All eyes on Iran
Today is the 26th anniversary of Iran's Islamic Revolution. From the looks of it though, this year might be the its last...
We witnessed a resilient President Khatami assuring the masses that Iran will give a "burning hell" to any invader. It's pretty obvious he's feeling the heat from the Bush administration to dismantle Iran's nuclear reactors. The Iranians must know by now that the European Union isn't going to use force in the matter.
"Iranian officials have been signalling impatience with the pace of talks and the "seriousness" of EU negotiators who are trying to persuade Tehran to scrap activities such as uranium enrichment which can be used to make atomic bombs." -Reuters AlertNet
Bush on the otherhand has proven that he can be quite the cowboy when it comes to dealing with the Middle East. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice has specifically been quoted as saying military action is not on the U.S. agenda "at this time." Oh my, what time will that be then? I sure hope it's not when I get my draft notice...
The U.S. should definitely play it smart in this situation. Let the Israelis take out a couple reactors from the air like they did with Iraq in '81 and call it a day. A slug-fest with the Iranians on the ground would not be pretty. I don't think the American people have the stomach for another war like that. The ideal scenario here would of course be an internal revolt. President Bush elaborated on this in the State of the Union address, "And to the Iranian people, I say tonight: As you stand for your own liberty, America stands with you."
Perhaps a more Afghanistan-like scenario, with minimal troops on the ground, could succeed. At this point it's hard to gauge the overall consensus of the Iranian populace, but my guess would be that most are not in favor of the ruling clerics. In that case, it might not take much to stir up a hornets' nest. We just have to make sure it doesn't end up failing miserably like the Bay of Pigs. All it requires is a bit of wisdom on the part of the hotshots down at the DoD. Yet, as we've seen in many instances of its handling of the Iraq war, wisdom may be hard to come by. Yikes, a hostile encounter with a nuclear-armed Iranian regime is not something we want to screw up on. Not at all.
We witnessed a resilient President Khatami assuring the masses that Iran will give a "burning hell" to any invader. It's pretty obvious he's feeling the heat from the Bush administration to dismantle Iran's nuclear reactors. The Iranians must know by now that the European Union isn't going to use force in the matter.
"Iranian officials have been signalling impatience with the pace of talks and the "seriousness" of EU negotiators who are trying to persuade Tehran to scrap activities such as uranium enrichment which can be used to make atomic bombs." -Reuters AlertNet
Bush on the otherhand has proven that he can be quite the cowboy when it comes to dealing with the Middle East. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice has specifically been quoted as saying military action is not on the U.S. agenda "at this time." Oh my, what time will that be then? I sure hope it's not when I get my draft notice...
The U.S. should definitely play it smart in this situation. Let the Israelis take out a couple reactors from the air like they did with Iraq in '81 and call it a day. A slug-fest with the Iranians on the ground would not be pretty. I don't think the American people have the stomach for another war like that. The ideal scenario here would of course be an internal revolt. President Bush elaborated on this in the State of the Union address, "And to the Iranian people, I say tonight: As you stand for your own liberty, America stands with you."
Perhaps a more Afghanistan-like scenario, with minimal troops on the ground, could succeed. At this point it's hard to gauge the overall consensus of the Iranian populace, but my guess would be that most are not in favor of the ruling clerics. In that case, it might not take much to stir up a hornets' nest. We just have to make sure it doesn't end up failing miserably like the Bay of Pigs. All it requires is a bit of wisdom on the part of the hotshots down at the DoD. Yet, as we've seen in many instances of its handling of the Iraq war, wisdom may be hard to come by. Yikes, a hostile encounter with a nuclear-armed Iranian regime is not something we want to screw up on. Not at all.
posted by Remz Pokorny @ 2:20 PM
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