Iran announces resumption of atomic fuel research

Let me get this straight, the Iranians are rejecting help from the Russians with their nuclear program? And why? Because of a compromise proposal aimed at defusing Iran's nuclear row with West? Come on, give me a break. The Russains just want to make sure that the Iranians won't share the technology with the Chechens. Or put another way, they want a promise from the Iranian government that they won't sell nuclear weapons to the Chechen rebels to use against them. Plain and simple. And the European Union need to be worried. The Muslims are rioting in France, Hamas wants Spain back. How long before there's another terrorist assault the people of the European Union? And the United States government is moving slowly on the search for nuclear radiation on and in our cities. And why hasn't the US press gotten all over this story? it becomes apparent that the elite media thinks that if they do that it'll help the president. They're too stupid to see that President Bush can't run again in 2008!!! If the Islamofeces manage to detenate a dirty bomb in a major U.S. city, they could be a target!!! And lets not forget the ever so helpful United Nations. That body of fair minded countries that love us so much. The IAEA was notified the Iranians that they were continuing their nuke program. Okay, now I feel good. At least the Israelis aren't bamboozled. Thank God!!!

What is all this resumed nonsense? It probably never halted since they began. What a joke;they have just been buying time.

Should Israel believe in Western assurances or, if necessary, nuke Iran itself? In the opinion of Iran's "top nuclear negotiator": "It's not logical for a country to put the fate of its nation at the disposal of another country even if it's a friend."

"What is all this resumed nonsense? It probably never halted since they began. What a joke;they have just been buying time.
Posted by: dms

Exactly. They have been spinning nuclear weapons grade plutonium in their centrifuges for the past 3 years. It's never stopped.
They probably already have a few bombs already, they are just building up a bigger arsenal with thew time the UN/EU so generously gives them.

It' the same old song and dance over and over and over again. The bureaucrats in Europe and the EU have NEVER EVER prevented a war by holding talks and eating the fine French food and pastries they get catered in to them.

It comes down to the same thing it always has in history. It takes force to stop evil. It take willpower and dedication to win.

These fools are going to let Iran build their bombs, like they let Saddam move his supplies.

The left, like always will not say a damn thing which may in any way agree with the right. They would rather see millions die than give Bush any legitimacy, and they will attempt to rewrite history to cover up their incompetence.

It is exactly this reason that I think Hugh’s ideas of withdrawing from Iraq are little of the mark. I usually agree with most of his opinions but I really think that the reason Iran is being so bellicose of late is because they have continued their nuclear fuel cycle and are probably sitting on a couple of low yield nuclear weapons.

It is better therefore to have our military right on their doorstep, so should they try anything we can strike back decisively. In fact I don’t think we should even wait till they do something. Lets use the hardware we have in place to start taking apart that Islamic hell hole.

"It is better therefore to have our military right on their [the Iranian] doorstep, so should they try anything we can strike back decisively. In fact I don’t think we should even wait till they do something. Lets use the hardware we have in place to start taking apart that Islamic hell hole."
-- from a poster above

Iraq has 27 million people. There are fewer than 140,000 American troops in Iraq, not all of them combat troops. They are spread out in a country with 27 million people. It is difficult and always dangerous for them to move along the highways. Many millions of the Arabs in Iraq (the Kurds are a different matter)would be completely indifferent if the American soldiers were killed (even if they are happy to keep receiving aid and reconstruction from those same soldiers), and millions of Arabs in Iraq would even take pleasure in such an outcome (the meretriciousness, the viciousness, will be expressed far more openly, even by those in the government, once it is clear that the American largesse, the country makeover, is not going to continue -- so much for Al-Jaafari's absurd call for an American-financed Marshall Plan -- "let's call it the Bush Plan" -- that he announced on his trip to Washington.

Iran's nuclear project is not going to be dealt with by "the hardware we have in place." It will be missiles sent from afar, planes with bombs flying from bases afar, not those tanks and Humvees and helicopters and "boots on the ground" business that so many like to talk about, and seem to think will be enough to deal with Iran. No.

And what will be the reaction within Iraq? What kind of retaliatory attacks, by maddened Arabs, Sunni or especially Shi'a, may result? How many Iranian agents or Iraqi Shi'a working for them are already within Iraq, perhaps even enrolled in the army, or the Shi'a militia? No, the Americans have to get out or at least remove themselves from non-Kurdish territory, as quickly as possible.

Not to "cut and run." But to prepare for the most important matter immediately at hand -- depriving Iran of the possiblity of acquiring nuclear weapons.

I wonder what the
Leftists
Environmentalists
Democrats
and other tree huggers will do when iran

Lauches a couple of these
Warheads that generate electricity into a few european capitals...

I can hear it now...

It was only for peaceful purposes...
Just because it exploded doesnt mean muslimns did it...

Its all a zionist Plot.. the jews made us blow up paris...

The sheer delusions are so hillarious that i am sure sigmond freud whould be laughing all the way to the bank...

Except for one thing....
These Islamic NUT Jobs are trying to kill
ALL OF US...

"Iran's nuclear project is not going to be dealt with by "the hardware we have in place." It will be missiles sent from afar, planes with bombs flying from bases afar"

I think you are oversimplifying what our forces consist of in Iraq. They aren't all ground forces.

We have awesome air power there, which if needed can mobilize and ground Iran's air defenses before they ever get off the ground.

These forces are backed up by what's sitting out in the gulf, with other assets in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Oman, etc.

Iran WILL be dealt with assets we have in the region, along with what is in Iraq.

Iran would have to counter-attack a lot of countries, not just Iraq. They know it, and it would not work in their favor.

Our forces aren't "spread out" like you are insinuating either. What you hear of that gets attacked on occasion are supply convoys which need to bring in supplies to the various bases they operate out of. Each one of those bases are responsible for an area.

Much of the regular patrolling is now done by Iraqi forces, or ours in combination with Iraqi forces that are being trained. There are engineers which also work out of these bases and do the reconstruction projects in various towns and villages within the area each base is responsible.

Then there are the strike forces, which go to various places to put out hot spots. They may or may not work with Iraqi forces.

The bases themselves rarely if ever come under attack by "insurgents", Most of the IEDs are targeting convoys, or suicide bombers which target check points. Mostly they target Iraqi's in cities like Baghdad, Monsul, etc.
Their main goal is to start a civil war, plus
with the help of western media, erode western support. Thanks to the media, they are doing a good job. If it wasn't for the excellent media
support they have, they would have given up long ago.

Sometimes the troops are involved in missions flushing out terrorist strongholds, which you may notice are code named missions, like "Operation sledge hammer" for example.
Nothing is "spread out" however.

As Iraqi troops are trained and take over more and more of these operations, Troop levels will be drawn down.

because they aren't "scattered about", they can also be redeployed at a moments notice for other tasks in the region.

You are right, it won't be tanks and humvies involved in an initial strike against Iran, but they will be there, ready to roll when they are needed, along with other assets in other regions nearby.

To draw everything out, pack everything up and bring them home, only to reload all these ships and send them back, establish new bases isn't the smartest of strategic plans. It takes weeks to move that stuff around. It's all there within strike range of any threat now, with plenty of support waiting offshore.

Remember, before Iraq was taken out, it took weeks to get everything there, and there was further delay when Turkey refused to let a division move across it's territory into northern Iraq.

I just don't think we will see anything coming back until the Iran issue is resolved. Nor should troops be drawn down from Iraq until then.

If Iran wasn't an issue, and with Iraq's own troop levels improving, I'd say we would be in a situation where half of those assets can come home by spring. The "insurgents" have been basically crushed, and are getting weaker by the day. It won't be long before it can be controlled by Iraq's own police and army.

It will be years before they are strong enough to defend against Iran however. I doubt that air power will be reduced for years for that reason. I also think we will have a permanent presence in Iraq, unless things go drastically wrong, like a civil war from pulling out too soon.

Granted, things could happen which would change my opinion, but even then I would not leave without smashing every single nuclear "research" structure in Iran first. the deeper underground they are, the bigger the hole we leave.

I do understand your position, and I would agree, let them kill each other off. The problem is Iran, they want Iraq badly, and that would make them more dangerous than they already are.
We can't let that happen.

Hugh-

I understand your concern regarding the Shia, but I really don't think, outside of Al Sadr's group, (why they never took that worm out I'll never understand) that they will give Iran much support, if any. Most of Iraqi Shia follow the old Imam, Sistanni, who in turn suports a democratic government. They wouldn't want to be put in the position where they would loose American support, because that would leave them vulnerable to Al- Sadr's Iranian hardline style of Islam, which they are already had a taste of.

There is no love lost between them and the Sunni's either, But they hold the power now, so they have nothing to fear anymore, Saddam's hardliners are gone. They can get along with the Sunni's and avoid the Iranian hardliners. Iraq now is the best they ever had it.

The kurds are armed fairly well now, I doubt they would turn on us, which is probably why you are saying we should move some troops into northern territory. Ironically, the Sunni need the Kurds, even though there is no love lost between them, because between them both, they can keep the Shia's political powers in check.
There is no love lost between the Kurds and the Iranian hardline Shia.

I doubt the Sunni would give any support to Iran either, because that seals their fate down the road. They have to know that. They may not like the Shia having the political power they have now, But it's starting to sink into their heads that the only way to counter that power is to start supporting the democratic election process.
They have woken up and realized they were being suckered by Iran's insurgency support, via support of Sunni radicals in Syria. A sign of this awakening is the large amount of them participating in the recent elections.

All three of these groups need to stick together to repell any Iranian advance. This is why these "insurgents" are trying so hard to start a civil war.

They many not be very happy with things now, but they need each other to keep things from getting worse. If Iran gets control, the Sunni may as well kiss their bums goodbye.

The Shia in Iraq will loose liberty power, and wealth.

The Kurds will also loose liberty power and wealth. Plus, if Iran attacks Iraq, the Turks will grab nothern Iraq for two reasons- the oil they need, and to rid themselves of the Kurd problem once and for all.

So, it's a delicate situation, only made worse by any one of them giving support to Iran and turning on us, or each other.

That's the way I see it. This could use better detailing, but I think you know what I'm saying.

If Iran fired missles into Iraq, It won't get them the reaction they want.

I'll never understand why we never took out Sadr and his band of crimminals when we had the chance though. It was a bad mistake.