Iran vs. Israel

Battle for the Middle East beginning to take shape.
Efforts to head off US and Israel confortations with Iran becoming stronger issues daily.
US troops in other countries may possibly be caught in the middle of brewing Middle East War.
Tensions highten as US expected, to try to calm the tide of conflict in the Middle East.
US involvement seen hostile by Iran President.

The president of Iran again lashed out at Israel on Friday and said it was "heading toward annihilation," just days after Tehran raised fears about its nuclear activities by saying it successfully enriched uranium for the first time.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called Israel a "permanent threat" to the Middle East that will "soon" be liberated. He also appeared to again question whether the Holocaust really happened.

"Like it or not, the Zionist regime is heading toward annihilation," Ahmadinejad said at the opening of a conference in support of the Palestinians. "The Zionist regime is a rotten, dried tree that will be eliminated by one storm."

Ahmadinejad provoked a world outcry in October when he said Israel should be "wiped off the map."

On Friday, he repeated his previous line on the Holocaust, saying: "If such a disaster is true, why should the people of this region pay the price? Why does the Palestinian nation have to be suppressed and have its land occupied?"

The land of Palestine, he said, referring to the British mandated territory that includes all of Israel, Gaza and West Bank, "will be freed soon."

He did not say how this would be achieved, but insisted to the audience of at least 900 people: "Believe that Palestine will be freed soon."

"The existence of this (Israeli) regime is a permanent threat" to the Middle East, he added. "Its existence has harmed the dignity of Islamic nations."

The three-day conference on Palestine is being attended by officials of Hamas, the ruling party in the Palestinian territories.

Iran has previously said it will give money to the Palestinian Authority to make up for the withdrawal of donations by Western nations who object to Hamas' refusal to recognize Israel and renounce violence. But no figure has been published.

On Tuesday, Ahmadinejad announced that Iran had successfully enriched uranium using a battery of 164 centrifuges, a significant step toward the large-scale production of enriched uranium required for either fueling nuclear reactors or making nuclear weapons.

The United States, France and Israel accuse Iran of using a civilian nuclear program to secretly build a weapon. Iran denies this, saying its program is confined to generating electricity.

The U.N. Security Council has given Iran until April 28 to cease enrichment. But Iran has rejected the demand.

The chief of Israeli military intelligence, Maj. Gen. Amos Yadlin, was quoted Wednesday as saying Iran could develop a nuclear bomb "within three years, by the end of the decade."

We will be in Iran in the next 6 months if not sooner.

[1inStripes]

I see Israel putting the kibosh on Iran's "nuclear power" in pretty short order myself.

[imported_burrhead]

Why do you even post this????? You, Spuds and the other Libbs, when and if the US puts the stop on Iran will just start your US government bashing. We could end Irag with one bomb, but there would be nothing left. Iran has been a thorn in our sides for a long time.

So you can post, post like yours. One bomb. How long would it take for all of us to recover from that one bomb. Your one bomb would have to be powerful. And then who knows who would retaliate on behalf of Iran. Remember the Middle East is know for it's radical people and leaders.
Sometimes you have to think about the big picture. I was the same about Iraq, then i thought. Ok drop that bomb. Then what. I guess no matter how it goes, we have a lot of serious situations on our hands, and there is no simple approach.
Only thing i am bashing the current administration on, is not taking care of things on the home front.
And i post these things, because a lot of folks never know what is going on in the world. Some don't get to watch the new or read a paper daily.
If that makes you mad or upset. All i can say is be mad or upset. Sorry.

[jake_norris]

The thing that really bothers me about all of the quote "U.N. Peacekeeping Actions" or whatever you call the conflicts in Afghanistan, Iraq, and their predecessors, is that the U.S. is the only country that puts any effort into the mission, when it affects all nations of the world equally. UK, France, all of these other nations sit on their hands and watch us do the dirty work to protect their sorry behinds. Regimes like the Taliban, Hussein, Iran, Syria, they are some scary folks because they don't care. They will drop nuclear bombs. They will kill hundreds or thousands of people, or sacrifice that many of their own, just to get what they want. And make no mistake, they want us dead; people say only the extremists want to kill Christians, but the extremists are the ones with all the power in the Middle East. Yet while these Islamic nations pose a threat to the entire world, only the U.S. takes action. Think about it: if the U.S. doesn't stop these people, who will?

Sorry for the rant, but correct me if I am wrong!

Your not wrong. But as you stated it's just how do we do it.
We don't have the resouces any more to do what we did in the past.
Afghanistan and Iraq are now draining us even more than anyone would of imagined.
Biggest thing. Everyone wants us to react. Yet who is to stay the course with us?
We can bomb away. But the kind of bombs to wipe out a complete nation? Your talking some powerful bombs and then issues of fallout.
And once we go into a nation, how do we prepare to stay for the long haul.
We are finding that out now in Iraq and Afghanistan.
As you said these are radical nations whose people have no caring for anything besides what their believes hold.
Israel stand in the midst of nations that would love to see it destroyed and the US because we are allies with Israel.
I don't have the answers.
I admit i wanted to do the drop the bomb idea on Iraq, but after some clear thinking.
Once you start dropping those bombs, who is gonna retaliate against us. China, North Korea or other nuclear nations we may not know about.

Touchy situation. The Middle East right now is a powder keg for WW3 to begin.

[jake_norris]

I would just like to see some other nations take the action and make the sacrifices that we have made. Just like you said, no one will stay the course.

What makes these kinds of wars impossible to win is that, these people aren't like us. They don't think like we do, they don't operate like we do. As Americans, we think everybody is like us but sorry, not so.

Bombing won't work for two reasons:
1) We don't have the stomach to kill innocent people, plus the international community would raise complete hell at us if we took the actual military action necessary to win this thing, which shows the ignorance of these nations because these same people they cry over would love to murder them.

2) Killing these people just motivates them even further. They fight for their homeland and religion. Add revenge to that already powerful mix and you have some pissed off, murdering MF'ers with their sights set on you and me.

Pretty scary, all the way around.