Trump readying to strike Iran, Australian government sources reported to say

[Petar + 76]

US President Donald Trump may have plans to bomb Iran’s nuclear facilities as early as next month, senior Australian government sources said, according to a Thursday report, though Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said he had “no reason” to believe a strike was imminent. Sources said that Australian and British intelligence services would be involved in identifying targets for a strike, Australia’s ABC news reported. However, the sources told the paper that Australia would not actively participate in an attack on Iran. Turnbull appeared to reject the report, saying it was “speculation” and he had “no reason” to believe a strike was imminent. “I saw a story today claiming that on the ABC, and citing senior Australian government sources,” he said. “It’s speculation, it is citing anonymous sources.” He said that the ABC report information did not come from any of the relevant senior government officials.
 

[rainman + 263]

I wonder what the threat even of trump bombing Iran will do to oil prices?

[Pavel + 384]

John Bolton in action... 

[franco + 96]

Be objective - America's problem is not bombing Iran, main question is what happens the day after? If the chaos in Iraq, destabilized the Middle East, what impact will chaos in Iran have? Iran is 3 times bigger and more dangerous...

[ThunderBlade + 231]

Bombing Iran has been John Wayne Bolton's expressed wet-dream for as long as I can remember. At the end, reason will overcome...

[damirUSBiH + 327]

hearsay is dangerous. best for peace is to talk..

[50 shades of black + 254]

Hope not , if that happen , all Middle East, without except will be in danger

[Tomasz + 1,608]

I know US was badly humiliated and injured during Iran Revolution but this was nearly 40 years ago. Lets add that Shah autocratic rule with support of US was prosperous but also a very controversial period in Persian history with full of contradictions because of speed of radical and often bizarre changes in  conservative islamic community. There was such great anger because of this that we have a  violent revolution in 1979. That was in big part a problem of Shah and his advisors out of touch with iranian reality but we cant forget about this.

And there was a coup d/etat sponsored by western governments 25 years earlier  that overthrown Mossadegh = a truly democratic Iranian leader and somebody who could really be example for democratic Middle East.

For me what is very important as European threatened by terrorist attacks is  that Iran doesnt really sponsor international terrorism like Saudi Arabia or Qatar. Its rather calm country in foreign policy.

Im also interested in history and as far as I know its one of very few oldest civilizations in the world older than chinese or japanese for example.

And  if we look for iranian agressive war we really have come back to the end of XVIII century = more than 200 years ago!!!! So I sympathize a little with David fighting with Golliat because I dont see a major threat for world peace because of iranian behaviour..

PS

Sorry but I bought good very good notebook from Scandinavia really cheaply but I have problems with scandinavian keyboard  

Edited July 27, 2018 by Tomasz

[Jan van Eck + 7,558]

4 hours ago, ThunderBlade said:

Bombing Iran has been John Wayne Bolton's expressed wet-dream for as long as I can remember. At the end, reason will overcome...

I rather suspect that in the end, reason will NOT overcome.  The Iranian leadership does not "get it;" it does not sink in that, despite their ideas of being sovereign and having "the same right to nuclear weapons as the USA,"  the Americans (and the rest of the West) does not agree. At some point those nuclear plants are going to be destroyed, and there is nothing the Iranians can do about it, other than to suck it up  (and perhaps use proxies in some sort of guerrilla warfare against isolated US targets).  I do not picture the Iranian military attempting to either stop such an attack or to strike out at the US Navy; doing so would be suicide for millions of Iranians, including every last scrap of the military.  

Here's the reality: there is one super-power, and that super-power can (and eventually will) do exactly as it pleases.  The Ayatollahs go toe-to-toe with The Donald, and they are all dead.  A harsh truth, to be sure, but the truth nonetheless. 

[Farhaj + 1]

This is all Israel's doing. Iran bosses passed a fatwa decades ago to only use military in defense. Iran is not a problem to anyone. This is all horse excrement. 

[Dan Warnick + 6,100]

5 hours ago, Farhaj said:

This is all Israel's doing. Iran bosses passed a fatwa decades ago to only use military in defense. Iran is not a problem to anyone. This is all horse excrement. 

Well, I will admit I was about to counter that Iran said they would wipe Israel from the map, or face of the earth, or similar, and I was going to provide a link or two.  However, a quick search on Google led me to a similar question in another forum, Quora, which led to a link provided there by a commenter.  I must say that the article is well written and at least appears to be backed up by facts.  If the article in the link is to be believed, I will just say that it does not surprise me.  If the article is misleading or false, that also would not surprise me.  This is because in my experience there is little credible reporting ever presented from that region.  Let me repeat "in my experience", and that's all.  I don't claim to have any facts one way or another.  After the Bush II war with Iraq, I tend to lean towards believing that it is certainly possible that just about everything that we are told about Iran by the U.S. government, its branches, and the media is false.  Again, would not surprise me.  So, it is not my intention to lead anyone to any conclusion.  Here is the link, give it a read if you care to:

https://www.globalresearch.ca/israel-wiped-off-the-map-the-rumor-of-the-century-fabricated-by-the-us-media-to-justify-an-all-out-war-on-iran/21188

 

[jaycee + 348]

7 hours ago, Farhaj said:

This is all Israel's doing. Iran bosses passed a fatwa decades ago to only use military in defense. Iran is not a problem to anyone. This is all horse excrement. 

Iran sends troops and militias to fight to neighbouring counties Syria, Iran etc and they back Hezbollah in their military adventures. The West are not white knights in this but Iran is not innocent and it is definitely not pursuing a defensive policy as fighting wars in other nations is offensive not defensive, perhaps the Persian language loses a little in translation.

[Epic + 390]

9 hours ago, Dan Warnick said:

https://www.globalresearch.ca/israel-wiped-off-the-map-the-rumor-of-the-century-fabricated-by-the-us-media-to-justify-an-all-out-war-on-iran/21188

This was a very interesting article, and based on my experience, I would assume it is completely true, at least, everything except for one line:

"Iran does not constitute a threat to to Global Security."

Iran very much does constitute a threat to Global security, but it has nothing to do with nukes.  It has everything to do with the US dollar.  Iran is willing to sell oil for yuan.  This completely undermines the US ability to prevent world wars through the imposition of sanctions.  The US dollar is the world's reserve currency.  As such, all nations are "forced" to play fair or else sanctions are imposed upon any nation that tries to "cheat" the system.  The consequences of these sanctions are so terrible that it forces those nations to choose between playing according to the rules or else going the route of Venezuela.  However, if there becomes an alternate option for a reserve currency than the US dollar, then US sanctions no longer work.  If the sanctions no longer force everyone to play fair, then nations must instead resort to the only other option that has ever worked in the history of mankind: war.  But due to globalization, war is no longer an option, and so the US is very much willing to fight a smaller, contracted war with Iran rather than lose the ability to impose sanctions (as that would culminate in World War 3 and the starvation of billions). 

So, if you want to know whether or not the US will go to war with Iran, even for a fabricated reason, then just remind yourself of the last guy to tried to pull this "money for oil" stunt: his name was Saddam Hussein. 

[Bill Simpson + 7]

Bomb Iran, and they will certainly strike back, big time. The mullahs running Iran would welcome an attack from anybody because it will unite the country solidly behind them, just like the US after 9/11. 

The Iranians have probably built hundreds, or maybe even thousands of ballistic missiles which can hit countries throughout the Middle East, including Israel. Soon after the bombing starts, the Iranian government will probably begin a clandestine nuclear weapons program. It is a big country with a lot of mountains to tunnel into. 

Trump bombs Iran before the midterm elections and he can kiss the House and maybe the Senate goodbye because the oil price will go way up almost immediately. Putin would be stupid not to start supplying the Iranians with weapons so as to drive the oil price to $300 a barrel by destroying a lot of the Middle East oil infrastructure and causing panic in the regions and markets. And you can bet that the Iranians have vast stockpiles of conventional arms built since they were attacked by Saddam in the 1980's. Invade Iran on the ground and you can start counting the dead in the thousands. Don't volunteer to go into Iran. 

During the US invasion of Iraq, some retired generals were asked if the US should invade Iran while the US was in the neighborhood. They all said that Invading Iran was a bad idea. Invading and occupying Iran would be the only way to stop the Iranians from eventually building an atomic bomb, should the government be determined to do so. 

Finally, the Iranians are numerous and well educated. They might decide to go after US business executives throughout the world. 

[Tom Blazek + 38]

I'm going to tell a true story.

Several years ago, my Sister and I were talking to our Aunt in Omaha, she was born in 1922 and was twenty years old when Perl Harbor was bombed. Two of her Brothers went off to war, my Dad in the Navy in the Pacific and my Uncle in the Army in Europe. Being a Nurse and in her 20's my Aunt got to see the Horror of War up close. My Dad landed our troops on the beaches in the Pacific and was Blessed to came back in one piece, but his brother was severely burned in the Battle of the Bulge and survived. My Wife's Dad Bob was in the Navy in the Atlantic, he also returned home safe.

Bob once talked about a sailor being washed overboard in rough seas crossing the Atlantic. Dad talked a little about some experiences in the Pacific during attacks, but not much. I never heard my Uncle talk much about the war in Europe either. What did all these people experience, that they really didn't want to talk about?

Back to my Aunt, my sister and I were talking about a possible War in Ukraine. We had never experienced real war, but my Aunt had. After listening for a little bit, she kindly said, "Will you people kindly take your conversation somewhere else!" You see, she had been there and seen that, she didn't want to be reminded of the pure Horror of War. 

My Aunt is gone now, she went Home to be with the Lord last month at the age of 96. She was the last of her generation of seven children.

What scares me, is most of the people who know what War really means, are gone now. That's scary. What was it that, all of my parents’ generation, didn't want to talk about? 

I hope we don't need to go there and find out.

 

Edited July 29, 2018 by Tom Blazek
corrected word

[Steve Moyer + 3]

" fighting wars in other nations is offensive not defensive "  

We should have this printed on the front door to Congress.

[jaycee + 348]

14 hours ago, Steve Moyer said:

" fighting wars in other nations is offensive not defensive "  

We should have this printed on the front door to Congress.

Yup the West showed the East how to do this it does not allow the East to claim the same and not get critised for hypocrisy though. Many of us living outside of the US have known for years that the US government is the biggest hypocrite on the planet, but they learnt from the British Empire who in turn learnt from the empires that preceded it. Hopefully the majority of the US voters work this out eventually but its unlikely with the barrage of misinformation fed to them all their lives. I hope you are American as you can see through the BS so tell the rest of them.

[Steve Moyer + 3]

Peacefulness is a virtue.  I remember when I was in New Zealand several decades ago I visited a high school "Peace Studies" class.

Do we teach peace or do we teach war?

[Steve Moyer + 3]

3 hours ago, jaycee said:

 I hope you are American as you can see through the BS so tell the rest of them.

Yes, I am and yes, I do.  All the time.

[Jan van Eck + 7,558]

But let's remember that the vast majority of Americans have no clear idea where Iran even is, and assuredly could not pick it out on a map of the world.  Folks outside the USA have this distorted view of Americans and their views, because of what they read in the media.  Yet remember that the media found outside the USA is pretty much what is printed in the big coastal cities.  The rest of America, including the folks living on the coasts that do not read the big-city papers, don't know and care less about Iran.  It put it bluntly, nobody in Arkansas is beating the drums to go bomb Iran  (OK, maybe the federal politicians from there, who knows, but the rest don't  much give a damn about Iran).  

Now for some realities about Iran:  over half the population is under the age of 30.  None of those people were even born at the time the hotheads knocked over the US Embassy in 1979.   Nobody in Iran today is supporting those old-fart Ayatollahs, the crazies with the white beards, certainly not the population half that is below 30.  If you were a teenager in 1979, say age 15, you would be 54 today.  Nobody below that age really remembers the Shah and the hostage-taking, so those people are not rabid ideologues.  If you are over 54 then you are part of the generation that was a parent of sons during the Iran-Iraq War.  Let's remember what the Ayatollah did during that War: they drafted  (OK, kidnapped) sons of the age of 10 to 14, and would line them up shoulder to shoulder several rows deep at one side of the combat field, and told the children to run with clubs at the Iranian line on the other side.  Then the children ran full speed and stepped on the mines, blowing themselves up, so the regular army could advance through the cleared field.  If you are of that generation, you suffered having your little boys used a literal fodder, to be maimed and blown apart as a mine detonator, so the Ayatollah could have his War with Saddam.  

Disgusted enough?  Revolted enough?  OK, so then what makes you think that those folks are going to "rally around the regime in a show of support" if Trump goes and blasts the Iran nuke facilities?  I have news for you:  nobody wants those Ayatollahs, and nobody is going to rally in support of anything. Trump could send a cruise missile right through the Ayatollah's bedroom window and blow up the old wreck and there would be rejoicing in the streets.  And PS for those of you who cannot grasp the capabilities of the US military: they can send those cruise missiles from 500 miles away right through that bedroom window and not even scratch the paint on the window sill. Knocking off the Ayatollah is child's play these days. The Ayatollahs, still mired in the mindset of war with Saddam, just don't get it.  They have no idea what they are up against.  

There is one world superpower, and that is the USA.  Try to focus on that. 

[Dan Warnick + 6,100]

56 minutes ago, Jan van Eck said:

But let's remember that the vast majority of Americans have no clear idea where Iran even is, and assuredly could not pick it out on a map of the world.  Folks outside the USA have this distorted view of Americans and their views, because of what they read in the media.  Yet remember that the media found outside the USA is pretty much what is printed in the big coastal cities.  The rest of America, including the folks living on the coasts that do not read the big-city papers, don't know and care less about Iran.  It put it bluntly, nobody in Arkansas is beating the drums to go bomb Iran  (OK, maybe the federal politicians from there, who knows, but the rest don't  much give a damn about Iran).  

Now for some realities about Iran:  over half the population is under the age of 30.  None of those people were even born at the time the hotheads knocked over the US Embassy in 1979.   Nobody in Iran today is supporting those old-fart Ayatollahs, the crazies with the white beards, certainly not the population half that is below 30.  If you were a teenager in 1979, say age 15, you would be 54 today.  Nobody below that age really remembers the Shah and the hostage-taking, so those people are not rabid ideologues.  If you are over 54 then you are part of the generation that was a parent of sons during the Iran-Iraq War.  Let's remember what the Ayatollah did during that War: they drafted  (OK, kidnapped) sons of the age of 10 to 14, and would line them up shoulder to shoulder several rows deep at one side of the combat field, and told the children to run with clubs at the Iranian line on the other side.  Then the children ran full speed and stepped on the mines, blowing themselves up, so the regular army could advance through the cleared field.  If you are of that generation, you suffered having your little boys used a literal fodder, to be maimed and blown apart as a mine detonator, so the Ayatollah could have his War with Saddam.  

Disgusted enough?  Revolted enough?  OK, so then what makes you think that those folks are going to "rally around the regime in a show of support" if Trump goes and blasts the Iran nuke facilities?  I have news for you:  nobody wants those Ayatollahs, and nobody is going to rally in support of anything. Trump could send a cruise missile right through the Ayatollah's bedroom window and blow up the old wreck and there would be rejoicing in the streets.  And PS for those of you who cannot grasp the capabilities of the US military: they can send those cruise missiles from 500 miles away right through that bedroom window and not even scratch the paint on the window sill. Knocking off the Ayatollah is child's play these days. The Ayatollahs, still mired in the mindset of war with Saddam, just don't get it.  They have no idea what they are up against.  

There is one world superpower, and that is the USA.  Try to focus on that. 

I'd like to see someone do a similar breakdown of the old-fart grey heads in Washington.  Their views of the rest of the world vs the views of the younger generation (ok, the miniscule part of the younger generation that knows or cares ANYTHING about the rest of the world).  I may not be a yuge supporter of Trump, but I kind of like the idea of talking to those that are considered enemies from 45, 50 or 60 YEARS ago and looking for ways that we might bury the hatchet, so to speak.  For example, during Obama's presidency, Obama went to Cuba.  The uproar was deafening!  Why?!?!  Get over it and move on.  If nobody is talking, nothing will ever change.  From conversations I had with oil men in the past, Iran is full of great, fun loving, intelligent, educated people that they absolutely loved working with, and even marrying!  Oh, the nerve of such people!  C'mon world, let's move onward and upward.

[Jan van Eck + 7,558]

8 minutes ago, Dan Warnick said:

 From conversations I had with oil men in the past, Iran is full of great, fun loving, intelligent, educated people that they absolutely loved working with, and even marrying!  

I can absolutely assure you that that is all true, for those Iranians that are below the age of 30, and that is over half the population.

From my conversations with younger Iranians, they loathe the Ayatollahs.  I was out one night in Germany for dinner solo, wandered around a bit, and stumbled into the modest place that served some vague Middle-East food, I dunno, might have been Turkish or Lebanese.  There was a young Iranian grad student there, also solo, and we ended up sitting down together for about four hours of intensive conversation.  She didn't speak English so we settled on German  (her German was rather good). Her great desire was to be a student in the USA and her great frustration was the inability to obtain a visa.  If the US Govt wanted to overthrow the Ayatollah, all it has to do is promise 50,000 student visas for the USA, instant basis, if they would toss the Ayatollah.  You would have an instant revolution.

What the old farts in Washington do not seem to grasp is the concept of the carrot.  You don't have to resort to some war.  All you have to do is what any car-wash or soap-suds marketer does:  provide an incentive. 

Edited July 31, 2018 by Jan van Eck

[jaycee + 348]

10 minutes ago, Jan van Eck said:

But let's remember that the vast majority of Americans have no clear idea where Iran even is, and assuredly could not pick it out on a map of the world.  Folks outside the USA have this distorted view of Americans and their views, because of what they read in the media. 

Hope you are not including me in that? I work on an American run project just now. My line manager is a Trump supporter, carries a gun when home in the US whenever he can, tells me the NRA are a force for good etc. Lovely guy and I enjoy talking to him about is view points as he gives fully rational arguments the others I work with are similar if not as extreme. Anyway that is just a few of them what about all the rest that voted Trump in? Clearly he reflected the views of Americans as he got elected and you cannot say they did not want to hurt Iran as he spelt out in his campaign rhetoric that he was going to sort them out. Sorry I cannot accept your defence of the majority of the US populace just because they cannot read a map.

1 hour ago, Jan van Eck said:

Disgusted enough?  Revolted enough?

I can trump that actually. What you said was only partly correct the young boys were volunteer suicide troops they knew they were running into a mine field and the reason they did was because the Ayatollah changed the interpretation of Shia Islam to allow martyrdom via suicide. Evil is not the word, they are to blame by the way for all the suicide bombers now from the Sunnis as they copied them and changed their interpretation to allow it as a route to martyrdom. I digress though, you say the populace in Iran will not rally round their leader why do you think that? They have elections and they always win despite American interference the people support them. I speak to Iranians as well, believe it or not I have a coffee regularly with one who works with me  and they all love their country they are not going to sit back and be happy about a foreign bully pretending to be the world’s policeman for their own benefit attacking their homeland they see things a little more clearly than you may think. The last time the US government thought the people would be happy when they got rid of their ruler by the way was when they invaded Iraq and that did not end well. I am not convinced of your analysis.

I am not a believer that Iraq should be allowed a nuclear weapon before people misinterpret me  another lunatic with a nuke is not helping world peace but on the other hand Trump is not the first US president I have worried about with his finger on the trigger!

[Dan Warnick + 6,100]

2 minutes ago, Jan van Eck said:

I can absolutely assure you that that is all true, for those Iranians that are below the age of 30, and that is over half the population.

From my conversations with younger Iranians, they loathe the Ayatollahs.  I was out one night in Germany for dinner solo, wandered around a bit, and stumbled into the modest place that served some vague Middle-East food, I dunno, might have been Turkish or Lebanese.  There was a young grad student there, also solo, and we ended up sitting down together for about four hours of intensive conversation.  She didn't speak English so we settled on German  (her German was rather good). Her great desire was to be a student in the USA and her great frustration was the inability to obtain a visa.  If the US Govt wanted to overthrow the Ayatollah, all it has to do is promise 50,000 student visas for the USA, instant basis, if they would toss the Ayatollah.  You would have an instant revolution.

What the old farts in Washington do not seem to grasp is the concept of the carrot.  You don't have to resort to some war.  All you have to do is what any car-wash or soap-suds marketer does:  provide an incentive. 

My family and I lived in Germany for about 5 years and during that time we started to frequent a take-out/delivery restaurant that served many dishes that really appealed to our tastes.  We had been going in there for some time (enter, order, wait for the food to be prepared, pay and go) when one day out of curiosity I asked where the obviously not German folks that worked there were from.  Turns out they were from Iran.  This was the first time (that I know of) that I had ever been face to face with Iranians and much to my surprise they didn't come out and stab me just for being American.  I can even say they didn't poison our food, even after finding out I was an American.  In fact they were really nice people, a family that came to Germany from Iran and started a small business that offered food of a niche that just wasn't available anywhere else in the area.  They said they hoped that they could save enough money, and that relations with the U.S. improved enough, so that they could eventually immigrate into the U.S.  Yes, they had knowledge that most Americans were pretty decent people too, and they were sure that their chances of making a better life for their children were better in the U.S. than in either Iran or Germany.  Nice people.

[Jan van Eck + 7,558]

4 minutes ago, Dan Warnick said:

much to my surprise they didn't come out and stab me just for being American.  I can even say they didn't poison our food, even after finding out I was an American. 

That is the last thing they are going to do.  Remember, you are a paying customer, and their guest.  Iranians in my experience are invariably gracious hosts. 

In fact they were really nice people,

Of course they were!  

a family that came to Germany from Iran and started a small business that offered food of a niche that just wasn't available anywhere else in the area.    Yup, classic immigrant story.  Find a niche and go fill it. Done that myself, albeit in manufacturing.

And you can bet they didn't have much use for the Ayatollahs, either.