Nbadan
01-28-2006, 06:10 PM
57% Back a Hit on Iran if Defiance Persists
The war has not diminished Americans' support for military action against Iraq's neighbor if nuclear pursuits aren't dropped.
WASHINGTON — Despite persistent disillusionment with the war in Iraq, a majority of Americans supports taking military action against Iran if that country continues to produce material that can be used to develop nuclear weapons, a Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll has found.
The poll, conducted Sunday through Wednesday, found that 57% of Americans favor military intervention if Iran's Islamic government pursues a program that could enable it to build nuclear arms.
Support for military action against Tehran has increased over the last year, the poll found, even though public sentiment is running against the war in neighboring Iraq: 53% said they believe the situation there was not worth going to war.
The poll results suggest that the difficulties the United States has encountered in Iraq have not turned the public against the possibility of military actions elsewhere in the Middle East.
NY News Day (http://www.nynewsday.com/news/nationworld/world/la-na-fornpoll27jan27,0,1568613.story?coll=ny-leadworldnews-headlines)
The Pentagon has wargamed this, and there's no outcome that doesn't escalate out of control and into a general regional war. Unlike Iraq, the Iranians have chemical and bio warheads, and the Israelis would retaliate with nukes. The Pakistanis would enter against Israel. We're looking at 10-20 million dead.
Nobody wins.
Stan Goff and Mike Ruppert of Crossing the Rubicon fame and editor of From the Wilderness (http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/012706_deadman_walking_summary.shtml) has some interesting thoughts on the DEVELOPING Iran crisis...
Many of you already know Stan, retired US Army Special Forces and former West Point instructor. Stan put together a very thoughtful piece today explaining why an invasion of any type is not going to happen. For the most part, it put me at ease. But, he concluded with this: "So there is my argument for why Iran can rest easy for now. But… A stupid person is a real thing." Here is an intro to his and Mike Ruppert's companion piece:
<snip> If that’s too fancy, here’s the simple version: back the dollar with gold, and it’s a solid currency. Back the dollar with a solid manufacturing economy, and it’s a stable currency. Back the dollar with petroleum trading and military force, and you’re o.k. — so long as you’ve got enough military force to prevent oil-rich countries from selling their oil outside the dollar. Because if that happens, then the dollar is backed with nothing but propaganda and it will collapse.
That could be brought about in several different ways, alone or in combination. A plunge in the dollar would hurt the rest of the world, especially China, whose goods are sold here in profusion. If the Chinese develop their own domestic market for their exports, China will no longer need to sponsor American debt so that American consumers can buy Chinese products with crypto-Chinese money. It will be a long time (if ever, given the realities of Peak Oil and Gas) before the general population of the Middle Kingdom has enough Yuan in its pocket to buy what it manufactures. But if China and her allies and dependents are sufficiently threatened by American imperial behavior, it will make sense for them to injure the dollar much sooner. That is to say, the higher America’s level of risk-prone insanity, the sooner it will be reasonable for the rest of the world to sacrifice its own short-term economic interests in exchange for long-term freedom and security.
It’s like 1971. In that year, U.S. domestic oil production peaked just as the dollar standard was moved from gold to Saudi oil under the strain of runaway military spending in a heroin-soaked quagmire. Today, there is the same military sinkhole (with the dope coming from Afghanistan’s Golden Crescent instead of Vietnam’s Golden Triangle), the same peak energy pattern (with the Peak in both Oil and Gas, this time at the planetary level), the same sudden need for a new foundation under America’s inflationary currency (if you can find a new one, let us know – we also want a new place to move domestic debt now that the dotcom bubble has been drained into the housing bubble, now being drained into default).
Iran will open a euro-denominated oil trading bourse this March if the U.S. (perhaps via Israel) does not attack it. But if the U.S. does attack Iran in an attempt to prevent this, the rest of the world will dump the dollar to reign in American aggression. Remember that 3-D medical graphic with the tumor in the middle? If you listen hard enough, through the anesthesia of the Golden Globe Awards you can just about discern Doctor Thermodynamics turning to Nurse Dialectic and saying “scalpel.” –JAH]
The war has not diminished Americans' support for military action against Iraq's neighbor if nuclear pursuits aren't dropped.
WASHINGTON — Despite persistent disillusionment with the war in Iraq, a majority of Americans supports taking military action against Iran if that country continues to produce material that can be used to develop nuclear weapons, a Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll has found.
The poll, conducted Sunday through Wednesday, found that 57% of Americans favor military intervention if Iran's Islamic government pursues a program that could enable it to build nuclear arms.
Support for military action against Tehran has increased over the last year, the poll found, even though public sentiment is running against the war in neighboring Iraq: 53% said they believe the situation there was not worth going to war.
The poll results suggest that the difficulties the United States has encountered in Iraq have not turned the public against the possibility of military actions elsewhere in the Middle East.
NY News Day (http://www.nynewsday.com/news/nationworld/world/la-na-fornpoll27jan27,0,1568613.story?coll=ny-leadworldnews-headlines)
The Pentagon has wargamed this, and there's no outcome that doesn't escalate out of control and into a general regional war. Unlike Iraq, the Iranians have chemical and bio warheads, and the Israelis would retaliate with nukes. The Pakistanis would enter against Israel. We're looking at 10-20 million dead.
Nobody wins.
Stan Goff and Mike Ruppert of Crossing the Rubicon fame and editor of From the Wilderness (http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/012706_deadman_walking_summary.shtml) has some interesting thoughts on the DEVELOPING Iran crisis...
Many of you already know Stan, retired US Army Special Forces and former West Point instructor. Stan put together a very thoughtful piece today explaining why an invasion of any type is not going to happen. For the most part, it put me at ease. But, he concluded with this: "So there is my argument for why Iran can rest easy for now. But… A stupid person is a real thing." Here is an intro to his and Mike Ruppert's companion piece:
<snip> If that’s too fancy, here’s the simple version: back the dollar with gold, and it’s a solid currency. Back the dollar with a solid manufacturing economy, and it’s a stable currency. Back the dollar with petroleum trading and military force, and you’re o.k. — so long as you’ve got enough military force to prevent oil-rich countries from selling their oil outside the dollar. Because if that happens, then the dollar is backed with nothing but propaganda and it will collapse.
That could be brought about in several different ways, alone or in combination. A plunge in the dollar would hurt the rest of the world, especially China, whose goods are sold here in profusion. If the Chinese develop their own domestic market for their exports, China will no longer need to sponsor American debt so that American consumers can buy Chinese products with crypto-Chinese money. It will be a long time (if ever, given the realities of Peak Oil and Gas) before the general population of the Middle Kingdom has enough Yuan in its pocket to buy what it manufactures. But if China and her allies and dependents are sufficiently threatened by American imperial behavior, it will make sense for them to injure the dollar much sooner. That is to say, the higher America’s level of risk-prone insanity, the sooner it will be reasonable for the rest of the world to sacrifice its own short-term economic interests in exchange for long-term freedom and security.
It’s like 1971. In that year, U.S. domestic oil production peaked just as the dollar standard was moved from gold to Saudi oil under the strain of runaway military spending in a heroin-soaked quagmire. Today, there is the same military sinkhole (with the dope coming from Afghanistan’s Golden Crescent instead of Vietnam’s Golden Triangle), the same peak energy pattern (with the Peak in both Oil and Gas, this time at the planetary level), the same sudden need for a new foundation under America’s inflationary currency (if you can find a new one, let us know – we also want a new place to move domestic debt now that the dotcom bubble has been drained into the housing bubble, now being drained into default).
Iran will open a euro-denominated oil trading bourse this March if the U.S. (perhaps via Israel) does not attack it. But if the U.S. does attack Iran in an attempt to prevent this, the rest of the world will dump the dollar to reign in American aggression. Remember that 3-D medical graphic with the tumor in the middle? If you listen hard enough, through the anesthesia of the Golden Globe Awards you can just about discern Doctor Thermodynamics turning to Nurse Dialectic and saying “scalpel.” –JAH]