Monday, June 4, 2007

Iranian Involvement In Afghanistan

It has been reported that over the last few months, Iranian weaponry has found its' way into Afghanistan. Of course it has ... Iran is the biggest state sponsor of terror in the world. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates has stated that he is unsure if the Iranian Government is behind it, or if it is just smuggling. Wake up SecDef Gates ... If the same types of advanced weapons are showing up in both Iraq and Afghanistan, the Iranian government must be behind it. The international community is going to have to do something to smack Iran down, or someone else is going to do it unilaterally. Would that be such a bad thing?

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19 comments:

Jenny! said...

Are they just plain stupid or are they playing dumb???

Mike Minzes said...

I think it's time to hammer that nail down!

-0-0-

Paul Champagne said...

jenny ... a little of both is my take on it

mike ... I think Israel is assembling a hammer right now.

Tapline said...

I just wrote a page but the systeme swallowed it. I'll try to remember what I wrote. An allied unit captured two shipments of Iranian weapons headed for the Taliban in Afganistan just recently. I am sick of the present administrations apparent foot dragging when it relates to Iran. They will not publicly denounce the treatment of the 5 Americans presently being held by the Iranians. They will not ruthlessy protest the verbal abuse of Isreal and The US by the Iranians. They constantly come down on Isreal for trying to protect itself. They throw their own under the bus when politically advisable. This is to the point where there is only a few old guard left. And the latest is the immigration Wow...Whats left??? Come down on Iran. No More!!!S..t or get off the pot...your thaughts???

Paul Champagne said...

The present administration has had every decision they have ever made lambasted and harpooned by the Democrats in Congress. Now with election 2008 already in full swing, they have to justify their acts to the Republicans too.

Seems the President does not have the stomach for the political infighting that actually doing something would entail. He is making himself into a lame-duck president all by himself ... or is he saving his ammo for something he considers more important?

Sarah said...

I don't mean this to sound like I think Iran is doing nothing wrong but I am not sure what you all mean by bring down the hammer. It seems like no one, including Israel or the US has been able to bring the "hammer down" successfully and having yet another country in the middle east in shambles is not good for anyone.

The president should have to work hard ot justify a similar course of action! Taking lives and giving lives, deserves some pretty big justifications!

This region has been at war for centuries, I teach art history and I laugh when my students are surprised that these regions are at war from basically the beginning (that does not say much for education in the US). Countries have been unilaterally acting since time began here, why does everyone thing this time it will be different???

You cannot swing a hammer and expect it to work on something that is not a nail!

Sarah said...

on a lighter note do you think Iran will give arms to Vermont as they plan to leave the union???

Paul Champagne said...

sarah ... the hammer refers to bombing (hopefully conventional). The Iranian government has been thumbing its collective noses at the world for too long. There is no way that the world will allow Iran to aquire nuclear weapons. There is still time for diplomacy, but the time is running out. We thought we had negotiated in good faith with N. Korea and see where that got us, we cannot allow the same thing to happen with Iran. At least the N. Koreans seem to be happy with money in exchange for being good, the Iranians would give a nuke to a terrorist group in a heartbeat. Soooo if the Iranians want to avoid being hammered ... they need to start acting like a responsible part of the world community.

And yes ... Iran will give arms to anyone that would harm the United States or Israel. So Vermont cessionists, apply at your local mosques.

Paul Champagne said...

myutopia ... thanks for stopping by, but we have a couple of different opinions ... who do you agree with (pick me, pick me)?

lime said...

we have helped create a stronger iran by creating a vacuum in iraq. yes saddam is gone but we had such a poorly planned and executed excuse for a war over there that iran has been emboldened. our troops are stretched thin between afghanistan, iraq and now korea...iran needs hammered in some fashion. question is, who is able? we certainly cannot afford yet another unilateral decision in that corner of the world since we have squandered the good will of the world whihc 9/11 generated.

Sarah said...

well I agree that Iran should be acting as a responsible member of theglobal society, Im not sure anyone could really disagree with that (lets hope). I am always of the opinion that war does not lead to peace or good relations, I understand that countries cannot allow nuclear weapons into the hands of terrorists.

I canthelp but continue to disagree that in our current situation bombing of any kind seems to not work! It hasnot worked for the US in any modern day war beginning with Vietnam to the present. It seems like when the hammer continues to not work over and over again that it is time to try something new. Diplomacy is a possibility, addressing issues of poverty and education (two major factors in the creating of terrorists) might help.
If I ran a business and I had a problem which I tried to fix in the conventional way and it didn't work would I continueto try fixing it the same way over and over again? I dont think I would stay in business very long like that.

Anonymous said...

I was part of those watching the ayatollahs running IRAN from the broad open ocean during the IRAN hostage crisis [late Carter years] from a place known as "Gonzo Station." Our country was totally embarrassed by IRAN [their current leader was one of the hostage takers], and I hope to see our country "getting even" in the not so distant future [via a surgical or decapitation type of strike, and NOT by invasion, we just CAN NOT afford to invade another Middle Eastern country].

tlrb

snowelf said...

Paul,

I love reading your blog, it's really enlightening.

--snow

Jenny! said...

Paul it loooks as though Sarah is addicted to your blog! Shall I leave you two alone?

Paul Champagne said...

lime ... actually the war was very well executed. If you use Desert Storm as the Benchmark in actual battle, this one surpassed it. The problem was a lack of planning for what would happen after we won ... maybe we toppled Saddam too quickly, or maybe Rumsfeld was too stuburn to listen to his Generals, but the result was an occupation that occupied nothing.

sarah ... while I agree that diplomacy is always worth a try, it doesn't seem like it works much in this part of the world. We have the air-power to destroy all of Irans nuclear sites, as well as the airpower to keep their army from doing anything productive. We can also use gunboat diplomacy and cut off their shipping lanes. No need for actually sending troops into the country.

tlrb ... the Iranian hostage crisis is what made me enlist in the Army back in 1980. But we don't need to get revenge, we just need to make sure they don't get the "BOMB".

snowelf ... glad you love my blog. Enlightening? I don't know about that, but political discourse (without name calling and bad feelings) can be fun.

jenny ... I don't know if sarah is addicted, but you you seem to stop by pretty often. 2 may be company, but 3 or more is a party.

Tapline said...

thanks Paul for the visit....Hind sight is 20/20 but, we hit the wrond nation. We should have reacted when our soverign Embassy was invaded, the peanut wasn't up to it he likes to talk..We should have reacted when our embassy was bombed in Beirut, I mean other than bring our troops home thanks Reagan. We did invade Iran at one point during Reagans presidency, but I don't remember when. It was not publicized. Lime we have been diplomatized to death, in fact that is where we got the name PAPER TIGER. We did not pick up the name Ugly American after 9/ll. That came much much sooner. Check our give away funds to foreigh nations and see who is getting our tax dollars. They are the ones that holler the most how bad we are. It's not Bush, It is the United States. OOPs! sorry got carried away....

Paul Champagne said...

tapline ... my brother got blown up in Beirut, luckily he was only slightly injured. Beirut is some bad news, that is truely a civil war. Remember when it used to be called "The Paris of the Middle East"?

snowelf said...

Yes, exactly. It's like the facts without the fiction. Pure and simple.

thanks paul.

--snow

Paul Champagne said...

snowelf ... "facts without the fiction", there used to be a time when the news media followed this mantra like it was the Holy Bible. I think that if one of the major networks went back to this, they would immediately become the number one rated nightly news show. You would think that just for the sake of ratings, at least one of them would try it.