The Briefing Room
General Category => Editorial/Opinion/Blogs => Topic started by: pjohns on April 21, 2017, 11:35:46 pm
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Just today, an Iranian dissident group came out with photographs that purport to show that Iran is secretly pursuing nuclear weaponry.
Viscerally, I would like to see the JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action--commonly known as "the Iran nuclear deal") canceled.
As a practical matter, however, I am unsure just what that would accomplish.
The Iranian government has already garnered its goodies: the (roughly) 100 billion dollars in sanctions relief, plus the undoing of multilateral sanctions going forward. And it is very difficult to see just how we would get back that 100 billion dollars--or put the multilateral sanctions back in place. (Easier, probably, to put the proverbial toothpaste back into the tube.)
So a cancelation of the Iran deal would leave them with all the goodies, while allowing them to (legally) pursue nuclear weapons.
The only place to go, then--it seems to me--would be to go to war with Iran.
And that is something that very few people have an appetite for.
Thoughts?
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We could give weapons and training to Iranian opposition groups and stir up the Iranian Kurds and give them something domestic to occupy their spare time and money. I'd start off by organizing and then recognizing an independent Kurdistan and make sure they start trouble by demanding unification with their Iranian cousins, after their military is organized and ready to defend their new nation. That would have the double pleasure of pissing off the Turks and giving Erdogan something besides Syria to focus his attention on. Then, when both Iran and Turkey are busy with the Kurds, turn Israel loose on Hezbollah and let them destroy the arms caches and organization they have built up in Lebanon. This would also have another bonus as it would allow the Saudis to finish off the Houthi, which would take them a long time as they don't want to take heavy casualties, so their attention would be focused on Yemen. The Russians and Assad deserve each other and would be left holding the booby prize as Russia goes bankrupt trying to keep Assad in power.
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I would also stir up the Azeris into demanding unification with their cousins in Azerbaijan.
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http://www.breitbart.com/california/2017/01/25/exclusive-irans-crown-prince-reza-pahlavi-civil-disobedience-for-a-free-iran/
Although he did not mention President Barack Obama by name, the crown prince said, “When you fight extremely brutal regimes, such movements cannot succeed without having tacit support from other freedom-loving countries and governments.” His words evoked memories of the failure of the Obama administration to provide much-needed support to the ailing Iranian people during the 2009 Green Revolution and the stolen election that fueled it.
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We could give weapons and training to Iranian opposition groups and stir up the Iranian Kurds and give them something domestic to occupy their spare time and money. I'd start off by organizing and then recognizing an independent Kurdistan and make sure they start trouble by demanding unification with their Iranian cousins, after their military is organized and ready to defend their new nation. That would have the double pleasure of pissing off the Turks and giving Erdogan something besides Syria to focus his attention on. Then, when both Iran and Turkey are busy with the Kurds, turn Israel loose on Hezbollah and let them destroy the arms caches and organization they have built up in Lebanon. This would also have another bonus as it would allow the Saudis to finish off the Houthi, which would take them a long time as they don't want to take heavy casualties, so their attention would be focused on Yemen. The Russians and Assad deserve each other and would be left holding the booby prize as Russia goes bankrupt trying to keep Assad in power.
These are some good thoughts!
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The only course of action that will stop Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons is by the destruction of their weapon-making ability using conventional weapons if possible, and (cough) "non-conventional" weapons if required.
All this talk about "dissident groups", is and will remain nothing more than "talk".
Iran can only be stopped by force.
There is no other alternative.
We should do there now what we should have done to North Korea 20 years ago.
I can't believe there are folks in this forum naive enough to still believe Iran can be reasoned with...
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The horse has left the barn and closing that door that Obama (and Clinton and Carter) not only left open, but HELPED the horse out of - is a bit silly to do at this point.
War with yet another proxy of the Russians is not going to go over too well. Yet another power that we have either ignored or enabled and armed - is another conflict we do not have the funding, manpower or resources to wage - especially with what is already going on.
Consequences are inevitable at this point and the only thing we are going to be able to do - is to embrace the suck, unless idiots really think jump-starting WWIII is a good idea.
Obama and Hillary should be up on Treason charges - but since they are celebs and untouchable - the fuse they set and lit, gets to burn itself to the powder.
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Consequences are inevitable at this point and the only thing we are going to be able to do - is to embrace the suck, unless idiots really think jump-starting WWIII is a good idea.
I am not certain if it is a good idea to wage war upon Iran, or not.
But it is really not so easy of a choice as you seem to imagine.
If Iran acquires nuclear weapons--which they appear to be poised to do--by what sort of reasoning do we imagine that they would not use those nukes upon the US (barring our groveling and acquiescing to them as regarding all matters--which I would certainly not wish to do, irrespective of the alternative consequences).