
Oh that''s right, I forgot for a moment that the Bush administration doesn''t care about the will of the American people.
The Great Emperor feels that if his "idol" (Adolph Hitler) could wage war on 2 fronts, so could the Great Emperor Bush II. (FDR also carried out a war on 2 fronts, but is not the Emperor''s idol because FDR was an evil, liberal-minded Democrat)!
Unfortunately, the Emperor''s thought processes do not extend to the consequences of what happens when war is carried out on more than one front. In his "idol''s" case, the Nazis thought their military was invincible and could handle a war on 2 fronts. They were wrong and Germany was destroyed because of it.
However, we all know how "dedicated" (perhaps stubborn is a better word), the Emperor and VP Darth Vader Cheney are in attacking Iran before the fall of next year, in order to "help" the chances of the GOP in the fall, 2008 elections (provided they are held, of course).
LONG LIVE THE MILITARY "GENIUS" OF eMPEROR bUSH AND VP DARTH VADER CHENEY!!!
SIG HEIL, BUSH!!!
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Posted by robertkjjj at 07:10 PM : Sep 30, 2007
Just like 9/11 again!
Posted by jowand at 07:34 PM : Sep 30, 2007
You better go back a few more years to around 1953 and Operation Ajax !!
In summer of 1941 Britain and the USSR invaded Iran to prevent Iran from allying with the Axis powers. The Allies occupied Iran, securing a supply line to Russia, Iran''s petroleum infrastructure, and forced the Shah to abdicate in favor of his son, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. In 1951, a nationalist politician, Dr. Mohammed Mossadegh rose to prominence in Iran and was elected Prime Minister. As Prime Minister, Mossadegh became enormously popular in Iran by nationalizing the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (later British Petroleum, BP) which controlled the country''s oil reserves. In response, Britain embargoed Iranian oil and began plotting to depose Mossadegh. Members of the British Intelligence Service invited the United States to join them, convincing U.S. President Eisenhower that Mossadegh was reliant on the Tudeh (Communist) Party to stay in power. In 1953, President Eisenhower authorized Operation Ajax, and the CIA took the lead in overthrowing Mossadegh and supporting a U.S.-friendly monarch; and for which the U.S. Government apologized in 2000.
Digg this ....
Condoleezza Rice was a Chevron Oil Director from 1991 until January 15, 2001
Before she was transferred by President George Bush Jr. to National Security Adviser
Chevron named an oil tanker the "Condoleezza Rice"
Iran recently - refused to give - Bush - Oil Exploration Rights
A matter of written record ! !
Lastdance
You better go back a few more years to around 1953 and Operation Ajax !!
In summer of 1941 Britain and the USSR invaded Iran to prevent Iran from allying with the Axis powers. The Allies occupied Iran, securing a supply line to Russia, Iran''''s petroleum infrastructure, and forced the Shah to abdicate in favor of his son, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. In 1951, a nationalist politician, Dr. Mohammed Mossadegh rose to prominence in Iran and was elected Prime Minister. As Prime Minister, Mossadegh became enormously popular in Iran by nationalizing the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (later British Petroleum, BP) which controlled the country''''s oil reserves. In response, Britain embargoed Iranian oil and began plotting to depose Mossadegh. Members of the British Intelligence Service invited the United States to join them, convincing U.S. President Eisenhower that Mossadegh was reliant on the Tudeh (Communist) Party to stay in power. In 1953, President Eisenhower authorized Operation Ajax, and the CIA took the lead in overthrowing Mossadegh and supporting a U.S.-friendly monarch; and for which the U.S. Government apologized in 2000.
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Posted by IOWEIGN at 07:52 PM : Sep 30, 2007
I repeat
Your ignorant or stupid, Iran has been killing Americans for 25 years, starting with the Marine barracks in Beiruit and continuing through to killing GIs in Iraq with bombs under trucks. You''''''''re Yellowdog Progressive.
Digg this ....
Condoleezza Rice was a Chevron Oil Director from 1991 until January 15, 2001
Before she was transferred by President George Bush Jr. to National Security Adviser
Chevron named an oil tanker the "Condoleezza Rice"
Iran recently - refused to give - Bush - Oil Exploration Rights
A matter of written record ! !
Lastdance
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Posted by lastdance2 at 07:58 PM : Sep 30, 2007
Al Gore''s father made his money, millions, from kickbacks from Occidental Petroleum-Armand Hammer.
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Posted by gkc99 at 07:48 PM : Sep 30, 2007
Watch for Hillary''s suprise in Sept, you Yellowdog Progressives, she''ll have a Mexican accent this time.
THEN TRY THEM IN INTERNATIONAL COURT FOR WAR CRIMES!
and Weapons to : "Nazi" - Germany. To kill
American Soldiers in Europe.
The same organization shipped War Materials to
North Vietnam. To kill American Military in Vietnam.
The same organization has - Supplied Iran with
War Materials and Weapons to : Kill American Military in Iraq.
Iraqi-owned company : Shield Group Security Co.
Involved in selling : Guns - Land Mines and Rocket-Launchers
All of them being sold for cash. The buyers were Iraqi Insurgents
Former ; Defense Secretary Rumsfeld - Was involved in Selling
a Nuclear Plant to : North Korea
Along with the Technology to Refine : Uranium and produce Plutonium.
The Main Ingredients of a : Nuclear Bomb
VP Cheney : Former Chairman of Halliburton :
Halliburton came under fire in the early ''90s for supplying Libya and
Iraq with equipment. Which could be used to detonate nuclear
weapons. Halliburton was also Charged with shipping Six Pulse Neutron
Generators to Libya. In 1995
Blackwater USA - Suspected in smuggling weapons
Criminal (Republican) Corporate America has - In Every War - Always -
Financially Supported - Enemies of the United States.
There was a - Time when - "Treason" -
Was a - Criminal act ! ! !
Gen Wesley Clark (Ret) will probably get first consideration as Sec Of Defense. He will be a good one.
Chevron named an oil tanker the - "Condoleezza Rice"
Iran - Refused to give - Bush - Oil Exploration Rights
A matter of written record ! !
Cheney and Condoleezza Rice - Delivered the contracts ! ! !
Lastdance
THEN TRY THEM IN INTERNATIONAL COURT FOR WAR CRIMES!
Posted by bluestardad at 08:09 PM : Sep 30, 2007
It is coming !!
The US has never been attacked by Iranians on US soil. We have a habit of being killed or kidnapped when we go march around on their soil or in Muslim countries adjacent to theirs.
We also "accidentally" killed 290 Iranian citizens in a civilian airplane (see link above), but they don''t hold that against us.
Iran is a crappy place SO DON"T GO THERE!!! We don''t need to get a bunch more Americans killed building bases there and occupying the place. We could shut down their nuclear facilites with conventional weapons about 2 hours from any minute of any hour of any day of the week.
Better yet, we could develop alternative energy, sell it to the world, and bankrupt Iran so they can go back to selling camel rides and dates. (dates the fruit, not nights out with Iranian women. Yurghh!)
As much as I would love to have my pick of millions of war widows like my grandfather did after WW1, I''d rather America stayed out of Iran and Iraq.
Come on! - someone must be in favour?
Just one?
No one?
Really?
I hereby declare this vote finished with 100% concecouse against Iran commanding nuclear weapons!
Spoken like a true - Republican (Nazi) Party Member
Lastdance
The same question was asked in 1953. The answer of course was to have the CIA overthrow the democratically elected president, Mossadeq. He had the nerve to nationalize their own Oil, taking control back from the British Oil companies.
So the CIA overthrew Mossadeq, and we installed the brutal dictator "Shah of Iran", our puppet, who ruled like Saddam (who we also supported, remember?).
The Iranians and Iraqis remember their history. They remember the US-led coups, our support of dictators, our theft of their Oil. They know we invaded Iraq on a pretext of LIES. They know we are pressuring the Iraqi parliament to pass an Oil Law that would give US corporations control and profits of their Oil Reserves.
Yes what should we do to protect "American Interests"? Or actually "American Corporate Interests".
Make know mistake about it. We ARE an empire. We WILL invade and kill as many as it takes. We WILL sacrifice all the middle-class troops that it takes. We WILL maintain permanent US military bases in Iraq.
WE WILL TAKE THEIR OIL.
This Iranian pig is as comparable to Hitler as any leader in recent memory. You might want to give up the futures of your kids slimeball but not mine. I would love to be right in your lame Nazi face right now.
I belive in a strong military. I believe in border patrols and deportation of non-citizens. I believe having a strong military means having highly trained soldiers who know they won''t be sent to an illegal war they can''t win without hope of coming home to see their families, or hope for decent care and treatment from their government when they come home.
Vote for Ron Paul!!!
Bush has always insisted the War had nothing to do with - Oil.
The Initial Reports given by - Bush - The CIA and The FBI
Were Purposely and Intentionally - Fabricated and were Fraudulent ! !
Intentionally Delivered to the American people
In order to- Falsely and Fraudulently - Advocate a War ! !
Iran - recently - Refused to give - Bush - Oil Exploration Rights
A matter of written record ! !
Cheney and Condoleezza Rice - Delivered the contracts ! ! !
There was a time - Treason - was a Criminal Act
Lastdance
Iran doesn''t want American troops driving down their streets, so they are making nukes. They are only strong enough to challenge us because the US armed them to fight Iraq. What''s the solution? Develop alternative energy so we don''t need oil from the Middle East, and stop arming them.
Not shooting down any more of Iran''s passenger planes from Iranian waters would be a nice gesture too.
The headquarters of the UN are in New York. That''s like having a portal to hell in your living room!!! People like Amadinanobjob and Castro can fly into New York, drive around, pay for terrorists'' flight lessons, take in a Nicks game, leave a bomb in a hotel room, or run over somebody in their limo if they feel like it, and they have FULL DIPLOMATIC IMMUNITY!!!
Millions of people are in the US illegally, and unless they try to get a job at the post office, no one knows who or where they are.
Why do we need to go halfway around the world to find enemies to fight?
This graph puts it in perspective:
http://icasualties.org/oif/US_chart.aspx
CNN continues: "The U.S. monthly death toll in Iraq has dropped to its lowest level in more than a year, although the figure is "still too high," the military said Sunday. September''s preliminary death toll is at least 62, according to military reports, the lowest number since August 2006 when 65 American troops were killed in the war."
That last sentence appears to be a typo, as 65 is not lower than 62. They meant, since July of 2006, when 43 were killed.
Source:
http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/meast/09/30/iraq.main/index.html
Do you really believe the latest propaganda and demonization about Iran, being laid on us by the corporate media, the same media that blasted us with the WMD LIES??
Somehow the Iranian *government* is arming the Shia''s in IRaq??
What is the scale of arms coming across the Iranian border? Does it compare in any way to the 170,000 occupying US troops, with all their weapons, ammunition, tanks, helicopters, planes... Does it compare to the 100,000 US mercenary contractors, including the Blackwater civilian-killer terrorists?
IF any weapons are coming across the border it probably amounts to about 1/1,000,000,000th the amount of destructive killing power that the US has brought into Iraq.
Remember also that we INVADED Iraq, Hitler style, based on deliberate WMD lies. Remember we are there to set up permanent US military bases and steal their Oil.
Now who is the aggressor nation? Who sponsors terrorism? Who is responsible for the deaths or a few hundred thousand Iraqis?
Why that would be Bush and Cheney and the enabling Democrats!
JAIL BUSH JAIL CHENEY Vote OUT the complicit spineless Democrats who won''t say NO to this NeoCon Nightmare.
non muslims of the world unite,,, fight against the tyranny of the fascist nazi terrorslam imperialist empire of the darkside,,,
I was a fanatic...I know their thinking, says former radical Islamist
By blaming the Government for our actions, those who pushed this "Blair''s bombs" line did our propaganda work for us.
More important, they also helped to draw away any critical examination from the real engine of our violence: Islamic theology.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=465570&in_page_id=1770
Bless the Beasts and Children
Fascist nazi terrorslam kills every man woman and child in the village again%u2026 typical mo for terrorslam%u2026
http://www.michaelyon-online.com/wp/bless-the-beasts-and-children.htm
Our Prophet commanded us to fight the kaafirs when we are able and to attack them in their homelands and to give them three choices before we enter their lands: either they become Muslim and be like us, sharing our rights and duties; or they pay the jizyah (poll tax) and feel themselves subdued; or they fight, in which case their wealth, women, children and homes become permissible as booty for the Muslims.
http://islamqa.com/index.php?ref=13759&ln=eng&txt=before%20islam%20arabia%20pagan
the truth about fascist nazi terrorislam...
http://www.terrorismawareness.org/what-really-happened/
Qaeda warns of attacks ''worse than 9/11''
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=070530102648.wuwa6k96&show_article=1
Hizbullah Deputy Sec-Gen Sheikh Naim Qassem: We Have Jurisprudent Permission to Carry Out ''Martyrdom'' Operations, Fire Missiles on Israeli Civilians From Ayatollah Khomeini
http://memri.org/bin/latestnews.cgi?ID=SD154907
Switching Sides: Inside The Enemy Camp
But then in 2000, well before his arrest, something happened which would make Abas question everything he believed in: a fatwa, a religious edict, was issued by Osama bin Laden.
"It should be understood that killing Americans and Jews anywhere found are the highest act of worship and the highest form of good deeds in the eyes of Allah," Simon quotes bin Laden.
Abas and his fellow commanders were ordered to read the fatwa to their men and make sure they carried it out. The others obeyed, but Abas refused. It was his moment of truth. He firmly believed that jihad was to be fought only on the battlefield in defense of Islam; he had always been taught that the killing of civilians had nothing to do with holy war and that it was forbidden.
The fatwa justified killing non-Muslim civilians everywhere.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/05/04/60minutes/main2761108.shtml?source=RSSattr=60Minutes_2761108
American Al Qaeda Member Threatens Attack
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/05/29/terror/main2865282.shtml
the war is legal, demonic-rat hero al bore says so,,,
the resumption of hostilities was only a matter of time since iraq broke the ceasefire agreement,,,
blame saddam for iraq,,, Even clintoon and the dems wanted the resumption of hostilities back in 1998,,,
"We know that he has stored secret supplies of biological and chemical weapons throughout his country." - Al Gore, Sept. 23, 2002
"Iraq''s search for weapons of mass destruction has proven impossible to deter and we should assume that it will continue for as long as Saddam is in power." - Al Gore, Sept. 23, 2002
Moreover, no international law can prevent the United States from taking actions to protect its vital interests, when it is manifestly clear that there is a choice to be made between law and survival. I believe, however, that such a choice is not presented in the case of Iraq. Indeed, should we decide to proceed, that action can be justified within the framework of international law rather than outside it. In fact, though a new UN resolution may be helpful in building international consensus, the existing resolutions from 1991 are sufficient from a legal standpoint. - Al Gore, Sept. 23, 2002
http://www.gwu.edu/~action/2004/gore/gore092302sp.html
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2277423672226579556&q=in+debt we trust duration%3Along&total=35&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=1
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