THE US, THE UN AND THE IRAQIS THEMSELVES, V. 7.0

It seems Sec'y. Annan might be suffering from a gingko biloba deficiency -- probably the result of another nefarious Republican plot.

It ain't what's being done. It's who's doing it!

You guys are funny. While you are exercised, (rightly, I might add) by the theft of some monies, the Iranians next door to Iraq are preparing to prepare a nuclear weapon, meanwhile the North Koreans are within weeks of blowing up their first atomic baby.

I wonder what kind of folksy humor George will use on either the Mullahs or the wacko regime in Korea to stop the world before playing Napoleon Blownapart in the Washington Press Corps Follies.


Someone get this guy off his bicycle.

Joe(He cannot ignore the real dangers while attacking the imaginary)Nation

Joe: It's okay. Don't worry about Iran or Korea. That's all under control. Everything's cool. The Europeans are negotiating with them. You know ... like they've been doing for the past three years.

<But just in case you're planning a vacation over there, I'd take a sunscreen with a really high SPF.>

Joe, What do you recommend we do about Iran and North Korea?

The Israelis had a solution 24 years ago:

1981: Israel bombs Baghdad nuclear reactor

The Israelis have bombed a French-built nuclear plant near Iraq's capital, Baghdad, saying they believed it was designed to make nuclear weapons to destroy Israel.
It is the world's first air strike against a nuclear plant.

With remarkable precision, an undisclosed number of F-15 bombers and F-16 fighters destroyed the Osirak reactor 18 miles south of Baghdad, on the orders of Prime Minister Menachem Begin.

The army command said all the Israeli planes returned safely.

The 70-megawatt uranium-powered reactor was near completion but had not been stocked with nuclear fuel so there was no danger of a leak, according to sources in the French atomic industry.

Mortal danger

The Israeli Government explained its reasons for the attack in a statement saying: "The atomic bombs which that reactor was capable of producing whether from enriched uranium or from plutonium, would be of the Hiroshima size. Thus a mortal danger to the people of Israel progressively arose."

It acted now because it believed the reactor would be completed shortly - either at the beginning of July or the beginning of September 1981.

The Israelis criticised the French and Italians for supplying Iraq with nuclear materials and plegded to defend their territory at all costs.

The statement said. "We again call upon them to desist from this horrifying, inhuman deed. Under no circumstances will we allow an enemy to develop weapons of mass destruction against our people."

The attack took place on a Sunday, they said, to prevent harming the French workers at the site who would have taken the day off. There have been no reported casualties.

The Osirak reactor is part of a complex that includes a second, smaller reactor - also French-built - and a Soviet-made test reactor already in use.

Iraq denies the reactor was destined to produce nuclear weapons.

...high SPF... <giggle>

I don't think Israel will allow Iran to get much further without bombing the reactors. There was a special with interviews from the Israeli pilots of that operation---I think on Fox or CNN--- about three weeks ago.

Most of the people interviewed for that segment said they think the Israel option is how Iran will be dealt with.

I think so, too, but the PR is not going to be pretty.

So you are stumped, Ican, Bush is too, poor thing, poor us, and even Tony can't help what with his skinny little government, so what to do?

Bush is about to put John R. Bolton in the most sensitive negotiating position on the face of the earth. In a hundred years, historians will wonder what the hell George was thinking by putting this hip-shooting shouter of idealogy at the very balance point of humanity's survival. Truth is, or was, Bush probably didn't give it much thought. He probably got a message from God.

So how are things going?
The insurgency seems to be boiling in Iraq.

The riots in Afghanistan over the destruction (purported or otherwise, the mullahs don't care.) of a Koran in a toilet have not abated and the western end of that country and the southeast tribal lands are in a state of no controlling authority.

In Lebanon, the Syrians have departed, setting up the next theatre for insurrection (you heard it here first)

and the Iranians are drawing gasses to make an atomic weapon.

Gosh. If we could just get some good news out of Israel all this would seem insignificant.

What makes it insignificant is the news today that the North Koreans are harvesting their fuel rods now instead of waiting another year to get even greater return. What's their hurry?

Have we seen George get on a midnight flight from Texas to put a stop to all this? Must not be any right to life pandering to be done, so no. Did Bush ask Putin for his input and assistance with the wayward Iranians, he's done so well with the the Chechens, maybe he has the ideas needed.

Nope.

And now I think it may be too late to do anything.

I think we are doomed.

I did everything I could.

Joe(I voted Democratic both times)Nation

I wouldn't say we are all doomed Joe. But the planet is running out of resources to guarantee an affluent life for everyone on it. So I think maybe they have some sort of cull in mind.

And while people here think attacking Iran is just a matter of getting the public relations right, and chosing the right sun screen factor, its easy isn't it?

Kofi Annan's position, power and contacts may have helped his son gain pecuniary advantage out of Iraq. Gosh, this is terrible.
I cannot think of another such flagrant example of a head of state helping an otherwise talentless, unremarkable and demonstrably unsuitable son to influence, riches and power.
It would certainly never happen outside the corrupt East.

Wonderful subtlety McT . . . and wasted on most people here. If you haven't spelled it out, they won't know to whom you refer.

Is McTag talking about Saddam's sons? Because I remember George was pretty upset with Saddam's sons, other than that I am coming up blank. Sort of like the look that crosses George's face when the AXIS of EVIL is mentioned. Le'see, who was in dat dere Axis of Evil??

Oh, yeah. North Korea, Iran and Iraq. And Iraq, boy oy boy, that was the really bad one because they had all these chemicals and trailers out in the countryside for making really bad stuff. Really bad. And they were an immediate threat, not like those Iranians who back then were probably four years from making any progress on a nuclear weapon, the same with the North Koreans maybe except that we didn't have any really good intelligence on the North Korean like we did on the Iraqis. We had them nailed down tight, presented everything we knew in front of the United Nations and still the UN was not that impressed. Hard to figure.

Of course, now it is four years later.

For some reason, the same huffing, scowling, sneering and general disparagement has not worked as well for making the world safer as it did for getting huge tax cuts passed.

But we had our chance for regime change here and blew it.

George is not going to change. He is looking forward to the Apocalypse.
Ask him.

Joe(Then another, a second angel, followed him crying, "Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great! She who made all nations drink the wine of her passionate unfaithfulness." Rev 15) Nation

Right. You know what dumb asses we are.

Precisely the holier-than-thou, smarter-than-thou, gloomier-than-thou attitude that blew the last two presidential elections for the Left.

That was not directed at you and your spiteful nastiness, Whooda . . . but this is definitely a case of wearing any shoe that fits . . .

"Culling" to keep my gas prices under $2? Hmmmmmmmmm ... okay ... but just the Islamic-types, okay? Don't get any of the people who look like us. Let's see ... how can we mark our side ... hmmmmmmmm ... maybe we could start by putting yellow Stars of David on the Jews and see where things go from there.

Sorry, Steve. I bow to your side of the pond when it comes to subjugating a planet.

I read a horsesh!t-jacksh!t fire & brimstone lecture on the French Revolution that you delivered recently, Setanta.

Honestly, I can only hope to aspire to your craft when it comes to that spitefully nasty thing.

Your cordiality speaks for itself.

How did I miss your responses of high intellectuall standard, well-educated, thoughtful and showing such a deep knowledge of culture and science.

Thanks for being here.

Gentlemen: You may not like the tone, but you can't dispute the facts.

I'm game if you are.

Just what "facts" do you refer to, Whooda.

This oughta be good . . .