Comments on: Attacking Iran

By: USA / Roy G

USA / Roy G — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 06:33:14 +0000

Welcome to Balkingpoints brnzartist.

If you read above, nobody indicated they thought a buildup in Iran or North Korea scared off the U.S. The point is the reverse: If the world’s most militarily-powerful, nuclear-weaponed nation puts you on an “Axis” list (Bush 2002), and then it attacks one of the other nations on the list (Iraq), you would very likely build up arms and nuclear capacities in expectation that you are next to be attacked.

By: USA / brnzartist

USA / brnzartist — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 02:31:31 +0000

The only thing that kept the United States from invading any of the axis-of-evil states is the United States. Your so-called build up of foreign military might that frightened the US off is so childish that it brings into question your age. Political correctness and fear of the American electorate is the only thing that drives any US Administration “go or no” decisions. I predict that, eventually, some enemy will step so far beyond the capacity of political correctness reiging in the United States hawks, that the full force of the military will be unleashed. And, if you think you saw that after 9/11 you know naught of what the US can do. That’s what should concern the doves of the world – which nutball rouge regime acts beyond the pale and forces the United States to REALLY attack.

By: UK / Martin

UK / Martin — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 02:59:41 +0000

In contrast to the USA, UK has been holding a formal inquiry into the entire Iraq invasion and commitment of British forces by former PM Tony Blair. Gordon Brown is next in que to be questioned.

One wonders why Obama has not sought the same. There is a homesite link for our hearings http://www.iraqinquiry.org.uk/

By: USA / Jeff

USA / Jeff — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 18:41:33 +0000

Hello proudlib and nice to have you aboard. That’s a good detailed write up on how we got so adversarial to Iran. War is always serving somebody’s interests, and it’s never anybody who is in the line of fire, for sure.

We’ve done some balking about the part that commercial media in America plays in getting support for these wars, or keeping opposition down on things like not having national health insurance for decades on end. The fact that they are major corporations really can’t be separated from the messages that come out of them; good for corporations and the wealthy but usually bad for average Americans.

Isn’t it amazing for example, how one contingent; who’s in the minority but very loud and threatening, still thinks the way to prosperity is to keep cutting government?!
These morons eat that dung up from corporations like Fox News and syndicated right wing radio networks, like that isn’t exactly what was tried and failed through the decades we had Reagan and then both Bush presidents. Like it never led to a
collapse of banks and 11% unemployment and millions losing their house!

You’ll like this link we’ve posted a few times, if you haven’t seen it before. Bill Moyers did a big expose on PBS a couple of years ago, about how the media never challenged BushCo a bit on his faulty justifications for invading Iraq. Even though many contradictions existed. “Buying The War”

http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/btw/watch.html

By: USA / Thoreau Fan

USA / Thoreau Fan — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 03:53:37 +0000

I believe we can all agree that the Bush approach did nothing but foster hatred and disappointment around the world. That said I believe in looking forward, thank god those 8 years are past, hopefully Mrs. Clinton will show some real thought in her handling of Iran. Hopefully Roy is correct in predicting her latest statements will remove some of Mr.Ahmadinejad’s power to cow his people into thinking that there is a real threat from the US.
Israel is another matter altogether, I’m afraid that their newly elected government is more akin to our past one, at least on policy issues. I for one would like to see our current administration use some of our “clout” with Israel in a more aggressive manner. They don’t seem to respond well to suggestions on how to move forward on the peace process, the settlement issue comes to mind quite prominently on that note. Perhaps the US being the largest supporter has to take the unpopular position of removing some of our support.
After their last incursion into Gaza and their failure to cooperate with or acknowledge UN findings of war crimes (albeit on both sides), I believe they are perilously close to being what they so vehemently oppose, a terrorist nation. Yes the defense excuse is there, however their actions don’t back up their words. Though they may not have initiated aggressions, it behooves all civilized nations to act in a manner deserving of the word civilized. Based on the past performance of their reactions to the Arab threat, Iran may prove a much more serious issue altogether. I hope that much like the past Republican administration, they prefer attacking weaker targets for political gain, however mindless that is. My worst fear would be that they overstep their bounds and escalate things in Iran, perhaps Iran has nukes, perhaps not, but finding out by military aggression is not an intelligent act. I would hope most countries learned at least that from Bush’s search for all those WMD’s that never existed.
Iran’s people need to know that their biggest threat is their own government, not foreign aggressors.

By: Canada / Pat Morin

Canada / Pat Morin — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 18:47:57 +0000

The brash approach to foreign relations is also how America started getting on the bad side of people around the world. There had been tons of solidarity and sympathy right after 9/11 happened, but then after Bush invaded Iraq he received less and less support for his policies. Lots of dead in Iraq, no WMD found, Abu Garib abuse pictures, Guantanamo prison that had no due process, on and on

By: USA / Roy G

USA / Roy G — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 23:25:39 +0000

Welcome proudlib to Balkingpoints – well done.

Ignorant bravado & saber rattling by the Bush Regime, setting into motion the self-fulfilling prophecy of arms build-ups and pending war. Indeed / my view also. Even Bush himself admitted a few years later that his infamous “bring it on” quote, put those unfortunates charged with prosecuting his unhinged War on Iraq, in even more jeopardy than they were in already. (Today I read from Media Inc., how Iraq had become “a success”…)

Long past is the day when a lone super power will simply dictate to the world, if it ever existed at all – perhaps for a brief period after WWII. Which coincidentally, is when and how the U.S. planted all those seeds of
oil-addiction trouble, in that same Middle East. Along with short-shrifting the rights of displaced Palestinians to self-determination and a homeland, which we didn’t move to address until Bill Clinton in 1993.

As she condemned militaristic posture by Iran today in Qatar, Hillary Clinton also said the U.S. is not planning any military action in response. This is a diplomacy / isolation / economic carrot & stick matter, which is clear to Progressives at least. It undercuts a nationalist like Ahmadinejad’s attempts to hold onto his post of hood ornament to a religious dictatorship, by whipping up fear of attack.

Something you’d expect Cheney if not Bush, to have been able to comprehend…