Reactions to the Iranian missile test; Sarkozy sounds off
Sorry for the lull on the site last week but we did celebrate our wedding anniversary this past Sunday, so most of last week was a run-up to that. (But just because we were prepping for our anniversary doesn't mean that we took our eyes off the news.)
Yesterday the Iranians upped the ante in this stand-off between them and the West by testing two new missiles:
Iran test-fired two long-range missiles on Monday, in a move interpreted by the Israeli defense establishment as a flexing of muscles ahead of Teheran's dialogue with Western leaders, scheduled to begin this week.
Monday's tests came on the second day of Iranian war games, increasing international concern over Iranian military activities and adding to a raised sense of urgency about the newly revealed uranium enrichment site Teheran has been secretly constructing near the city of Qom.
Iranian state television said the Revolutionary Guards, which controls Iran's missile program, successfully tested upgraded versions of the medium-range Shihab-3 and Sajjil-2 missiles. Both can carry nuclear warheads and can reach up to 2,000 kilometers, putting Israel, US military bases in the Middle East, and parts of Europe within striking distance.
This is a double-down by Tehran after the president revealed the location of another, secret enrichment site near Qom. But Barry is all set to play the appeasement game as opposed to taking a firm stand on Iran. In the story Senator Dianne Feinstein is quoted as saying there's no proof that they're constructing weapons, but the evidence towards that hypothesis is more than compelling. Give her a cookie folks! Feinstein sees there is compelling evidence, but she's dragging her feet on the issue.
Iran sits on one of the largest reserves of oil in the world, and yet they suddenly have a need for nuclear power? And right after they started rattling the nuclear saber Ahmadinejad started talking about wiping Israel off the map. They won't let the IAEA into any of their facilities, and they have completely snubbed the nuclear non-proliferation treaty. Intelligence has shown where Iran got the technology for nuclear weapons. It came directly from A.Q. Khan, the father of the Pakistani nuclear bomb. He ran a black market for nuclear technology and sold a good deal of information and technology to both North Korea and Iran. There's even speculation that the nuclear site in Syria that Israel bombed back in 2007 was being built with North Korean assistance, and Dr. Khan's information.
When Barry stood with Gordon Brown and Nicholas Sarkozy to issue a sternly-worded statement, neither man really wanted to be next to him. It was embarrassing to stand next to the next Neville Chamberlain especially after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sounded more like Churchill in sounding the warning, again, about Iran. President Sarkozy sounded off today about it:
President Obama wants a unified front against Iran, and to that end he stood together with Nicolas Sarkozy and Gordon Brown in Pittsburgh on Friday morning to reveal the news about Tehran's secret facility to build bomb-grade fuel. But now we hear that the French and British leaders were quietly seething on stage, annoyed by America's handling of the announcement.
Both countries wanted to confront Iran a day earlier at the United Nations. Mr. Obama was, after all, chairing a Security Council session devoted to nonproliferation. The latest evidence of Iran's illegal moves toward acquiring a nuclear weapon was in hand. With the world's leaders gathered in New York, the timing and venue would be a dramatic way to rally international opinion.
President Sarkozy in particular pushed hard. He had been "frustrated" for months about Mr. Obama's reluctance to confront Iran, a senior French government official told us, and saw an opportunity to change momentum. But the Administration told the French that it didn't want to "spoil the image of success" for Mr. Obama's debut at the U.N. and his homily calling for a world without nuclear weapons, according to the Paris daily Le Monde. So the Iran bombshell was pushed back a day to Pittsburgh, where the G-20 were meeting to discuss economic policy.
Le Monde's diplomatic correspondent, Natalie Nougayrède, reports that a draft of Mr. Sarkozy's speech to the Security Council Thursday included a section on Iran's latest deception. Forced to scrap that bit, the French President let his frustration show with undiplomatic gusto in his formal remarks, laying into what he called the "dream" of disarmament. The address takes on added meaning now that we know the backroom discussions.
"We are right to talk about the future," Mr. Sarkozy said, referring to the U.S. resolution on strengthening arms control treaties. "But the present comes before the future, and the present includes two major nuclear crises," i.e., Iran and North Korea. "We live in the real world, not in a virtual one." No prize for guessing into which world the Frenchman puts Mr. Obama.
See, Barry is ignoring the real threats to take up this idiotic notion of nuclear disarmament. President Sarkozy is right -- Let's focus on the present not some unattainable, utopian future where everyone can be trusted to stick by treaties and agreements. Iran and North Korea have a well-documented history of lying through their teeth to get what they want while foolish and rube-esque presidents blindly take them on their worthless word.
But to go back to Iran for a moment, it's time the world either stands united against the rogue regime in Tehran, or the world will be the one to pay the price. Either this will escalate into a war (and we'd rather not see it, especially if Barry lets them make a nuke), or the world is going to allow a militant Islamic state to utilize nuclear blackmail to get its way in the world. Neither prospect is a smart one.
Based on this report from the UK yesterday it does appear that some nations are taking the Iranian threat quite seriously:
The head of MI6 discussed the issue in London with Mossad chief Meir Dagan and Saudi officials after British intelligence officers helped to uncover the plant, in the side of a mountain near the ancient city of Qom.
The site is seen as a major threat by Tel Aviv and Riyadh. Details of the talks emerged after John Bolton, America’s former UN ambassador, told a meeting of intelligence analysts that “Riyadh certainly approves” of Israel’s use of Saudi airspace.
If the Saudis are prepared to let Israel use their airspace to go after Iran's nuclear sites, then the clock is ticking, and more than likely we could see a strike by year's end. It could occur sooner depending on how the meeting this Thursday goes between Iran and the five nations that hold a permanent seat on the UN Security Council and Germany. If the meeting doesn't go well for the West, Israel could strike much sooner.
Publius II
Yesterday the Iranians upped the ante in this stand-off between them and the West by testing two new missiles:
Iran test-fired two long-range missiles on Monday, in a move interpreted by the Israeli defense establishment as a flexing of muscles ahead of Teheran's dialogue with Western leaders, scheduled to begin this week.
Monday's tests came on the second day of Iranian war games, increasing international concern over Iranian military activities and adding to a raised sense of urgency about the newly revealed uranium enrichment site Teheran has been secretly constructing near the city of Qom.
Iranian state television said the Revolutionary Guards, which controls Iran's missile program, successfully tested upgraded versions of the medium-range Shihab-3 and Sajjil-2 missiles. Both can carry nuclear warheads and can reach up to 2,000 kilometers, putting Israel, US military bases in the Middle East, and parts of Europe within striking distance.
This is a double-down by Tehran after the president revealed the location of another, secret enrichment site near Qom. But Barry is all set to play the appeasement game as opposed to taking a firm stand on Iran. In the story Senator Dianne Feinstein is quoted as saying there's no proof that they're constructing weapons, but the evidence towards that hypothesis is more than compelling. Give her a cookie folks! Feinstein sees there is compelling evidence, but she's dragging her feet on the issue.
Iran sits on one of the largest reserves of oil in the world, and yet they suddenly have a need for nuclear power? And right after they started rattling the nuclear saber Ahmadinejad started talking about wiping Israel off the map. They won't let the IAEA into any of their facilities, and they have completely snubbed the nuclear non-proliferation treaty. Intelligence has shown where Iran got the technology for nuclear weapons. It came directly from A.Q. Khan, the father of the Pakistani nuclear bomb. He ran a black market for nuclear technology and sold a good deal of information and technology to both North Korea and Iran. There's even speculation that the nuclear site in Syria that Israel bombed back in 2007 was being built with North Korean assistance, and Dr. Khan's information.
When Barry stood with Gordon Brown and Nicholas Sarkozy to issue a sternly-worded statement, neither man really wanted to be next to him. It was embarrassing to stand next to the next Neville Chamberlain especially after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sounded more like Churchill in sounding the warning, again, about Iran. President Sarkozy sounded off today about it:
President Obama wants a unified front against Iran, and to that end he stood together with Nicolas Sarkozy and Gordon Brown in Pittsburgh on Friday morning to reveal the news about Tehran's secret facility to build bomb-grade fuel. But now we hear that the French and British leaders were quietly seething on stage, annoyed by America's handling of the announcement.
Both countries wanted to confront Iran a day earlier at the United Nations. Mr. Obama was, after all, chairing a Security Council session devoted to nonproliferation. The latest evidence of Iran's illegal moves toward acquiring a nuclear weapon was in hand. With the world's leaders gathered in New York, the timing and venue would be a dramatic way to rally international opinion.
President Sarkozy in particular pushed hard. He had been "frustrated" for months about Mr. Obama's reluctance to confront Iran, a senior French government official told us, and saw an opportunity to change momentum. But the Administration told the French that it didn't want to "spoil the image of success" for Mr. Obama's debut at the U.N. and his homily calling for a world without nuclear weapons, according to the Paris daily Le Monde. So the Iran bombshell was pushed back a day to Pittsburgh, where the G-20 were meeting to discuss economic policy.
Le Monde's diplomatic correspondent, Natalie Nougayrède, reports that a draft of Mr. Sarkozy's speech to the Security Council Thursday included a section on Iran's latest deception. Forced to scrap that bit, the French President let his frustration show with undiplomatic gusto in his formal remarks, laying into what he called the "dream" of disarmament. The address takes on added meaning now that we know the backroom discussions.
"We are right to talk about the future," Mr. Sarkozy said, referring to the U.S. resolution on strengthening arms control treaties. "But the present comes before the future, and the present includes two major nuclear crises," i.e., Iran and North Korea. "We live in the real world, not in a virtual one." No prize for guessing into which world the Frenchman puts Mr. Obama.
See, Barry is ignoring the real threats to take up this idiotic notion of nuclear disarmament. President Sarkozy is right -- Let's focus on the present not some unattainable, utopian future where everyone can be trusted to stick by treaties and agreements. Iran and North Korea have a well-documented history of lying through their teeth to get what they want while foolish and rube-esque presidents blindly take them on their worthless word.
But to go back to Iran for a moment, it's time the world either stands united against the rogue regime in Tehran, or the world will be the one to pay the price. Either this will escalate into a war (and we'd rather not see it, especially if Barry lets them make a nuke), or the world is going to allow a militant Islamic state to utilize nuclear blackmail to get its way in the world. Neither prospect is a smart one.
Based on this report from the UK yesterday it does appear that some nations are taking the Iranian threat quite seriously:
The head of MI6 discussed the issue in London with Mossad chief Meir Dagan and Saudi officials after British intelligence officers helped to uncover the plant, in the side of a mountain near the ancient city of Qom.
The site is seen as a major threat by Tel Aviv and Riyadh. Details of the talks emerged after John Bolton, America’s former UN ambassador, told a meeting of intelligence analysts that “Riyadh certainly approves” of Israel’s use of Saudi airspace.
If the Saudis are prepared to let Israel use their airspace to go after Iran's nuclear sites, then the clock is ticking, and more than likely we could see a strike by year's end. It could occur sooner depending on how the meeting this Thursday goes between Iran and the five nations that hold a permanent seat on the UN Security Council and Germany. If the meeting doesn't go well for the West, Israel could strike much sooner.
Publius II
posted by Syd And Vaughn | 10:25 AM
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