{"id":8854,"date":"2010-12-20T05:18:09","date_gmt":"2010-12-20T13:18:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/?p=8854"},"modified":"2010-12-21T12:27:55","modified_gmt":"2010-12-21T20:27:55","slug":"monday-iran-talking-points-17","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/2010\/12\/20\/monday-iran-talking-points-17\/","title":{"rendered":"Monday Iran Talking Points"},"content":{"rendered":"

from LobeLog<\/a>: News and Views Relevant to U.S.-Iran relations for December 20th, 2010:<\/em>
\n
\nThe Wall Street Journal<\/a><\/em>: Richard Haass, president of the Council on Foreign Relations, writes that Afghanistan is costly and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153a strategic distraction,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and that U.S. military resources could be better used by preparing for a conflict with North Korea and Iran. Haass says an important factor is, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153[T]he increased possibility of a conflict with a reckless North Korea and the continued possibility of a confrontation with Iran over its nuclear program. U.S. military forces must be freed up to contend with these issues.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d While \u00e2\u20ac\u0153total withdrawal is not the answer,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he concludes that \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The perception that we are tied down in Afghanistan makes it more difficult to threaten North Korea or Iran credibly\u00e2\u20ac\u201dand makes it more difficult to muster the forces to deal with either if necessary.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

New York Post<\/a><\/em>: An editorial in NY\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Rupert Murdoch-owned tabloid picks up on the threats of an Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps general that Iran will retaliate for the assassinations of its nuclear scientists. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153It may sound <\/em>like an empty threat, or an unhinged response,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d write the Post <\/em>editors. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153But the threat is dead serious \u00e2\u20ac\u201d proof of how hellbent Iran is to split the atom.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d They add: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153For Iran, nukes are its foreign policy \u00e2\u20ac\u201d along with the terror it exports to Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and the Gaza Strip.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d They add the threat of nuclear war looms large if Iran gets the bomb: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153An atomic Iran could launch traditional military and terrorist attacks and tie the world\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s hands by threatening nuclear war when any nation moves to fight back. By then it won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have to rattle its sabers \u00e2\u20ac\u201d it can aim its nukes instead.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

Pajamas Media<\/a><\/em>: Foundation for Defense of Democracies<\/a> scholar Michael Ledeen<\/a> writes that last week\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s terror attack in Southeastern Iran<\/a> wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t a terror attack at all, but was \u00e2\u20ac\u0153against the symbols and enforcers of the Shi\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ite regime: Revolutionary Guards, Basij, and Quds Force fighters.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Ledeen cites internal political wrangling and suggests that the regime is in a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153death spiral.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d He concludes by making a case for regime change as a means of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153reverse linkage<\/a>\u00e2\u20ac\u009d in the most sweeping manner seen yet: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153If only there were a Western leader with the prescience and courage to support the Greens, we would find many terrible problems a lot easier to manage: Iraq and Afghanistan would go better, the tyrant Chavez and his \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcBolivarian\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 Axis of Latin Evildoers would be weakened, and the misnamed \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcpeace process\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 might even have a chance.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

from LobeLog: News and Views Relevant to U.S.-Iran relations for December 20th, 2010: The Wall Street Journal: Richard Haass, president of the Council on Foreign Relations, writes that Afghanistan is costly and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153a strategic distraction,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and that U.S. military resources could be better used by preparing for a conflict with North Korea and Iran. Haass […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":71,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-8854","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"meta_box":{"disable_donate_message":"","custom_donate_message":"","subtitle":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8854","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/71"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8854"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8854\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8859,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8854\/revisions\/8859"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8854"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8854"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8854"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=8854"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}