Comments on: Iranian Students pelt UK embassy

By: Alex M

Alex M — Sat, 18 Aug 2007 17:55:54 +0000

This is a British matter, and how Great Britain decides to handle it is up to them, where the US has to make a decision is, are we going to support an allie if they ask us to help in the attack?
Bottom line: We attack Iran, while Iraq & Afghanistan are still a mess, and we wind up losing – not a debateable Vietnam-type loss, but the real thing. Death & destruction, sure, but the economic repercussions at home will be colossal as well – or haven’t you noticed your fuel bill going up 30% since this all started. And as for terrorism – let me tell you; there wouldn’t be a safe place for an Anglo to travel in this world for at least a generation.

By: Jocuri

Jocuri — Mon, 07 May 2007 16:32:19 +0000

I can’t understand these peoples !
Why they are acting like that?
How they are not hearing about love and peace?!! Its sad!

By: pedro

pedro — Mon, 02 Apr 2007 19:29:17 +0000

#41 The Russians are the ones watching this with incredible lust.

By: mark

mark — Mon, 02 Apr 2007 18:02:15 +0000

“But what makes our actions “a last resort” is the border between Iran and Iraq. We would need another 100,000 troops along that border to fight off Iran’s military response – and I’m not talking about suicide bombers.”

http://en.rian.ru/russia/20070327/62697703.html

Smith, I sent this to Dvaorak last week, and it wasnt posted, maybe this would be a good time to read it.

By: Ballenger

Ballenger — Mon, 02 Apr 2007 17:54:16 +0000

The action by Iran may offer the British a way out of Iraq based on the their National Security priorities. If the US military is feeling the strain of Iraqi, the British military must be gasping for breath under the load. At least with Iranian incident they have the option to claim, we acted because they “molested Her Majesty’s Dinghy”. Get out of Iraq, war-fart around with Iran for awhile and then back to London before Bono can organize a war protest concert. The British didn’t survive the Romans, the Vikings, Hitler and bell-bottoms by being stupid.

By: mark

mark — Mon, 02 Apr 2007 17:42:55 +0000

Odyssey 76- I havent had time to read all the posts, but I think you are dead on with your comments. I am really in disbelief about Dvoraks and many others positions on this. I am wating for the other shoe to drop, and that this is just baiting for the chickenhawk blogger element.

By: Smith

Smith — Mon, 02 Apr 2007 15:56:28 +0000

It doesn’t cost Britain or the US anything to let Iran posture, provided Iran releases the captured soldiers unharmed within the next two to three weeks. Abandoning those soldiers or giving that impression to our military is not an option.

Invading Iran doesn’t serve any purpose. Sinking their navy does. It is the power Iran can project at the Straits of Hormuz that concerns the economies of the world. Should Iran decide to place the captured soldiers on trial, then a military response would be almost assured. And, yes, the US would support Britain’s response.

More than likely, Britain’s response would be a commando raid to attempt a rescue – not easily done. The job of the US would be to sink every Iranian ship we could find, destroy the coastal missile batteries, and provide air cover – things we do very well. (And let’s not forget the nuke development sites.)

But what makes our actions “a last resort” is the border between Iran and Iraq. We would need another 100,000 troops along that border to fight off Iran’s military response – and I’m not talking about suicide bombers.

All-in-all, our best response at this stage is to let Ahmadinejad get his sound bites while we get our forces in position. More than likely, Ahmadinejad will release the soldiers before it escalates into war.

By: TJGeezer

TJGeezer — Mon, 02 Apr 2007 14:27:48 +0000

35 – Li – You’re right. I have seen more salient points to think about in this discussion, from more honest, reasonably informed viewpoints, than I’ve seen in any of the major media I skim. As JCD once said in another context, any 535 geeks in a room would be smarter than… [fill in halls of power image here].

And I’m not seeing a single convincing (as opposed to posturing) argument in favor of getting aggressive with Iran over this propaganda exercise. (The usually more sensible #4 notwithstanding.) And a LOT of convincing argument against it. Still, as Rob (#3) pointed out early on in this thread, ultimately it’s the U.K. that has to respond. Maybe this time we’ll be sucked into someone else’s war instead of barging into it ourselves against the whole rest of the world’s advice.

By: Misanthropic Scott

Misanthropic Scott — Mon, 02 Apr 2007 13:52:45 +0000

Odd little aside here, but has anyone else noticed that they bother to design and cut special throwing stones? This one is a very clearly and deliberately cut hexagon. So, presumably someone said, hey, I can go into business selling rocks to throw at people armed with guns.

By: Li

Li — Mon, 02 Apr 2007 12:53:55 +0000

Good points by all. Oh, that the halls of power would ring with such conversation; we might do the right thing rather than the expedient one, for once.

By: Olo Baggins of Bywater

Olo Baggins of Bywater — Mon, 02 Apr 2007 12:26:38 +0000

The shame in this is that the media covers it at all. This is nothing…a staged protest, choregraphed and directed. And some media idiots fall for it, over amd over and over. Probably the same ones who chase around Britney and Paris, ya think?

By: greg allen

greg allen — Mon, 02 Apr 2007 09:04:14 +0000

I saw TV yesterday — the BBC I think — video of the rock throwing and it was obvious that the rocks were being delivered to the “students” by truck.

Funny. (unless you happen to be in the embassy.)

By: Ben Waymark

Ben Waymark — Mon, 02 Apr 2007 08:55:09 +0000

Drawing on #28s comments, I reckon that we should make a rule we cannot go invade/attack any country without first having a referendum for all the people in the armed forces asking them if they think its worth dying (and killing) for. After all, its their ass on the line….. its easy enough to say ‘bomb then all’ if you aren’ t the one that is risking a crash landing the middle of a hostile region!

By: BubbaRay

BubbaRay — Mon, 02 Apr 2007 07:31:17 +0000

Students, eh? Nice educational pastime. Didn’t we go through this about 40 years ago right here? Viet Nam ring a bell? Kent State?

Don’t we get most of our oil from Canada?

OK, nuke the whole desert, turn it into glass and suck the oil out with a big Halliburton straw. Students, right. (/sarcasm)

By: pedro

pedro — Mon, 02 Apr 2007 05:22:42 +0000

JCD said: “These sorts of supposed protests are staged by the government.”

Yes

” Is that what they are begging for in Iran?”

Again, yes.

BTW, I’l say this again. As much as the US went into Iraq for a bunch of reasons (which I won’t get into dsicussing them), one of the reason they are in there is because Iran also helped by putting false intelligence to make easier to decision for the US to get in. They had a lot to win by getting saddam out.

#9 it waqs not to make the populace ready. The goal was to see if the populace was with them, as well as seeing if the brits (or the US, they were chanting DTA. Then again, they always do) were stupid enough to overreact.

#16 & #17 You’ve seen part of the tactic against the US. Fortunately, if the US decides to do something, all they need to do is send two platoons to venezuela to shut up that numbnut emperor kuzco. They’ll only be a day or two late to rejoin the bulk of the forces.

#19 No, they’re not the same. The ones chanting DTAare just pawns being paid to yell that.

#28 as far as I see, JCD was provoking thoughts on the matter. At least that’s how I percieved his way of work over the years. He provoked them on you, didn’t he?