Archived material Access restricted Article
Rantburg

Today's Front Page   View All of Sun 12/07/2003 View Sat 12/06/2003 View Fri 12/05/2003 View Thu 12/04/2003 View Wed 12/03/2003 View Tue 12/02/2003 View Mon 12/01/2003
1
2003-12-07 Iran
How Tehran outmaneuvered Washington
Archived material is restricted to Rantburg regulars and members. If you need access email fred.pruitt=at=gmail.com with your nick to be added to the members list. There is no charge to join Rantburg as a member.
Posted by Lucky 2003-12-07 3:40:35 AM|| || Front Page|| [2 views since 2007-05-07]  Top

#1 Am I missing something? The wall came down and I thought the cold war games were over. But sometime it seems like the other side (after convincing some of our own players to switch jerseys) is still looking to tackle us in the first dark alley they can find.
Posted by B 2003-12-7 4:36:22 AM||   2003-12-7 4:36:22 AM|| Front Page Top

#2 Oh Lucky...

Eric Marquardt (email: marquardt@yellowtimes.org) is a featured writer on IndyMedia.moronorg - and I LOVE his email addy.

This article is a classic feint. Slowly building his point of view with nice factual bits he finishes with dearly-held LLL flourishes and hopes to make his conclusion seem inescapable:

1) Washington's fear of a Nuke Iran is well-placed cuz it would limit our ability to control the power balance in the ME; and beneath the radar, negating the positives of an Iraq success... Oooooh, skeery.

2) A Nuke Iran would "check" Israel and its ability to project power in the region... talk about the LLL's wet dream...

3) The US is, again, alone in its position and the EU agreement + IAEA Report (and, by extension, the "weight" of the UN) puts us into a neat and tidy box, pulling Dubya's teeth... The beacons of legitimacy and morality are against us! What, again? Cowboys! Yadda3.

Anybody see the fundafuckingmental flaws here?

Being a terminal multilateralist, this slimer assumes that the EU-brokered joke plus the Elbarradai weasly whitewash IAEA report puts the stamp of "done deal" on the issue.

Uh, why?

Dubya has already made it clear that we will act pre-emptively if necessary and alone if necessary. The stakes are far too high today, given the lethality of the weapons the asshats seek to wait for the first punch or to be tied down by appeasers. And who thinks that Israel will sit still and let the Black Hats build the weapon they said they would immediately use to wipe Israel out?

Is he on drugs or something? Mebbe he got some of that high-grade horse over in Germany, his home, and has lost what mind he possessed. He certainly tossed integrity over the side some time ago.

If we DO sit on our hands and if we DO hold Israel back and if the Black Hats DO gain a deliverable nuke, then Dubya is a total traitorous jackass who has, in one stupid move, negated the efforts of years, billions of dollars expended, and hundreds of lost American lives trying to insure our safety and turn the ME around. Mr Marquardt would probably dance on some of those graves if it goes his way. I doubt it will. I think that the Black Hats will be shorn of their ability to threaten others with their insane religion and greed - and then toppled.

We'll see, soon enough. Meanwhile, Marquardt is grinding the NaziMedia Ax - filter everything through that fact. Pfeh.
Posted by .com 2003-12-7 8:45:20 AM||   2003-12-7 8:45:20 AM|| Front Page Top

#3 What a load of rubbish! Thank God tomorrow's trash day. Until the United States decides to take out Iran's reactors, they can play their nasty little games. However, Harpoon, Tomahawk, and JDAM are still alive and well, and in the US corner. Add to that the Israelis, who have already said they will not tolerate Iran getting nuke weapons, or building the capability to manufacture them. I think "OSIRAK" aught to be a lesson for the entire Middle East.

Pakland is not within range of Israel - from either side. Until, and if, Pakland gets a missile capability to hit Tel Aviv, they'll be safe. The instant they acquire a delivery system capable of reaching the Med, they're toast. The Israelis do NOT play around.

Before I left the Air Force, the Israelis had developed a medium-range missile - the "Jerico" - that could reach Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt with a nuclear warhead. They were experimenting with a two-stage missile - nicknamed "Masada" (which should tell EVERYONE something) - that could fly 8,000Km with a 1Mt nuclear warhead. Measure the distance from Tel Aviv to Moscow, and tell me who should be nervous about supplying nuclear capability to Iran.
Posted by Old Patriot  2003-12-7 12:54:22 PM|| [http://users.codenet.net/mweather/default.htm]  2003-12-7 12:54:22 PM|| Front Page Top

#4 I thru the post up last night and went to bed to ponder the BCS. Thanks Fred for putting the post in the right place.

Before the Iraq campaign I saw an online poll asking who was the biggest threat at that Time. The usuall suspects. It was hard not to vote for Iran but I thought that Iraq was the first order of biz. GW read my mind and did the right thing.

Bush knows where the road leads but what gets me, like B, is Russia and the EU. How the shit hits the fan in Iran is perplexing to me. But hit the fan it must.

Anybody have a clue on how to take thse guys down? Or do we just play cold war (what Iran would like) If they do get that bomb and I've been saying that they will. Is that nuclear war? Man I hope not. Does the EU and Russia want that!?
Posted by Lucky 2003-12-7 3:10:00 PM||   2003-12-7 3:10:00 PM|| Front Page Top

#5  that could fly 8,000Km with a 1Mt nuclear warhead. Measure the distance from Tel Aviv to Moscow

An untested Fusion bomb? Are they that confident?
Posted by Shipman 2003-12-7 5:23:17 PM||   2003-12-7 5:23:17 PM|| Front Page Top

#6 Shipman

They could. Take a look at the number of scientific of scientific Nobel Prize or Field Medal winners who are Jews. Take a look at the number of them both in Project Manhattan or in the Soviet bomb (Sakharov).

In fact Israel has had dozens of American or Soviet tests for his bomb
Posted by JFM  2003-12-7 7:02:05 PM||   2003-12-7 7:02:05 PM|| Front Page Top

#7 Secondaries are not trivial beasts. The first two tests by the UK failed (geometry problems), and one US test had a far larger yield than intended (underestimated Li7 + n).

Essentially, you're assembling a device very close to a nuclear blast, and if you get it wrong, nothing happens (except the primary).

That said, I wouldn't discount the Israelis being able to do it right the first time they set off one they'd built.
Posted by Dishman  2003-12-7 7:37:39 PM||   2003-12-7 7:37:39 PM|| Front Page Top

#8  Re Israeli bomb working.It may not matter whether or not the bomb actually works.What does count is whether or not the potential targets think the bomb might work.
Posted by Stephen 2003-12-7 9:22:29 PM||   2003-12-7 9:22:29 PM|| Front Page Top

#9 nothing happens (except the primary).

This is a definition of the term "nothing" that is new and confusing to me, unless they've stopped using atomic bombs as primaries.
Posted by snellenr  2003-12-7 10:40:14 PM||   2003-12-7 10:40:14 PM|| Front Page Top

#10 I remember a nuclear detonator theft during the reagan era by israeli agents (krytron?)

its even money they have nukes.
Posted by flash91 2003-12-7 10:54:57 PM||   2003-12-7 10:54:57 PM|| Front Page Top

#11 flash: krytrons are a bomb component... very fast switches used when detonating the explosives in the primary.
Posted by snellenr  2003-12-7 11:34:44 PM||   2003-12-7 11:34:44 PM|| Front Page Top

00:43 Rex Mundi
00:26 Rex Mundi
00:25 tu3031
00:22 TPF
00:16 Lucky
00:09 Rex Mundi
23:59 Rex Mundi
23:50 Lucky
23:35 Lucky
23:34 snellenr
23:25 PBMcL
23:14 David H.James
23:08 Cyber Sarge
23:00 snellenr
22:54 flash91
22:54 NotMikeMoore
22:49 Glenn (not Reynolds)
22:42 NotMikeMoore
22:40 snellenr
22:35 snellenr
22:30 NotMikeMoore
22:29 Glenn (not Reynolds)
22:13 .com
22:10 Super Hose









Paypal:
Google
Search WWW Search rantburg.com