America and Iran!

[nonjuror2003]

See the article at the top of this thread on the reason why Israel and the Americans are hostile to Iran! According to Right Wing commentators Israel is now considering some kind of pre-emptive strike on Iran using as an excuse Iran's ownership, shared with Israel, of an atomic device!

1:15pm UK, Wednesday November 02, 2011
Emma Hurd, Middle East correspondent
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is trying to rally support in his cabinet for an attack on Iran, according to government sources.

The country's defence minister Ehud Barak and the foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman are said to be among those backing a pre-emptive strike to neutralise Iran's nuclear ambitions.
But a narrow majority of ministers currently oppose the move, which could trigger a wave of regional retaliation.
The debate over possible Israeli military action has reached fever pitch in recent days with newspaper leader columns discussing the benefits and dangers of hitting Iran.
Mr Lieberman responded to the reports of a push to gain cabinet approval by saying that "Iran poses the most dangerous threat to world order."
But he said Israel's military options should not be a matter for public discussion.
SKY NEWS.

[nonjuror2003]

We must make sure if an attempt is attempted, or proposed, that neither Israel or the USA get support from our craven leadership!

[nonjuror2003]

Already little snippets are appearing in the press or on TV News regarding Iran and her nuclear aspirations! She has aspirations for Nuclear Weapons and this offends and frightens Israel. Already Iran is in the bad books of the USA, for wanting to sell Iran's Oil so as to make a profit for Iran, rather than America! Israel is America's hatchet man in the middle east and needs the US' support to achieve Israel's aim for a greater Israel, several times bigger than the present state! Further she is not only willing to use force to gain her wicked ends, but is quite desparate to do so. Remember she has the fourth biggest army in the world. Highly trained and modernised.

The question is what is Britain going to do? Already the M.of D., tells us that they are studying the options. Which means, in our case, we have possibly till the defeat of Syria, before we are inveigled in to some sort of alliance (?) with the US, on this matter.
We should follow the actions of our leaders and study our options! We Should Prepare! See the MP's, write letters to the press and to the political parties.Agitate to save not only British lives but Iranian and Arab lives as well. we should remember that as useless as the Parliamentary system is, it has its weakness's, the MPs need your votes to gain entrance to the Commons, if you don't vote for them initially, they will have to seek work! The pressure is building up on the side of the State, we have had about twenty years of war, Iraq and Afghanistan, we should start now to see we do not have any others! Neither Syria or Iran!

[nonjuror2003]

Why not start by writing your views to the Burnley Voice? It is a start!

[fred]

IDIOTS OF THE WORLD!

Here we are sitting nicely at home fondly bothering about loss of jobs, repossession of houses, bankruptcy and every thing that goes with these matters, such as bank collapses and economic stability when just around the corner we face a complete war between two rogue nuclear states.


Tensions have been growing in the region following international condemnation over Tehran's growing nuclear ambitions.
Last month, Britain's ambassador to Iran was expelled from the country following attacks on the British Embassy. The US is also involved in a standoff over a downed spy drone, which President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has refused to return despite America's requests.
General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff, said that the US military had reached a point where they were ready to execute force against Iran if necessary.
In an interview with US media in Afghanistan he said: "We are examining a range of options. I'm satisfied that the options that we are developing are evolving to a point that they would be executable if necessary."
His comments come just days after Leon Panetta, US secretary of defence, said "no options were off the table" in stopping Iran develop a nuclear weapon.
RELATED ARTICLES

[fred]

Nothing changes, or very rarely!

Goodbye 2011. Once again America has closed a military adventure, one which eight years ago President GW Bush proudly declared to be a "mission accomplished." But it was a campaign whose purpose was vague and success in doubt since there were no weapons of mass destruction and socio-political breakdown is a distinct possibility in such a polarized tribal nation.

The democracy we have installed in Iraq, predictably, is gradually disintegrating, with the Shiite Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, issuing an arrest warrant for the Sunni deputy PM and threatening other Sunni leaders as he tries to consolidate his power as possibly Iraq's next dictator. He hasn't been wasting any time, has he? And as with the country's previous dictator, the West was his benefactor and enabler.

Meanwhile, in the oil rich north, the Kurdish majority there has been creating its own autonomous region and has even concluded deals with western oil companies... positive steps for the repressed Kurds. Al-Maliki is content to allow this, at least for now. The Kurds are more useful out of the way in a happy and trouble free zone, keeping the oil flowing and helping the PM maintain his power.

As these events unfold and a New Year is here, we can look back and ask ourselves what have major American military adventures accomplished since 1950?

The Korean War was the first major UN action, lead by the USA. It ended in a stalemate, with around 36,000 American killed and an uneasy truce that has kept the country divided with a large American troop presence still there 62 years later. On the plus side it enabled South Korea to become an industrial powerhouse. On the negative side is has forged North Korea into a nuclear powerhouse, one that threatens the West.

Vietnam was America's second geo-political war fought mainly to preserve US hegemony in Southeast Asia, but sold to the public as part of the Cold War against the spread of communism. Again stalemate and growing popular discontent forced America out and the North Vietnamese in after nearly 60,000 US troops died there. Today, a united communist Vietnam has mended fences with the US to the point of now depending on America to protect it from former best buddy China.

The 1990 Gulf War, Operation Desert Storm, was a US-led, UN sanctioned NATO action in response to the Iraq's invasion of Kuwait. Again it was sold on the idea of freeing Kuwait from an invading tyrant, but it really was about safeguarding the Gulf and Saudi oil region.

This eventually lead to the just-concluded Iraq War and the Afghanistan War, if you can call it that, still in progress, both fought as part of the War on Terrorism... a war that may never end since there may always be terrorists somewhere. To date, more than 6,500 troops have been killed in these. And, in Afghanistan, there's no end in sight.

Since its creation, the USA has been involved in 13 major conflicts and dozens of minor ones resulting in 1.35 million military deaths. Yet most have one thing in common, they didn't occur because of perceived threats to national security or survival. They were economic or political in nature, but sold to the public, as most wars are, on the grounds of national security and patriotism. In fact, there's probably only one country today that fights wars of national survival, Israel.

In the end what has America gained from its human sacrifice? We trumpeted our victory in the Cold War, yet now are in debt and at the economic mercy of the biggest communist nation of all.

While communist Vietnam is now our friend, atomic armed North Korea, with little to lose, remains a gateway to Armageddon.

America has a national debt of more than $15 trillion due largely to unnecessary wars we have fought partly on the false jingoistic view that our way should be everyone's way. So, in the end the main beneficiary of American conflict has been the Military-Industrial Complex. You won't find this mentioned in the Constitution, but it exists as much as Congress.

Proof of it existence has again been revealed in a new $50billion arms deal with our favorite extreme autocratic oil-producing nation, Saudi Arabia. It's designed to counter a perceived regional threat from Iran and will generate 50,000 jobs back in the USA.

And you can bet board members of the complex are milling over plans for America's next possible military adventure, what's in it for them and how they will sell it to a public frustrated by our lagging economy and costly foreign involvements. Yet as long as terrorism exists, there will always be a cause to rationalize

[fred]

Russia warns West against Iran strike, sanctions
By Alexei Anishchuk | Reuters – 1 hour 5 minutes ago

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MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia warned Wednesday that an attack on Iran would cause a catastrophe and said U.S. and European Union sanctions against Tehran were aimed at triggering popular discontent by "strangling" the economy.
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that Western sanctions against Iran and talk of a potential attack undermine efforts to revive negotiations aimed at ensuring it does not develop nuclear weapons.
Speaking at his annual news conference, Lavrov said Western nations must focus on efforts to revive long-dormant talks between global powers and Tehran "and not on sanctions, let alone threats to use force."
"I have no doubt that it would pour fuel on a fire which is already smouldering, the hidden smouldering fire of Sunni-Shi'ite confrontation, and beyond that (cause) a chain reaction - I don't know where it would stop," he said of an attack.
"On the chances of whether this catastrophe will happen or not you should ask those who repeatedly talk about this," Lavrov said.
Israel has often said it could strike Iran to stop it developing nuclear weapons, and tension has increased following a Iranian threat to block the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial oil shipping lane, if sanctions prevent it exporting oil.
Lavrov emphasised Russia's opposition to further U.N. Security Council or Western sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program, which the United States and its European allies fear is aimed at producing weapons.
"All imaginable sanctions that could influence Iran's conduct in the nuclear sphere ... have been exhausted," Lavrov said.
Additional sanctions "are aimed at causing a strangling effect on the Iranian economy and the situation of the Iranian people, probably in the hope of provoking discontent," he said.
(Reporting by Alexei Anishchuk, Writing by Thomas Grove and Steve Gutterman)

[fred]

Britain has joined the United States and France in sending a flotilla of warships through the sensitive Strait of Hormuz in a pointed message to the Iranian regime.

The Ministry of Defence confirmed that a Royal Navy Type 23 frigate, HMS Argyll, was part of the US-led carrier group to pass through the waterway, as tensions continued to escalate over Tehran's nuclear programme.

The strait, a 34-mile-wide sea passage, connects the petroleum-producing Persian Gulf states to the ocean, making it a strategic choke point on the world's economy.

The EU gave preliminary approval to new sanctions against Iranian oil on Monday. On the table is a total ban on European purchases of Iranian oil - a sanction that would not just hit Iran but key EU buyers including Greece Italy and Spain.

Sanctions are already expected against Iran's central bank.

The full implementation of the sanctions would be delayed until 1 July, due to concerns about their impact on the European economy.

The UK, Germany, France and the Netherlands had been leading calls for nothing more than a three-month delay before the sanctions bite, but Greece, which fears its economic woes will worsen if it cannot find alternative suppliers at Iran-style preferential rates - has urged a much longer phase-in to ease the pain.

The embargo is yet to be formally approved by the EU nations' foreign ministers, who are meeting in Brussels.

In response to the expected sanctions the Iranians have threatened to close the strait - through which 35% of the world's tanker-borne oil exports pass - in retaliation.

It came as Foreign Secretary William Hague urged Iran to "come to its senses" and resume negotiations on its nuclear programme.

Any bid by Iran to block the Strait of Hormuz at the entrance to the Gulf, through which 20% of the world's oil exports pass would be "illegal" and "unsuccessful", Hague warned.

[fred]

The Iranion Oil Bourse is a commodity Exchage
odity exchange which opened on February 17, 2008.It was created by cooperation between Iranian ministries, the Iran Mercantile Exchange and other state and private institutions. The IOB is intended as an oil bourse for petroleum, petrochemicals and gas in various currencies other than the United States dollar, primarily the euro and Iranian rial and a basket of other major (non-US) currencies. The geographical location is at the Persian Gulf island of Kish which is designated by Iran as a free trade zone.[8]
During 2007, Iran asked its petroleum customers to pay in non US dollar currencies. By December 8, 2007, Iran reported to have converted all of its oil export payments to non-dollar currencies.[9] The Kish Bourse was officially opened in a videoconference ceremony on February 17, 2008, despite last minute disruptions to the internet services to the Persian Gulf regions. Currently the Kish Bourse is only trading in oil-derived products, generally those used as feedstock for the plastics and pharmaceutical industries. However, officially published statements by Iranian oil minister Gholamhossein Nozari indicate that the second phase, to establish trading in crude oil directly, which has been suggested might one day perhaps create a "Caspian Crude" benchmark price analogous to Brent Crude or WTI will only be started after the Bourse has demonstrated a reasonable period of trouble-free running.
From Wikipaedia!
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Slowly but surely and with increasing momentum, we are following a pattern that has led us in to wars in Iraq, Kuwait, and Afghanistan. It is very likey that in this case this pattern it will lead us in to a struggle with Iran. All this is in defence of American Oil Prices and the American Economy! Nothing is more important than to preserve the wealth of the American Elite, certainly not British lives and neither the Labour Party nor the British Government have enough strength of purpose to defend the British people from American "Imperialism."

[fred]

April 2011: Iran inaugurated the third phase of oil bourse with vast opportunities for foreign companies. All types of contracts in the oil bourse will be based upon global standards of purchase and sale and in accordance with Islamic rules.
August 2011: A shipment of 500,000 barrels of heavy crude oil were offered at the Kish Commodity Exchange on 18 August 2011 and were traded at USD 105.49 per barrel. The crude consignment was traded without any discount or additional premium.


See also: Gas Exporting Countries Forum
Iran has proposed the creation of a Petrochemical Exporting Countries Forum (PECF) which aims at financial and technological cooperation among members, as well as product pricing and policy making in production issues. According to the Managing Director of National Iranian Petrochemical Company (NIPC), Abdolhossein Bayat, Iran, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Russia, Qatar, and Turkey are potential members of PECF.[35]
[edit]2008 submarine cable disruption

See also: Communications in Iran
It has been suggested that 2008 submarine cable disruption was connected with the launch of Iranian oil bourse and that the internet connection of Iran was being targeted to stop the launch of Iranian oil bourse.