The United States has the military capacity to defeat any Iranian
attempt to shut down sea commerce in the Persian Gulf region and will hold
Tehran directly responsible for shipping disruptions, Defense Secretary Leon
Panetta said today.
“The United States is fully prepared for all contingencies here,” Panetta told reporters in Washington. “We've invested in capabilities to ensure that the Iranian attempt to close down shipping in the Gulf is something that we are going to be able to defeat, if they make a decision to do that.”
“The United States is fully prepared for all contingencies here,” Panetta told reporters in Washington. “We've invested in capabilities to ensure that the Iranian attempt to close down shipping in the Gulf is something that we are going to be able to defeat, if they make a decision to do that.”
“The Iranians need to understand that the United States and the
international community are going to hold them directly responsible for any
disruption of shipping in that region, by Iran or for that matter by its
surrogates,” Panetta added. (Reuters)
UPDATE: IRGC deputy naval commander Brig.
Gen. Mahmoud Fahimi said in Tehran that U.S. cannot clear Persian
Gulf waters of mines in case of conflict.
"The Americans boast a lot about many things, but
they are facing problems in practice," Gen. Fahimi said. "We have no
doubt that the United States cannot do anything in the area of
minesweeping." (Fars New Agency, 18 July)
the real massage emerging out of syria was yesterday that Anti-Americanism in middle east has collapsed; that is good massage; that is the change we can believe in ...
ReplyDeleteThe elite class of Syria enjoyed a good deal with Assad, however an even better deal emerges... to lift up all of Syria and join the emerging and evolving new order of relative global peace and prosperity. Iranian people would be so much better if not diverting resources toward regimes effort to build nuclear defenses- Authoritarian isolation, like North Korea, will not function in emerging world 2015-2020+. Syrian people are trying to move ahead- Iranians will be smart to do same... the regime is Tehran is old world authoritarian and more about itself than Iran. Iranians must free themselves, Syrians are close, I believe Syrians will succeed. Iranians however are standing like a deer in headlights of regime truck.
ReplyDeleteThe U.S. indeed is on the brinks of bankcruptcy and collapse. If the U.S., with or without its allies, is capable enough to strike or attack Iran, it would had already done that long ago. It is all no other than psychological warfare campaign and propaganda against the sovereign state of Iran. In the event of a war, the world will witness how the game will go.
ReplyDeleteThe Syrian rebels are a mix bag, Many of them are Moslem fundamentalists and that alone has complicated the choices the west has...
ReplyDeleteAnon 9:23 AM
ReplyDeleteDon't forget that the Syrians are fighting a secular dictatorial regime using their religion.
In Iran the people have past that and are resisting and will be fighting a religious and Islamist dictatorship and believing in secular democratic principles.
The second one is much more difficult because you have a people questioning the principles of Islamic rule by the velyat-e-faqih and Islamic society in general.
In principle the Shiit clergy have been in power since the Saffavids from the 1500s AD. And before them the Sunni's after the Arab invasion of Iran and their introduction of Islam which came about after 200 years of forced conversions.
So Iran is going through what Europe was going through over 200 years ago as regards religion and politics which lead to secularism of society and its laws in the state.
Iran will change and the regime will be gone due to the peoples choice in wishing to live in a secular and tolerant society with huge benefits to its people.
anon 12:29
ReplyDeleteI very much agree and believe the Iranian people (those looking forward) can prevail, and that the challenges are much greater, true. That said, it would be constructive to give 100% attention and investment to building facts on the ground that encourages the building of a strong foundation- notice how the regime extinguished recent small flames of freedom. You did not have critical mass. Iranian's have the Western powers at their service for the moment... no idea how long that be available, or available in a manner that Iranians will find acceptable. The clerics and their ambitions serve as a litmus test, a real world scenario testing progressive global leadership's ability to effect change. I also believe that regardless of whomever is US President, at some point near, the cleric regime will be removed- Iranians would do well to help now, or stand back and take cover.... you may be without power for quite some time.
@Sanford
ReplyDeleteThanks for your response and I agree with your opinion about not enough mass.
However the way things are happening now in Iran like spiraling food prices,factory closers,workers not being paid for months or being made redundant and at best half shifts,will give the student movement and the middle classes that critical mass.
Plus the core support of the regime which used to be the poor are even worse off under this regime.I myself when speaking to a few of them very cautiously was shocked with the things they came out with against the leadership and the regime as a whole.
If these people bad mouth against their leadership then I can honestly say the regime is finished.
mat's creepy comments are "on the brinks of bankcruptcy and collapse" and it's about time that he pulled his head out from his donkey and saw more of the world than what's printed in PRESS-TV.
ReplyDeleteBeing foolish enough to continue to call for a US war with Iran because mat reads in that rag that Iran will prevail, marks mat as someone who is helping to bring devastation to the Iranians.
very sad and ignorant specimen.
'Iran war will devastate US economy: Brzezinski'
ReplyDeleteFri Jul 20, 2012 8:41AM GMT
Former US National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski has warned that a US military confrontation with Iran could be devastating for the American economy.
“A war in the Middle East, in the present context, may last for years,” Brzezinski said in an interview with Newsmax.TV published on Wednesday.
“And the economic consequences of it (the war) are going to be devastating for the average American; High inflation, instability, insecurity,” he added.
He warned the US administration not to rush into a war with Iran and said, the consequences of yet another military strike in the Middle East “will be certainly very costly for the United States.”
The four-decade politician said that a possible closure of the Strait of Hormuz by Iran even not for a very long time would prompt the costs of oil to skyrocket as the vital oil-shipping route would be a dangerous passage as a result of the military conflict.
“In effect, the American taxpayer should be ready to pay $5 to $10 a gallon for the pleasure of having a war in the Strait of Hormuz,” Brzezinski explained.
He described democracy as the “best weapon of choice” in the present circumstances, but warned that negotiations over Tehran’s nuclear energy program would fail to yield result if they are meant to corner Iran.
“If the negotiations are designed to humiliate Iran and to put it in some sort of separate box, confining it to a status totally different from all the other signatories of the Non-Proliferation Treaty, then we probably will not get an agreement.”
and a major ground invasion of Iran WOULD harm US interests and the US economy......
ReplyDeleteif Iran provokes a couple of weeks of US aerial attack upon Iran, the US economy will be just fine. iran's will be shriveled.
war is not the first choice of the US. it prefers to use other means to get Iran to end its nuclear weapons program and is using those means.
should the Iranian regime react violently, then violence will be visited upon Iran.
Brzezinski was the one that help put those rats into power.They are his pet project and him and Carter would babble their nonsense to save the regimes neck.LOL!
ReplyDeleteAnon July 19, 2012 10:02 PM
ReplyDeleteWhile a "Westerner" , I view the power power struggle with great interest. A free Iran not only represents great potential, but also serves as a field lab to real world test the growing coalition of progressive nations, working with all tools, knowledge and effort to forge a new and better world- it is a metaphorical cliche but possibly appropriate to see Iranian citizens and New Iran as giving birth to its own identity in the emerging order... and this birth is both wonderful, yet painful. A clash of reactionary entrenched power vs progressive unity and sustainable systems, the system of patronage and quid pro quo backed by might that served political elite since the Industrial Revolution began... vs. aware and progressive, intelligent and alive emergent New Era. The process will not will be easy or quick. I agree, this must be a partnership... it is not for the West to directly control this process, this runs counter to the goal of being inclusive, but is to help the Iranian people (and others) rise to their potential... in so doing we ALL win.
Considering the power of weapons today and those of tomorrow... radical fundamentalist religious control of such power, regardless of which ever God or deity... will likely prove catastrophic if unchecked. Our species must get the next 20 years right or suffer incalculable trials.. the regime in Tehran is "all in" for its own agenda, and it is not "for you" but very much about you, and your freedom+power = threat to them. I wish the Iranian people well, and hope for the best, while preparing for the worst. Time is short now.
-S