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| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| Gates urges Gulf region to counter Iran |
| 2007-12-08 |
| Defense Secretary Robert Gates planned to tell Gulf countries Saturday they must work together to help the U.S. counter Iranian threats, including Tehran's ballistic missiles and meddling in Iraq. Now how could a few ballistic missiles with a non-nuclear payload be any kind of a threat? It would cost way too much money to launch one bomb against their adversaries. It just doesn't seem worth it./sarc Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the United States still wants new sanctions. Gates, ending a weeklong trip to the region, intended in his keynote speech at an international security conference in Manama to urge Gulf allies to cooperate more as part of a broader strategy for containing Iranian influence, according to U.S. officials traveling with Gates on Friday. What do you mean by influence? Don't you mean "influence"? Gates' speech was to follow Rice's assertions Friday in Brussels, Belgium, that Washington would continue along a two-track strategy, pressing for new sanctions against Iran while holding talks to persuade Tehran to come clean about its nuclear program. You mean nuclear influence? And all this time I thought Gates was the Democrats' darling. Who could have known he was planning on being such a traitor as, say, Rumsfeld? But Russia ignored her calls to punish Iran. Tell me something I don't know. Thanks, Negroponte. You really know how to doom an adversary such as Iran, don't you? Despite continued strong support from NATO allies in the wake of a new U.S. intelligence report that concludes Iran actually stopped developing atomic weapons in 2003, Rice could not convince Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on the urgency of fresh sanctions. The intelligence "leadership" must be so pleased with the results of their Rice said her talks with Lavrov were "an extension of other conversations we have had," suggesting the two didn't see eye to eye. I eagerly await the results of future extensions of other converstions. Vice President Dick Cheney, speaking in Kansas City to members of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, said, "In the case of Iran, we're dealing with a country that is still Most of the folks in the US, anyway. The rest will figure it out later, if they even get a chance. Cheney said others in the international community, including Russia, share that concern. To varying degrees, of course. At the Pentagon, senior military officers told reporters that the U.S. intelligence revelation that it believes Iran scrapped its nuclear weapons design effort in 2003 has not triggered new instructions by the Bush administration to speed up or slow down any Iran crisis planning. And they said it with a straight face, which is admirable. "There has been no course correction — slowdown, speedup — given to us inside the Joint Staff" for military crisis planning, said Marine Corps Lt. Gen. John Sattler, the director of strategic plans and policy for the Joint Chiefs of Staff. How could you speed up something which is probably already almost a done deal? :-) Attending the Bahrain security conference with Gates were Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, as well as Adm. William J. Fallon, chief of U.S. Central Command, which is responsible for U.S. military operations throughout the Middle East. Fallon spoke to reporters about Iran. But not from Iran, right? "Their behavior has really been a problem, and to the extent that it destabilizes the region, which it does, then it becomes a problem for us," Fallon said. Because of course destabilizing the region means our energy source is at risk and blah blah blah. The resulting $300/bbl price for oil means you can't even afford to visit your relatives a few hundred miles away, afford UPS shipping, go to work, have people around you who have money left over to buy your business' products, etc. Nothing to really worry yourselves about. Go back to bed now. Defense officials have said Iran's delivery of weapons and other support into Iraq and Afghanistan and the detention of British sailors earlier this year are key activities that threaten security in the region. Not at all. I'd say if they nuked Israel or blocked the Straits of Hormuz then that would be a problem. What they are doing now is just meddling. And Gulf country leaders, Fallon said, have told him that their concern "is more the pressure that they feel from Iran as they want to dominate this area." You mean overpressure that they would feel if they said or did something that Iran didn't agree with? A senior defense official traveling with Gates said the secretary planned to tell the Bahrain conference that Gulf countries have shared commercial and security interests, and the more they cooperate the more the world will benefit. One key area would be shared efforts in an early warning system because of the ballistic missile threats from Iran. Just ballistic threats? No conventional invasion threats? Wouldn't a satellite pick up on forces massing against a border? Again, I just don't seem to understand what is going on here. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issues. I'll bet s/he did. A U.S. Navy commander, meanwhile, said Iranian threats to close the Strait of Hormuz, a vital commercial waterway at the tip of the Gulf, are the greatest concern for maritime security in the region. Maritime security? How about economic security? Vice Adm. Kevin J. Cosgriff, commander of U.S. Naval Forces Central Command, said that while the likelihood of that happening is low, concerns about Iran consume the region — and his day. "I wake up thinking about Iran, I go to bed thinking about Iran," Cosgriff told reporters. Why worry about little/unlikely stuff? Can't you go find something important to worry about? He added, "I know of no threat that would cause them to want to close ... the Strait of Hormuz. To me it's coercive, it's intended to intimidate not only the regional nations — 'look at us, we can damage your prosperity'_ but it's intended to intimidate the global market. I just don't think that's responsible behavior." So why do you worrry about it so? His comments came as Iranian officials decided at the last minute not to attend the Bahrain conference. Why should they? They feel they've won! |
| Posted by:gorb |
| #1 We all live in our yellow submarine, Yellow submarine, yellow submarine We all live in our yellow submarine, Yellow submarine, yellow submarine |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2007-12-08 09:05 |