"Able" isn't "would"

The United States has had the ability to obliterate Iran and most other countries with nuclear weapons for sometime. That is not news.

Point is that if the United States used nuclear weapons on Iran or if it attempted to obliterate Iran with conventional military force (where it really is massively overstretched) then the United States would only further enrage and increase the number of its enemies that don't need any one particular nation state as a base.

In the community of nations made up of people the United States doesn't have anywhere near enough credit in the goodwill bank. Rather it has a bunch of creditors considering foreclosure.  

The ability to obliterate Iran is also the ability to cause the United States to become a world pariah. And for the United States to make itself part of its own collateral damage.

That the United States might kick that particular ants nest over is probably the fondest hope of people who wish to see the United States suffer.

by Brett Paatsch (0 articles, 2 quicklinks, 22 diaries, 1010 comments) on Tuesday, April 22, 2008 at 8:35:41 PM
 

America to become a pariah?

It has already happened. In the last 8 years America's international approval rating has plummeted.

Luckily most people still differentiate between individual American people and the actions of the Bush regime.

Vote Clinton or McCain and that distinction is likely to blur. Foreign people keep being reminded that American people choose their leaders.

by John Haigh (1 articles, 0 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 106 comments) on Wednesday, April 23, 2008 at 4:41:55 AM
 

MAD

Mutual Assured Destruction was the deterrent to all out necular war with the USSR; and as far as we know that worked.

The USA definitely has the ability to destroy Iran.  I assume the USA has an agreement with Israel to come to their defense if they are attacked.  If Iran attacks Israel with necular bombs; they should expect an appropriate response.  Hillary's statement makes it clear that Iran had better choose to not develop and employ necular weapons or else.

On how to deal with Iran if (big IF ???) they are trying to develop a necular weapon -

1. Preemptive strategic strike to destroy specific facilities being used to develop the capability.

2. Invasion.

3. Threat of destruction if they use such a weapon.

Of these three, I actually think #3 is the better approach. 

by Philip Pease (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 128 comments) on Wednesday, April 23, 2008 at 9:04:22 AM
 

First of all, question the premise

It is not in Iran's interest to attack Israel. Indeed, it is far more likely that Israel would launch an unprovoked attack on Iran than that Iran would attack Israel. Israel has actually done such a thing, against both Syria and Iraq. Iran, for its part, has not attacked another country in centuries.

 Furthermore, there are many ways, should the unlikely occur, to threaten to punish Iran's government, short of slaughtering its innocent  civilian population. MAD is mad. Plain and simple.

 It's all the madder and all the more criminal when you are punishing a dictatorship by killing its people.

The US has the capability to destroy Iran's government, to destroy its military, to destroy its oil industry, etc., etc. There are many levels of reprisal which could be calibrated to punish those who would do such a thing, while leaving the population largely safe. To forget about suchg matters and just threaten to turn the country into a smoking ruin is the height of criminal madness.

No one who talks that way should be allowed near the White House. 

by Dave Lindorff (341 articles, 0 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 157 comments) on Wednesday, April 23, 2008 at 10:10:40 AM
 

Hillary Clinton: Evil Terrorist Monster

April 23, 2008

Not to be outdone by Insane McCain's singing of "bomb, bomb, bomb Iran", Hillary Clinton has threatened to totally obliterate Iran.

During World War II, on August 6 and 9, 1945, America dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and on Nagasaki. America could have destroyed all of Japan. Today, America has diplomatic relations, trade, and investment with Japan.

During the Vietnam War, America dropped enough bombs on North Vietnam to kill or destroy everything in Vietnam. Fortunately, America's political leaders chose not to turn North Vietnam into an ashtray. Today, America has diplomatic relations, trade, and investment with Vietnam.

Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee (Democrat-Texas) has appeared on the Fox News Channel speaking as a co-chairperson of Hillary Clinton's campaign for President. Supporters of the Iranian MEK (MKO, PMOI, NCRI, Rajavi Cult, or Pol Pot of Iran) terrorists thanked Jaskson-Lee for her support in a full-page January 15, 2003 advertisement in the New York Times. The MEK terrorists have murdered American military officers, Rockwell International employees, and large numbers of Iranians and Iraqis. The MEK has conducted terrorist attacks in many countries, including in America. At the start of the Iraq War, American and coalition forces attacked the MEK terrorists at Camp Ashraf, Iraq. Now, the American military is protecting the terrorist organization the White House listed in September 2002 as a pretext for the Iraq War.

Hillary Clinton's threat to totally obliterate Iran is evidence for the people of the world that America has become the worst axis of evil and that Hillary Clinton is America's worst terrorist monster.

Shame on any American traitors who would vote for Hillary Clinton or for any neoconservative candidates for public office.

by Paul Sheldon Foote (8 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 42 comments) on Wednesday, April 23, 2008 at 1:56:42 PM