I know most blogs are talking about the ongoing Gore idiocy, but Im sick of him so Im gonna move on.
The issue that appears to be waaayyyyy more important and one that should not be ignored is a nuclear Iran. It appears Iran is close to getting it’s hands on weapons grade materials. And if that doesn’t scare the crap outta you then either you are moonbat who believes if we hold hands and sing Kum Ba Yah while smoking a bong then things will be alright….dude, or your one of those people who doesn’t notice the world around them unless it happens within 100 yards of you.
It’s amazing that the world is almost resigned to the fact that this lunatic of a country will have a Nuke in it’s possession.
If Iran is not stopped then I imagine Europe and/or Israel would be the most likely target of an attack by Iran. While most European countries don’t have the balls to fight back against an enemy, Israel does. If Israel is attacked they will send multiple warheads into Iran. I guess that’s one way of solving the problem. The loss of life would be regrettable but Europe has the chance RIGHT NOW to take the bull by the horns and do something about it. No more freakin talking. It didn’t work with Saddam it sure in the hell won’t work with Iran.
Will this happen? Judging by the UN’s actions today, I highly doubt it:
Backstabbing by United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan reached another low-water mark late last week, as Annan worked furiously to undo European and American efforts to bring Iran before the Security Council. Reminiscent of his 1998 comment after visiting Saddam Hussein, “I think I can do business with him,” Annan told reporters on Thursday: “I had a 40-minute conversation with Mr. [Ali] Larijani, the Iranian negotiator of the nuclear issue. …He in turn affirmed to me that they are interested in serious and constructive negotiations…” He later explained, “the negotiations relate to the EU3,” Britain, France, and Germany.
Trouble is, that a few hours earlier the EU3 had issued a statement saying “we have decided to inform the IAEA [International Atomic Energy Agency] Board of Governors that our discussions with Iran have reached an impasse.” Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had also told reporters: “The United States fully supports the decision announced today by the [E3-EU]…the basis for negotiation is no longer there, because what the Iranians did was to unilaterally destroy the basis on which the negotiations were taking place…”
Following the secretary-general’s news conference, rumor has it that France’s U.N. ambassador complained to Annan directly, but Annan was said to be livid ? not at Iran ? but at the criticism.
Such a reaction would be par for the course for Kofi Annan, who has done little to hide his bias. He was asked in Friday’s press briefing, “Are you indicating that perhaps it is too early for the IAEA to refer the Iranian dispute to the Security Council?” He answered: “First of all, I think we should try and resolve it, if possible, in the IAEA context. [Mohamed] ElBaradei is working with the parties, doing his best to try and resolve it there.” And he added: “I have been talking to all the parties, doing whatever I can to encourage a negotiated settlement and really keeping people at the table and trying to discourage escalation, and I will continue to do that.”
In other words, as far as Annan is concerned, the problem is not that Iran has escalated the stakes. The problem is that involvement of the Security Council, which is supposed to be the “organ bearing the main responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security,” is escalation. The U.N. chief aims to shift the dynamic from taking strong action against an Iranian madman, bent on nuclear proliferation and the obliteration of a U.N. member state, to placing roadblocks in the way of an American-driven effort to stop it.
Good ole’ Annan, always willing to do nothing while the world disintegrates around him. But Israel will not do nothing:
As Israeli diplomats departed for Russia on Tuesday to discuss deep concerns about Iran’s nuclear facilities, acting Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said the Jewish state cannot allow Tehran to acquire nuclear weapons under any circumstances.
[…]”Under no circumstances, and at no point, can Israel allow anyone with these kinds of malicious designs against us [to] have control of weapons of destruction that can threaten our existence,” Olmert said at a Tuesday news conference.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad sparked widespread international condemnation in October when he called for Israel to be “wiped off the map.”
[…]President Bush, after discussing the situation Friday during a White House meeting with Germany’s newly elected chancellor, said, “The current president of Iran has announced that the destruction of Israel is an important part of their agenda, and that’s unacceptable. And the development of a nuclear weapon, it seems like to me, would make him a step closer to achieving that objective.”
Iran’s announcement that it would restart its nuclear program has prompted Britain, France and Germany to call for an emergency meeting next month of the U.N.’s International Atomic Energy Agency. Iran had been following a two-year suspension while it conducted talks with the European countries.
Amir Taheri also writes about the absurdity of the recent tactics used by the gang of 3:
January 17, 2006 — Treating Iran’s alleged nuclear ambition as a hot potato, the European trio of Britain, Germany and France has decided to pass it on to the International Atomic Energy Agency and thence to the United Nations’ Security Council. “Our talks with Iran have reached a dead end,” says Germany’s new Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier.
In truth, however, the trio’s three-year talks with Iran started at a dead end.
The talks began when Iran admitted that it had been lying to the International Atomic Energy Agency and violating the terms of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) for 18 years but promised not to do so again.
Legally speaking, Iran should have been referred to the Security Council at that time. But the Europeans rejected U.S. demands to that effect and decided to forgive Iran for its past sins ? much as a deceived spouse might show magnanimity toward a sinning partner.
In exchange, they asked Iran ? as then French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin put it ? to give them “something with which to silence the Americans.”
De Villepin had devised the scheme as a means of exposing what he called “the follies of American policy”; Iran could be dealt with “the French way,” meaning negotiations and compromise rather than knuckle-rapping or worse.
The Iranians had good reason to welcome the European offer. It removed the serious-seeming threat of military action, while isolating the United States. And it gave Tehran time to speed up its nuclear program.
The Iranians were honest throughout: They said they were prepared to give that “something” needed “to silence the Americans” in the form of a voluntary and temporary suspension of uranium-enrichment activities. They did not promise a permanent ban. Nor would they relinquish Iran’s right, under the NPT, to enrich uranium for fuel.
The European trio was deceived by its own illusions, not Iranian chicanery. All it was interested in was to score a point against Washington. Even now, the trio is not asking Iran to permanently forgo its right to enrich uranium.
And now the trio must negotiate with a much tougher Iranian: President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has called the Europeans “nothing but corrupt midgets.” He is also convinced that the United States has missed the opportunity to use the threat of military action against Iran.
As a result, Ahmadinejad is actively seeking a diplomatic confrontation with the Europeans and escalating tension with the Americans. He believes that he can take on both and win ? and hopes to thereby emerge as the unrivaled master of the Islamic Republic and de facto leader of the Muslim world.
And now even Colin Powell is starting the see the light:
COLIN Powell yesterday warned that Iran was heading down the same path as Iraq had done before the 2003 invasion and could not be trusted to tell the truth about its nuclear programme.
The former United States secretary of state said he believed Iran posed a serious threat to the rest of the world in the same way that Iraq had done, and he refused to apologise for the action the US took against Saddam Hussein’s regime.
[…]In an interview with The Scotsman, Mr Powell said it was clear that negotiations with Iran had come to a dead end and efforts now had to concentrate on preventing it taking the same path as Iraq had done.
“We are trying to keep it from being that way,” he said. “Iraq actually had nuclear weapons capability that they were within a couple of years of bringing to weapons status. The UN found that after the war, even though Iraq denied it.”
But he questioned whether Iran could be trusted: “Iran has a nuclear energy programme, they say, but the concern is that for so many years they have denied full access to what they are doing and have deceived the international community.
“Should the international community believe that it is simply an energy programme for a nation that is awash with oil?”
[…]But the retired general, who was chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff during the first Gulf War, said he did not believe that the case had yet been made for an attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities. “We are not planning any military action. Everybody seems to be talking today about war,” he said. Instead, he argued, Iran should be referred to the UN Security Council.
“We have been trying to get it to the Security Council for years. Our friends in the EU wanted to follow a different track and we supported it for the last two years, but now that track has run into a dead end and I think there is a strong consensus that [Iran] ought to be referred from the IAEA to the Security Council.”
Ok, maybe not starting the see the light, but at least he is seeing the danger that Iran is posing to the world. Not sure I can tell which side he is on now, since he flip-flops regularly but if he believes the UN can do anything at all about this situation then he obviously didn’t learn anything from the 12 year Iraqi saga.
Other’s Blogging:
- Neal Boortz
- Scylla & Charybdis
- Pros & Cons
- Radioactive Chef
- Discarded Lies
- The Politburo Diktat
- Neocon Express
- Ace of Spades HQ
If Iran is not stopped then I imagine Europe and/or Israel would be the most likely target of an attack by Iran. While most European countries don’t have the balls to fight back against an enemy, Israel does. If Israel is attacked they will send multiple warheads into Iran. I guess that’s one way of solving the problem. The loss of life would be regrettable but Europe has the chance RIGHT NOW to take the bull by the horns and do something about it. No more freakin talking. It didn’t work with Saddam it sure in the hell won’t work with Iran.

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For Annan, it’s all about staying relevant, which means process trumps results. And you’re exactly right in that most of the world is resigned to Iran gettiing nuclear weapons. But I’d go farther, it’s not so much that they’re resigned to the fact, as they just don’t care.
The Russians just want to make money selling the Iranians various technologies.
The Europeans know that Iranian nuclear weapons won’t be pointed at Europe, so they don’t care, and so what if some Jews are fried? They also just want to be involved in endless “process” so they can stay relevant. France and Germany also want to get some Iranian business, just as they did with Iraq.
China wants to keep the US preoccupied so as to divert attention from their goals, which include oil in Sudan and the reaccuisition of Taiwan.
Some will say that “if big bad Bush hadn’t invaded Iraq we’d all be together against Iran” to which I say Horsefeathers. None of the above would be different if OIF had never taken place.
Botton line, Iran is a bad situation with no really good options. VDH had a great piece on this in NRO a few days ago.
Nice post, btw, thanks for the updates.
All of these slow walks to even slower talks are simply giving Iran the chance to continue their work.
At this rate, Iran could very well end up showing everyone what they are really about. Sadly, that just may be what it will take to get the world to open their eyes.