Wednesday, May 23, 2007

Show of Force in Persian Gulf a Dare to Iran?


The United States Navy looked something like this to Iran yesterday in the Persian Gulf. Iran's persistent nuclear bragging and pursuit has upped the ante in the area. Now the cards are on the table and it looks like it's Iran's next move.
The question now becomes does certifiable nutjob, Iranian President Ahmadinejad call the U.S. bluff and escalate this war of words into a military conflict.
I think conventional wisdom says that Ahmadinejad is just posturing a bit and probably isn't truly interested in a full blow military conflict. A conflict which would almost certainly unite many, many countries against the Islamic nation.
The problem is that conventional wisdom and prevalent rationale don't often apply with people like Ahmadinejad. He's crazy, power hungry, and driven by a wicked cocktail of Islamic radicalism and seething hatred for all things "Western."
Pray that this doesn't continue to escalate.

3 comments:

Piccu said...

I hope he doesn't try anything because we are not prepared to take on any other challenges. I understand that we need to keep them in check and keep them from getting a nuke, but as you said, this guy is insane or at least playing an insane person on TV. Should we be trying to push his buttons while we are already fully engaged in other countries? I would have no problem showing a little aggression to Iran if we had full military capabilities, but we are stretched a little thin.

I hope cooler heads prevail and it seems that while Ahmadinejad is the one doing all the talking, he is being told how to actually run things by religious leaders who seem to be a little more rational. How much more rational, I am not sure. Let's just hope we don't wake up tomorrow involved in another war while we already have two to fight in right now.

Travis said...

Well if you combine this story with the story from the UN that Iran is essentially doing whatever they please with their nuclear development and the IAEA saying they can't monitor their development, it seems to be ripening.

No one wants this, but Iran seems bent on pushing it. There could be a thought that we're spread to thin to battle them effectively. Is this the long term goal? Stretch us thin in Afghanistan, Iraq and Iran then beat us?

Problem for Iran is that we won't be alone. That should be an international coalition similar to WWII. You simply can't let them get nuclear capability. I think most of the world realizes that.

What would be great is to see the rest of the world step up and say they don't need our help for a change.

Piccu said...

If we get help from other nations, then this won't be as bad as it could be, but the rest of the world doesn't really like us right now. This issue is different than Iraq so maybe the differences with other countries will not matter in this case.