If someone makes a statement, one must believe what they say. To not do so, is foolhardy. So it goes in the Middle East. The latest blast from Iran is that Israel could be destroyed in 24 hours.
Anyone who does not listen to the Iranians, has their head deeply stuck in the sand. The world must listen to them and prepare for the unthinkable. Could the Iranians be further along in their nuclear ambitions than has been reported? Or are they all bluster?
We believe the former.
Conservative Tom
IRANIAN OFFICIAL SAYS COUNTRY NEEDS ONLY ‘24 HOURS AND AN EXCUSE’ TO DESTROY ISRAEL
AP
Words from Tehran about wiping Israel off the map have been launched with abandon in recent weeks. Here’s another one for the lexicon. This time from Hojjat al-Eslam Ali Shirazi, representative for Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to the Qods Force, who not only reiterated the bombastic threat but also added his own twist: that Iran can do the job in just 24 hours.
Specifically, he said all Iran needs is “24 hours and an excuse” to finish off the Jewish state. The Jerusalem Post reports on the interview:
In his first public interview in a year, reported in the Persian-language Jahan News, which is close to the regime, Shirazi said if Israel attacked Iran, the Islamic Republic would be able to turn the conflict into a war of attrition that would lead to Israel’s destruction.“If such a war does happen, it would not be a long war, and it would benefit the entire Islamic umma [the global community of Muslims]. We have expertise in fighting wars of attrition and Israel cannot fight a war of attrition,” Shirazi said, referring to Iran’s eight-year war of attrition against Iraq.
Iran’s Qods Force is a unit of the Revolutionary Guard that aims to export the Islamic Revolution worldwide, and is reported to be active in the Middle East, Asia and South America. Last year the U.S. accused its operatives of working on a plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador in Washington.
The Post reports that Khamenei tapped Shirazi last year as his personal envoy to the Qods Force:
In his interview, Shirazi said that Israel was “close to annihilation” and wanted to attack Iran as an act of desperation.“Are our enemies intelligent, wise or foolish? They are foolish. It’s also possible that they will do this foolish thing [and attack Iran]. Why do we sometimes say this is the strongest probability? Because today the Israelis are telling us that ‘we are not the Israel of yesterday, we are getting weaker day by day and the Islamic Republic is getting stronger day by day,’” he added.“Well, when Israel finds itself in danger of extinction, it flails around, and so it’s easy for it to do foolish things and will start a war just to sting Iran.”
Shirazi is in good company. Other statements in just the past week from Iranian leaders in the same spirit as Shirazi’s include: President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s assertion that Israel has no historical roots in the Middle East and will be “eliminated,” Revolutionary Guard Gen. Mohammad Ali Jafari saying a conflict between Iran and Israel will destroy the Jewish state – “the end of the story for them,” and Brigadier General Hossein Salami of the Revolutionary Guard saying a war will provide “a historical opportunity for the Islamic Revolution to wipe them [Israel] off the world’s geographical history.”
All this means we’re unlikely to hear such statements cease anytime soon.
"If someone makes a statement, one must believe what they say."
ReplyDeleteDo you play poker? Sometimes you win the pot by bluffing your opponent into believing that you have the stronger hand. Iran figures that, if they can create some doubt in the Israelis, that will discourage an attack against them. As general Dempsey said in that interview, the Iranians are rational actors in that respect.
Israel, U.S. intel, and IAEA all assert that Iran does not have nuclear weapons. Theoretically, they could somehow all be wrong, but if you seriously believe Iran has a secret nuke somewhere and the capability to deliver it on Israel, the last thing in the world you should want to do right now is start a war with them that would get Israel destroyed in 24 hours.
--David
I doubt that Iran has a nuclear bomb, today. However, it could in the very near future. With their threats against the US and Israel, we must take them seriously.
ReplyDeleteThis is not a poker game, it is a deadly serious international threat. To cavalierly dismiss the issue is to ignore the threat much as we did before WWII and we ended up with Pearl Harbor. We ignored the threat and we ended up with 9/11. Many generals, intelligence people, and politicians thought the threat was not there. Others tried to get the word out, but were ignored and demeaned. I do not plan for that to happen again and will continue to speak about the threat until I cannot speak anymore.
On the rhetorical level, it is a poker game. You want the other side to believe you have a stronger hand than you actually have. It's their way of trying to make the Israelis hesitant to attack them.
ReplyDeleteNobody is "ignoring" their nuclear plants. Israel, U.S. intel, and IAEA say they do not have a bomb and are nowhere close to it. I believe what they say. I don't know why you choose to believe what the Iranians are saying, since they have a perfect reason to brag and bluff. Imagine, on the other hand, if they said they are defenseless against an Israeli attack against their nuclear plants. They really WOULD be irrational to admit that.
--David
--David
And the Japanese would not attack the US and no one would fly airplanes into buildings! To ignore an obvious threat is to be dumb.
ReplyDeleteI believe the Iranians because they have threatened to destroy another country that has not done anything to them. Ababadingdong has threatened Israel (and the US) with destruction for years.
No one believed Hitler when he said he wanted to take over the world, no one complained when he marched into the Sudenland and Poland. If we do not learn from history, we ARE going to repeat it.
Once again, nobody is "ignoring" anything here. U.S., Israel, and IAEA have all been monitoring Iran's nuclear program. My point is that, in light of Netanyahu going to the U.N. with his red magic marker and indicating that Iran will have uranium at 90% in 6 months at which point Israel promises to attack Iran, it is understandable -- especially if they have a weak hand -- Iran might try to bluff Israel into believing that they have the ability to destroy Israel in 24 hours if that were to happen.
ReplyDelete--David
David, you forget that Iran in the name of the mullahs and Abadingdong have been threatening the existence of Israel for at least ten years as they build the bomb. Once again, one must listen to what people say for not to do that is foolhardy.
ReplyDeleteSo who is not listening for the last 10 years? Claims and threats have been flying around the whole time, and there are now stronger financial and trade sanctions imposed on Iran than anytime in history.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, I also listened to what Netanyahu said at the U.N. (summarized above). Given his threat to attack within 6 months, it makes sense for the Iranians to counter with the bluff that Iran has the capacity to destroy Israel in 24 hours. If my neighbor threatened to blow up my house, I think I'd come up with a counter-threat and pray that he WILL take the words seriously. Wouldn't you? After all, that's the only way a bluff works.
--David
If your neighbor was manufacturing PCP or crack in the house next door, you would not say or do anything? You would not go to the police? Heck, he could blow up your house, his house and himself and it would not bother you.
ReplyDeleteThat is what you are expecting Israel to do. That argument makes no sense.
I would expect Israel to use whatever spy capability they have to monitor Iran's nuclear plants. I would expect Israel to try to pressure the U.S. into doing a preemptive attack on Iran ("going to the police"). I would expect Israel to go to the U.N. with a red magic marker in an attempt to discourage Iran from weaponizing its uranium. I would expect Iran to offer some kind of counter-threat against Israel. All these things have happened.
ReplyDeleteIran claims they are building their nuclear power plants for electricity. That may be true. There is no proof that it is not true. As I told you, I read something last week that says huge amounts of water and electricity are needed to enrich uranium to 90% and the U.S. has satellite surveillance that can measure these things. So far, it is not happening. You talk about history repeating itself. Well, we might start a preemptive war over nonexistent WMD repeating the Iraq war on a larger scale. With Obama or Romney as president, that has more chance of happening in the next couple years than Iran getting a nuclear bomb.
--David
Interesting comment from a nuclear scientist at MIT…
ReplyDelete"It's more of the same," said Jim Walsh, an expert on the Iranian nuclear programme from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, arguing that Iran's desire to install more of its centrifuges underground was understandable under threat of air strikes. He added that Iran had already entered a "zone of immunity" in Israeli terms, because if it did want to make nuclear weapons, it would probably be too late to stop it militarily. "You can't bomb the knowledge out of their heads and you can't destroy Fordow."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/aug/29/iran-nuclear-report-tehran
--David