Hey Iran! Do You See What I See?

View Larger Map

Do you see what I see?  Hey Iran!  Is that a Star of David on the roof of your airport?

According to the Jerusalem Post, the building was designed and constructed by an Israeli engineering firm prior to the Islamic Revolution.  When ever the building was constructed, it's pretty humorous that it took a Google Earth sat fly over to finally see the ultimate punk job.  If only Ashton Kutcher had been around back in the 70s to film the reaction of the engineers as they laid their trap. 

Russia, USA, Iran: 3 Countries with Nukes & the Power Struggle of Persia

Readers of this blog know that I like to get outside the realm of US politics and occasionally focus on geo-politics.  I will say that by no stretch of the means am I more than an arm chair QB on matters of foreign affairs, but it is safe to say that the middle east is remaining a brew-ha-ha of disturbing tensions.

While Yahoo news service only picks up on the Iranian threats against Israeli nuclear assets, what is being unreported in the USA media is the escalation of the proxy war via the Syrian and Lebanese backed Hizballah.  As the DEBKAfile report details, Hizballah and the 13 various orders of Hamas are all bring joint operations to increase terror efforts against Israel.  Additionally, these groups are seeking to sink and destroy Israeli ships in the Mediterranean Sea.  Of course, all of this comes on the heals of strategic Russian, American diplomacy trade offs that probably will not stop Iran from creating a nuclear device and will leave us to make a tough decision on whether or not we should be engaging in yet another foreign conflict.  

I know that there is a lot of material to cover inside those links, and some of it is is a few weeks old.  However, the hindsight here is pretty self explanatory.  Obama has created himself a fine pickle of problems to deal with internationally for the remainder of this term as president.  Iran isn't going away, especially not with the back room blessing from the UN security council's too major players (Russia and US).  If the current administration had wanted to honestly prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear capabilities, it would have green lit an Israeli strike on the facility before it happened.  Of course, that means the USA would have been drug into another war for regime change, undoubtedly, but there is still that potential anyways.  

Reagan proved that peace through superior firepower (Russian doctrine) is precisely the way to go.  People fear cowboys because well, cowboys are unpredictable.  Cowboys are certifiably insane, psychopaths that can actually control their fits of rage and know how to use them for personal (or general public) benefit.  Teddy Roosevelt Theory still works to this day, and always will.  If you have a big enough stick, they will always leave you alone and in the Persian region, Israel is the one with the biggest stick.  Iran and it's surrogates only want the same big stick, but, are the consequences to the moral people of Israel worth it?  What about our new found Iraqi republic and the potential disaster that could ensue?  

I guess we will continue to the follow the story as it unfolds. 

Does America Know How to Fight?

I wanted to write a follow up to my post regarding potential Israel, Iranian conflict (post here).  This week, Iran has begun digging "mass graves for attacking American soldiers" just in case we attack them (source).   

I do find it necessary to give some frame of reference for my opinion on Iraq, Afghanistan, and now potential Iranian wars.  Let us not mince words as "conflicts" in my mind are merely politicians' double-speak for military action.  Seven years ago, I wasn't as smart as today (geo-politically / historically), and I bought into the half-truth that I now understand the whole Bush Administration's intelligence estimates to be.  That being the case, my present day opinion is that containment, isolation, and prevention to the best of our abilities of these countries is the best way to go about creating a peaceable and workable solution. Washington would have to use an exorbitant amount of restraint against meddling, which means that it is destine for failure before it would even start.  Something that the US leadership forgets is that it's primary focus should be on the citizens of our country and what is best for them.

If the US political leadership is not willing to expend the resources (men, machines, and money) to completely crush the hearts and minds of those who espouse radical Islam, then you have no business trying to change them.  While we are seeing some progress with the DoD's COIN (Counter Insurgency) Doctrine, it is hard to reason with people who still prefer to live in the stone-age and are manipulated by radicals who are almost a clone of their Washington counterparts.  Politicians are politicians, whether they speak from a realm of "law" or "religion."  It is plainly evident that both Washington politicians and radical Imams know exactly how to create classes of people that oppose one another, which in turn, creates a climate for exploitation.  That exploitation is only a means to an end of amassed power.

Do not get me wrong, Islamisists are an enemy of our country, but killing non-military, radical terrorists that fight for an idea is nearly impossible to stop unless you assure them of their complete and utter destruction.  Without clear war, there is no clear victory.  Our current doctrine of break, rebuild, and change their hearts and minds is not successful.  Jihadists seek to instill their Sharia Law (source) upon those whom don't want anything to do with it.  Sound familiar?  We expect them to follow a doctrine that we don't follow ourselves.

Does this mean abandoning the efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan?  Not completely.  It does mean that where we have screwed up, we must make right on a human level, fix things, as best we can to then trust that human nature and good will take hold.  Once that is reasonably accomplished, our focus should be to shift towards home, and take care of ourselves and stop meddling with everyone else's business.  That includes what Israel would like us to do by using us in a proxy war.

If Israel wants regime change in Iran, let them go at it alone.  It will be ugly and it will be long.  I have no doubts that the Israelis will succeed, and perhaps with less humanitarian efforts than the USA, but what they will achieve, is a destruction of their enemies' souls.  That's what war used to be about.  When there was an evil in the world, and it chose to make itself present, you confronted it and obliterated it.  I don't think the USA knows how to do that any more, at least not from a political level.

AK Fan and I were discussing the mass graves.  The comedian that he is suggested we should lob a few cruise missiles at those graves, and blow 'em up.  Show Iran who is boss.  Kick ass and take names later.  It's a great strategy, but unfortunately, the world of the precision army, polarizing civilian leadership, and the lack of testicular fortitude to do dirty deeds, dirt cheap, it'll never happen.  Israel on the other hand should seriously consider AK Fan's suggestion, and commence bombing in 30 seconds.  Maybe then we would see some real stability in the middle east, and the blind sheeple of the desert sands can come into the 21st century. 

Of course, he wanted to do it merely to hear the snickers from the UN security council members, and I can't say that I blame him for that.  Talk about one geo-political joke!

Mr. President, Israel Means Business

Zero Hedge has an memo published by VIPS (Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity) to the President detailing the dire situation that is manifesting in the Middle East.  The memo is extremely long, but a worth while read. 

If you have been following the non-USA news lately, you would know that Lebanon and Israeli tensions hit another flash point this week and border skirmishes have kicked off yet again.  It is apparent that Israel is staring to feel they are backed into a corner, with no where to go, along with an American administration that will probably do nothing to support them, unless forced.  Israel knows how to play the fiddle and force America into support, despite the US's apprehensions, or so the memo explains.

The memo is too detailed to really summarize here with my lack of concrete understanding on Middle Eastern politics but it is simple enough for the laymen to get a good idea of where we are headed.  The main factor to take home is that Israel seems to want regime change in Iran and they are less concerned with nuclear weapons as they are the body politic of the Iranian leadership.  As you will read, this "baiting" strategy is familiar to the world, circa 2003.  Go figure, another intelligence piece that wants to advert another war of preemption which seems to be the modern norm. 

So, I'll pose the question to my readership;  With hindsight always being 20-20 and the philosophical fight between good and evil always a metaphysical relevant, if you were President, what would you do?