Foreign Confidential ™
Foreign News and Analysis Since April 2005 -- formerly China Confidential -- What's Really Happening in the World
Barak Restates Israeli Position on Nuclear Iran
Defense Minister Ehud Barak restated Israel's fears of a nuclear-armed Iran on Thursday after his top general clashed with the government's line by describing the Islamic republic as "very rational" and unlikely to build a bomb.
Addressing foreign diplomats on Israel's independence day, Barak said Iranian leaders were not "rational in the Western sense of the word - connoting the quest for status quo and the peaceful resolution of problems."
Believing otherwise "borders on blindness or irresponsibility", said Barak, who branded Iran, with its religiously fuelled calls for the Jewish state's demise, as seeking regional hegemony and being "undeterred by the apocalyptic."Read more.
Suggestion: stop arguing over "rational." Intentions is the key word. The clerical fascist regime that muses openly about "a world without America and Zionism" clearly intends to destroy Israel and drive the United States from the Middle East--for starters. Iran's foreign policy is imperialist in that it seeks to overthrow the status quo, or power relations among nations, as Barak said. As such, it can't be appeased--appeasement will only make war inevitable--and certainly cannot be allowed to acquire atomic arms. That Iran, which is bristling with ballistic missiles, could already possess or be close to possessing an arsenal of primitive nuclear warheads and dirty bombs, along with presumed stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons, is both scary and scandalous.
Phony Missiles Not a New Tactic
Thursday, April 26, 2012
Analysts Say New N. Korean Missiles are Fakes
But complacency is not in order, especially in light of the North's belligerent boasts andthreats. The Kimist regime has enough real missiles, including ballistic missiles capable of being fired from seemingly civilian cargo ships, real nuclear bombs, and real terrorist commandos to create real nightmares for the United States, South Korea, and Japan.
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
Israelis Fear Iran Could be Building Dirty Bombs
Iran has nuclear materials, money, missiles and warheads, scientific and technical expertise, conventional explosives, and political will and determination, etc. So why shouldn't we assume that Iran, while working on nuclear weapons, has already produced an arsenal of advanced radiological dirty bombs--and various means of delivering them?
The distinction some experts make between weapons of mass destruction and "mass disruption" is clever … but far from comforting when one stops to consider: the large numbers of people powerful explosives are capable of killing and maiming; the immediate and long-term health hazards from radiation poisoning; the billions of dollars in economic damage that a dirty bomb could cause; and the potentially paralyzing, psychological impact of a dirty bomb attack on a targeted population.
Moreover, given the focus on Al Qaeda's quest for a dirty bomb, what, exactly, is the deterrent against an anonymous and deniable Iranian dirty bomb attack on an American city, which could be carried out by Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps Quds Force operatives and/or terrorist proxies and allies?
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