Iran and the Bomb

[analog]

would we go to war over a smaller vessel? A destroyer or a non-combatant vessel like an oiler?

hmmm... what was Gulf of Tonkin incident?

Since then we've just taken the punches on Liberty and Cole...

if it served right peoples' need, sure...

[Selma in Sandy Eggo]

Or Iran was crazy enough to blow up our carrier that's just off their coast.
Hmm, it's the Truman... what's in a name?

Interesting philosophical question; if we would go to war over a carrier (and I believe we would) would we go to war over a smaller vessel? A destroyer or a non-combatant vessel like an oiler?

A smaller vessel? Like, oh, maybe, the Cole?

[Shapley]

Remember the Maine!

[Selma in Sandy Eggo]

Remember the Maine!

Wrong war, bubba. Besides, Teddy and the Rough Riders are no longer available.

[Shapley]

The Barbary Wars were fought over captured shipping.

President Ford sent in the Marines to retake the Mayaguez, but President Johnson was unwilling to go to war over the attack on the Liberty, just as President Clinton was unwilling to go to war over the attack on the Cole. President Wilson was unwilling to enter the Great War after the sinking of the Lusitania, during which over 100 Americans died, as he declared we were "too proud to fight". World War II was initiated over the attack on American ships at Pearl Harbour, the sinking of the Arizona being a rallying cry.

So, I suppose it boils down to the nature of the man when it comes down to the question of whether or not we'll commit to war over a ship or ships. In the case of Mr. Obama, methinks it depends on which way the wind is blowing at the time.

[Haggis@wk]

"Weaponized Computer Virus"

The construction of the worm was so advanced, it was “like the arrival of an F-35 into a World War I battlefield,” says Ralph Langner, the computer expert who was the first to sound the alarm about Stuxnet. Others have called it the first “weaponized” computer virus.

Simply put, Stuxnet is an incredibly advanced, undetectable computer worm that took years to construct and was designed to jump from computer to computer until it found the specific, protected control system that it aimed to destroy: Iran’s nuclear enrichment program.

read the last sentence

[analog]

Wow.

what's that say for the computerized control systems in nuclear power plants?

thankfully that industry has dragged its feet and is mostly still 1960-ish analog controls.

i spent too many years repairing computers to ever trust one with anything important.

a.

[Haggis@wk]

Iran Placing Medium-Range Missiles in Venezuela; Can Reach the U.S.

Can this be true? Surely we would have seen some reporting elsewhere??

[Haggis@wk]

Iran Just Shipped Missiles to Venezuela. Hello? Is This Thing On?

“A massive security threat just blossomed, and you’d be hard-pressed to find an MSM or administration official who cares.”

[analog]

Iran Just Shipped Missiles to Venezuela. Hello? Is This Thing On?

“A massive security threat just blossomed, and you’d be hard-pressed to find an MSM or administration official who cares.”

ironic. Obama was compared to JFK by his campaign zealots. Now we have Iranian missiles on south shore of Caribbean, Russian military exercises in the Gulf of Mexico, and Panama Canal ports run by China...

I hope the START treaty quietly did something about those missiles in Venezuela, just as Kruschev acquiesced when JFK quietly removed our missiles from Turkey in exchange for the Soviet ones in Cuba.

I also hope those Iranian missiles are of the cantankerous , leaky, more-likely-to-blow-up-than-fly , liquid fuel variety.

a.

[DavidS]

I also hope those Iranian missiles are of the cantankerous , leaky, more-likely-to-blow-up-than-fly , liquid fuel variety.

May we say that of the Iranian leaders and other lunatic colleagues of theirs around the world...

[Haggis@wk]

Now we have Iranian missiles on south shore of Caribbean, Russian military exercises in the Gulf of Mexico, and Panama Canal ports run by China....

Don't forget China drilling for oil in the GoM

I hope the START treaty quietly did something about those missiles in Venezuela.

Why should it? It only pertains to the U.S. and Russia and the U.S. has to significantly reduce its inventory and can't build a missle defense network.

[analog]

More on those wrecked Iranian centrifuges...Blame Bush.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/16/world ... ted=1&_r=1

The project’s political origins can be found in the last months of the Bush administration. In January 2009, The New York Times reported that Mr. Bush authorized a covert program to undermine the electrical and computer systems around Natanz, Iran’s major enrichment center. President Obama, first briefed on the program even before taking office, sped it up, according to officials familiar with the administration’s Iran strategy. So did the Israelis, other officials said.

[Haggis@wk]

Heh.

[Shapley]

Well, we're apparently still okay with nuclear weapons, it's that peace-time use of atomic power that worries us.

The world apparently quit fretting the bomb once President Reagan took his finger off the trigger...

[jamiebk]

Gort, Klaatu barada nikto

[Trumpetmaster]

Iran planning to send ships near U.S. waters

http://www.cnn.com/2011/09/27/world/mea ... ?hpt=hp_t2


"Commander of the Navy of the Army of the Islamic Republic of Iran broke the news about the plans for the presence of this force in the Atlantic Ocean and said that the same way that the world arrogant power is present near our marine borders, we, with the help of our sailors who follow the concept of the supreme jurisprudence, shall also establish a powerful presence near the marine borders of the United States,"

[Trumpetmaster]

http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2011/10/11/of ... ?hpt=hp_t1


So... What are your thoughts... I know what mine are but I can't type them as it will be censored.....

[dai bread]

Whenever I have to face airport "security" I have to remind myself that you guys really do have problems.

[Giant Communist Robot]

http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2011/10/11/official-fbi-dea-disrupt-terror-plot-in-u-s-involving-iran/?hpt=hp_t1


So... What are your thoughts... I know what mine are but I can't type them as it will be censored.....

I think this is a sign things are about to get worse.