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Showing posts with label Iranian President. Show all posts

Saturday, April 7, 2012

Chamberlain Masquerading as Obama

We are students of history and have always marveled at how Neville Chamberlain, the Prime Minister of England, ignored the rising threat of Hitler. When Germany started invading other countries, Europeans erroneously thought that his appetite would be sated with capturing Poland. Obviously, they were wrong.

Obama faces a similar threat and he is taking the same tact as Chamberlain. He childishly ignores the threats Iran has made against Israel, he ignores the statements that Iranian leaders have made regarding their right to have nuclear, he dismisses the development of missiles but he believes their purposely misleading statements on their nuclear goals. By doing so he endangers the entire world.

He also disregards one of the basic tenants of Islam. This is that it is no crime to lie to or deceive non-believers as long as the goals of the religion is advanced. Whether this is intentional or from lack of understanding, it does not matter as the result will be the same unless Israel takes out the facilities. If it is intentional, it is an impeachable offense. If not, it is incompetency at the highest level. (Read the following article on Obama's incompetence.)

Ignoring basic human nature is dangerous especially when dealing with tyrants. Obama and Chamberlain thought (think) they could talk to these evil people and make agreements. However, despots and those driven to world domination have no problem lying, deceiving or misleading.

After Obama is finished re-reading the Constitution and the writings of the Founders, he should read history about the rise of the Third Reich and how Chamberlain was misled by Hitler. But we all know that he would never do that. Today his reading list will be limited to those authors who will instruct him on how to destroy America. So by acting like Chamberlain, he is accomplishing his long term goal.

We would hope that any President would believe in the government that he pledged to "protect and preserve" in his Oath of Office. It is becoming readily apparent that Obama does not. Maybe that is the reason he had to re-do his Oath after he did not do it right on Inauguration day.

This President is a scary fellow. Hopefully, we are not the only person who feels this way.

Conservative Tom

David Ignatius: Opinion Writer

Obama’s signal to Iran

By David Ignatius, Published: April 5

President Obama has signaled Iran that the United States would accept an Iranian civilian nuclear program if Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei can back up his recent public claim that his nation “will never pursue nuclear weapons.”

This verbal message was sent through Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who visited Khamenei last week. A few days before traveling to Iran, Erdogan had held a two-hour meeting with Obama in Seoul, in which they discussed what Erdogan would tell the ayatollah about the nuclear issue and Syria.

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David Ignatius

Ignatius writes a twice-a-week foreign affairs column and contributes to the PostPartisan blog.

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Iran’s quest to possess nuclear technology: Iran said it has made advances in nuclear technology, citing new uranium enrichment centrifuges and domestically made reactor fuel. (Editors’ note: An earlier headline on this photo gallery failed to reflect debate over whether Iran is seeking a nuclear weapon.)

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Will Obama Insist That Netanyahu Not Strike Iran?

It appears as if things are going from hot to hotter in the Iran-Israel confrontation. Iran continues to increase the tensions by enriching uranium towards weapons grade and Israel will not stand for the Iranians getting the bomb. It is not pretty.

The US and the world has little influence on Iran and it appears as if it has no intention of changing its ways. UN inspectors are back in the country after having been previously repelled from the sites, so once again the "world peace" organization fails in its mission. Why do we continue to support it?

Netanyahu is coming to the US sometime in early March and is expected to be confronted by Obama not to strike Iran. We believe that in the next two weeks there will be extreme pressure exerted against the PM. As the following article illustrates, the pressure is already being used by the Administration.

We expect that Netanyahu has the ability to withstand the pressure, however, will it send a message to Israel's enemies that the country is all alone in its fight. If that is the message the Iranians receive, we will see a ratcheting up of actions by them to further en-flame the conflict.

Will it become a shooting war or just a skirmish? Tell us what you think as we have not decided if Iran is all bluster or if it is for real.

Conservative Tom

Obama to Try and Talk Netanyahu Out of Iran Strike

Unknown - DEBKAfile, February 20th, 2012

White House National Security Adviser Tom Donilon faced an acrimonious Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu in two hours of stormy conversation in Jerusalem Sunday, Feb. 19, according to updates reaching senior US sources in Washington. The main bones of contention were Iran's continuing enrichment of uranium and its ongoing relocation of production to underground sites.

Israeli officials declined to give out any information on the conversation. Some even refused to confirm it took place.

According to debkafile's sources, Netanyahu accused the Obama administration of drawing Iran into resuming nuclear negotiations with world powers by an assurance that Tehran would be allowed to continue enriching uranium up to 5 percent in any quantity, provided it promised not to build an Iranian nuclear weapon. The prime minister charged that this permit contravened US administration guarantees to Israel on the nuclear issue and, moreover left Tehran free to upgrade its current 20 percent enrichment level to 90 percent weapons grade. This Israel cannot tolerate, said Netanyahu, so leaving its military option on the ready.

He warned the US National Security Adviser that no evidence whatsoever confirms Washington's claim that Tehran intends suspending enrichment and other nuclear advances when negotiations begin. Quite the contrary: Even before the date was set, Iran started working at top speed to build up its bargaining chips by laying down major advances in its nuclear program as undisputed facts.

Tehran now claims to have progressed to self-reliance in the production of 20 percent-enriched uranium, the basis for the weapons grade fuel, in unlimited quantity. Once the talks are underway, Netanyahu maintained, there would be no stopping the Iranians without stalling the negotiating process. Going by past experience, Tehran would use dialogue as an extra fulcrum for its impetus toward weapon production without interruption.

Monday, Donilon and his delegation meet Defense Minister Ehud Barak.

The mission of this high-powered US delegation in Israel takes place to the accompanied of a resumed US media campaign for discouraging Israeli military action against Iran's nuclear installations.

Sunday, Gen. Martin Dempsey, Chairman of the Joint US Chiefs of Staff, offered this opinion to CNN: “Israel has the capability to strike Iran and delay the Iranians probably for a couple of years. But some of the targets are probably beyond their reach.”

Monday's New York Times carried an assessment by “American defense officials and military analysts close to the Pentagon” under the caption, “Iran Raid Seen as a Huge Task for Israel Jets.” debkafile's military sources report the main argument, dredged up from the past and long refuted, is that Israeli Air Force bombers cannot cover the distance to Iran without in-flight refueling.

That array of “analysts” apparently missed the CNN interview and therefore contradicted the assessment of America's own top general that “Israel has the capability to strike Iran…”

Reality has meanwhile moved on. Four events in the last 24 hours no doubt figured large in the US delegation's talks with Israeli leaders:

1. Monday, the IAEA sent to Tehran its second team of monitors this month for another attempt to gain access to nuclear facilities hitherto barred by the Iranians. The inspectors will also demand permission to interview scientists which according to a list drawn up at the agency's Vienna headquarters hold key positions in their nuclear program.

2. The Russian Chief of Chaff Gen. Nikolai Makarov estimated that the attack on Iran would be “coordinated” by several governments and “a decision would be made by the summer.”

3. Moscow recalled Russian aircraft carrier Admiral Kutznetsov from the Syrian port of Tartus to its home base at Severomorsk on the Kola Peninsula.

4. Turkey is beinding over backward to assure Iran that data collected by the US missile shield radar stationed at its Kurecik air base will not shared with Israel. It is especially anxious not to annoy Tehran after foreign minister Ali Akbar Salehi announced that the resumed nuclear talks with the five Permanent Security Council members and German (P5+1) would be held in Istanbul.

However, the Iranians certainly know exactly what is going on after watching the recent joint US-Israeli radar test which demonstrated that Israel is fully integrated in the missile shield radar network and that the US radar station in the Israeli Negev interfaces with its station in Turkey and Israel's Arrow missile Green Pine radar.

When he visited Ankara last week, NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen assured his Turkish hosts that “Intelligence data collected within the missile defense system will not be shared with third countries. It will be shared with the allies within our alliance.”
His statement was quite accurate – except for the fact that the radar stations collecting the intelligence data are not controlled by NATO but by US military teams, both of which, including the Turkish-based radar, are integrated and coordinated with Israeli radar and missile interceptors

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

EMP--A Very Dangerous Weapon

We have been concerned with the danger of electro-magnetic pulse (EMP) for many years. The damage it could do to our economy is much worse than any other weapon. To ignore the possibilities is foolhardy. We need to have contingency plans in the event that some nation deploys this weapon against us.

It would not take a lot of weapons to really hurt us badly. Tactically placed bombs could leave us in a position from which we could not respond and would make our lives a real living Hell.

It is hard to conceive the crisis that would be created by an EMP attack. All electric circuits would burn out. Not only would computers not work but the very infrastructure of the grid would end. No late model cars or trucks would work as their circuits would be fried. Refrigeration at stores would no longer work, leaving us without food. Gas station pumps would not operate, leaving us without fuel. No security systems would work leaving stores, homes, offices and warehouses open to be cleaned out by roving mobs. Banks would be closed as their computers would no longer work (and there would be no electricity), so there would be no money available.

The only food to eat would be that which did not require refrigeration. Heating homes could only be accomplished by fireplaces. Transportation would be by animal, on foot, or some older motorized vehicle for which the owner had fuel. The only money would be what you had on hand otherwise, it would be a barter society.

In other words, the modern economy would vanish in a second. We would be back 100 years in a flash. Could we, modern Americans, survive or would we tear each other apart in an effort, to get our share? What would we do if we had no food, no water, no transportation, no heat and no money? I do not think it would be pretty.

Some will say that their bank or company has back up, hardened locations which could survive an attack. Good for them, however, if does not solve the basic needs questions. If the entire electrical infrastructure is no longer working, if your bank has records, what good does it do you if the banks are closed due to no electricity? How long would it take to completely re-electrify the country? My guess would be years at best.

The only survival plan for this potential issue is to have food and water supplies as well as stored fuel. This, however, brings another issue to the fore. What happens when everyone is hungry and your supplies are attacked by the mobs when they learn that you had them?

These are not great thoughts, however, with the potential of Iran having an EMP weapon, we need to take actions that will insure they do not have the delivery system. If we can prevent the weapon being delivered, we can prevent the disaster. Other than pre-storing food and water supplies as we did in the 60's in response to the Soviet nuclear threat, preventing the deployment of this weapons is our only defense. Would our current President or any President take the necessary actions?

The following article does a great job of looking at EMP in the hands of the Iranians. Let us know your comments.

Conservative Tom

The EMP Death Ray

David Solway - FrontPage Magazine, January 3rd, 2012

The popular trope of an evil genius who has mastered the technology of ultimate destruction and wields a death ray he is preparing to unleash from space has long entertained us. We don’t take it seriously, of course, and relegate it to the realm of a diverting fiction. But what happens when such comic book-and-James Bond-type scenarios leak into the real world? Unfortunately, we tend to make what philosopher Gilbert Ryle, in The Concept of Mind, calls a “category mistake,” which he defines as the tendency to represent certain facts “as if they belonged to one logical type or category…when they actually belong to another.” For the death ray is real; it exists in the empirical world. To assume that it is merely a feature of an imaginary realm that has no purchase on concrete, everyday life is, to quote Ryle, “one big mistake and a mistake of a special kind.” In the case we are considering here, it is a mixing of categories which issues in the kind of misunderstanding that can be fatal.

For the facts are these:

The “evil genius” is an Iranian ayatollah, who may go by many names. He is the de facto political leader of the Shi’a branch of Islam. His intention to destroy the United States of America and obliterate Western civilization is on record. Indeed, as historian Emmanuel Sivan has warned in Radical Islam: Medieval Theology and Modern Politics, the igniting of a planetary conflagration is an integral part of Shi’a Islam’s belief and thought. Known as Shi’ite Twelver theology, it posits that Allah’s kingdom will be established on earth by the Twelfth or Hidden Imam, whose advent can be hastened by kindling an act of apocalyptic violence. This is why the concept of M.A.D. (Mutually Assured Destruction) is idle when applied to Iran; as the astute Canadian blogger Bill Narvey points out, Iran’s leaders believe that their “religious prophecies [for] world supremacy can only be realized by…a deadly apocalyptic showdown with the non-Muslim world.” The Muslim death count is immaterial since all good Muslims are assured of eternal life in Jannah, the Islamic paradise or heavenly garden. As for the death ray, it is no fantasy; it is an electromagnetic pulse, or EMPEMP attack over American territory, “There is a sword of Damocles over our heads. It is a threat that is real but has been all but ignored.”

William R. Graham, chairman of the Congressional Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from Electromagnetic Pulse Attack, testified that Iran has already conducted EMP missile tests from frigates in the Caspian Sea. Additionally, Graham draws attention to Iranian military writings that “explicitly discuss a nuclear EMP attack that would gravely harm the United States.” And Iran could get away with it since it is almost impossible to identify the origin of what—especially if it is carried out by sea—would be essentially an anonymous attack. As Bob Owens indicates in a recent PJM article, “the most likely avenues of attacks are locally launched missiles from submarines or freighters in the Gulf of Mexico or off either coast, where distance to detonation from launch is measured in seconds, and which are not the focus of our outward-facing early warning and detection systems. Such vessels could be easily scuttled after launch, and the rogue agent responsible for the attack may not be found until well after the attack is over, rendering our nuclear counterstrike abilities utterly moot.”

As mentioned above, the damage to the nation’s electrical grid following an EMP assault would be catastrophic. The cascading effect on major infrastructures would result in the destruction or critical impairment of the financial system, the communications network and cybernetic functioning, farming, distribution of food and water, fuel production and delivery, all forms of transportation, law enforcement, medical care, trade and industry and, of course, military defense. The state of civilization in America would be peeled back by hundreds of years and a state of nature in all its raw ferocity would supplant it.

This is no mere pipe dream. It is what the ayatollahs appear to be planning. Iran has already put a satellite into orbit, demonstrating that it has the means and the technical know-how to launch a nuclear or EMP payload. The accumulating death toll would be astronomical. Gingrich and Forstchen direct us to studies which “estimate that 90% of all Americans might very well die in the year after such an attack.” German director Wim Wenders’ film Until the End of the World, as well as William Forstchen’s recent novel, One Second After, depict in their different ways what such an event would entail. It is hard to assimilate so unthinkable a prospect, and inertia or dismissal is a natural response to the probability of cataclysms. Nevertheless, in today’s explosive world, and in the light of the developments I have outlined, it is a realistic picture. We would be foolhardy to ignore it.

There is no question that the electrical network that powers the nation must be hardened and rendered resistant before it is too late. This is precisely Graham’s argument. Alternatively, one way to neutralize the threat would be to initiate an EMP strike over Iran from the Persian Gulf, turning the tables on an enemy state that presents an imminent danger to the U.S. Properly conducted, the source of the attack could not be identified and the gander will have trumped the goose. The fact that oil prices would spike temporarily is something that would happen anyway when war breaks out in the Middle East, an event that is clearly inevitable. Better sooner while we still have the upper hand than later when the ayatollahs will have cut off our hands entirely. Those who minimize the likelihood of such a catastrophe, like The New York Times William Broad, are living in the cloud-cuckoo land of leftwing political complacency. An upholstered reverie is no consolation when the lights go out.

An EMP attack is distinctly possible, perhaps even probable. To regard such an irruption as merely fictitious, as nothing but a celluloid fable or the wild imaginings of sci-fi enthusiasts rather than an appalling aspect of enemy calculation, is to make a category mistake whose consequences we might not live to deplore.