Iran - Dwindling Time, Rising Tension

[kygorski]

You're forgetting one basic principal. Survival.Very few folks care to die for someone elses principles.Human nature will in most cases over ride self distruction.To quote a line from spiderman, with power there is great resposibility.We fail to consider that Persia[iran] was civilized long before there was an america. We are not always right. Western thinking started this mess. England wanted to be the empire that never ceased to exist,there was no irag,there were tribal home lands, that the british thought they could meld together.How did that work out for them.This idea of sanctions is great on paper, it really worked for us on cuba.You know something strange, we have not won a war on our terms since 1946. When we beat their butts, we hang around so they can get pay back.Its getting harder to get the kind of soldiers we need, many cannot pass the required physical challenges.Next we will be mortgaging our educacational standards so we can pay for 'nation building".War is expensive, its not economical. Let the world get another policeman.

[GeoFisher]

You're forgetting one basic principal. Survival.Very few folks care to die for someone elses principles.Human nature will in most cases over ride self distruction.To quote a line from spiderman, with power there is great resposibility.We fail to consider that Persia[iran] was civilized long before there was an america. We are not always right. Western thinking started this mess. England wanted to be the empire that never ceased to exist,there was no irag,there were tribal home lands, that the british thought they could meld together.How did that work out for them.This idea of sanctions is great on paper, it really worked for us on cuba.You know something strange, we have not won a war on our terms since 1946. When we beat their butts, we hang around so they can get pay back.Its getting harder to get the kind of soldiers we need, many cannot pass the required physical challenges.Next we will be mortgaging our educacational standards so we can pay for 'nation building".War is expensive, its not economical. Let the world get another policeman.

You are RIGHT.......but It is not the civilized Persian world that wants a NUKE. It is the radicalized CRAZY Islamic HATEMONGER that wants a NUKE. Unfortunately, the Iranian president and regime follows this Islamic HATEMONGER ideology. Just watch his interviews. I don't believe he is posturing, I believe with a NUKE, he'd USE IT.

And you change the subject and move all over the place. This is not about sanctions, this is not about payback, this is not about the kind of soldiers we need, this is not about physical challenges, this is not about mortgages.

THIS IS ABOUT a nuclear IRAN. Deflect all you like. but the fact is. Iran with a NUKE is a very, very deadly IRAN.

We best destroy their capabilities while we CAN.

Later,

Geo

[Mean Morone]

The leaders of Iran believe that they can bring about the return of the 12th Imam. To bring this about it requires death, destruction and basic world wide chaos. These are religious beliefs. You don't have to believe them or not, just know that they believe it. Sitting down with what's his name without preconditions and talking your way to peace will not work. Maybe thats why BO hasn't tried it, he knows.

[kygorski]

A caliph, or iman is something like a pope or bishop of canterbury. NOT evry one wants one.Arabs revolted aginst the ottoman turks, who were muslims.Iraqis fought iranians also muslims. Beliving that one sole muslim can unite all of the different factions is a pipe dream.There is unrest in iran right now, has been for years.Our meddling in the middle east did not bring democracy or stability to the region, niether did the colonial french or british.But we forget one thing, who benefits from wars? the poor who are slaughtered, the widowed women, orphaned children, NO think.I remember the "hide under your desk " days, I remember the home fall out shelters. I remember the "good sargent" telling you to get down and cover your self with the pouncho. what they forgot to say was make sure you put your head between your legs.

[Chubminnow]

Most of the stuff I get comes from abcnews.com, which is where the following came from. Although if anyone has watched any national news at all this week then I'm sure by now you have heard about what the U.S. has been doing there this week. I've underlined the things that stand out and grab my attention most...not trying to be all doom and gloom...but I see Iran in the same light as I see those fella's protesting the Sherman-Minton Bridge construction....I have no use for either group. Read on (if you care to)>>>>>>>>>>>

It was just after dawn when three U.S. warships and a carrier strike group began their long, tense transit through the Strait of Hormuz.

The strait has become a pressure point as Iran increases the heat of its rhetoric against the United States because of fresh economic sanctions imposed against it.

In December, Iranian officials warned the United States not to return to the Persian Gulf after the carrier USS John Stennis departed.

“You want to be always at the max state of readiness to respond to anything,” Capt. Richard McDaniel of the USS Sterett said.

Iran recently threatened to close the Strait of Hormuz, attempting to use its control over the waterway as a trump card in its standoff with the West.

One-fifth of the world’s oil supply — 17 million barrels a day in 2011 — passes through the strait, and the United States gets approximately 10 percent of its oil supply — 1.7 million barrels a day — from the strait.

Though Iran is not expected to close the strait, analysts still fear that a closure could double the price of oil thereby erasing any prospect of a U.S. economic recovery and plunging the world into a new Great Recession.

Today, ABC News was in the lead ship — the USS Sterett, a destroyer with dozens of missiles and machine guns manned — as the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln steamed through the strait.

On the bridge, the concentration was intense. The captain and crew monitored radar; surveillance tracked everything that moves.

The Iranians silently shadowed the carrier group as well.

U.S. surveillance showed Iranian navy vessels, drones and a patrol plane flying overhead. Much of Iran’s Navy was concentrated here.

The shipping lane is only two miles wide, so there was very little room to maneuver. The USS Abraham Lincoln’s dozens of F-18 fighter jets were on alert today. On Monday, before entering the strait, jets roared off the deck one after another on security and training missions.

Today, U.S. helicopters beamed real-time images back to the ship.

Hours into the crossing, the captain was called to the deck. A small boat — similar to those of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Navy that have been harassing U.S. ships in the last few months — had approached.

“Any surface vessel that you see out here, you’re definitely going to pay attention to identify, figure out, what they’re doing,” McDaniel said.

The crew quickly determined that it was a smuggler who eventually turned away.

Naval commanders say these transits are routine, but they also fear that miscalculations on either side could threaten not only these ships but also close down the waterway and put the world’s economy at risk.