| Topic: |
Science > Prophecies-Of-Nostradamus |
| User: |
"=?UTF-8?Q?The_Last_1700_Days_=E2=98=BB_HOOROO_!?=" |
| Date: |
09 Jan 2008 08:44:47 PM |
| Object: |
Iz Iran next, peoplez ?!?!? hooroo ~! |
http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=653624&category=OPINION&newsdate=1/9/2008
Is Iran next?
First published: Wednesday, January 9, 2008
What really happened in the Straits of Hormuz over the weekend? If the
Bush administration were not in power, there would be little reason to
raise such a question. But given the administration's march to war in
Iraq, largely on a later-discredited claim that Saddam Hussein
possessed nuclear weapons, there is every reason to be wary of what
could well be a prelude to military action against Iran.
According to the Pentagon, Iranian speedboats taunted three Navy
warships by coming dangerously close to blocking their paths in
international waters. A radio message to one of the American vessels
warned "I am coming to you " and later, "You will explode after ...
minutes." The Iranian crews also dumped boxes of unknown contents into
the waters, and came within a "heartbeat" of being fired on, the
Pentagon said.
Iran has a record for aggressively challenging foreign naval crews.
Last March, Iran seized 15 British marines and sailors in the Persian
Gulf after they had climbed aboard vessel suspected of smuggling
automobiles. They were held for nearly two weeks. It hardly seems out
of character, then, for Iran to taunt U.S. naval crews just days
before President Bush's visit to Israel and the West Bank.
But it also wouldn't be out of character for the Bush administration
to use the encounter to prepare the groundwork for an attack on Iran.
Mr. Bush has been warning for some time that the U.S. will not allow
Iran to build a nuclear weapon, even at one point warning that
Tehran's nuclear program could provoke World War III.
While the case for war was undercut recently when the National
Intelligence Estimate concluded that Iran had abandoned its efforts to
build a bomb some time ago, Mr. Bush has never toned down his
rhetoric. And now he has an incident that appears to prove his point
that Iran poses a threat to peace. He also is a lame duck who does not
have to weigh the political consequences of a military strike against
a Muslim nation of 125 million people with close ties to Russia. Given
the administration's blunders in Iraq, an attack on Iran could turn
into a huge disaster with an unknown ripple effect throughout the
Mideast and beyond.
More than 40 years ago, the U.S. was drawn into a disastrous war in
Indochina after the Johnson administration claimed -- falsely,
according to most historians -- that the North Vietnamese had attacked
two U.S. naval vessels in the Gulf of Tonkin. Americans must be
mindful of that sad chapter in U.S. history and remain skeptical of
any claim by the Bush administration that Iran must be dealt with
militarily.
THE ISSUE: Iranian speedboats taunt U.S. vessels with threatening
moves.
THE STAKES: The White House might use the incident to build a case for
military action.
=========================================
.
|
|
|
Related Articles |
|
|
