From Expatica with thanks to Sr. Soph.
BERLIN - German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer voiced alarm Sunday at the risk of military conflict over Iran's nuclear research and called on Tehran to be reasonable.In remarks aired Sunday on a current-affairs programme on Germany's ARD public television network, Fischer said he wished that the Iranian leadership would grasp that they could fulfil their "legitimate interests" in development and security by "employing reason". ARD quoted from the interview before it was aired.
Fischer said Iran's nuclear technology "makes no sense for civilian use".
"It's like somebody manufacturing engines when they don't have any factories making cars," he said. That posed the question as to why Iran was pursuing nuclear research.
If Tehran was moving in the direction of military use of nuclear skills, "then I think that is very much a cause for concern".
"A military escalation in Iran involves dangers that nobody will be able to control afterwards," he said...
Willikers,
When the status quo is unacceptable, you shake up every option (and one must remain clear), take up every advantage as it appears, and if push comes to shove, let loose the dogs of war.
A not perfect plan now is worth more than a perfect one later, sez George Patton.
A few conventional shake it ups now, is worth more than a nuclear bomb later.
Need to get that Neville Chamberlain glue off the sitting Europeans behind so he can get up and do something.
"The U.N. IRAN Plan, -in 12 parts"
1. Stop it fellahs.
2. C"mon, guys, really, cut it out.
3. Will you please stop?
4. We'll give you the nuclear materials, but you gotta promise to give them all back when the reactor rods are 'spent'.
5. Honest, we're getting a little worried that you're not stopping your secret A-Bomb project.
6. Sheesh! NOW really! You have got to SERIOUSLY cut it out with ALL this nuke stuff!
7. Gentlemen, you don't really want to make fission bombs, right? Just generate nuclear energy. That what all the thousands of gas centrifuges are for, I bet.
8. Jeepers! We're dead serious. We caught you lying and cheating and we don't like that. Be reasonable. People are watching us.
9. We'll even sweeten the deal -with billions in easily-stolen foreign aid if you'll just pretend that you don't want nukes. You know we can overlook your underground work if you'll just promise, in public, that you are not, cross-your-heart-and-hope-to-die, after the Big Bad Bomb.
10. I know that you signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, so technically you should be allowed to pursue "peaceful" uses of atomic power, but it looks suspicious, all the bunkers and hardened sites... just for 'energy' research. You got to admit it.
11. We're getting very very very mad!! (Petulant stamp of expensively-shod foot.)
12. Oh, okay, do what you want! We give up!! We'll let the damned Americans and fascist Israelis do the dirty work ...and then yell at them for doing it, as we always do.
A long pause, and then:
BOOOOM!!!!!
Posted by: BigSleep at August 23, 2005 11:12 PM
Gold Star for you today!!
IAEA says the iranis have gotten their centerfuses from ????? Pakistan!!!
Hear that there are towns having a bit of a Flooding problem today??
so is that could that be a warning after all that was 1 of the 10 ?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3872201.stm
The US has revealed that it removed more than 1.7 metric tons of radioactive material from Iraq in a secret operation last month.
"This operation was a major achievement," said US Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham in a statement.
He said it would keep "potentially dangerous nuclear materials out of the hands of terrorists".
Along with 1.77 tons of enriched uranium, about 1,000 "highly radioactive sources" were also removed
OH MY WHERE DID THEY GET THIS OH YEA CONVERTED IT FROM 500 TONS BOUGHT AND PAID FOR IN AFRICA??
NewsMax.com
Saturday, May 22, 2004 10:40 a.m. EDT
Report: Taped Saddam Names Foreign Leaders in Bribe Scheme
Taped recorded interrogation sessions of Saddam Hussein reportedly show the captured Iraqi dictator naming specific leaders in the Middle East and other parts of the world as recipients of bribes paid by Baghdad, an Iraqi press report claimed this week.
"Diplomatic sources confirm the existence of 150 recordings of Saddam's confessions which include information on bribes paid to heads of state and political leaders in Arab and foreign states," the Iraqi newspaper Al- Mu'tamar reported on Thursday, according the Middle Eastern Media Research Institute.
MEMRI monitors Arab media reports and translates them into English.
OH MY WHERE IS THE MSM OH HOW THE AMERICAN PRESS HAS BETRADED THEIR OWN PEOPLE??
THE STACKES ARE HIGH AND LIKE WE HAVE COPS ON THE STREETS THERE ARE STILL MURDERS EVERY DAY SOME WHERE THESE ISLAMIC TERRORIST SUPPORTERS ARE PLAYING FOR KEEPS THIS IS NOT A GAME AND WHEN ARE THE PRESS GOING TO ROUTE FOR THIER OWN HOME TEAM???
WE AINT THE BAD GUYS!!!
Iran Says Too Bad: It Will go Nuclear
NewsMax Wires
Monday, June 14, 2004
TEHRAN -- Toughening its stance in advance of a meeting of the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency, Iran yesterday said it would reject international restrictions on its nuclear program and challenged the world to accept Tehran as a member of the "nuclear club."
Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi rejected further outside influence on Tehran's nuclear ambitions two days before the International Atomic Energy Agency board of governors meets to discuss Iran's highly controversial program.
"We won't accept any new obligations," Kharrazi said. "Iran has a high technical capability and has to be recognized by the international community as a member of the nuclear club. This is an irreversible path."
Part of the American Tribe
Squirrel Hunter
Spider Killer
GOD BLESS THE USA AND HER FIGHTING FORCES AND ALL WHO FIGHT WITH HER GIVE THEM STRENGTH, WISDOM, SIGHT, AND COURAGE TO STAY THE COURSE TO VICTORY TO DESTROY ALL ISLAMIC TERRORIST AND ALL WHO SUPPORT THEM OPEN THE WORLDS EYES TO THEIR THREAT GIVE THE WORLD COURAGE TO STAND TOGETHER TO DESTROY THIS EVIL LET NOT THE WORLD BE DECEIVED BY THEM AMEN
Bigsleep you are a crack up!!! (but truthful!)
You haven't been watching the Hans "Bwix" character in 'Team America' have you??
Big Sleep
This is OT but I did promise. On 31 July we had a discussion about Fairport Convention. Metaxy was trying to trace a song he recalled with a chorus about Rabbit stew. Dennisw, Jay, me and you and several others made suggestions and I promised to search through our record collection to see if I had the song and could identify it. Just to say I kept my promise to search and have not found it. Sorry. But it was fun listening.
Joschka Fischer is a weak appeasor, usually.
He is such a great caricature that I am surprised that the good folks who made "Team America" didn't steal his whole persona - ala Hans Blix.
Chancellor Scroeder has just attacked Bush for stating the obvious - that all options are on the table with regards to Iran, so this meekest of threats from Fischer is puzzling - could be that Schroeder (from here on called "Heir Dye) actually thinks he has a chance in the coming election?
Germany, for all its history, fails to recognise new fascist threats & I do blame (maybe "blame is the wrong word - our forefathers had alot on their minds at the time) us Allies for this - we battered Germany too much after the war, too much guilt layed on them, too much re-education. The result is this "de-testicled" Germany we have today - with a vain Chancellor who sues for people speculating in the press that he dyes his hair.
Whilst no-one could possibly argue against the fact that Germany needed to be somewhat doctored after WWII, we should have left them with some semblance of Teutonic masculinity.
Maybe then Jihadists would have a harder time in Germany instead of the picnic they seem to be enjoying there. Maybe like London, Germany will wake up after the Jihadists start killing German citizens.
Albion:
"The result is this "de-testicled" Germany we have today -"
How true!
These unspeakable parvenues, these social rizers, the half-educated Shredders and Fiskers, indeed:
They are as despicable as the Mohammedan scum that is a threat to everything we hold dear.
But how do you change a society that is totally infatuated with big government, where nobody wants to take responsibility but everybody runs for cover every time the wind blows?
For me Germany was always a strange place and if its history is weird, its future is rather bleak.
But then again, socialism/communism is the worst disease that affects Europe. Not only Germany, Europe on a whole has to rid itself of the idiocy that everyone and everything can and must be regulated in one way or another.
There are no countries -or peoples- in Europe with balls...
Fischer excoriates the Iranians for pursuing their program.....and then warns of catastrophe against the one strategy that might disable it.
Me thinks there is an election in the air....and the anti-American boogyman will be trotted out to once again slavage Schroeder's chances. The saddest part is not the SDP's willingness to play politics with security, it is the responsiveness of the German electorate to the pacifist call and the drumbeat of anti-Americanism.
But not this time folks. Iran is not hot enough; conflict is not imminent. The CDU is going to win this one, and Chirac will be all alone as the standard-bearer of "old Europe."
Big Sleep. Great post.
It's a hoot.
One of the best ways to defeat your enemies is to laugh at them (provided that one has an audience).
Keep on trucking.
Buzzwords: "Volkswagen Werke, AG." "Follow the money"
Fischer is more aware of the threat to Der Vaterland than is Schroeder. Schroeder jumped all over Bush when Bush commented all options remain on the table with regard to Iran's "new-cue-lar" ambitions. Schroeder doen not want any mention of miltary option against Iran for one very good reason, and it is not wimpy Eurocratic appeasement, it is buzzword number one.
Deutchlands pride, "Fau Vey", is in serious hurt. After being the market leader in China, it is falling by the wayside as GM, Toyota and home grown Chinese auto companies are speeding past it. In the US, where it used to be the largest import brand, it's market share is miniscule and falling because of very poor quality in comparison to the Japanese and most US brands. It is even shrinking in the heart of Europe as Asian competitors are finally gaining traction there. VW is bleeding, make that hemorrhaging, red ink faster than the French can yell "Surrender!"
What does this have to do with Iran? VW invested multibillions (as measured in US dollars) in Iran to set up auto production. Business Week (I believe it was) reported how precarious this investment in Iran really is. VW can lose it all.
Bussword number two, Schroeder must act in a way that best suits his political base, German unions. Can't let all those German auto workers lose their jobs over a failed Iranian investment. Schroeder should have known, shake hands with the Devil and you are bound to get burnt.
Terminator: "There are no countries -or peoples- in Europe with balls..."
Please exclude the British and the Serbs from that statement.