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| Ahmadinejad does not look worried |
Iran Activists Join Anti-Nuclear Push -Farnaz Fassihi
A group of Iranian dissidents for the first time openly called on their government to suspend uranium enrichment, in an open letter published Monday that adds to the momentum of the international effort to convince Tehran to abandon its nuclear weapons program. "The current deadlock over Iran's nuclear ambitions and empty power play will set the stage for war and the people of Iran will have to pay the price," said the letter signed by 175 expatriate dissidents and publicized by a student activist website inside Iran.
(Wall Street Journal)
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10 comments:
Hard to say where this will go. Is Iran bent on acquiring nuclear weapons to the point of willing to face economic ruin and military action? Is it hedging its military bets while seeking some other concessions and incentives. Is it doing enough so that its neighbors will fear it has the weapon whether it successfully develops them or not to keep other nations in check like Iraq did under Hussein? There is a lot yet to be determined but it is clear the world must remain united against a nuclear Iran and though Russia and China don;t seem to want a nuclear Iran they do not seem as interested in opposing it as the rest of the world.
I suspect the answers to your questions are:
yes, no & no.
I'm merely hoping for leadership from our President. He threw his weight behind the Egyptian uprising...this one really matters.
B
As was pointed out in a news rebuttal of criticism aimed at Obama by the Republican candidates on Iran. There has clearly been a covert war against Iran, you just posted on it though your article lays the credit squarely on the Mossad, but many sources believe the US created the WORM that disrupted their Uranium enrichment. Some Presidents have talked a good game against Iran and supporting Israel. None have fixed the MiddleEast, ended the terrorist acts perpetrated against Israel, or slowed Iran's inexorable march towards weapons of mass destruction. Presidents like Bush that talked a good game ended up empowering Iran, destabilizing the region, and not helping Israel at all. Obama has possibly waged a covert war against Iran, he has killed top level terrorists, despite his feeling out a different angle on MidEast peace, an unpopular one in Israel and here in this blog, he has nonetheless supported their interests in the UN. I fear many Israel supporters have been taken in by Republicans who talk the talk but do not walk the walk. Bush himself made it clear he had very little interest in the MidEast until events made him have to pay attention.
If the US was involved, the Stuxnet virus would have seen its beginnings during the Bush years. I'm not sure Obama gets credit for anything but continuing a good thing.
The best way for President Obama to outflank his Republican challengers is to show leadership on Iran. Covert warfare is unlike to do anything but delay the Mullah's quest for nukes. It won't stop them.
There is no evidence the worm started with the Bush administration. We might as well credit Bush for bin Laden's death because, after all, if he had not ignored the intelligence in August 2001 that the attacks were planned then Obama would not have been hunting bin Laden in 2011. Iran has been pursuing nuclear weapons for years. To blame Obama for the progress they have made when the infrastructure was built as soon as Iraq was no longer a constant threat to them is simplistic. To expect Obama to take this country to the brink of was after the mess that was made in Iraq and the failures in Afghanistan because we did not stay focused is naive. Obama has tried to build a relationship with the peoples of the MidEast and garner support by supporting uprisings. The world supported our actions in Libya, the American people by a slim majority supported it, the Republicans did not support it. The Republicans have stood in the way of anything Obama wants and have made it clear they want him out of office. This is an incredibly unpatriotic, indeed in these difficult times---treasonous position that is unparalleled with the Democrats, who gave Bush his tax cuts and his wars. Obama has his hands tied for anything meaningful until America begins to vote out the extremist tea party in the next election.
I am not a partisan.
Bush is not running in this election.
Obama will sink or swim based on his record. He has abysmal judgement on the MidEast.
I understand you are not claiming partisanship but you did claim the worm likely started with Bush and I could find no hint of that save for OpEd comments on conservative media. Everything else I read says it was likely an Obama administration tool used directly or through Israel. Bush is not running in this election but it is myopic to view the MidEast as if nothing has gone on, much less been done by America until Obama got into office. Obama will sink or swim by how America perceives what he has done. But no doubt if it was a Republican in office who got Osama bin Laden and other high level operatives, slowed down the Iranian nuke program with a worm and, with Israel, assassinations, and helped to 'liberate' Libya---without the war it took to do as bad or worse a job in Iraq, the conservatives would be extolling their virtues, demanding their reelection and probably kissing their feet---or kissing something anyway.
You'll find reference to the Bush origins of the Stuxnet virus in a NYTimes article from 2009 and another NYTimes article from Jan 2011. I featured both on my blog in this post:
http://brucesmideastsoundbites.blogspot.com/2011/01/nytimes-reveals-sophisticated-attack-on.html
Thank you for the reference. I see your point, however, what that actually states was:The project’s political origins can be found in the last months of the Bush administration. In January 2009, The New York Times reported that Mr. Bush authorized a covert program to undermine the electrical and computer systems around Natanz, Iran’s major enrichment center. President Obama, first briefed on the program even before taking office, sped it up, according to officials familiar with the administration’s Iran strategy.
This merely means the program itself was authorized by Bush and I will give him credit for that, but I give him credit for invading Afghanistan too, but that was mishandled. It sounds like when Obama got into office he was smart enough to accelerate and (probably) properly fund this effort.
Agreed! :}
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