how long has Bibi been rattling the sabres re: Iran??

6-8 years now?

PUT UP OR SHUT UP

... what country DOESN'T want to strike Iran? Yes, we're looking at you, Saudi Arabia.

WITHOUT wanting to "strike Iran", don't you?

A human mind can hold the thoughts "this regime is horrible and needs to go" AND "the Iranian people shouldn't have to suffer because Ahmadinejad and the mullahs are total bastards" AT THE SAME TIME.

Striking Iran and killing thousands of innocent Iranian citizens, many of whom were and are opponents of Ahmadinejad, is not the only possible effective response to the Iranian regime.

Bibi needs to give the saber-rattling a rest. There's no excuse for him continuing to push this.

... the only person I hear repeatedly going on about missile strikes and wiping out "thousands" or poor, innocent Iranians is you?

It's insanely reckless to assume otherwise.

A strike on Iran would HAVE to lead to heavy loss of human life. The Gaza and Second Lebanon conflicts proved that Israel is no longer capable of launching pinpoint surgical strikes.

...about your awesome ability to know to a 100% certainty what will happen in the future.

"A strike on Iran would HAVE to lead to heavy loss of human life" -- and you're basing this on the fact that similar strikes never have before? Are you thinking "third time lucky"?

"The Gaza and Second Lebanon conflicts proved that Israel is no longer capable of launching pinpoint surgical strikes"

So, just to be clear, targeting small units of infantry in a high-density urban environment is exactly the same scenario as targeting a large building hell-and-gone in the desert? Is this based on your predictive capabilities or your extensive knowledge of ATG missile tactics?

There are lots of other hot crises, for one thing, like Syria, and a great deal of "Wolf" has already been cried on this subject, and "why get involved?" comes to mind too, let them duke it out, just keep your distance, who cares?

But the OP makes the case that Obama wants the IDF to attack Iran, an argument I find specious.

Wow, Bibi as Truman. That's an inteeresting piece you linked there. Some interesting bits on the 6-day war too.

simultaneously blaming al-Qaeda and Hezbollah/Iran and mention that the 'rebels' who ever they are being 'supported' what ever that means by the West, it could almost appear a proxy war of some sort, keeping it going as a means of keeping up one of Iran's allies busy just in case or something

and as I have said in the past, what good are enemies if you can't blame things on them? Whereas we ourselves, of course, are always reluctantly compelled by events.


Syria is centrally located, has many neighbors, and is internally quite complicated too, a post-colonial relic, so we have a messy situation to start with, and multiple competing narrators for what is going on, and legions of people employed in the business of pumping the spin out, so yeah.

I think there are many players in Syria, all with different agendas. That is sort of the point in my mind, once you destabilize the Assad regime, the fractures spread and multiply in unpredictable, indeterminate ways.

One day, to mix metaphors a bit, there may be a real wolf; but people have been claiming that such an attack was imminent since at least 2004 if not earlier.

And, according to what I have found, this started back in 2002. Personally, donning a tinfoil chapeau, I believe there is something else really going on and Iran and Israel are nothing more than hammy (excuse the pun) actors. I have a few different theories, but at the very end is an actual confrontation. This is a power-struggle between Russia, China, the US, and the EU. Is another actor about to dance on to the stage? That may be what is really happening, and I doubt it is Iran.

It has nothing to do, however, with those who oppose missile strikes on Iran.

It's pretzel logic to argue that it's extremism to oppose the use of force and the potential loss of thousands of innocent lives, but moderation to demand such things.

And if the "other actor" turns out to be China, we're all screwed. The world can't survive "world wars" any more. The era when it could ended the day that bomb hit Hiroshima. After that, it because clear that nothing could ever be worth risking what happened to that city being done to every city on the planet.

I think he could very well make good on this threat.

I hope I am wrong.

A great way to preempt any chance of this happening would be for Iran to take a bold step towards peace and dissolve its dictatorship and hold real elections.

Also they could stop helping the Assad regime crush dissent and could stop making various bellicose statements against the West (and the occasional random Holocaust-denial or antisemitic statement).

There are a lot of out-of-the-box things Iran could do that would move that part of the world that much closer to peace.

... you're assuming that anyone other than Israel is or possibly could be responsible for all the woe and strife in the Middle East.

It's a common rookie mistake. I'll wait here while the others set you straight about this.

Off course, Israel could stop making threats......We all know what happened when Egypt made similar threats in '67 even though it was incapable of carrying them out.

Iran has almost no defence against an IDF attack, so Israel's threats are much more serious.

Threatening comments, whether by Israel or Iran, do nothing but exacerbate tensions and increase the potential for conflict.

The strange thing is .......I don't see what either of them have to gain by making public threats.

Iran is almost challenging Israel to bomb its facilities (Is it looking for a justification to retalliate?) and Netanyahu must know his threats have no effect on Iran, so who is he trying to influence by making them? (His standing with the Israeli public?....Forcing Obama's hand?)

I am equally confused.

I do think that most every country in the world has a segment of their population that likes to rally itself against a foreign enemy as a show of patriotism.

Hopefully, cooler heads will prevail. There is a reasonably sizable movement - at least on the internet - of both Israelis and Iranians who are speaking out in favor of peace.