Iran Tests Its Weapon
This entry was posted on Thursday, July 10th, 2008 at 10:37 am by Matt Davies.
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(15 votes, average: 4.07 out of 5)
I that Obama said Iran wasn't a real threat?
Obama? According to our military/intelligence sources, Iran is not a nuclear/military threat. But if you think oil prices are stupidly high now… Wait till we're enmeshed in an unnecessary military conflict with Tehran.
What is a state like Iran supposed to do? The United States and the Bush administration have been threatening Iran for years with its foreign policy and its rhetoric. Of course Iran is trying to look strong. What we need to do now is back off and leave Iran an honorable path of retreat (Colin Powell, Craft of Diplomacy, 2004).
Bush and his cronies say they want peace and diplomacy, but the problem with the members of Bush administration is that you can’t trust them. You can’t take what they at face value.
“I believe President Bush is going to order air strikes (on Iran) before he leaves office”
-Norman Podhoretz (Lyons, 2007).
As former Nixon aide John W. Dean wrote, “George W. Bush and Richard B. Cheney have created the most secretive presidency of my lifetime. Their secrecy is far worse than during Watergate” (quoted in Wittkopf and Jones, 2008, 329).
The administration secretly planned and prepared for war with Iraq without disclosing it to the general public. Planning began in November of 2001 and included upgrading airfields in various Gulf countries, moving supplies to the region and the construction of necessary facilities. By April 2002, the planning and preparation for war was also being hidden from Congress. Bush had instructed General Tommy Franks not to make financial requests through Washington. “Anything you need, you’ll have.” The money would no longer be appropriated through congress. By the end of July 2002, Bush had approved more than thirty projects totaling over $700 million. Congress had no knowledge or involvement (Woodward, 2004, 122).
In December of 2002, Bush and Rumsfeld agreed to start secretly deploying troops into the theatre so as not to attract the attention of the press or the rest of the world. The first deployment order went out on December 6, 2002 and deployments continued every two weeks or so thereafter. Troops were given less than a week’s notice at times. In January 2003, the Bush administration arranged for much of its humanitarian relief to be disguised as general contributions to conceal its war planning from the NGO recipients. Yet, when asked about Iraq, Bush’s favorite response was “I have no war plans on my desk.” At one point or another after the planning began, nearly every member of the administration publicly denied any plans to go to war with Iraq (Woodward, 2004, 129).
A better approach to Iran would be negotiations. While Fareed Zakaria agrees that there is no reason not to use sanctions and embargoes against states such as Iran, he suggests that we also need to “allow a viable way out.” That is to say, we need to negotiate and not merely mandate.
...and if we drilled for oil here, our resources are bountiful, we would undoubtedly and unquestionably be better off. Unfortunately, William Jefferson vetoed drilling in Alaska, and there's always an excuse to stop drilling off our own shores, right Nancy? ... let's just watch China do it from their Cuba platform…
Alternatives, sure, but Ted and nephew Robbie won't allow windmill's off the coast of their Maine compound…let's socialize it all, oil biz, medicial care …why not, the Federal government has done so well with Social Security (oh, yea, that's broke too…).
Matt Davies appears to be nearly as uninformed as many Americans when it comes to oil. A previous comment suggesting that we can drill our way out of the oil mess is more proof that our education system is failing us.
A similarly ludricrous conclusion is Davies cartoon pretending that Iran is holding the world (or us) "hostage" per oil. Do facts even mean anything in today's world of hype and bumper sticker solutions?
It's not really all that difficult to locate the info on who actually does supply the 70% of our oil useage that we currently import. Of the USA's foreign oil suppliers, number 1 is Canada and number 3 is Mexico. Iran does not even make the current top 15 list.
So Matt, unless we are getting our oil from Canada and Mexico at a deep, deep discount…do you think that they also are holding us "hostage" with a gun aimed at the oil barrels we buy from them?
Tom Paine…Here's some common sense:
Iran very deliberately fired its however many "test missiles" symbolically at the Strait of Hormuz which is the supply route for 40% of the world's oil. Oil is market priced, so it doesn't actually matter where our oil comes from. It's all connected.
Oil markets are so volatile right now that affecting oil prices are the only real weapon Iranian leaders have, so they are trying to use it to scare us. How could they do otherwise given their current predicament? And obligingly, everytime Condi Rice, W or Israel make their usual "all options are on the table" statement re: Iran, oil prices spike. For the record I am 100% opposed to us attacking Iran. It is a country that doesn't need to be punished just because its leadership is of the same poor caliber as our own.
I also get a chuckle out of those that say we should drill domestically to magically solve the oil crisis, as if the oil companies were somehow bound to benevolently give the oil to us and not sell it on an open market. Again oil prices would still be based on market conditions, not geography.
Credit where it is due – I have to agree with Matt on this one.
John M., you seem to want to blame the US for any tension with Iran – does not the fact that it is run by radicals who threaten Israel's destruction – and who have an active nuclear program – mean anything to you?
quoting Jeff Rogan July 10th, 2008 at 11:51 pm
...and if we drilled for oil here, our resources are bountiful, we would undoubtedly and unquestionably be better off.
_
jeff:
I question your contextual usage of the term 'bountiful'; I doubt you are using the term "undoubtably" accurately and I don't believe you apply the term "unquestionable" with proficiency.
Matt D,
The price of oil had spiked long, long before Iran fired any missles "at the Straight of Hormuz" as you stated. So who was holding us "hostage" prior to Iran firing those out-dated and basically ineffective missles?
If Iran ever did actually threaten to disrupt the supply of oil from the Gulf, you can bet your butt that Bush's best buddies from the lovely Royal Family that run Saudi Arabia would be the first ones (among many) to demand that it be stopped.
You need to look back a few years when Team Bush along with Alan Greenspan and other "experts" were saying that Saddam and Iraq were the supposed boogeyman threat to the world's oil supply. It was not true then and it's not true now about Iran.
The money that the USA has spent on foolishly trying to "patrol" or "stabilize" the Gulf has cost USA taxpayers literally hundreds of billions of dollars and possibly quite more. If we had spent even a portion of that wasted money (that also gained us entire generations of potential terrorists) on a serious energy policy we would not be in the energy mess today that is about to strangle us.
Blaming Iran or any other foreign nation for today's gasoline prices is foolish. Our energy problems rest squarely in Washington and the power of the oil and auto lobby.
Paine, I think the point Matt is trying to make is that even though Iran is NOT A NUCLEAR POWER, it still is the superpower of the Middle East. All Iran needs to do to raise oil prices is scare the living s*** out of Saudi Arabia and other major producers, and world oil prices hiccup, because they raise the price to pay for more defense measures. Either that or pressure them to do it.