US Gearing Up For Trouble With Iran
Feb 1, 2010 Political
The United States under Barack Obama is beginning to take the threat from Iran seriously. The administration is sending missile defense systems to four countries and placing two ships capable of shooting Iranian missiles down, in the area. After trying the diplomacy route the adminsitration must have realized that it will not work.
The US is dispatching Patriot defensive missiles to four countries – Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Kuwait – and keeping two ships in the Gulf capable of shooting down Iranian missiles. Washington is also helping Saudi Arabia develop a force to protect its oil installations.
~snip~
The deployment comes after Obama’s attempts to emphasise diplomacy over confrontation in dealing with Iran – a contrast to the Bush administration’s approach – have failed to persuade Tehran to open its nuclear installations to international controls. The White House is now trying to engineer agreement for sanctions focused on Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, believed to be in charge of the atomic programme. Guardian UK
It is interesting that the Guardian points out that Obama’s approach has been different than Mr. Bush’s because Obama tried diplomacy first. I think the Bush administration tried diplomacy but not very much of it because George Bush understood the threat and knew that Iran would not respond.
Now, 12 months into his term, Obama has realized the same thing. Obama has ended where Bush was after a 12 month delay that involved an unsuccessful attempt at diplomacy.
Don’t get me wrong, if Obama thought this was best then that was his call to make but now that it has failed we can all see that Bush was pretty much on target. Iran is not interested in diplomacy.
Wow, one year in and Obama is gearing up for a conflict with Iran. He promised to get us out of war but might be getting into another.
I have no problem with the US protecting people in that region, especially our friends in Israel (though this country is not mentioned and is probably the last thing on Obama’s mind) but I have never been one of the Code Pinko anti war types that supported Obama.
They must be taking gas over this.
If Iran launches a missile we should shoot it down and then send about ten thousand Tomahawks into the country divided among their nuclear facilities.
That would send a message…
I hope Iran shoots first. Obama can’t really be a preemptive war kind of guy and still curry favor with the dope smoking peaceniks on the left…
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Tags: Iran, missile defense, Obama, war
The Coward of the Country
Sep 17, 2009 Political
Where are the spirits of Gary Cooper, John Wayne, and Jimmy Stewart? Rolling in their graves so fast that you could probably use them as an alternative energy. The spirit of goodness and the obligation to fight evil, and help the underdogs in this world, nations that have been attacked and subjugated by totalitarian regimes, is now dead in the halls of government.
Our nation is now officially a coward, led by our sissy in chief Barry Nobama and his wussy posse. The commitment to the smaller countries of Eastern Europe for a missile shield to protect them from the missiles of Iran has now been cancelled by our Coward in Chief, caving in to the Russian A**wipe Putin and his Mafiya pals in the Kremlin.
The fact that Russia wants these satellite countries back under Russian control is well documented- the Russians feel it is their “Historic Right” to have these countries as theirs- Estonia, Poland, Ukraine, Georgia, and others all have become independent after Communism fell in the 90s. All of these countries like their independence, but instead of standing up for freedom, Barry is giving the Russians free rein to take them back, and the missile defense would have made taking these countries a little harder. Now, it is child’s play, and Barry doesn’t have the testicular fortitude to do anything about it.
This is bad news for all who care about the US commitment to the transatlantic alliance and the defence of Europe as well as the United States. It represents the appalling appeasement of Russian aggression and a willingness to sacrifice American allies on the altar of political expediency. A deal with the Russians to cancel missile defence installations sends a clear message that even Washington can be intimidated by the Russian bear.
blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news
What we have in office now is a man, (and I use that term very loosely), who does not like confrontation, is scared, and very much out of his depth; a man who has believed that the sound of his voice alone could soothe the Russian Bear, when there was no evidence that this was the case. A man who has always had others to do the confrontations for him, so he never had to actually screw his courage to the sticking point and take a stand. Bluntly put- he doesn’t know how.
Barack Obama has abandoned the controversial Pentagon plan to build a missile defence system in Europe. The move has prompted angry accusations of betrayal from Washington’s eastern European allies but delighted the Kremlin.
In one of the sharpest breaks yet with the policies of the Bush administration, Obama phoned the leaders of Poland and the Czech Republic last night to tell them that he had dropped plans to site missile interceptors and a radar station in their respective countries. Russia had furiously opposed the project, claiming it targeted Moscow’s nuclear arsenal.
Obama is to announce the reversal officially at a news conference today. This morning the Czech prime minister, Jan Fischer, revealed that Obama phoned him about it last night.
During a visit to Moscow in July the US president indicated he was ordering a 60-day review of the contentious plan. According to today’s Wall Street Journal, the findings, to be released next week, conclude that Iran’s long-range missile programme is progressing more slowly than previously thought. Citing US officials, the paper says the White House believes Iran’s short and medium-range programme poses a more potent and immediate danger.
guardian.co.uk
You see, Barry just doesn’t get it- it was always about more, much more than just Iran- although they were a threat, undoubtedly.
The true threat was Russia, and continues to be so. President Bush knew this, and the invasion of Georgia peeled the curtain back on Russian intentions enough that a person has to be intellectually brain- dead not to see this as a threat that we will not be able to counter effectively, without these missiles.
Plainly put, these missiles would have been a deterrent, and possibly could buy these smaller countries some time to begin to fight back, hopefully with the rest of the free world helping out, although that aspect is no longer as sure as it once was.
Alexandr Vondra – a former Czech deputy prime minister and ambassador to Washington intimately involved in the negotiations with the Americans – said he was surprised. “This is a U-turn in US policy,” he said. “But first we expect the US to honour its commitments. If they don’t they may have problems generating support for Afghanistan and on other things.”
Under the Bush administration the Pentagon spent years planning and negotiating to place 10 silos with interceptor rockets in northern Poland and to build a large radar station south of Prague to defend against a perceived ballistic missile threat from Iran.
The central European countries were keen to acquire the US installations and other military hardware as partial security guarantees against a resurgent Russia. Moscow claimed the project was aimed against Russia and threatened to deploy short-range nuclear weaponsin the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad, which sits inside the European Union.
Obama’s climbdown is likely to be seen by Russia as a victory for its uncompromising stance.
guardian.co.uk
Barry has no clue, no stones, and he is about to give away the entire area of Eastern Europe, for starters. And make no mistake, it will be just the beginning– Will Germany, or France, for God’s sake be able to do much of anything but retreat- something they have always been very good at?
And what about Britain, Ireland and Scotland? Why would Russia stop there? If you look at the historical records of Russia, even back to the Tsars (now there’s an inconvenient word) the Russians have always had world domination at the top of their list- only people ignorant of history could ignore the greater implications of Barry’s cowardice.
The decision strengthens Dmitry Medvedev, the Russian president, who is due to make his first presidential trip to the US next week for the G20 meeting in Pittsburgh. The Obama administration has been keen to boost Medvedev’s standing and authority at home, seeing him as a more moderate and less hostile interlocutor than Putin.
Today the Nato secretary general, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, said Obama’s decision was “a positive step”. Rasmussen said he had been briefed by the US envoy to Nato about it.
But the timing of the announcement is regarded as disastrous by the Poles. Eugeniusz Smolar, a former chief of Warsaw’s Centre for International Relations, said: “We are disappointed.” But he added that the Polish government had been assured by the Americans that promises of training with Patriot missile batteries and help in modernising the Polish military remained valid.
A few weeks ago, in a cri de coeur to Washington, several senior eastern European officials and public figures wrote a public letter to Obama complaining that their security interests were being ignored by the west in order to improve relations with Moscow.
guardian.co.uk
You may note that my reference material is from the United Kingdom- as an island, they are a bit twitchy about perceived threats, and this qualifies as a valid and fairly immediate threat. I can predict that the seizing of countries will begin soon- the pretexts are being put into place now, and when it happens, we will do nothing. I would say that Germany and France deserve it for consistently trying to foil us at every turn, but Spain, Portugal, and the U.K. do not deserve the possible invasion by a usurper nation- they have been our friends, but we will allow this to happen-
Because we will have our hands full with China by that time.
But that’s another post.
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Tags: cowardice, invasion, liars, missile defense, russia
Dr. Strangelove Redux
May 27, 2009 Political
As Ronald Reagan said once,” Well, there he goes again-“, and indeed, here we go again. Those who do not learn from history are condemned to repeat it. This seems to be an endemic problem today, as North Korea has just announced that it will not abide by the treaty it signed in 1953, and threatened to attack both South Korea and the American troops who are stationed there. Deja vu- many people are alive today for whom this little kerfuffle with communist N. Korea is but a little read footnote in the history books they are no longer required to study.
I was born during the Korean War. My father was a colonel in the Air Force at this time, and because of China’s proximity to N. Korea, tensions were extremely high, because, (and this is a lesson that we did not learn then, so it was repeated in Viet Nam) China is only comfortable with a buffer country protecting its borders, and has historically attacked anybody who threatened their buffer countries.
So when we crossed the Yalu river, the Chinese communists joined the battle, and from that point on, we were driven back and had to settle for the two Korea solution, which has satisfied no one.
Now, in response to the increased threat of missiles from N. Korea, Barama has ordered that the Department of Defense cut defensive missiles from our budget- how insane is this? This is akin to knowing the winter is going to be bad, so we will not buy any heavy coats, or firewood.
An ounce of prevention is truly worth a Megaton of cure. and yet, here is Robert Gates on missile defense-
We will restructure the program to focus on the rogue state and theater missile threat.
We will not increase the number of current ground-based interceptors in Alaska as had been planned. But we will continue to robustly fund continued research and development to improve the capability we already have to defend against long-range rogue missile threats – a threat North Korea’s missile launch this past weekend reminds us is real.
We will cancel the second airborne laser (ABL) prototype aircraft. We will keep the existing aircraft and shift the program to an R&D effort. The ABL program has significant affordability and technology problems and the program’s proposed operational role is highly questionable.
We will terminate the Multiple Kill Vehicle (MKV) program because of its significant technical challenges and the need to take a fresh look at the requirement.
Overall, the Missile Defense Agency program will be reduced by $1.4 billion.
closingvelocity.typepad.com
Now, to terminate ANY of the missile defense systems is an act of complete idiocy. Every defensive system needs to be appraised as a stand- alone program. The MKV is (or was) particularly promising as was the ABL, or Air-borne Laser aircraft- sure there needs to be further tests and R&D- but we will get nowhere if we kill the programs. Is this going to be the attitude with regard to the less promising forms of alternative energy, or is this just a slam against the Defense Industry?
This is definitely NOT the time to slack off of research into ways to protect ourselves against missiles fired from rogue states who are insane enough to believe that they could get away with it.
Unfortunately, I now have to come to the conclusion that Barama can not and will not protect us, instead, stripping Defense of promising projects that could keep us safe against the growing threats of the 21st century, even as these threats coalesce around us. Perhaps it will take a missile strike on Los Angeles or San Diego, or full on Nuclear war between Iran and Israel in the Middle East, for him to wake up to the threat, but then we will be waaaay behind the curve in protecting ourselves.
Remember one thing- the burglar or attacker will absolutely not give you the time to go buy a gun for protection, they will kill you then and there.
It is ALWAYS better to have it and not need it, than to need it and not have it.
Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum- If you wish for peace, prepare for war.
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Tags: budget cuts, missile defense, north korea, stupidity
Would This Be A Preemptive Strike?
Feb 26, 2009 Political
The left went nuts over our attack on Iraq claiming that we should not engage in preemptive strikes. They went along with it all until public sentiment started to change and then they all claimed they were tricked into voting for the war by a guy they all think is stupid. Iraq was not the first time we attacked a country that did not attack us. Japan attacked us in 1941 and we went to war with them and Germany. Germany did not attack us.
In any event, the left was dead set against the idea, at least when it was politically helpful to do so. But now they are in control and occupy the seat at the top. Things might be a little different now. The Navy is prepared to shoot down any missile that North Korea launches if Obama gives the go ahead.
The North Koreans claim they are going to send a satellite into space and the Navy says that if it is a satellite it will be left alone but if the missile is determined not to be one they will shoot it down if Obama gives the order.
This puts Obama in a tough spot. He and his ilk opposed the Bush Doctrine of preemptive strikes so if Obama decides to shoot down a missile he will basically be doing the same thing. In reality, unless that missile is heading for us or our interests we need to leave it alone. If we shoot it down then we are taking a preemptive posture.
Now I am not opposed to preemption and I think there would be no problem shooting down any missile launched just to assert our power and make the NOKs think before doing something stupid. If Obama and the Democrats had not opposed preemption I would not care what they do but since they did oppose it, they need to be held accountable for any act of preemption.
You can bet that if he shoots it down all the libtards who chastised Bush will be rationalizing The Evil Won’s actions. It will also show the value of missile defense, a program the Democrats want to scale down or eliminate.
It would not surprise me if Obama gives the order to shoot it down. Preemption was something Bush believed in.
And so far, Obama has kept a lot of Bush’s policies and practices in place.
Source:
ABC News
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Tags: missile defense, missiles, navy, north korea, Obama