Iran ramping up nuclear activities

[Balta1701]

Some people don't want to think about the big picture.

I ain't gonna be able to fit no big picture in the back of some mini-car. Just hauling the frame would take an Excursion at the least.

[KipWellsFan]

the fact is we’re gaining much needed experience in street-to-street combat that is probably going to define the war against terrorism.

 

Yes we must be more experienced in counter-insurgency for the War on Terror!

[StrangeSox]

But a nuclear attack was the subject of the thread and the most serious threat. And what could they do? This being a conversation of if's and but's, IF we were to bomb them in that way, and IF they retaliated, the entire world would rain down on them. Their retaliation would be mitigated I think.

 

They could turn off the pumps and get other OPEC nations to embargo the US. Boy, those would be fun times of $10/ gallon gas.

[southsider2k5]

They could turn off the pumps and get other OPEC nations to embargo the US. Boy, those would be fun times of $10/ gallon gas.

 

If they turn off the pumps their government falls, its that simple. The ONLY income they have is from oil, and if they don't have that, people will be starving.

[Jenksismyhero]

They could turn off the pumps and get other OPEC nations to embargo the US. Boy, those would be fun times of $10/ gallon gas.

 

 

Are the Saudi's going to take up their cause? I doubt it. And again, I doubt the US would start bombing Iran alone. If the situation became that serious the UN, as weak they are, would be leading the effort, even if it does involve our own technology/resources. Are OPEC nations going to refuse oil to all modernized nations? Highly unlikely.

[Balta1701]

Are the Saudi's going to take up their cause? I doubt it. And again, I doubt the US would start bombing Iran alone. If the situation became that serious the UN, as weak they are, would be leading the effort, even if it does involve our own technology/resources. Are OPEC nations going to refuse oil to all modernized nations? Highly unlikely.

Here's the cute part though...if things were to get to the point where Iran was under attack and using Oil as a weapon, it doesn't have to have the support of Saudi Arabia to fight an oil war against the West. First and foremost, almost all of Saudi Arabia's oil production facilites, not to mention Kuwaiti ones, are within range of Iranian missiles. And secondly, and perhaps more importantly, they can cover the entire Straits of Hormuz from their shorelines. The strait is 24 miles wide, and has a whopping 4 mile wide set of shipping channels running through it. Through those 2 shipping channels flows over 20% of the world's oil supply. They could mine these straits to even keep carriers out, and they have shore-to-ship missiles that can down vessels in those channels to cut them off.

[NorthSideSox72]

Are the Saudi's going to take up their cause? I doubt it. And again, I doubt the US would start bombing Iran alone. If the situation became that serious the UN, as weak they are, would be leading the effort, even if it does involve our own technology/resources. Are OPEC nations going to refuse oil to all modernized nations? Highly unlikely.

Not everything is so simple.

 

Iran doesn't have to shut down its oil supply, neither does Saudi. They can just gradually decrease it, price goes up, they still get the cash. Don't like that? How about they destroy OTHER countries' supplies? They can do that to. Plus they have a lot more money and resources generally than other nations in the region, that can be used to fund all sorts of guerilla and terrorist activites against the US, if it chooses.

 

Again, Iran is not Libya. An air assault will, unequivocally, lead to a broader war on multiple fronts. The war may be economic, and/or guerilla, and/or unconventional... but a war it will be, none the less.

[Cknolls]

Der Spiegel reports on the assistance given to Iran by the Russians in developing a uranium-enrichment program despite Moscow's public opposition to its development. The introduction of Russian laser technology allows the Iranians to enrich uranium more efficiently and with less energy, moving them that much closer to production of weapons-grade material:

 

Despite claims to the contrary, leaders in Tehran are apparently still pushing forward with research into uranium enrichment with the aid of laser technology. A Russian engineer recently told SPIEGEL that Iran has received help from his countrymen with a program that uses a laser system to divide heavy isotopes. The engineer, who works for an institute near Moscow and helps develop nucleaar reactors, claims that Iranians have since 2004 sought and secured technical aid from Russia for their domestic "laser system for the division of heavy isotopes" program.

The laser technique would have important advantages for Iran. Uranium is often enriched using gas centrifuges, but the laser technique uses less energy, requires less space and yields more of the crucial materials -- Uranium 235 and Plutonium 239. Until now, though, the technology has been elusive for Iran.

 

 

Supposedly Iran stopped working on this technology three years ago. At least that's what Teheran told the IAEA and Mohammed ElBaradei in August 2003, three years after first requesting technological assistance from the Russians. The expatriate group National Council of Resistance, which has provided critical intelligence on Iranian nuclear research in the past, has claimed that the demurral was nothing more than a ruse, and that the Iranians have never stopped their efforts on laser technology. Der Spiegel's Russian source now corroborates that claim.

 

The increasingly unstable behavior of the Iranian government has made them a great danger. If the Russians and Chinese continue to provide them technological assistance and diplomatic cover, then the West will have some decisions to make about their commitment to the international institutions that these three nations leverage to stymie the West. We cannot pretend any longer that our diplomatic engagement with Russia and China over Iran will ever result in the steps necessary to rein in the mullahcracy before it does something very, very crazy

[Balta1701]

So, I didn't think this was worth a new thread, but it's sort of interesting...Mahmoud Ahmadinejad seems to have started up his own blog. This will seemingly make him the only blogger in Iran not under threat of arrest for communicating with the west.

[kapkomet]

Did anyone catch the 60 minutes interview last night? I wanted to, but I missed it.

 

Mike Wallace, who is Jewish, was thoroughly impressed by the man. Personally, I think the guy was grandstanding for the cameras... from what little snippets I saw on TV before the interview.

[Cknolls]

Did anyone catch the 60 minutes interview last night? I wanted to, but I missed it.

 

Mike Wallace, who is Jewish, was thoroughly impressed by the man. Personally, I think the guy was grandstanding for the cameras... from what little snippets I saw on TV before the interview.

 

 

C-Span will air the CBS interview tonight, and then will air the entire interview w/o CBS editing. Interesting.

[kapkomet]

C-Span will air the CBS interview tonight, and then will air the entire interview w/o CBS editing. Interesting.

Can someone tell me a time? I want to TIVO this puppy - I've heard a lot of interesting rhetoric on this the last few days and want to see it for myself.

[Cknolls]

Can someone tell me a time? I want to TIVO this puppy - I've heard a lot of interesting rhetoric on this the last few days and want to see it for myself.[/quote

 

8:00 P.M. EST.

[kapkomet]

Thanks!