President Ahmadinejad has given the ultimatum to President Obama : Choose between us or the Zionists. He went as far as to say that he cannot shake our President’s hand because we support and are friends of Israel.
This is the time to draw the line in the sand. If he wants us to choose, than we can give him a choice in return. Choose between being friends with all, or be friends with none at all. It is a very simple ultimatum for President Ahmadinejad to consider.
President Obama can throw in the names of his political challenger Mir-Hossein Moussavi and Neda Agha-Soltan, an innocent girl that was executed and considered a martyr against the cause of President Ahmadinejad. That is how we can play politics with Iran.
I think the biggest players here would be the Russians. It is Russia that is supplying Iran with the nuclear materials like uranium. Right now, Washington and Jerusalem can pressure the Russians with statement like these. If he can make an ultimatum with us today, he can make an ultimatum with the Russians tomorrow. Clever diplomacy can put the pressure on the Russians who can single-handedly stop Iran.
I suggest that we start drawing our big stick with regards to Iranian-American diplomacy. They think they want to show their stick, lets show them ours. It is definitely bigger and holds more ground. We have the backing of many countries all over the world.
I have always wanted the ties between Iran and America to normalize. For one, Iranians cut more slack when it comes to religion as compared to other states. There are still very strict with their version of Islamic laws. But it is still not as bad as many in the Middle East. We do not see women in burkhas which Bill Maher calls bee suits in Iran, we tend to see women wearing scarves.
A second reason is that Iran is strategically located. Russia to the North, Middle East to the West and South Asia and Afghanistan to its East. I think that stabilizing Iran would make a lot of regions live in peace.
However, we are not playing the bad guys in terms of diplomacy. It is the Iranians under the leadership of President Ahmadinejad. We did not set about new ultimatums or ask them to dump their friends. They did. It is they that want to draw the guns and play the diplomatic version of Russian roulette.
So my suggestion is this, if we have to forgo peace with Iran due to this, lets forgo it. Lets us get our guns ready. It is not us that forgo peace for war, it is the Iranians. We should not forget that they had a great chance under President Obama and they are throwing it away…
It is time for Iran to decide whether to focus on the past or open the door to greater opportunity, U.S. President Barack Obama said in a statement issued late on Tuesday.
The statement, marking the 30th anniversary of the storming of the U.S. embassy in Tehran and the start of a 444-day hostage crisis, comes as a standoff continues between Iran and world powers over Tehran’s dispute nuclear program continues.
“Iran must choose,” Obama said. Tehran and Washington have been at odds for years over Iran’s nuclear program which Western powers fear is a covert effort to develop nuclear weapons. Iran denies that and says it needs nuclear technology to generate electricity.
Iranian militants stormed the U.S. embassy in Tehran on November 4, 1979 and held 52 Americans hostage for 444 days.
I think people should know by now that I am all out against torture. However, I do not think forcing people to listen to one kind of music is torture. Otherwise, I have been tortured by my girlfriend so many times in my car!
This is why liberals are pathetic in politics. They really cannot push their message across. Even when you are agreeing with their points, they can spoil the argument for you. That is what happens when you stretch the truth, it becomes nonsense.
Water-boarding is torture. Sleep deprivation is torture. Drilling next to the head is torture. Shoving a baseball down people’s throat is torture. Sell that! Especially shoving a baseball down people’s throat. Any American can understand that that is torture!
But making people listen to REM and AC/DC; that is not torture, it is heaven! Not so heavenly is to be forced to listen to Sesame Street, but that is not torture . Ask any mum of toddlers!
Lets reverse the roles for a minute. If Al Qaeda had kidnapped our soldiers, do you think that the victims would be worried about loud Islamic prayers or Arabic music. The worst thing that could happen is that the victim would be traumatized with these music when they are freed. At best, they could start appreciating Arabic music!
Liberals have really got this all wrong. They must stop selling non torture as torture. They are just backfiring on their agenda. For example, they cannot go out and say that threatening to rape Guantanamo inmate’s families is torture. The police do that all the time. They cannot say that sleeping with a caterpillar is torture. That show us that the inmate is pathetic, not being tortured. Neither can they say that listening to REM is torture.
This is just going to make people that are undecided against you weak kneed arguments. Anybody with a brain would know that their arguments in the previous paragraphs are false. This just undermines people who share the same view as me that torture should not be allowed by our government would have their efforts undermined by stupid argument in the paragraphs above.
In addition to this, the bands whose music is being used for this “music torture”, bands like Pearl Jam and REM, want to know if this is true. I can understand why this is so. This is because these bands have a global appeal. They do not want to be demonized in the Middle East. It would make they lose some of their appeal over there, which also means a financial loss to them.
For God’s sake, lets stop this silly season! This is really stupid. We should not be pursuing garbage issues like this. We got a lot on our minds to think about, health-care, the environment, the national debt, JOBS, economy amongst others. We should not be bothered about what music terrorists are listening to!
Al Qaeda went all to mock us in the economic downturn; and now they are feeling the pinch themselves! Their own sponsors who are essentially paying for the blood of Westerners are also badly affected by the Global economic downturn like the rest of the world.
Al Qaeda is now going around begging for funds. Essentially, it is just political pitch the same way we do it. E.g. Crazy Democrats years or so ago; “Give us money to stop Bush.” or crazy Republicans today, “ Help us stop socialism / Obamacare”; Al Qaeda would go around saying things like, “ Let us stop the ”rot of Islam.” and stop the infidels in their tracks. ”
Credit would have to be given to the National Security Agency in who clamped down on Al Qaeda’s financial crisis. They have done a tremendous job in trying to cut the financial supply to Al Qaeda. Al Qaeda now has made cuts to its recruitment efforts and also cut their budget for training terrorists.
The Taliban, though is making progress in that area, due to sale of its narcotics. This tells us that either the price of drugs has surged tremendously, or that US efforts in converting poppy fields to potato fields are in vain.
It is also noted that most terror organizations are now dabbling in all sorts of criminal activities to raise funds. These include selling of pirated music, software and movies, illegal cigarettes, liquor and gambling.
Though most of the illegal trade happens in the Middle East, we should still think twice before where our dollars are going whenever we get all those counterfeit stuff. Buying that fake Gucci handbag could mean that you are financing Al Qaeda to kill more innocent people in the future. Especially in the field of music, I think that it is unforgivable. Because unlike bags or other stuff, we do have sites like You Tube where you can listen to music for free.
I know that this is getting old but this again goes back to our point of finishing our job in Afghanistan. Lets finish Al Qaeda when they are weaker and lets take the Taliban out before they become stronger than what they are right now. How many more evidences do we need to know that we have got to finish the job? Do we need another catastrophe like 9/11 to happen so that we can come back to our senses and know who our enemies really are?
I really hope that our President and the politicians come to their senses and give the Generals what they want!
I have heard of this from the Associated Press a few weeks ago. I really did not pay much attention to it as I felt it was a lot of hear say. However, when CBS covered it recently, I called some friends back at the military and they told me that suspicion of Iranian involvement was growing stronger and stronger.
The biggest reason why I was not alarmed by the views earlier was because Iran and Al Qaeda and the Taliban should be at the opposite end of the spectrum when it comes to their religious views. Iran is Shiite and Al Qaeda and Taliban are Sunni extremists. Anyone that knew the work of Ayman al-Zawahiri, Al Qaeda’s number #2, would know that he, at least loathes Iran. There were talk of Osama bin Laden’s son living in Iran, but I really would think that that would have had more to do with corruption along the borders in Iran rather than real cooperation. They, at least publicly and on paper declare Shiites as enemies.
However, when you show shells that were so obviously from Iran, what more can you say? It is really a jaw-dropper. Contrary to what the conspiracy theorists think, the Army would never make up stories like this for fun. They may hide things, but never bring out false allegations. So the chances of it being real is very, very high.
That though does not mean that Iran is guilty yet. There could be that very small chance that Iran is not involved in the sale of such weapons. It could be a criminal problem in Iran; where they could smuggle weapons out of the Iranian army and sell it out in the black market.
The evidence though is not on Iran’s side. Iran’s actions are suspicious at best. The manner that they have been caught with their pants down by the Russians with regards to nuclear enrichment is the reason why they put us on the edge. Why should any American trust Iran? It is true that we screwed them over in the past that led to the Iranian Revolution, but we did try to be friends with them in the (President) Clinton years and they refused.
So what should we do if it is a proven fact that Iran is supplying Al Qaeda and the Taliban with weapons? I would follow the rules of engagement. There would be the threat of attack, and rule #1 is : We have a right to use force to defend our selves against attack or threats of attack. There is the threat of our soldiers dying at the hands of weapons supplied by Iran. Iran should either close its shop or feel the brunt of our aggression.
All this should only happen though after there is a thorough investigation with regards to this allegation. We should not make the same mistake of invading an “innocent” country again, like how we got into Iraq.
Lastly, this would blur the lines of Sunni and Shiites in the Middle East if it is true. They would still not like each other but would be treating the US as their common enemy. We are the “bigger devil” for them.
