Fourth day of wargames continues with air operations

http://www.irna.ir/en/news/view/menu-236/0611052531150952.htm

Iran-Wargames-Airborne
Fourth day of the ongoing wargames code-named The Great Prophet (S) 2,' continued by launching air operations including troop deployment and interception, said a military official on Sunday.

Deputy commander of Ground Forces of the Islamic Revolution's Guard Corps (IRGC) Brigadier General Abbas Nilforoushan told IRNA that special units of IRGC ground force were taking part in this stage of the 10-day maneuver.

The military exercise started in the Persian Gulf on Friday and continued in 10 other provinces in the south, southwest, southeast, northwest and northeast of the country.

The maneuvers are aimed at displaying Iran's defense capabilities and the progress it has made in its missile industry.

In this stage of the wargames, said the general, Saberin (Tolerant) special units would carry out penetration operations into a vast area deep into the territory of the hypothetical enemy and demonstrate their combat force by taking over
pre-determined positions.

Saberin special units are using different modern tactics including air fights, interception and penetration into the targets located deep inside the hypothetical enemies' territory, Nilforoushan added.

He said that the first stage of the wargames was completed successfully with the participation of ten armored, motorized and infantry brigades.

Flying with radar-evading planes and conducting operations in different terrains including mountains, jungles, deserts, sea and marshlands were among other parts of the maneuver, the general said.

He added that night operations were also to be conducted in the fourth stage of the military exercise.

Virtual,

The first article below is one I usually do not buy into because there is always someone saying that we will do this or that, or this nation will this or that in the next 30-120 days, or early in 2007, etc. But John Keegan is a noted older military historian who is widely published and he is pointing out a basic problem facing Israel.

Desperate people do strange and not thought out stuff lots of times.

Why Israel will go to war again - soon

By John Keegan
Last Updated: 12:01am GMT 03/11/2006

There will soon be another war in the Middle East, this time a renewal of the conflict between the Israel Defence Force (IDF) and Hizbollah. The conflict is inevitable and unavoidable. It will come about because Israel cannot tolerate the rebuilding of Hizbollah's fortified zone in south Lebanon, from which last year it launched its missile bombardment of northern Israel.

Hizbollah has now reconstructed the fortified zone and is replenishing its stocks of missiles there. Hamas is also creating a fortified zone in the Gaza Strip and building up its stocks of missiles. Israel, therefore, faces missile attack on two fronts. When the Israel general staff decides the threat has become intolerable, it will strike.

See for rest of article:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2006/11/03/do0302.xml

This was a comment from one reader on the article that I thought was insightful

An expat Lebanese Christian I chatted to recently, criticised Israel, not for defending herself as she did but for causing, as a common enemy, a sort of temporary alliance of otherwise quite mutually hostile Lebanese Muslim groups: Sunni and Shia. Even so, this person was in no doubt about the Muslim (divided or not) intended final solution: Israel's total destruction and the restoration of Islamic sovereignty, launched from Lebanon (and now Gaza), over the Jewish State.
Israel's return to original borders would bring no end to the conflict. The Jewish State's entire obliteration would.
This is a religious war with political and territorial implications; not a territorial conflict with peripheral religious connotations as it is often presented. It's a clash of ideas and beliefs. Possibly even a fight to the finish.
Knowing this, Israel will continue to defend herself (there's no choice) for as long as the intention to destroy her and crush the sovereign Jewish presence, is there. And it's there. Hezbollah and Hamas put it there. And Israel will have to strike again. John Keegan is correct.
Lebanese Christians, caught in the middle, are leaving, so I was told.

Here is some other recent material:

DEBKAfile's Military Sources: The spectacular swarm of sophisticated missiles fired in Iran's surprise military exercise stuns military planners in the US, Israel and Europe

November 5, 2006, 2:43 PM (GMT+02:00)

Our sources reveal that scores of surface missiles - a record for any war games anywhere - were tested simultaneously at a desert testing site some two hours drive from Tehran Thursday, Nov. 2. Precisely planned, the testing went smoothly. Input has not yet come in about the accuracy of their targeting.
A senior American missile expert told DEBKAfile that the Iranians demonstrated up-to-date missile-launching technology which the West had not known them to possess. They also displayed unfamiliar warheads. But their most startling feat was the successful first test-fire of the long-range Shehab-3 with its cluster of tens of small bomblets, as DEBKAfile revealed Oct. 31. The entire range bore the imprint of new purchases from China.
This Shehab-3, whose 2,000-km range brings Israel, the Middle East and Europe within reach - may be more than a match for any anti-missile missile system in American, Israeli or European arsenals - depending critically on the point of its fragmentation. Some of its features are still an enigma in the West.
If the Shehab-3's cluster separates close to target, the Israel-US Arrow has a chance to intercept it, but the Americans and Israelis have no defense against the multiple warhead if it separates at a distance.
Another point made by DEBKAfile's sources is that the spectacular missile show may have been designed for European consumption as much as to impress the US and Israel. Rather than making a secret of the display, General Rahim Safavi, commander of the Revolutionary Guards, which staged the exercise, bragged that Iran had proved its ability to strike targets outside the Middle East. Europe, which Tehran sees as susceptible to such threats, was being warned that it would be first in line for a backlash from a US or Israeli strike against Iran's nuclear facilities.
Iran announced its war game Wednesday night, Nov. 1, in response to the to the US-led naval movements and buildup in the in the Red Sea (see separate item).
Some of the other missiles tested in the exercise were the Shehab-2, Aolfaqar-73, Fateh-110, Scud B and Zelzal-2.

Israel's total destruction and the restoration of Islamic sovereignty

And with peak oil looming, I see that as inevitable.  

The only question is whether Israel will take down the world when she falls.

I put it it about 50-50...

The whole world? Gee, I hate to break this to you, but the jews are just people like you and me, they don't really control anything, they don't have the capacity to destroy the world, and female jews don't lay jew eggs unlike what
Borat may have told you.
That's not what I meant.  I meant they have nukes, and may be willing to use them if it looks like they are losing a conventional war.

It's not like this is some wacky idea.  During the Yom Kippur War, Israel gave some consideration to the "last resort."

And no, it's not "because they are Jews."  I think any country in their situation would be tempted.  Or rather, that some of the more extreme types within any society would be.

Who is "bringing down the whole world" in your scenario Leanan ??

Israel, if they were to use a nuclear weapon as a "last resort"  (even though they have had that weapon for decades and have not used it before...)... or the Radical Islamic Army stationed at their borders?

Who is the aggressor?  Were the Jews in Germany were the cause of "bringing down the world" in WWII.

Golda Mier loaded nuclear weapons on F-4 Phantoms "on the runway" before a single Arab tank crossed Isreali pre-1966 borders (i.e. their internationally recognized borders).

From the one woman show "Golda" which I assume is correct.

Alan

Loaded and actualy used are two different things.
The world was not brought down in WWII.  I was being a bit flip, but there are some scientists who believe that modern nuclear weapons might have undesirable side effects, like destroying our atmosphere.  In any case, the radiation would fall all over the world, while the damage from WWII was pretty much limited to where the fighting was.  (One reason why it worked out so well for us.  Aside from Pearl Harbor, we escaped the kind of destruction Europe suffered.)

Who is right and who is wrong doesn't matter.  Who pulls the trigger on the nukes does.

Who WAS right or wrong may not matter after-the-fact... but we are still "before the fact" and there might still be time to prevent such a situation.  

But how to do that when you start by saying The Country being Threatened is to blame?  

If the Radical Islamic Army next threatens France, Germany etc  - do you blame France, Germany, etc for  (I think they look, smell, taste, etc and even worship the same godz... harder to abandon maybe)?

Forget blame.  It doesn't matter.

Islam is not a serious threat to France, Germany, etc.  There may be occasional terrorist attacks, but they are not an existential threat.  

It is an existential threat to Israel, though, which is why they were tempted to use "the last resort."  

As for prevention...unless we somehow get Israel to follow Ahmadinejad's advice and move to Europe, I don't see anything we can do about it.  They are vastly outnumbered, in the midst of a sea of people who hate them...and who are reproducing a lot faster than they are.  Oil is allowing them to maintain military superiority.  It's a temporary situation.  

The time to do something was back in the '60s, when Israel was becoming a nuclear nation.

Islam is not a serious threat to France, Germany, etc.  

We are not talking about Islam.  

We are talking about Whether or Not the Radical Islamic Army assembled by Iran is a threat.  How serious a threat is another question, a threat to whom at PRESENT and in the not-too-distant future are still other questions.

How many countries did The Nazi's take before the rest of the world woke up?

I don't think anyone should take "Ahmadinejad's advice " and I don't think stopping Israel from becoming a nuclear nation would have been a solution.

 

Actually, if I had a time machine, I'd go back and prevent Israel from ever being created.

Three of the hottest hot spots in the world today are due to England's hasty dismantling of their empire: Israel-Palestine, Pakistan-India-Kashmir...and Iraq.  

But leanan, you would have to use your time machine to also go back and heal the rifts between shiites and sunni and islam and christianity and kurds and turks and arabs and persians and ... and...

Israel is just the starting point for the Radical Islamic Army.  

What we would like and what is are two different things.

eWe have to deal with what is.  Israel exists and is the First Target for the Radical Islamic Army of Iranistan.

But leanan, you would have to use your time machine to also go back and heal the rifts between shiites and sunni and islam and christianity and kurds and turks and arabs and persians and ... and...
Nah. Let 'em fight. They don't have nukes.
Israel is just the starting point for the Radical Islamic Army.
They wouldn't give a rat's rear about us if we weren't meddling in their countries. And the reason we're meddling is oil.
We have to deal with what is.
Which was actually my point. I don't see anything we can really do about the mess we've made now. But Israel is not sustainable. That is painfully obvious.
"Israel is not sustainable."

Okay, so Israel will be Voted Off The Island first...

I think "We" meddled in their region because "they" have The Oil and that is the only reason "we" pretend to give a rat's hinder for "them."  

The Tribes are forming... "The Needy" team is thinking of who they will expell first... meanwhile...

(I think "painfully obvious" will become a common phrase for all of us soon enough.)

If I had a time machine I would go back and kill the false profet Muhammed.
Besides being a false profet, he was also a bandit, a murderer, and a pederast.

Small wonder Hitler admired his self-made religion.

Change a symptom but the cause remains the same.

Maybe send terminator back to take out Drake...

If you really wanted to put a stop to this you would have to take your time machine back 100K+ years and knock off "eve" and maybe "adam" too...

I would take out the snake and leave the Garden of Eden alone.
I'd just take out God.
I'd just replace God with myself.  Any honest observer would admit that I'd do a better job.  Either that, or with bender from Futurama.  
I agree. It was a bad idea, probably implemented because Europe and the US  didn't want to take in the holocaust refugees.  It was like the Europeans planting colonies in North America, only they neglected to kill off 90% of the native inhabitants as they did here.
Unfamiliar disease killed off the great majority of the indigenous population in the Americas.  The Russians and others who have invaded Palestine live among semites, with overlapping ancestry.

"Unfamiliar disease killed off the great majority of the indigenous population in the Americas."

Sending in Smallpox on clothing to the villages kinda helped things along too.

They're doing it more slowly.
England always had a divide and rule policy for governing. Find a minority populace/tribe and give it overwhelming power over its much bigger rival (Sri Lanka, Ireland etc) or better still, promise the same land to two different people (Jews and Palestinians). It made running the Empire much easier, with the dominate tribe hating the minor one rather than the English. Of course once we pulled out, trouble exploded, but that wasn't our problem anymore...
Leanan says:
"I'd go back and prevent Israel from ever being created."

Using the same arguements and looking at what how our country has been a major player in what we now face, it seems that the time machine might have been better used to prevent the USA from ever being created.

Is a bit of bias showing in your remarks? They predate the US by many hundreds of years and actually owned the land they now have a small piece of. They simply ask to live in peace and yet you would prevent them from assuming that land?

I think you are way off base here. Way way off.

Again,,they simply ask to be left alone. They did not start any of the agressive wars against them. They merely attempted to survive.

This is bullshit.

Using the same arguements and looking at what how our country has been a major player in what we now face, it seems that the time machine might have been better used to prevent the USA from ever being created.

I'm sure a lot of people think that.  And maybe they are right.

But I have a feeling it wouldn't make much of a difference.  If the U.S. didn't arise here, another, very similar country would have.  

Let' see.  Somebody writes some fiction which states that some god gave some land [supposedly Israel] to some group [supposedly the Jews, whatever that means], and now the world is supposed to kowtow to the current group calling themselves Jews claiming Israel.  Please!
First, Leanan was addressing a completely different problem with his time-travel quip.

"They predate the US by many hundreds of years and actually owned the land they now have a small piece of. They simply ask to live in peace and yet you would prevent them from assuming that land?"

Wow! You have little, or a very biased, understanding of the history of the region including and surrounding Israel (also called "occupied Palestine" by some). I can't think of a single conflict where it can't be argued that Israel had a hand in the conflict. Sometimes the hand was small, most of the time it was astonishingly huge. The Wikipedia page on the History of Israel bounces back and forth a bit in its bias, but isn't a bad place to start cultivating an understanding.

I agree that the vast majority of Israeli citizens just want to live in peace. However, their government is definitely not acting in a way that will bring that peace. And the Israeli citizenry seems to grudgingly accept that their government's actions are justified. The American occupation of Iraq has some of the same themes.

Frankly, I agree with Leanan that Israel is between a rock and hard place and will probably get squeezed out of existence eventually. Things will get much worse in the region before they get better. I would much rather see an end to the hostilities and everybody in the region live in a symbiotic way, but I'm far from hopeful.

There is NO radical islamic army in Iran you twit. There is a radical Christian army in the USA controlled by proven deviants shown to be more than willing to kill hundreds of thousands.
Iran is stil surrounded by big powers all fronts. Threat of a radical islamic army is a myth. Islamic societies are still poor and controlled by western slaves; they are of little threat to anyone. Occasional terrorist threats are nothing more than a nuisance. Israel, on the other hand is a miltary garrison state, a nuclear mini super power backed by the greatest miltary power on the face of the earth unconditonlly, stronger than all muslim arimes combined.
Well, actually, the country that was threatened and has been occupied by an enemy is Palestine.  Just because the USA and GB decided that Israel should exist does not justify its continuing existence.  If the Zionists weren't so belligerent and insistent on using old fictions to justify their attitude, negotiations might solve the problem by allowing the Jewish poputo some extent lation to move elsewhere.  The peoples of Western Europe, and North America, were responsible for the Holocaust, not the Palestinians.
The most informative piece I've ever read about Palestine/Israel is from the UN:
              The Origins and Evolution of the Palestine Problem

It's full of primary source material and direct quotes. One of the more prescient quotes is by British Member of Parliament, Lord Sydenham in 1922:

     "... the harm done by dumping down an alien population upon an Arab country - Arab all around in the hinterland - may never be remedied ... what we have done is, by concessions, not to the Jewish people but to a Zionist extreme section, to start a running sore in the East, and no one can tell how far that sore will extend."
 "The world was not brought down in WWII. "

 You are right. And, on the day it ended, the world  inventory of nukes was 0; we were out. And the 3 which had been exploded  were pretty small....

From a high of 65,000 active weapons in 1985, there were about 20,000 active nuclear weapons in the world in 2002. Many of the "decommissioned" weapons were simply stored or partially dismantled, not destroyed.[1]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_states_with_nuclear_weapons

 An all out war would be TEOTWAWKI

Ben Dover@KissRat'sAssGoodbye.com

Three?

How about four?

http://www.cccoe.k12.ca.us/pc/nuclear.htm

Port of Chicago.  

The question is whether a nuclear blast creates, around the world, strategic maps with a whole lot of extra moving dots and parabolas on them.  A nuclear attack is a genocide, but a nuclear war may still be a trigger for a World War - hence Einstein's "I do not know with what weapons WW3 will be fought  - but WW4 will be fought with sticks and stones."

Scenario:
Israel nukes southern Lebanon
A head of the Pakistani intelligence service decides to sell nukes to Syria as revenge (seeing how Syria's got to deal with the fallout)
Syria hits Jerusalem
Israel reflexively nukes every target it has in the Middle East, making the Qa'ba as radioactive as a reactor core.
Pakistan hits back at Israel
India's drawn in with justification to attack Pakistan

All without three of the most belligerent entities - Al Qaeda, North Korea, or the United States - doing a thing.

http://www.idleworm.com/nws/2002/11/iraq2.shtml

Do it yourself version. The dude nailed it in'02

I remember that.  The exact way it unfolded was different, but as he predicted, we're "up Shi'ite Creek without a paddle."
Yeah, I remember that too - so much better than the latest round with stupid accents and Australia saying 'wtf mate'.
you are quite correct in worrying about Israel taking down the rest of the world if she falls. Israel lobbing nukes around in her death would most likely cause other country's with nukes fire them too.
Cue Tom Lehrer:

We Will All Go Together When We Go

When you attend a funeral,
It is sad to think that sooner or'l
Later those you love will do the same for you.
And you may have thought it tragic,
Not to mention other adjec-
Tives, to think of all the weeping they will do.
(But don't you worry.)

No more ashes, no more sackcloth,
And an arm band made of black cloth
Will some day nevermore adorn a sleeve.
For if the bomb that drops on you
Gets your friends and neighbors too,
There'll be nobody left behind to grieve.

And we will all go together when we go.
What a comforting fact that is to know.
Universal bereavement,
An inspiring achievement,
Yes, we will all go together when we go.

We will all go together when we go.
All suffused with an incandescent glow.
No one will have the endurance
To collect on his insurance,
Lloyd's of London will be loaded when they go.

Oh we will all fry together when we fry.
We'll be French fried potatoes by and by.
There will be no more misery
When the world is our rotisserie,
Yes, we will all fry together when we fry.

Down by the old maelstrom,
There'll be a storm before the calm.

And we will all bake together when we bake.
There'll be nobody present at the wake.
With complete participation
In that grand incineration,
Nearly three billion hunks of well-done steak.

Oh we will all char together when we char.
And let there be no moaning of the bar.
Just sing out a Te Deum
When you see that I.C.B.M.,
And the party will be come-as-you-are.

Oh, we will all burn together when we burn.
There'll be no need to stand and wait your turn.
When it's time for the fallout
And Saint Peter calls us all out,
We'll just drop our agendas and adjourn.

You will all go directly to your respective Valhallas.
Go directly, do not pass Go, do not collect two hundred dollahs.

And we will all go together when we go.
Every Hottentot and every Eskimo.
When the air becomes uranious,
We will all go simultaneous.
Yes, we all will go together
When we all go together,
Yes we all will go together when we go.

Of course, now it would be more like "nearly 7 billion hunks of well-done steak."

"but there are some scientists who believe that modern nuclear weapons might have undesirable side effects, like destroying our atmosphere"

Then those scientists are idiots.  The U.S. alone did at least 331 atmospheric tests.  There were probably twice that many world wide last century.  A few atomic bombs set off by terrorists, iran, israel, etc., will have zero long term impact outside of the detonation zone.

The only way nuclear weapons can pose a global threat would be if the US and Russia decide to shoot their entire arsenals at each other.  I put the chance of that happening at about the same odds as finding out that the abiotic oil theory is correct.

"Were the Jews in Germany were the cause of "bringing down the world" in WWII."

Here is a typical example of distortion in order to misinform.  There is nothing about Israel which likens the situation of its Jewish population to that of the "Jews in Germany".  There are many similiarities between the lot of the Jews in the Warsaw ghetto and elsewhere and the Muslim and Christian Palestineans in Ghaza and the West Bank.

Years ago I met an old German, whose son had converted to Judaism in the early 1960's after finally learning the true horror of the Nazi era and whose shame and anger turned him against the Catholicism of his father.  (the son became a spy for Israel, was captured filming in Egypt, sentenced to death, but after a year in Egyptian prison was released due to the intervention of the German government.)

The father tried to defend himself by saying that he knew nothing of the systematic, state organized murder of Jews (and others).  I think he could make a case for his ignorance and for that of the majority of Germans because of the absolute control of public information which characterized the totalitarian state of Germany from the mid-thirties to the end of the War.

Now the brutal occupation of Palestine, the continuing and indiscrimate murder of Palestineans, and even the murderous air and artillery attack on Lebanon does not a holocaust make.  But it is dreadful.  And what strikes me is that no one today has the excuse of the old German.  While the media may be heavily influenced by Zionists (Christian and Jewish), it is not difficult to get accurate information on the ongoing tragedy that is Palestine.  Decades of disinformation from official Israeli and other sources notwithstanding.

Jews have made a great historical error falling in behind the Zionists, turning Arab and Islamic populations into enemies.  The next time Christian civilization turns on the Jews, where will they go?

Toilforoil,

The germans did not know about the treatment of the Jews?

Go to the Holocaust Museum in Washington DC. Near the pit where the Jewish drawf is shown on video screens 'sawn in half' to be studied(in a pit for its too horrific to all any to see that don't wish to). Near that pit is a simple map with all the concentration camps and prisons in Germany highlighted with a red dot.

I stood there next to an officer who was there in WWII and though the whole musuem was filled with silence he couldn't keep quiet. He looked at the map and had a huge problem and starting yelling about how they HAD TO KNOW,,they just HAD TO KNOW for the map was unbelievabley full of massive numbers of red dots.

That officer knew the truth then. He only found the truth there in that quiet tomb of a museum.

I challenge anyone to visit it entirely and then castigate the Jews. Any takers? You will not exit as you came in.

I walked by the nail scared bunks, the actual bunks made of wood the Jews laid in and died. I touched the scared wood where their nails had raked it with pain and agony.

I couldn't swallow for a long time afterwards. These were innocent people and today they ask but to live alone.

Nah...the terrrorists want the dead and we just watch and bitch about them defending themselves.

Shame on us.

Go to the museum and then tell me about it.

I was in DC that day helping my son pack his office to move back to St. Louis and out of DC. That was the day and he wanted to stay but I said , "lets get in that car and get the hell back over the mountains and home to kentucky"..One day later I saw the towers burning back on the farm. We were sitting next to the Pentagon on our way out of DC.

Thats how close it was. Then chaos stalked our land and we got a taste of reality brought home by Islamic Terrorists and now we all bitch cause we are in their lands and taking the fight to them.

You know on this site I find a lot of people who like to bitch about MY country. The USA. Sure they have the right to but I want to state that not everyone who is an American is an asshole or a conspicious consumer or a big fat ass oil consuming jerk.

This is my country. Stolen from the Natives for sure just like all the rest of the 'civilized' countries did as well.

Just as the English came here and started the process. How about blaming them for starting it then? Huh?

All this anger against the USA just because you don't like Bush or his policies? Well he will be gone shortly and we will elect a new batch and I submit that everyone will bitch about them just as much.

I still believe in my country, if we can make it thru the dieoff. We used to be a great people and nation. I submit that a bunch of candyass yuppies took the wrong path and , as S. King puts it so well, "Forgot the face of their fathers".

Airdale--try to give the USA a break here. After all didn't we come to your aid(Europe)once when all was just about lost? This generation of vipers will pass on to the dustbins of history. Those of us who can survive will do so. The future is cloudy. We all need to scream and yell about the outrageous issues. For Gods Sake we have just about killed all the f**cking fish in the oceans? Do you think the USA did that by themselves? Think about it? All the fish gone. What kind of idiots can do this?

Bitch about Bush and the politicos all you want. I am not a politican. I am a farmer and a retired IBM staff programmer. I am not responsible for the idiot. I will vote as lead and don't care what other countries think or want. Its my country.

I haven't lived in a totalitarian state, where 'talking' can have horrible consequences, but I do know that today we have a plethora of media, and that today there is no excuse for most people living in most countries not to be aware of the plight of the Palestineans.  It is true that politicians and media types keep their heads down on the Palestinean question given the forcefulness of the Zionist reaction every time someone suggests that Israel has crossed another 'line'.  But good information is out there from reputable sources in Israel and elsewhere.

As for the U.S., is it really 'your' country, or the place where, due to chance, you have lived your life?

"Is it really your country?"

Yes it is and became more so when I enlisted in the Military and took an oath to defend it.

Palenstians? No such animal existed. Israel was named Palestine by the current conquerors , Rome.

Later it was pretty much barren until the Jews were given occupation by the powers that be, British conquerors then.

Later it was pretty much barren until the Jews were given occupation by the powers that be, British conquerors then

Gee, where did all those people in those camps come from !?!

One of the worst of the Zionist propaganda lies.  There was nobody here till we moved in, and whoever was here was not really anyboby.  By definition a "non-people".

There was a Palestine as there was an Egypt.  Nassar was the first native Egyptian to rule Egypt since Alexander the Great.  Does almost 3,000 years of foreign rule make Egypt a non-nation ?

There was a violent depopulation of Israel & Judah almost 2,000 years ago and a new mix of people repopulated it and developed a nation.  Kind of like what happened in North and much of South America and Australia in just the last 300 or so years (>> 1,900 years).  

The Queen of England still rules Australia & Canada.  So I guess there is no such thing as "Australians" and "Canadians", just Englishmen that live in the colonies.  They should be glad to move back home if someone else wants their land.  Perhaps the Roma (Gypsies) who lost as high a % of their ethnic group as anyone in the concentrationn camps should all move to Melbourne, or British Columbia ?  And have the Englishmen (there is no such thing as Canadians and Australians) living there peacefull resettle back in London and Leeds.  This is your logic quite frankly.

There was no historic justification for Zionism, BUT there is a reality on the ground now.  A just settlement should recognize the reality of people living today, which means an Israel, but a changed Israel and changed Palestine to accomadate both.  But justice is not the criteria that anyone is looking for.

Sadly,

Alan

How many died in the concentration camps ?

11 million.

How many Jews ?

About 5 million in the camps and 1 million in pogroms, stravation, etc. outside the camps. A legitimate case has been made that 5.5 to 5.7 million Jews died at German hands, but I will steer clear of that gruesome accounting for it makes no difference.

I knew well one German woman (age 25 in 1945, father cashiered from police force for being an active Social Democrat and went to live in a small village in the hills, two uncles arrested by Gestapo, one killed by suicide during the arrest, the other died in the concentration camps.  Her father-in-law was an anti-Nazi Lutheran minister who escaped the camps because he had taught religon to the children of the Kaiser).

She knew that the Gypsies were being exterminated per se, as well as political prisoners, gays, mentally retarded and Russian & Polish POWs were in "bad camps where many died" but not the Jews until after the war.  She honestly missed the Holocaust, but did know that genocide was going on for others.

From memory, the crematoria at Aushwitz or another large camp were originally built for Polish POWs.  Only when they were eliminated did the Jews and others fill their bunks.

I fault the Holocaust Museum for forgetting the 5 million !

Let us remember the 11 million !

Alan

claps
could not of said it better.
They do.
http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/

And they watch what's going on in our own time, too.

http://www.ushmm.org/conscience/alert/

What always intrigues me is the implication that Germany was an anti-semetic country.

As an exercise, go to a German WW1 war grave. Count the jewish graves. (There are loads - you can't miss them). Very enlightening.

generally, the most anti-racial hatred grows out of the most integrated society.
I don't think so. Its the less integrated ones.
What does anyone know? I knew an old German gentleman who had done research and development for Germany's atomic bomb project. He did not know that Hiroshima and Nagasaki had occurred until DeGaulle threw him out of France in 1958. He spent his days thinking about mathematics.
God knows what or if people think.
It would be nice if the general population was alert and awake and aware and could be treated as responsible adults. That's not the case.
Palestinians, Lebanese, Syrians and Iraqis are people too. Cluster bombs are not the solution to any social problems, and neither are insane religious freaks.
Absolutely correct.  

All of the citizens of the middle east are threatened by the Radical Islamic Army of Iran-istan (where they drink fermented oil maybe ??).

The insane religious freaks are one mechanism but ancient hatreds and Peak Oil are the catalyst.

Timez-just-about-Up.

Yeah, good thing there are no "insane religious freaks" in this country...  ;-)
Bush might qualify as an "insane religious freak" ...

But now imagine Pat Robertson or Jerry Falwell or the recently outed creepy Meth-Head, Closet Homo Evangelical being president and a congress of their peers in charge of the USA...

Sounds like Iranistan, christian style.

Hurin is stating nonsense. Like or dislike the Jews they have excellent genetics as is proven by the huge number of intellectual genius they have produced. They are not an ignorant people like as many wish to portray them.

The disapora did not break them down , it only strengthened them. They easily have the ability to take out all the major ME cities with nuketipped cruise missles and IMO will not hesitate to do so when they are facing the destruction themselves. They will strike first and we will enter
what can be called Armegeddon by the religious or Death on a Stick by the rest of the populace.

Every new IDF recruit is supposed to be sworn in on the mount of Masada where they swear and oath...'Never Again..Never Again' or so I read. Might have to do another google just to be sure of my statement.

The Europeans and many Muricans like to portray them as despicable folks. Nothing could be further from the truth.

The best doctors,lawyers, physicists and the list goes on and on.

They will not go quietly. In My Humble Opinion. What do I know other than I have been reading the JP for a long time, read slowly Hebrew, have many books on Judiasm etc..etc.

Airdale-I could be wrong for I have been before(once)and I assume some here will forceably tell me so.In fact I expect it but thats my opinion and I'm standing by it.

"Excellent genetics", eh?

My good man, you have fallen into a terrible trap.  Hitler would be happy.  Start thinking in terms of group genetics and boy does he have a program to sell you.

Except for a higher incidence of aryan and slavic blood, Jews have llttle to differentiate their genetic history from Palestineans and other arabs.

Great to see you posting again Jack Greene.  

Iran's resupply of it's surrogate armies in Lebanon and Gaza continues as we prepare for Round Two of the undercard.

I think it is funny that the expat Lebanese Christian quoted above criticised Israel "for causing, as a common enemy, a sort of temporary alliance of otherwise quite mutually hostile Lebanese Muslim groups: Sunni and Shia. "

Since Israel's existence is the cause of their alliance I wonder what the Lebanese Christian thinks would be the solution?

Sendoilplease,

Thanks for the thought. I should have more time. The election is almost over. My guy, running as an environmentalist in an enviroment district for County Supervisor should win easily - I got to run his campaign in my town, the biggest in his district which is something I have not done for 30 years. So part of my life will be back to normal after Tuesday.

Then all I have to do if finish my book for Indiana University Press (by April?) and hope it rains a lot this winter so I do not work too much at my real world job.

Sendoilplease,

Two points. 1) Europe is requesting and we are going to build the 3rd missile defense shield in Europe, the same one that may work based in Alaska and at Vandenberg.

2) Christian population in the Middle East is in decline, as many are moving out of Lebanon and also the few in Syria.

1) So then "Israel is Voted Off" it is...  maybe ;)

and,

2) watch for the pope to issue a "be fruitful and multiply" statement next.

Good luck to you in your campaign and in your real world job Jack.

I definitely see the Lebanon/Israel conflict rearing its ugely head again if anything comes down between US/Iran...it's another front in the same battle and the reason, I believe, the USS Eisenhower is  bobbing around near the Medditeranean.

The article Leanan cites below also leads me to believe that the something is coming to a head...it is a HUGE politically risk for Bush to make this statement, but for some reason, he felt it was time to let it out...

Bush Says U.S. Pullout Would Let Iraq Radicals Use Oil as a Weapon

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/04/AR2006110401025.html

I think it's just election posturing.  Protecting Israel is a big deal for "the base."  (Never mind that they only want to protect Israel so they can hurry the End Times along, and incidentally, hurry all the Jews to Hell.)  

Still, it is a pretty remarkable article:

Bush said extremists controlling Iraq "would use energy as economic blackmail" and try to pressure the United States to abandon its alliance with Israel. At a stop in Missouri on Friday, he suggested that such radicals would be "able to pull millions of barrels of oil off the market, driving the price up to $300 or $400 a barrel."

If that actually happened, I think the average American would happily abandon our allegiance to Israel.

And speaking of the election...gawd, I can't wait until it's over.  People are banging on my door all day.  I'm tempted to put up a sign: Bother me, and I swear I'll write in "Mickey Mouse" before I vote for your candidate.

Then there's the phone.  Wow, I'm so popular.  Everyone from Laura Bush to Howard Dean is calling me.  I'm tempted to yank the phone out of the wall already.  

If that actually happened, I think the average American would happily abandon our allegiance to Israel.

I think Bush framed the future question of blame for $300 oil in that statement - blame the owners of the oil using it to "blackmail" the poor US of A (west in general).  

I think the idea is to get Americans to Vent their Anger towards the Oil's Owners and not to blame Israel for being the target of the Radical Islamic Army in it's quest to "Wipe Israel Off The Map."

 

It is indeed time to wipe Israel off the map.  A nuclear disarmed confederal state, with no official religion, in which minority rights are guaranteed, democratic institutions and security are guaranteed by international mandate is clearly a better choice for Jew, Muslim, Christian, pagan and others.

Hitler thought the creation of a Jewish State in the middle east was a good idea.  It's sadly ironic that Israel has become a vessel for hatred largely because that monster's actions created liberal sympathy for the Zionist idea.

I think people should remember that the largest Jewish population in the middle east outside of Israel is in Iran, where the Iranian constitution guarantees the Jews representation in Parliament.

Hezbollah was not created by Iran.  It was created by Lebanese after the Israeli invasion in 1982 left 20,000 Lebanese dead.  It was and is an army of national defense.  It necessarily has to function unlike a national army, given Israel's air and armament superiority.  That it turned for support to Iran is no more surprising than the decision of American revolutionaries turning to France for aid.  To say that Iran controls Hezbollah is as ignorant as would have been the claim that Washington was a puppet of the French.

The implication is that the oil really belongs to the USA and its allies.
I expect to see more explicit talk about oil next year by BCR.  And I predict the big story in the Oil Patch next year will be declining production from both KSA and Russia.
Yes..could be true.  BCR only has two more years to "ease" the concept of declining worldwide production into the public psyche.  It needs to be firmly implanted within  the minds of the populace in the "correct" framework before the next round of Prez elections.

That framework, in my opinion, is that access to the world's reserves is the right of the entire planet regardless of political boundaries.  Any nation that disagrees is opposed to free and open markets and should be forced to participate.

It's called armed robbery!!
Perhaps to some, but to BushCo, it is "Democracy" and "Capitalism".
That's what you get for registering.  I haven't, so they leave me alone.

I say "Don't vote: It just encourages them..."

I refuse to participate in crooked elections.

I would vote but their is no doomer party.
 Please vote. You can register your displeasure by voting for whatever third party or independents are running.
You mean pull another Ralph Nader.  You have to be freakin kidding.
It'd be more subversive if you just always voted for whichever party was out of power.
Definitely...the campaigning this time around has been a huge turnoff.  I will do my duty and vote, but have tuned out all political ads in all forms.  I know the candidates and their positions.  I don't need someone telling me what the other guy/girl thinks.

I was getting hit with a bunch of calls, but they petered out last week. Perhaps someone got the message after hanging up on them ten times.

I did disconnect my phone a few hours last night.
Leanan, exactly where do you live.

I find your statements to be almost incomphrensible.

Its clear you despise the jews. A reason for that?

'The base'? You are talking about what here?

I think you mean folks who actually have a christian belief system? Do you think all of them are what the MSM portray? Is that where you get you beliefs in the people of this country? Again my question. Where ,in general , do you live?

Using a phone wisely is very very simple. You attach an answering machine and simply screen the calls. Or better yet do not use the phone. Get a cellphone and only give the number out to those who you wish to communicate with.

And then quit bitching about it on the forum.

Many people fought and died to create our system of government. Your constant bitching shows how little you really care.

airdale-Semper Fi..to quote some jarheads I used to hang with..

I find your statements to be almost incomphrensible.

It's mutual, I'm sure.

Its clear you despise the jews. A reason for that?

I don't despite the Jews.  I don't despise anyone based on their country of origin, religion, sexual orientation, or ethnic background.

However, I see a terrible tragedy looming in the Middle East.  Nuclear war or not, this is not going to end well.  Not in the light of peak oil.  It's going to be a tragedy that dwarfs the Holocaust.  

'The base'? You are talking about what here?

"The base" is the term Karl Rove uses to describe rightwing Christian fundamentalists.  I always found it amusing, because "Al-Qaeda" means "the base" in Arabic.

Where ,in general , do you live?

I am currently in the northeast, but I've lived in the West and South as well.

Apparently you aren't alone in the northeast with the calls:
GOP robocalls people saying its the dems.
More from some blog
Holy Heisenberg.  

It never occurred to me that some of the calls could be from the candidate's opponent, with the express purpose of trying to annoy voters.  Cheez Whiz.  I guess I really am naive.  

The Robocalls were still coming as late as 9pm tonight, which seems a tad late to me.  Whoever recorded the call was so hoarse I could barely understand him.

Cheez Whiz indeed.  This from the second link: "If the recipient hangs up, the call is automatically redialed 7 or 8 times."  Definitely intended to annoy.
The Talking Points Memo blog is all over this story:

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/

Wow.  Just wow.  

A part of me is just in awe of the sheer underhandedness of this.

And yes, I have definitely been a target.  My district is specifically named in one of Josh's posts, and I have gotten calls just like he describes.

3 1/2 years ago, The Party's Over was just going to press, almost all of the readers of this site (let alone the general public) had never heard the phrase "peak oil" and oil was very cheap.  No Blood For Oil was just an antiwar phrase and was therefore ignored by BCR.  
Much is different now.
Wow...it seems like decades ago..I believe you are correct that much is different this go around.  We will find how much different in the last part of this year (starting on 11/8).

I am already seeing some postings on other websites talking about "swift action" if there is any hint of voting fraud.  Not quite sure what this "swift action" will be, but I'd stay away from the toll booths on the highways (ref: to Mexico's recent events).