Nothing unifies a "family" like an attack from outsiders.  Could they really be that stupid?

Shameless pimping?  Why yes, Guilty.

Well, "You can't vote for war and disown the results"

I don't feel the US has any intention of normalising relations with Iran. This is Iraq, part II.

But bombing them will push the Iranians to shut down Hormuz and create a bottleneck where 40 percent of the world's oil passed through ever day and is the main route of oil exported (up to 90%) from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, UAE and Iraq.

'The security of the Persian Gulf and security of global energy (supply) are directly linked to the security of Iran and we would therefore defend ourselves in a broad-based manner if threatened,' General Rahim Safavi, the commander of the para-military revolutionary guards, told state television.

Iran has several times warned that military attacks against its nuclear sites would have grave consequences, including a global oil crisis.

Hormuz is less than 40 miles wide at one point - it's a geographical nightmare in this geopolitical chess match.

Not only are they pushing the nuclear issue, but the latest MSM meme is Iran is harbouring al Qaeda leaders.

Well, so does Pakistan, who also has the the bomb, and is in no way, shape or form a democracy. And Israel for that matter (nuclear weaponed and IAEA ignorant).

George thinks they are satanic at any rate...

Most fundamentalist Christians have authoritarian personalities.

Two core beliefs separate fundamentalists from mere evangelists ("happy-clappy" Christians) or the mainstream Presbyterians among whom Bush first learned religion every Sunday with his parents: fundamentalists take the Bible absolutely literally as the word of God and believe that human history will come to an end in the near future, preceded by a terrible, apocaplytic battle on Earth between the forces of good and evil, which only the righteous shall survive.

According to David Frum - his former speechwriter - when Bush talks of an "axis of evil" he is identifying his enemies as literally satanic, possessed by the devil. Whether he specifically sees the battle with Iraq and other "evil" nations as being part of the end-time, the apocalypse preceding the day of judgment, is not known.

Iran claims test of fastest underwater missile
`No warship can escape' powerful 223-mph warhead, Tehran says
The Associated Press
Updated: 11:52 a.m. ET April 2, 2006

TEHRAN, Iran - Iran announced its second major missile test in a week, saying Sunday it has successfully fired a high-speed underwater missile capable of destroying huge warships and submarines.

The Iranian-made missile has a speed of 223 mph underwater, Gen. Ali Fadavi, deputy head of the Navy of the elite Revolutionary Guards, said.

He called it the fastest underwater missile in the world--but it has the same speed as the Russian-made VA-111 Shkval, developed in 1995 and believed to be the world's fastest, three or four times faster than a torpedo.

It was not immediately known if the Iranian missile, which has not yet been named, was based on the Shkval, or if it can carry a nuclear warhead.

"It has a very powerful warhead designed to hit big submarines. Even if enemy warship sensors identify the missile, no warship can escape from this missile because of its high speed," Fadavi told state-run television.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10704034/

Here's what the Iranians have against the American navy:

3 Kilo Class Type 877 diesel submarines.  These are the world's quietest diesel submarines, with a range of about 400 miles submerged.

A high-speed torpedo with a range of about 7,500 yards against which there are no effective countermeasures.  However, the VA-111 Shkval must be fired from a submarine, and the Iranians have six submarines--and only the 3 Kilo class submarines would be capable of the type of operation needed to launch their veresion of the VA-111 Shkval.

The American navy wasn't much worried about the Iranians' Kilo class submarines, as the US Navy could easily blanket the theatre of operations with electronic surveillance (AWS) for the Iranian submarines and destroy them in what one US admiral called "essentially a live-fire operation".  

However, when one combines the Kilo class submarines with these VA-111 Shkval torpedoes, the situation becomes much more problematic.  

Despite the confidence of some military analysts that the US Navy can easily handle even this new threat, simply by targeting and destroying the Iranian submarine fleet before it gets a chance to move against the American fleet, there are two pieces of evidence that may show why the US Navy should be worried:

Even a handful of modern, well-maintained diesel submarines could have made a significant difference in the Persian Gulf War. If Saddam Hussein had bought six modern vessels "and positioned three of them on either side of the Strait of Hormuz, that would have complicated matters," according to U.S. vice admiral James Williams. "One diesel sub can make a great difference to how you drive your ships."

http://www.fas.org/asmp/library/articles/sub.htm

During the Falklands/Malvinas war a single Argentine Type 209 managed to elude l 5 British frigates and the antisubmarine carriers. The San Luis maneuvered into torpedo range of the British fleet and launched three torpedoes, although all three shots were unsuccessful. Early in the conflict a British submarine sank the Argentine cruiser Genera Belgrano with two straight-running torpedoes of design dated to World War II.
http://www.fas.org/asmp/library/articles/sub.htm

So now we have this scenario: President Cheney (through his sock puppet, George W. Bush) orders a carrier grup into the Persian Gulf for naval operations (either a sea-launched aerial assault on Iran or a naval blockade of Iran's key port of Bandar Abbas).  The Iranians attack one or more US warships, badly damaging or even sinking them.

President Cheney now has his excuse for all-out war with Iran.  The American public would not tolerate the Iranians sinking one American warship and killing hundreds, even thousands, of sailors.  Never mind who started the fight; never mind that the Iranians will claim they were defending themselves; the American public won't care.  It'll be Pearl Harbor, and the public and Congress will give President Cheney--I mean, er, "President" Bush--free rein to attack Iran, conscript troops, whatever he asks for.  Cheney can then order Iraq-based bombing runs on Iran (now you know why the US seized Iraq as its colony and is building a dozen permanent military bases inside the country...not to mention that Saddam already build a lot of wonderful air force bases that the US can use).

This scenario may or may not play out.  But certainly the Russians, by providing Iran both with Kilo class submarines and now with the VA-111 torpedo technology, have proven themselves a formidable barrier to American hegemony in the Arabian Peninsula.

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