IRAN SO FAR AWAY, PART THE...SECOND? TENTH?

I'm going to crosspost my response to this post on the Hattiesburg American forum:

Okay, let's cover this again:

- Clinton doesn't capture OBL. This is the same OBL who attacked the USS Cole, many think the Hezbollah acted in cohort with Iran/Al Queda/OBL in the Beirut bombing and OBL's forces planned the original attack on the WTC. OBL made it clear he planned to attack America and he did. See 9-11.

- Geography lesson: Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, et al, are all located in the middle east.

- Sadaam Hussein [former dictator of Iraq, whose address is now in Hell ---- and good riddance], supported, harbored, protected and consorted with all terrorist, OBL included.

- The world's largest oil supplies are located in the middle east. Again, see above geography lesson --- these countries are all contiguous and all harbor (or have harbored) terrorists.

- The US is a staunch ally of Israel, and if you're a christian (and I am), my Bible tells me the Jews are God's chosen people and we are to ally with them and protect them. I have no choice.

- The US must protect her interests abroad [See oil] and our allies abroad.

- Side note: If environmentalists would allow more drilling on US soil and more refineries built, we wouldn't be so dependant on their oil.

- I could continue this list, ad nauseum, but you get the point.

We have to take the fight to them and ensure a stable middle east [something about Iran and nukes]. Did that clear it up for you?

Response

In the August 2, 2005 issue of the Washington Post a story was printed that was headlined "Iran Is Judged 10 Years From Nuclear Bomb." This was part of the National Intelligence Estimate, which represents the overall consensus of U.S. intelligence agencies.

It is now January 13, 2007. According to our own intelligence agencies, then, Iran is still over 8 1/2 years from having a nuclear bomb, if in fact that's what they're working on. They of course deny that they're working toward a nuclear weapon. But Bush of course, insists that they are, so he can try to convince the public to let him attack Iran.

In 2003, Iran sent word to Washington that they wanted improved relations with the U.S. and according to the Washington Post story, everything was on the table--"including full cooperation on nuclear programs, acceptance of Israel and the termination of Iranian support for Palestinian militant groups."

But the Bush administration rejected the offer of talks with Iran. Now why would Bush have done something like that when Iran wanted to come to some sort of agreement on every issue we differ with them over?

Operation Ajax--how soon we forget

I've never said that terrorism has only been around since the days of George W. Bush. We've been killing and exploiting people around the world for over a century now. Why, a prime example of that happened in Iran in 1953 when Kermit Roosevelt worked with the British on Operation Ajax and overthrew the democratically elected Mossadegh to install the pro-Western but decidedly undemocratic Shah (another major player in Operation Ajax was Miles Copeland, father of Stewart Copeland, the drummer for The Police).

Dissatisfaction with the autocratic Shah led to the Islamic Revolution, during which the Iranians took over the U.S. embassy, which is all most Americans remember.

Eisenhower and 9/11

Since some on the forum like to blame things on past presidents on the basis of historical "what ifs" or "if onlys", try this one on:

9/11 was Eisenhower's fault. Eisenhower, you may remember, was a Republican.

Truman (a Democrat) refused to participate in Operation Ajax. Eisenhower was up for it and so the year he took office, we and the British overthrew Mossadegh. Dissatisfaction with this state of affairs leads to the Islamic Revolution of 1979 and the taking of the U.S. embassy.

That in turn causes the U.S. to side with Iraq in the Iran-Iraq war, with us supporting Saddam Hussein. We then tell our buddy Saddam in 1990 that we have "no opinion" on "Arab-Arab conflicts." So Saddam invades Kuwait.

Suddenly we have a very strong opinion on Arab-Arab conflicts and to dislodge Saddam from Kuwait, we set up military bases in Saudi Arabia, massing some 500,000 troops there. This upsets Osama bin Laden.

An upset Osama bin Laden works in conjunction with Khalid Sheikh Mohammed on the 9/11 plot, which kills 3,000 Americans.

Therefore, in the logic of some posters on this forum, Eisenhower is responsible for 9/11.