Who profits from this? Oil prices go up, who controls the oil? Who organises the trouble? You guessed correct.

Posted by: IceDragon at July 14, 2006 7:35 PM

Sayyed Nasrallah is right and is working in the interest of Muslims."............

Yes. He is going to get you all killed. For HIS pride. And for a false god.

Posted by: freewoman at July 14, 2006 7:41 PM

How come when Israel is attacked, and they fight back. All you hear about is how much oil will be per barrel. Its time to start drilling and exploring again in the United States, damn the tree huggers. The closer that Israel gets to kicking hamas, hezbollah asses the more the mo appeasers want them to cease fire.

Posted by: AMartinez at July 14, 2006 7:55 PM

Looks like they voted for the wrong party. Should have voted for the peaceful muslims, oops couldn't find them could you?

Posted by: Ronin at July 14, 2006 8:10 PM

NBC News is reporting that according to their well-informed Israeli military sources, these UAVs are Iranian-made, and also Iranian military advisers are just over the border helping Hezbollah operate the UAVs.

That confirms that this Hezbollah uprising is a proxy war for Iran, just as the CIA used to train U.S.-backed irregulars in the use of Stinger missiles and so forth during the Cold War.

Well, folks, now we know why Iran refused to respond to the Western nuclear proposals till August 22. This is what Iran had planned as a diversion in the meantime. I wonder what Iran will unveil next, as August 22 draws closer.

Posted by: Steven L. at July 14, 2006 8:28 PM

Steven,
Iran had best worry about what we have planned.

Posted by: Ronin at July 14, 2006 8:32 PM

Oil at $40 makes tar oil (1.7 trillion barrels in Alberta) well profitable.

Oil at $60 makes shale oil (1 trillion barrels in Utah) well profitable.

Mahmoud and the shieks can cram their crude up their camel-holes.

Posted by: Forest Ranger at July 14, 2006 8:39 PM

Israel is waisting its time going after Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Attention needs to be turned to those that pull Hezbollahs strings.

Attack Syria and Iran now!

Posted by: km at July 14, 2006 8:45 PM

Ronin:
Iran had best worry about what we have planned.

Yeah. If Iran isn't careful, we'll send them a strongly worded letter of condemnation where we tell them that they'll stop this nuclear nonsense or we'll become very sad and upset.

Posted by: Jesus Christ Supercop at July 14, 2006 9:02 PM

"If they kill us all, we will still not give them back the prisoners," said one resident, Nasser Ali Nasser..."

...and you won't be taking any more prisoners at that point either, will you?

Brilliant.

-XRDC

Posted by: XRDC at July 14, 2006 9:05 PM

XRDC, a rational person can't possibly understand the logic of Muslims. They're ready to sacrifice their entire population in Lebanon for... what? To get back at Jews? Why? Do they even know why they're on an eternal quest to kill all Jews? Do they care? Are they capable of introspection? Are they even human?

Posted by: Jesus Christ Supercop at July 14, 2006 9:13 PM

All these liberal talking heads on tv keep saying that hezbolla and hammas were democraticly elected, SO WAS ADOLF HITLER.
The BUSH and the bushies need to understand DEMOCRACY does not ALWAYS equal freedom! The destruction of tyranny equals freedom!! The destruction of islam as it is now practiced will equal freedom.

Posted by: WLF at July 14, 2006 9:33 PM

I've seen the remote controlled UAV used by the Iranians and it is quite large, not at all a toy and IIRC it is larger than a Predator.

Where did I see it? I saw it on TV. Al Alam News (Iran) when it was introduced to the world in their Great Prophet Exercise earlier this year.
Where on TV?
On Mosaic.
Mosaic is news from 15 mid east countries (incuding Israel - IBA).., but a typical FREEPER Jihad Watching LGF'er isn't going to watch anything but Fox, Oreilly or who ever preaches to the choir.

I never learned anything sitting in a pew
what about you?

Posted by: Nariz at July 14, 2006 10:12 PM

This is truly a war. I wish all the Israelis God's protection. I pray for the lives of the IDF and hope for them few casualties and many victories.
If this war causes me, a Californian, higher gas prices I don't mind. I just won't buy as many Chinese goods (thanks for nothing with North Korea) or use as much gas. Along with victory over the Muslim Jew hater, I hope that this will teach us Americans to depend less on wicked providers of oil. Chief Thug of Iran - go take a swim in it.

Posted by: JaimeZepeda at July 14, 2006 10:18 PM

Of course the MSM is calling for restraint on Israel's part, so is the Vatican.

I hope the Israeli's show the same restraint that they have been shown by the enemies surronding them: nillions of mo's!

This s not going to be an easy battle.
Syria and Iran are pulling the strings for hamas and hezbollah.
This is exactly what iran wants.

I just keep thinking that the story of David and Goliath is the anaolgy here. It brings me a little comfort.

The Christain lebanese seem pleased about it all - good!

There are about 25,000 Lebanese Aussies stranded in Beirut. On is a top criminal called Tony Mokbel.
He s a drug pusher and a creep. He has evaded Aussie law. Hope he is sitting tight with the hezbollah "leadership:!
OT
Yesterday was hard to post, and many posts disappeared. If I haven't answered anyone's comments or questions, my apologies.I am glad to be back!

Forest Ranger:
good points! What are we waiting for? Without their oil bargaining chip things could change dramatically for the west.

Posted by: Gramfan at July 14, 2006 10:32 PM

So they want to secrifice for Nasrullah, huh? Muslims are brain-washed, the whole lot of them, and so addicted to claiming victimhood and to rage that they are easily duped by their leaders. Between madrassa or a Muslim state's education, the examples from the Qur'an and Hadith, tailored news fed to them by a controlled press, and the glorification of jihad seen on Muslim TV and DVDs sold in the local marketplace, its pretty hard for most Muslims, especially testosterone filled teenage boys and young men, to be rational creatures.

I believe it was Patton who said to his troops something to the effect that "its our job to make the other poor bastard sacrifice himself for his country."

These guys are almost making it too easy. Hey, they want to sacrifice, I say we ought to accomodate them.

Posted by: GaryK at July 14, 2006 10:49 PM

Sorry--sacrifice.

Posted by: GaryK at July 14, 2006 10:50 PM

a typical FREEPER Jihad Watching LGF'er isn't going to watch anything but Fox, Oreilly or who ever preaches to the choir.

Nariz (Giaour), you really can't just post an anti-jihad post can you? You always have to slam either Christians or the right. What a superior (deleted).

Posted by: Carolyn2 at July 14, 2006 11:03 PM

This will end in our favor. The MSM will trash talk Bush and Israel, pissing off the majority. Secular muslim governments will find themselves with large amounts of pissed off jihadis demanding revenge. Israel will prove iran is just full of hot air and the American people will watch it all on TV. Sit back watch the fight, Israel started it, now the muslims will kill themselves over being angry with Israel, their own governments, muslim weakness. This will be fun to watch. The biggest killers of muslims are other muslims, 1400 years and they are still stupid.

Posted by: Ronin at July 14, 2006 11:17 PM

"a typical FREEPER Jihad Watching LGF'er isn't going to watch anything but Fox, Oreilly or who ever preaches to the choir."

JW is anything but a typical crowd. Even naive Nariz-types are allowed in to stereotype all they want.

Flys like that should not however, distract from the subject at hand.

-XRDC

Posted by: XRDC at July 14, 2006 11:23 PM

FREEPER Jihad Watching LGF'er isn't going to watch anything but Fox, Oreilly or who ever preaches to the choir. - Nariz

Au contraire, smartypants. I rarely watch cable news-- only when something serious is happening, or just happened. Cable news has become like MTV-- woefully deviated from the programming its name suggests.

Israel vs. Hezbollah: that's news. Star Jones: Not news, unless she joins Hezbollah.

I usually catch the first 10 minutes or so of ABC's Whirled News Tonight, partly to catch the top stories, partly to see what my ABC News-viewing relatives are accepting as "news," and partly to see how biased their reporting of top stories is. After that, most of the reporting is trivial, or I'm just honked off at the likes of Terry Moran.

Posted by: Shinoliite at July 14, 2006 11:24 PM

I never learned anything sitting in a pew what about you? Posted by: Nariz at July 14, 2006 10:12 PM

People are currently learning by the millions "Nariz" that Islam is the most untruthful, deceptive, violent entity to ever appear on earth. It will be driven back with wisdom and success.

Posted by: Report at July 14, 2006 11:24 PM

THAR She Blows!

From the Jerusalem Post:
The ruling Syrian Baath-party stated early Saturday that it was prepared to give all available support to the "heroes of the resistance" in order to assist Hizbullah and Lebanon against the "barbaric attacks" of the IDF.

Posted by: gallopinggranny at July 14, 2006 11:26 PM

The ruling Syrian Baath-party stated early Saturday that it was prepared to give all available support to the "heroes of the resistance" in order to assist Hizbullah and Lebanon against the "barbaric attacks" of the IDF.

Posted by: gallopinggranny

Yeah righ so why are they still at home on the phone with the UN crying for help? Get busy mujahid wannabees start fighting or shut up.

Granny no worries like all muslims they are just talking story.

Posted by: Ronin at July 14, 2006 11:30 PM

Granny no worries like all muslims they are just talking story.

Actually Ronin they are doing a little more than that. For starters, they are admitting that they have been involved in this from the beginning in a round about sort of way.

And more than that, they are volunteering to run right back into Lebanon, from which they have only recently been forced to withdraw, to "help" ward off those "barbaric attacks." Can we read set-up job here?

All those nice folk that participated in the Cedar Revolution not long ago better get it together and do a little more revolting re Hizballah or they are going to find themselves more under Syria's thumb than they have ever been before.

Posted by: gallopinggranny at July 14, 2006 11:41 PM

Granny I agree with you iran set this up. Here is the but...they did not plan on Israel calling their bluff. They talk well now let’s see them actually fight. They will cry for peace. Like all cowards.

Posted by: Ronin at July 14, 2006 11:54 PM

If we're watching this on the television and we haven't set our forces to pull Syrian troops to the Iraq border then we're slacking.

If there's more than one blend being dispensed from the pumps then we're slacking.

I believe that the Syrians have been reported to be massing next to the Golan Heights per the comments at The Belmont Club for yesterday.

Posted by: Mike H. at July 15, 2006 12:44 AM

The world is squealing outrage at Israel.

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2006/07/14/1152637872409.html?from=top5

It seems that the world leaders think that all the history is written. Now they are living in a state of suspended animation, and anything that disturbs this state is an outrage. Peace in our time, whiskey and s., relax folks.

Posted by: arjun.sevak at July 15, 2006 12:44 AM

Israel needs to bring back SLA, that's the long and the short of it.

Barak was a fool to sell them out merely for a 'peace agreement' that wasn't worth the paper it was written on.

Now that Lebanese Christians have had a chance to once again see what Islamic rule is like, that will hopefully disabuse them of any fanciful notions that Hezbollah are pan-Lebanese national heroes. The Hezbollah are a lawless force under a sectarian ideology, pure and simple.

Posted by: sanman at July 15, 2006 12:49 AM

Forest Ranger writes: "Oil at $60 makes shale oil (1 trillion barrels in Utah) well profitable."

In theory, you are right.

But in practice, the fact that the price of oil is subject to wide fluctuations by OPEC means that no company is going to invest for the long term in alternatives like shale oil, because they might get burned if the price of Mideast oil dropped again.

That's what happened the last time. In the 1970's, when OPEC jacked up the price of oil, folks invested in all kinds of alternative energy supplies. But in the 1980's, when OPEC lowered oil prices again, those folks couldn't make money off their alternative energy investments and went bankrupt.

OPEC is notorious for playing that game--every time somebody tries to develop alternative energy sources, they drive down the price of oil and force those alternative suppliers out of the market.

To fix that, Congress could pass a law mandating a permanent price support for gasoline. That is, they could pass a law that requires gasoline to be sold for at least $3.50 a gallon, which would guarantee some profit for alternative fuel from shale oil. But no politician would dare to support a measure that would actually lead to permanent high gasoline prices--advocating high gasoline prices is political suicide.

Posted by: Steven L. at July 15, 2006 1:17 AM

Just change the date and locations.
From expressindia.com

Muslims should question the interpretation of Quran

Tavleen Singh
Posted online: Sunday, July 17, 2005 at 0005 hours IST
Updated: Wednesday, January 25, 2006 at 1820 hours IST

In the days before e-mail, I used to try and answer every letter written to this column. In general terms I am the laziest letter writer in the world but Khushwant Singh impressed upon me once in the days of my impressionable youth that it was rude not to answer letters that related to something I had written. It is a valid point but impossible in these post-e-mail times so instead of answering every letter I make it a point to read all the letters in my mailbox to see how you, dear readers, have responded to the views expressed in this space.

Last week’s column provoked a flood of letters and reading them was a disturbing experience because my mailbox turned into an epistolary Hindu-Muslim clash. Hindu letter writers were delighted with what they called my courage in ‘‘calling a spade a spade’’ and Muslims charged me with ‘‘targeting Islam’’. Clearly, we need to talk some more about this.

For those of you who may have made the mistake of not buying last week’s Sunday Express, let me precis what I wrote. In the context of the terrorist attacks in London and Ayodhya, I submitted in what I thought were humble, dispassionate, lawyerly tones that perhaps the root of the problem — the nursery of suicide bombers — were the madrasas and the narrow-minded, semi-literate mullahs who run these Islamic schools. I was not targeting Islam or attempting to write something with the specific objective of pleasing Hindu readers but I was certainly targeting mullahs. And, I target them again because I believe they are largely responsible for the birth of the Islamist suicide bomber. I believe they create a false sense of grievance in young, impressionable Muslims and then persuade them to kill themselves, and a lot of innocent people, because of their bizarre and bloodthirsty interpretation of what Allah wants.

Let me say here that it is not just mullahs I consider semi-literate and unattractive but priests in general. Other faiths, luckily, do not need them quite as much as Islam does because other faiths do not have a Prophet who came down to Earth with a book written by God.

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Hindus of more fanatical bent constantly assert that all it needs for better relations with the Muslims is for a few offensive references to the treatment of infidels to be deleted from the Quran. Unaccustomed as they are to books written by God they do not understand that if you question a single word written in the Quran you automatically cease to be a Muslim. You cannot question Allah and continue to be a Muslim.

What Muslims can and should question is the interpretation of the Quran that modern-day mullahs give. Does Allah really like the idea of teenage boys and girls blowing themselves up on his behalf? Does he really approve of innocent people being murdered in his name? Instead of vestal virgins in Paradise is it possible that Allah may be sending suicide bombers straight to hell? It is these questions to which answers are required and, unfortunately, the only people who consider themselves interpreters of Allah’s will are the mullahs. Increasingly in recent times they have given the impression that their God would like Westerners, Hindus and Jews exterminated. There is not enough space in this column to list the number of times mega mullahs have asked the faithful to go out and do terrible things to us infidels and this does not go down well with us. Jews come in for more abuse than anyone else and of late Western countries have come a close second.

If the animosity against the Jews can be blamed on Palestine can someone explain what exactly the West has done to harm Islam or Muslims? There is the war on Iraq which personally I think was a serious mistake but let us remember that 9/11 happened before the Americans went for regime change. After 9/11 did anyone seriously expect the United States to sit back and do nothing?

In the letters this column received last week from Muslims, nearly each and every one contained a diatribe against the West and America in particular. They also contained justification of terrorism.

Here is a sample, ‘‘50 people killed and hundreds injured in London and started (sic) writing articles in newspaper against muslims, madrasas etc. Have you ever dared to write about the Bush administration and Iraq war?’’

The answer, my friend, is yes I have. Often. But, in my humble view the difference between war and terrorism is that in the former it is usually a fight between two sets of armed combatants and in the latter it is always a fight against defenseless civilians. When I saw pictures of the children killed last week by a suicide bomber in Baghdad it turned my stomach. Images from Beslan still haunt me. Whenever I write this I get letters charging me with not caring enough about the children who die in Palestine at the hands of Israeli soldiers. I do care. I believe that killing a child is the worst crime on Earth and that there cannot possibly be a God who approves of this particularly when it happens not by accident in a war but because of the deliberate act of a suicide bomber.

In the end, I would like to clarify once more that I am not against Muslims or their faith. But, I have serious problems with mullahs who do not publicly from their pulpits condemn terrorism and even more serious problems with those who teach small boys that if they strap themselves with explosives and kill a lot of innocent people they will achieve martyrdom and heaven.

Write to tavleensingh@expressindia.com

Posted by: freetoBEfree at July 15, 2006 1:18 AM

"Alarming new weapons"

Nothing new - they just reinvented the doodlebug 62 years on.
Still capable of causing death and damage of course even if the idea is old, and stolen.

Posted by: Granny Weatherwax at July 15, 2006 2:28 AM

Nariz, I do humbly beg to differ with your arrogant ass. I learned about the drone on television also. It was mentioned on Fox News, as a matter of fact, and identified as Iranian.

But since you are such an expert, is Iran going to "wipe Israel off the map" and, if so, are you in favor of that?

Posted by: texan at July 15, 2006 2:31 AM

IT IS NOW REPORTED IN ISRAELI MEDIA THAT INITIAL EXAMINATION OF THE DAMAGED SHIP SUGGESTS THAT IT WAS HIT BY A MISSLE AND NOT A DRONE PACKED WITH EXPLSIVES!!!!

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3275792,00.html

"The warship was towed back to the Israeli port of Haifa. An initial investigation revealed that the Israeli navy warship was apparently struck by a missile, not a booby-trapped remote control drone as previously thought."

Posted by: Tiferet at July 15, 2006 2:58 AM

Oh, could that be a French Exocet by any chance??? Smuggled from Iran??

Or could it possibly be one of those North Korean cruise missiles?? Also sent through Iran. Nice Iran. Peaceful, nuclear-striving, uranium-enriching Iran.

By the way, has anybody answered my question posed a couple of months ago? Where is the peaceful nuclear power plant that is being constructed in Iran for the peaceful nuclear fuel that is being processed? Considering the lead times for plant construction as well as fuel processing, the electric power plant should be more than half-way finished by now. Has anyone heard where it is, how many megawatts it will produce, who the construction firms are, who is furnishing design and engineering services, who is providing technical training, or anything else?

Posted by: texan at July 15, 2006 3:20 AM

The first radio controlled glider bomb was used by the germans against ships supporting the Salerno landings in Sept 1943: wow, hezbollah are certainly at the cutting edge of mid WWII technology.

Posted by: wallyUK at July 15, 2006 4:09 AM

information is not just gotten from one source, you have to several sources, and then with your intellect you find out which ones have logic and truth in it. l dont have cable, dont have it in rural areas, l would go bonkers with cnn msmbc, but anyhow, l do notice the world has forgoten India! it there were 200 people killed in the US/Europe you would still be having 24/7 news on it. Iranian have
set this up wit Hizbulah to divert attention at the UN. We need to cut the head of the snake, "Iran" now!

Posted by: Lulu at July 15, 2006 7:17 AM

Interesting. Last night 'NIGHTLINE' did a piece on the war in Lebanon. Whilst they showed the bombing of the bridges by Israel and the determination of Lebanon to rebuild the bridge immediately, they commented on how Israel then bombed it immediately again. They showed how Lebanon was once again the 'Paris of the east' and how it is now looking pretty bad. They interviewed a woman whose bread shop was destroyed. In their attempts to make it sound like a fair and unbiased story, they clearly failed to get Israel's perspective in any way. They didn't discuss the possible danger to the Israeli soldiers. They didn't discuss how Israel has tolerated for far too long Hezbollah amassing weapons on their border and occasionally using them. They didn't discuss the deaths of Israeli's by Hezbollah's bombs. Nothing. It was clearly one-sided. The PC lefties have gone insane. Probably due to all the acid their parents took in the 60's. I just wonder how they would feel living under Sharia law? Israel....send these devils to hell where they belong.

Posted by: The Goobs at July 15, 2006 7:28 AM

texan,

Our friends the Russians have been (and have almost completed) reconstructing the Bushehr plant begun by the Germans in the 1970s.

http://cns.miis.edu/pubs/reports/pdfs/iranrpt.pdf

The Russians are also supplying the nuclear fuel for this plant.

Posted by: del at July 15, 2006 9:35 AM

"But in practice, the fact that the price of oil is subject to wide fluctuations by OPEC"

This won't be the case after peak oil. Once the Saudis can no longer raise their production (this may already be the case; we won't know for a few years), they are powerless to dictate pricing.

OPEC is a joke. Half of them are now net importers of oil.

Posted by: Jan III Sobieski at July 15, 2006 10:33 PM