It’s pretty bloody obvious that the Iranian nuclear program is not all about generating electricity for its citizens.

Somewhere, someone is developing a trigger and somewhere else, someone else is accumulating enough uranium / plutonium to make a viable nuclear device with a decent yield.

Do we just sit back and wait for an episode of Spooks to become reality or should the Israelis take a stand and bunker bomb the Iranian nuclear program.

I would prefer the latter but I’m very nervous about the consequences in this oil rich and generally unstable area of the world.

Maybe Iran should execute a pre-emptive strike on Israel’s nuclear sites? What with all the UN resolutions they ignore…..

They’ve long since been taking action in a more subtle manner..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stuxnet.. state sponsored computer viruses..

They’ve done it in Syria;

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Orchard

Should Iran execute a pre-emptive strike on Israel’s nuclear sites?

Depends if you think Isreal are likely to use the bomb on others, would Iran?

I say nuke the entire middle east and have done with it. It saves taking sides. They’re all mad as badgers anyway. Must be all that sunshine

derek_starship – Member

It’s pretty bloody obvious that the Iranian nuclear program is not all about generating electricity for its citizens.

really?

Evidence?

http://www.tesco.com/groceries/Product/Details/?id=258096908

😀

I say nuke the entire middle east and have done with it. It saves taking sides. They’re all mad as badgers anyway. Must be all that sunshine

LOL. Only you could get away with saying that!

Hold up while I put the kettle on

+1 what binners said

really?

Evidence?

The IAEA report is on it’s way this week- wee article here.

I know that it’s unlikely to be enough for the doubting Thomas’s unable to poke their fingers in, but the circumstantial evidence has been pretty damning for a long time

The mooted attack is all based on the assumption the Iranians have nothing to shoot back with. If it turns out they have any weapons complete or, god forbid, some of those dodgy briefcase nukes that were supposedly shopped to them in the 90s, it could lead to a very quick and very nasty escalation.

I don’t trust the Iranian government but I don’t think we can hold up Israel as a paragon of sanity and acceptable behaviour either.

From that Guardian link…

the US will use the IEAE report to escalate towards a military solution, there was recent leak of secret IDF airstrike on Iran which the heads of Shin Bet and Mossad say its ”stupid”, ”reckless and irresponsible

If Mossad think it’s a mental idea, maybe there’s some hope for rationality.

Pulls up a chair

Maybe Iran should execute a pre-emptive strike on Israel’s nuclear sites? What with all the UN resolutions they ignore…..

That course of action would actually be more likely to help prevent war in’t Middle East, if Israel’s nuclear capabilities were taken out of the equation. Israel, not Iran, is the biggest threat to stability in that region. Iran’s not using banned chemical weapons and other nasties against civilians like Israel is.

It’s pretty bloody obvious that the Iranian nuclear program is not all about generating electricity for its citizens.

So what if they are actually developing weapons? I’d rather see Iran have an effective nuclear deterrent against Western invasion, than yet another nation with millions of innocent people have to suffer the way so many have in Iraq, Afghanistan etc.

The West needs to look at other ways of sustaining our relatively luxurious lifestyles, or learn to stop being so greedy, in order that the whole planet can continue with any semblance of ‘peace’. It’s just obscene that countries like ours think they can just take what they want with no thought of the consequences. Disgusting.

Do we just sit back and wait for an episode of Spooks to become reality

See, this is the problem; far too much scaremongering sensationalist Western propaganda, designed to create a smoke screen and justification for the invasion of a nation in order to exploit it’s natural resources.

Hmm, where have we seen his happen before…?

Ben, any chance of a massive espresso? Haven’t had a proper coffee in days…

Surely we should just give them all nukes? That’s the system that’s kept the world superpowers at peace for the past 50 years so it should work for everyone else too.

They should get some of this down ’em and calm the piss down!

Wasn’t it Armadinajad (sp?) who said he would wipe Israel off the world map? What a comforting thought when your neighbour says stuff like that and gets really into atom tinkering…

EDIT: I’m really thirsty now….

Should Israel execute a pre-emptive strike on Iran’s nuclear sites?

What? Again?

druidh – Member

Surely we should just give them all nukes? That’s the system that’s kept the world superpowers at peace for the past 50 years so it should work for everyone else too.

~ah yes – the ole MAD doctrine.

I wish we could just stop using oil. Just like that *poof* no requirement for oil anymore.

Wasn’t it Armadinajad (sp?) who said he would wipe Israel off the world map?

Well, according to some who may have misinterpreted the original statement:

Many news sources repeated the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting statement by Ahmadinejad that “Israel must be wiped off the map”,[5][6] an English idiom which means to “cause a place to stop existing”,[7] or to “obliterate totally”,[8] or “destroy completely”.[9]
Ahmadinejad’s phrase was ” ???? ?? ???? ?????? ??? ??? ” according to the text published on the President’s Office’s website.[10]
The translation presented by the official Islamic Republic News Agency has been challenged by Arash Norouzi, who says the statement “wiped off the map” was never made and that Ahmadinejad did not refer to the nation or land mass of Israel, but to the “regime occupying Jerusalem”. Norouzi translated the original Persian to English, with the result, “the Imam said this regime occupying Jerusalem must vanish from the page of time.”[11] Juan Cole, a University of Michigan Professor of Modern Middle East and South Asian History, agrees that Ahmadinejad’s statement should be translated as, “the Imam said that this regime occupying Jerusalem (een rezhim-e eshghalgar-e qods) must [vanish from] the page of time (bayad az safheh-ye ruzgar mahv shavad).[12] According to Cole, “Ahmadinejad did not say he was going to ‘wipe Israel off the map’ because no such idiom exists in Persian.” Instead, “he did say he hoped its regime, i.e., a Jewish-Zionist state occupying Jerusalem, would collapse.”[13] The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) translated the phrase similarly, as “this regime” must be “eliminated from the pages of history.”[14]
Iranian government sources denied that Ahmadinejad issued any sort of threat. On 20 February 2006, Iran’s foreign minister Manouchehr Mottaki told a news conference: “How is it possible to remove a country from the map? He is talking about the regime. We do not recognize legally this regime.”

As for the oft-trotted out thing about Women’s rights in Iran:

Zakaria: Comparing the status of women in Iran and Saudi Arabia


So, Saudi Arabia is a country with a worse Human rights record than Iran*, yet the West continues to trade freely with them and openly support their tyrannical undemocratic regime.

*SA has a worse record than Iran in many areas of Human Rights and civil liberties. Fact. Not defending Iran’s treatment of women, homosexuals etc at all, but it’s rank hypocrisy when such things are trotted out as justification for the demonisation of an entire nation and it’s people.

The US would never falsify reports, look at all the weapons of mass destruction they found in Iraq, and how they captured Bin Laden in Afghanistan.

Oh….

Just nuke Israel… nobody seems to like them, apart from the Americans (and by association, the UK).

There’s loads of VERY attractive women in Israel though…

Yeah, but that’s not a fair system to decide who gets nuked Derek. I can see where you’re coming from, but its fundamentally flawed.

We don’t know if there are any attractive women in Iran as they’re all walking around in bedsheets

Israel, not Iran, is the biggest threat to stability in that region. Iran’s not using banned chemical weapons and other nasties against civilians like Israel is.

I think Elfin sums it up succinctly here. ^^

Unfortunately it seems stability is not worth having unless your friends are also in power.

We don’t know if there are any attractive women in Iran as they’re all walking around in bedsheets

Another myth!

I know they don’t have books and stuff Oop North, but I wish you blokes would find stuff out for yourselves instead of spouting Horaisms on here! 🙄

EDIT: thought better of it.

*explains it was just a joke but not funny in this context or in light of Sue_W’s post last week*

one of my ex’s was iranian and she was stunning. and no, they don’t all have to wear bedsheets.

How do we get from pre-emptive strikes against nuclear plants to ‘she’s a bit of alright’ type posts?

*shakes head and leaves the thread*

How do we get from pre-emptive strikes against nuclear plants to ‘she’s a bit of alright’ type posts?

Norvern blokes, innit? 🙄

Incapable of engaging in intelligent condversation so resort to the default ‘caveman’ setting. They can’t help it really, as they’re probbly closer to the Missing Link than others. 😉

Ug…

What wwaswas said… I can’t help feeling that this thread has reached the point of objectifying women. Frankly, I’m surprised at the attitude of some of the posters, especially after the events of last week…..

We’re never gonna get Iranian women signing up to this forum with this sort of attitude!

Israel is in no position to lecture any state on nuclear weapons or state sponsored terrorism

Personally I think everyone should have nuclear weapons
We ignore that nutty Korean fell because he has them …no one invades or bombs a nuclear power as that would be madness. That is why Iran want them for defensive reasons and that is why we dont want them to have them as we like to be able to bully countries in that regions.

No more a threat than any other state with them despite what the papers would have you believe
Nukes are rubbish as offensive weapons it like pulling the pin out of hand grenade then hugging the person you want to kill …you both end up dead and no one [ in power] is that daft

No the state of Israel which illegally has nukes shoud not stop another country from doing what it has done.

FFS can we not debate anything on here without you lot turning it in to some sort of male libido / female attractivemness bollocks?
Sick of this shit I a really am

Should Israel execute a pre-emptive strike on Iran’s nuclear sites?

I think Israel should give back Palestine.

Prior to the six-day war, Egypt amassed an army right on the Israeli border. In those circumstances, pre-emptive action may be justified.

All we have in this case is that Iran may or may not be doing what Israel has been doing for years – secretly developing a nuclear weapon. I would much prefer that they were not, but I don’t see how a strike is either justified or will enhance stability in the region.

In light of recent understandable sensitivities I would like to state categorically that I am not advocating nuking people, or not, depending on how fit they generally are. That would be silly

However, I think that if a country has failed to export its cuisine to the extent that I’ve got a decent local restaurant nearby, possibly that do deliveries too, then its a richly deserved Armageddon for them.

Presently Turkey is safe as Houses, Greece can breath easy. Iran? I’m not too sure. Convince me they deserve to live……

binners – you might find that “Persian” cuisine is more popular than “Iranian”. Must be a PR thing….

What about Scotland, Binners?

I mean, apart from a few Aberdeen Steakhouses*, I’ve never seen any ‘Scottish’ restaurants. 😐

*Not actually properly Scottish…