Are we ready for a war with Iran?

Gee c.i.- you shouldn't get your Y-fronts in such a twist.

There's a "believe" in that. And an "on the path" and the ST has "learnt" about it. Would you like a few other things about what the ST has "learnt"?

Fancy Pentagon planners having developed " a list of targets". Who would ever have thought that Pentagon planners would stoop to such base activities? Especially " amidst 'growing fears' ".

Then there's another "believe" and a "could" as well.

It's a joke c.i. Mr Sherwell and Mr Shipman are tweaking your reflexes like the nurse with a rubber hammer.

How many times have you seen " a chilling scenario of how war might come" c.i.?

spendi, With Bush at the helm, anything that's stupid is possible. Nothing Bush has ever done was done with intelligence or planning with "after the war," or after the bombing campaign. Our congress isn't too sharp either.

Spendius is right, ci, you should only take heed when someone says something for certain like:
We know where the weapons of mass destruction are. (Rumsfeld)
We will be greeted as liberators. (Bush)
There is no doubt about any of this. (Cheney)


However:
When confronted with language such as:

Bin Laden Determined to Strike Within the United States (CIA)

Pass it off as someone trying to cover his own ass.

Joe(It's not difficult as long as you don't think critically.)Nation

When spendi is "right," I'll be joining him at the pub.

France warning of war with Iran
French foreign minister Bernard Kouchner says the world should prepare for war over Iran's nuclear programme.
"We have to prepare for the worst, and the worst is war," Mr Kouchner said in an interview on French TV and radio.

Mr Kouchner said negotiations with Iran should continue "right to the end", but an Iranian nuclear weapon would pose "a real danger for the whole world".

Iran has consistently denied it is trying to acquire nuclear weapons but intends to carry on enriching uranium.

Mr Kouchner also said a number of large French companies had been asked not to tender for business in Iran.

EU sanctions


"We are not banning French companies from submitting. We have advised them not to. These are private companies."

"But I think that it has been heard and we are not the only ones to have done this."

He said France wanted the European Union to prepare sanctions against Iran.

"We have decided that while negotiations are continuing to prepare eventual sanctions outside the ambit of UN sanctions. Our good friends, the Germans, suggested that," he said.

Until now the Security Council of the United Nations has imposed economic sanctions on Iran, but did not allow for military action.

The United States has not ruled out a military attack against Iran to prevent it from acquiring a nuclear weapon.


Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/world/middle_east/6997935.stm

Let me quote
C I
Are we ready for a war? is your question.

Once again the world says No No No.

Let me quote this

Defending America
David Hackworth
23 July 1997

KOREA: ARE WE READY FOR WAR?

Last week for almost thirty minutes, North Korean rifle, machine gun and artillery fire cracked across the Demilitarized Zone's Central Front, near my old 27th Raider's patrolling grounds. Per the standard drill, Southern troops responded in kind in the longest running on again, off again standoff in modern times.

Were these the first shots of the nightmare war predicted last April by high-ranking North Korean defector Hwang Jang Yop or just another shoot out of the sort that's been going on since the 1953 cease fire that never really happened?

South Korea has 815,000 combat soldiers on high alert along the DMZ, while North Korea has 1,054,000 soldiers leaning forward in their foxholes awaiting the banzai order. In the middle of this potential killing field, where everyone has their finger on the trigger, sit 37,000 very vulnerable U. S. air, ground and naval personnel.

The 2d Infantry Division is the main U.S. ground force, and they're forward deployed, well within communist artillery range. But if war comes, will these two brigades be ready to fight? Here's what members of the "Indianhead Division" have told me in the last few days:

A platoon leader: "It's amazing. We're no farther away from war than the time of flight of an incoming round. In 35 seconds, we could be facing instant death, yet we struggle to get parts for our vehicles.

When Vice President Gore visited, we towed our deadlined vehicles out of the motor pool to display a false front of neatly maintained, precisely lined up tanks and vehicles that were supposedly ready to fight."

A company commander: "We lack the ammunition to train, and yet we jump through hoops to show visiting VIPS like Newt Gingrich how combat-ready we are by laying on costly live-fire demonstrations. During these dog and pony shows, critical ammunition is wasted that's needed to train and instill confidence in our soldiers who face an unpredictable, totally irrational enemy. When will our leaders realize 'Go is more important than Show?'"

An Infantry platoon sergeant: "I'm lucky to have half my soldiers out for training. The rest are either sick or lame or off on some detail such as policing the post, or being a jock. The turnover is a joke. Every time I learn someone's name, they're gone. My platoon has turned over more than once in the ten months I've been here. How can I build a fighting team or mold a cohesive unit?

A First Sergeant: "This place (Camp Casey) is morale, welfare, and recreation Heaven and it's all an opiate for the troops. It's got a Burger King, Popeye's, Robin Hood Sandwiches, Anthony's Pizza, Baskin Robbins Ice Cream, Amigos TexMex, a bowling alley, huge swimming pool, softball diamonds, video rental stores, shoppettes, a PX, commissary, library, theater, book store, golf course, three all-ranks clubs, and a partridge and a pear.

Yet, the camp's been within artillery range of the DMZ for 45 years, and there's still no bunkers except the drainage ditches. If the bad guys attack, we're all either instant cinders, mincemeat or biologically contaminated corpses.

I have raised this survivability problem with the brass. They reply 'We don't want to show the North that we're on too much of a war footing. It might provoke them.' Doesn't anyone with eagles and stars care for their troops' welfare anymore?"

A staff captain: "I wonder how much these guys will appreciate all these goodies (at Camp Casey) when the shells are raining down, and there's no place to duck."

A staff major: "We've got an (infantry) air assault battalion sitting directly across the DMZ in the middle of one of the enemy's main avenues of approach. When the balloon goes up, they won't even make it out of their barracks, let alone to their choppers. They'll be like grapes between the toes of a French wine maker."

A commander: "We are short key leaders. As soon as a captain leaves his company, he's off to a higher priority assignment. Duty in a troop unit is no longer high priority."

In 1950, the 2d Division, along with the rest of the U. S Army, wasn't ready for the North Koreans, and they paid a heavy human price. Will history repeat itself?

The end

http://www.hackworth.com/23jul97.html
.

The pentagon has a list of targets!!!!!

OMG,lets panic!!!

They have a list of targets in Canada,Mexico,and every other country on earth.
Its called "planning".
The targeting plans for Canada have existed for years,yet we havent bombed them, have we.

Both Bush AND Clinton have approved these plans,and both of them have said that pre-emptive use of nukes is part of the US war planning.
Yet we havent done it yet.

There will be no war with Iran while Bush is president,I will bet on that.

I DO however,think that if a dem gets elected pres we will go to war with Iran, just so a dem can prove they are also strong on national security.

Anybody wanna take that bet.

Rama, This sentence caught my eye: I have raised this survivability problem with the brass. They reply 'We don't want to show the North that we're on too much of a war footing. It might provoke them.' Doesn't anyone with eagles and stars care for their troops' welfare anymore?"

That's been the problem with our war in Iraq; the generals and this administration doesn't give a shite about the troops. Remember when rummy said "you fight a war with what you have, not what you wish you had." All the generals knew from the very beginning of this war that our troops were under-trained and under-equipped, and yet we sent them into harms way.

Bush cut veteran's benefits beginning with the 2008 fiscal year funding when many vets are not being served, and those who are are required now to meet co-pays. They're the ones sacrificing their lives for our country, and that's how our president, generals, and congress treats our soldiers.

"Support our troops." Yeah, sure.

Sounds like universal healthcare to me.
I thought you supported that.

All this if folly.

The same report appeared in our morning newspapers today. Bush wants to attack another country, is it any wonder the world is turning away from the US; that dangerous person you call Mr. President is just making the United States a bigger target for extremists.
America is the only country ever to use a nuclear weapon against another country and now he wants to use them against Iran because he believes they would be a danger to world peace, well Mr Bush you have set the US up as the biggest threat to world peace and I hope and pray that one day you will be brought to task in a World Court for crimes against humanity.