Are we ready to invade Iran?

[lisagurl]

The chess pieces are moving in the direction to have another war. Troops moving to Afghanistan, high unemployment, oil needed, friends with Russia, trained both side Iraq and Afghan army's, the nuke threat, Israel, etc. Not to mention much activity at the base near me.

[Flan]

>.>
<.<

[tekla]

So, how well is that real quick action going in Iraq?  How's it going in Afghanistan?  And you want to invade the regions only real military power outside of Israel?  Really?  Iran is not a backwards nation.  It's not an Arab nation.  It's population is well educated, politically united against the US (they have this grudge about us overthrowing their government), they are well armed, fantastically well armed, dug in, prepared, and have a real command and control structure in place.

Worst idea ever.  As the Simpson's comic book guy would say.

[Kaitlyn]

Worst idea ever.  As the Simpson's comic book guy would say.

So of course we're going to do it.

[tekla]

I guess I ought to read some news here.  I've been off doing shows for a week now and not keeping up.  They always think they can sneak this stuff by me when I'm not paying attention.  But I can't believe they are thinking this. Well, OK I know some people have raging hard-ons and are just drooling at the possibility - but we're taking about sane people here.  I hope.

[lisagurl]

The election did not go our way and there seems to be a group waiting to take control. We could tip the scale in their favor.

Not that I condone more war and meddling in another country but the handwriting is on the wall.

[Miniar]

Gods I hope not....

It would be incredibly stupid.

I mean.. literally.. incredibly stupid.

[lisagurl]

The Iranian student Web site Advar News reported that hundreds of university students chanted slogans against Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, including "Death to dictator!" and "Ahmadi, Ahmadi, this is the last message, the green movement is ready for uprising!" Another reformist Web site, Norooz, estimated that about a thousand students took part in the demonstration, according to Reuters.

Earlier this month Frieda Afary, an Iranian-American translator, published a translation of a recent essay by a student at Amir Kabir University in Tehran called "Why Is the Islamic Republic Afraid of the Humanities?" In her introduction to the English version of the essay, Ms. Afary noted that Iran's government has attempted to place much of the blame for the post-election protests on the universities and in particular on the teaching of the humanities:

[finewine]

Oh I agree with earlier sentiments - such a move would be intensely stupid.  I hope "they" (the powers that be) don't misconstrue local discontent with tacit support for external intervention...I think some of them made that mistake in Iraq.

[Cindy]

Oh not another coalition of the witless.

Some of the  USA pollies need to read  Diplomacy for Dummies. The copy in cartoon form 'cos I don't think they can read all that well. At least not signs

[V M]

I feel for the Iranian students and others that wish for them to have the freedoms of democracy. But the U.S. does not like to be at war. We didn't want to be bothered with Iraq or Afghanistan. We also don't like to be attacked or threatened.

Most often we provide aid (food and med.) through out the world. No-one seems to gripe about that 

[Kaitlyn]

I feel for the Iranian students and others that wish for them to have the freedoms of democracy. But the U.S. does not like to be at war.

How I wish that were true.  The U.S. has been one of the most warlike, if not the most warlike nation in the world for the last 60 years or so.

[tekla]

I'm not sure the Iranian students want 'democracy' in any Western sense of that word, nor do I think that just because they don't like the current government they are our friends necessarily either.

[Miniar]

Democracy 101,
It is not democratic to force a governmental change on the people.
Not even if you truly believe you're making it better for them.
That is all.

[V M]

I don't see the Iranian students as friends or enemies. But rather they are folks who wish for human rights.

[tekla]

Well coverage being what it is, I really don't think that anyone really knows what either side thinks in reality. 

[V M]

As with WWII, we didn't get involved until we were attacked.

[finewine]

As with WWII, we didn't get involved until we were attacked.

*cough*  You mean physical attack or an attack of rhetoric?   The US has most definitely intervened overtly and covertly ... and not in response to a direct attack.  For example, the invasion of Grenada was not a counter attack, just that y'all don't like them damn commies!

Vietnam, also was not a counter attack, just that y'all don't like them damn commies either! (Ho Chi Minh was originally expecting the US, as a symbol of freedom and liberty at the time, to support their desire for liberation from the occupying imperial French).  Minh later wrote, in response to a letter from President Johnson:

Viet-Nam is situated thousands of miles from the United States. The Vietnamese people have never done any harm to the United States. But, contrary to the commitments made by its representative at the Geneva Conference of 1954, the United States Government has constantly intervened in Viet-Nam, it has launched and intensified the war of aggression in South Viet-Nam for the purpose of prolonging the division of Viet-Nam and of transforming South Viet-Nam into an American neo-colony and an American military base. For more than two years now, the American Government, with its military aviation and its navy, has been waging war against the Democratic Republic of Viet-Nam, an independent and sovereign country.

[Kaitlyn]

As with WWII, we didn't get involved until we were attacked.

Even World War II wasn't so black and white as all that.  We were intervening militarily in China against the Japanese, and stepping up the rhetoric and economic warfare against Imperial Japan.  They knew we were going after them, and being reasonably intelligent, they made the first overt strike.

EDIT:  They wanted to cripple our Pacific naval capability because they feared an attack from us.  I don't think their leadership understood how galvanizing Pearl Harbor would be for the American public, though.

[V M]

It is a mistake to help anyone who asks us for help. Time and money is better spent on our own people