15 thoughts on “Dagan, Panetta Warn Bibi Against Iran Adventure – Tikun Olam תיקון עולם إصلاح العالم
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  1. As Saddam discovered, it is easier to start a war with Iran than to finish. Eliminating nuclear program is problematic because it is modular and dispersed. Worse, such an attack would not touch the Iranian capacity to retaliate, and the blowback would fall first on USA (Afghanistan, Iraq, Gulf), then on all oil consumers, and Israel would get blowback from the blowback.

    Sicilian expedition of the glorious (until then) city of Athens comes to mind.

  2. RE: “The issue has taken on new urgency because, in the view of many Western military experts, the window of opportunity for an aerial assault on Iran will close within two months.” ~ Haaretz

    MY COMMENT: Netanyahu is itching so badly to unsheathe the mighty “sword of David” that he probably has a very large, severe rash as a consequence! Allegorically speaking, one might even call it a diaper rash of sorts.

    POTENTIALLY THE MAKINGS OF A “PERFECT STORM”: Israel’s Window to Bomb Iran ~ by Ray McGovern, Antiwar.com, 10/04/11

    There are mounting signs that the right-wing Israeli government may think the timing is right for an attack on Iran, with growing alarms inside Israel about alleged Iranian progress on building a nuclear bomb — and with President Barack Obama fearing loss of key Jewish political support in 2012…
    …Yet the key factor in any Israeli decision to send its aircraft and missiles to Iran is the degree to which Netanyahu and other hard-line Likud leaders believe that President Obama is locked into giving blanket support to Israel — particularly as election 2012 draws near.
    The Israelis might well conclude that the formidable effectiveness of the Likud Lobby and the knee-jerk support of the U.S. Congress as well as still powerful neoconservatives in the executive branch (and on the opinion pages of major American newspapers) amount to solid assurance of automatic support for pretty much anything Israel decides to do…

    ENTIRE COMMENTARY – http://original.antiwar.com/mcgovern/2011/10/03/israels-window-to-bomb-iran/

    P.S. Todd Gross, TV Meteorologist:

    “Look, look at this. We got Hurricane Grace moving north off the Atlantic seaboard. Huge… getting massive. Two, this low south of Sable Island, ready to explode. Look at this. Three, a fresh cold front swooping down from Canada. But it’s caught a ride on the jet stream… and is motoring hell-bent towards the Atlantic. What if Hurricane Grace runs smack into it? Add to the scenario this baby off Sable Island, scrounging for energy. She’ll start feeding off both the Canadian cold front… and Hurricane Grace. You could be a meteorologist all your life… and never see something like this. It would be a disaster of epic proportions. It would be… the perfect storm.”

    The Perfect Storm (2000) HQ trailer [VIDEO, 02:25] – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVwuy-4TzU8

    1. P.S. ALSO SEE: Avraham Burg: Israel’s new prophet ~ By Donald Macintyre, The Independent, 1 November 2008
      Avraham Burg was a pillar of the Israeli establishment but his new book is causing a sensation. It argues that Israel is an “abused child” which has become a “violent parent”. And his solutions are radical, as he explains to Donald Macintyre.
      LINK – http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/avraham-burg-israels-new-prophet-979732.html

    2. Plus, Netanyahu and other ethnic supremacists in Israel may see a general Middle Eastern war as a golden opportunity for ethnic cleansing and redrawing boundaries.

  3. Nice to hear about the newly married girly. “Now, instead of a honeymoon flight, she prepares for a bold, and entirely different flight mission.” Cute. Somehow lessens any stress one might feel about this Israeli (and American) latest. For a short while I was becoming a wee bit alarmed when I read, “Of course, it (Israel) has received some of that (U.S. assistance) with the delivery of 50 bunker buster bombs that would be necessary to penetrate Iran’s heavily fortified nuclear facilities.” And then there was that quotation from Ray McGovern offered us by dickerson3870: “…with President Barack Obama fearing loss of key Jewish political support in 2012…” How easy to complete the dots. Our House has now moved to deprive the Palestinian Authority of 200 million dollars as punishment for seeking some justice, we’re probably quite gently pleading with the Israeli powers that be to take it easy with the rest of the world – okay, Iran to be precise, as the target de jour – and thus continue to disenchant much of the Muslim world, only to wonder why it is they so “dislike our way of life.” You begin to realize that with a few more staunch little allies like Israel we can kiss the future goodbye. But these are unnecessarily depressing thoughts when you remember the bit about that newly married captain flashing her wedding ring.

    1. Sort of redeems the whole thing, doesn’t it? That little human interest amidst such inhuman interests. I am kidding.

  4. The schizophrenia of the press regarding Iran’s ability to defend itself against an attack makes me laugh. First, they are a threat. Then, they are a laughable photoshop failure. Which is it? The same goes for Israel’s ability to actually do anything against Iran.

    I hate to be the Buzzkill Bob here, but didn’t a medium sized forest fire have Netanyahu flying through Uranium plumes like a worried mother, begging for help from the international community to put it out before all of Israel went down in flames? Does this sound like a country that can defend itself against Iran? If Israel attacks Iran, Iran has full justification within all international laws and norms to declare Total War on Israel. And Iran, as much as some of the ignorant hecklers would like to make it seem, is not exactly incapable.

    The truth is that this attack WILL NEVER HAPPEN. Militarily, it’s a sure loss. Diplomatically, the end game would be complete isolation. Additionally, it would create a true and justified threat out of an “existential” one (read: HORSE SH*T). This is all Kabuki Theater to distract from a Palestinian Statehood Declaration. Plain and simple.

    1. Richard, also, I’m sure you saw Haaretz’ article about Assad ranting to the Turkish FM about how Israel, the US and Europe would be attacked by Syria and Iran simultaneously.

      LOL… who believes this stuff?

        1. I’m referring to his statement that Iran would join the brawl. You’d have to be out of your mind to believe that.

  5. It will never happen, except that Israel’s leadership givers every indication that it is NUTS and has a well-developed policy (which it may even believe in as an element of religious certainty) that it is inevitably successful when it acts with a CRAZY LACK OF RESTRAINT. (Gaza, Lebanon). PLUS it never, ever takes USA’s criticisms seriously, and USA — for its part — is frightened (politically) to UTTER criticisms clearly or loudly.

    Be fun to hear Panetta say, for attribution — YO ISRAEL YOU ATTACK IRAN YOU ON YOUR OWN. But he will say this, if at all, only in private. And not be believed, because USA always comes through for Israel. Always. Because of security — security of USA’s politicians.

    1. When Göring protested to Hitler that actually going ahead with the attack on Poland was a very dangerous step, Hitler’s answer to him was, “Ich habe in meinem Leben immer Vabanque gespielt [All my life, I’ve always bet the house].”

  6. During World War Two, the knowledge that one was about to set out on a dangerous mission was often the impetus for getting married.

  7. I hear from not-well-placed Israeli friends that this might be the last chance to attack Iran, because when the Iranians retaliate and shut down oil traffic from all producers around the Gulf, there is enough slack in world oil supplies, given the lowered recession demand, to make up for it.

    Actually, there isn’t enough slack anyway. Not even close. Are these kinds of nutty remarks actually showing up in the Hebrew press? I rarely see them in the English-language papers.

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