293 comments on DrumBeat: July 20, 2007
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293 comments on DrumBeat: July 20, 2007
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GAIA Host Collective
Syria, Iran Anticipate Victory in Mid-East War this Summer
" At a joint press conference with Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said that "Syria and Iran are aspiring for this summer to be hot by virtue of the victories that will be attained by the peoples of the region... and the enemies of the peoples of the region are on their way to perdition and defeat."
The Iranian president welcomed Hezbollah's victory over Israel in a war between the two sides in the summer of 2006 and called for a similar victory this summer."
http://www.thememriblog.org/blog_personal/en/2215.htm
http://news.monstersandcritics.com/middleeast/news/article_1332174.php/A...
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070719/wl_mideast_afp/syriairandiplomacy_0...
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Threats_to_Israel/Syria.html
Hezbollah's victory over Israel
Wasn't that a hoot?
I guess Israel felt bad about it, they dropped 2 million cluster bombs in the villages, towns and farm fields in southern Lebanon in the last 48 hours of the "War". Parting gifts so to speak.
Good money was made for those who invested in War. Those Cluster bombs need to be replace for the next go round.
Humor *off
Ok, supposedly we have a free press in the US. Here we have a war council take place in Syria including the leaders of Hamas and Hezbollah. Ahmadinejad and Assad express optimism about the WAR THIS SUMMER, and Yahoo(the only western press saying anything) saying, "The strength of their ties is viewed with the deepest suspicion in Washington". Nothing about the comments, nothing about an approaching war, NOTHING.
Full coverage.
http://cid-yama.livejournal.com/
Towards a free press and a free America.
Cid,
After reading DPA (German) at Monsters, and AFP (French) at Yahoo, I haven't seen one thing that is overly inflammatory, and certainly not some war council reference. And since I trust European journalists to pick up on that sort of thing, I conclude it's simply made up, and I'm left wondering what your agenda is.
"The Iranian president welcomed Hezbollah's victory over Israel in a war between the two sides in the summer of 2006 and called for a similar victory this summer." IS from DPA.
Since I have been reporting links to the unfolding events here for days that have been supported day after day as the story has unfolded, what is YOUR agenda, attempting to cast dispersions?
Here, how about this one from the 17th?
Top Israeli General Confirms War with Syria Imminent
http://www.israeltoday.co.il/default.aspx?tabid=178&nid=13461
Yes, exactly, Iran et al are talking about the region being attacked. Is it inflammatory to suggest you might defend yourself?
If you want the whole story go to:
http://cid-yama.livejournal.com/
I'm not going to move it all over here. War is about to break out. Starting with Guerilla and Commando attacks on Israel followed by retaliation by Israel (and probably the US). Iran will Launch it's missiles at Israel.(and probably US positions and Carrier Groups) WWIII.
Cid why are you posting all this stuff? I also wondering what's you agenda? This is not the best place for political discussions. It has very little to do with Peak Oil. You know as well as anybody that links that you post are one sided.
I can see that you keep pushing you web page. And instead of doing a normal marketing you just decided to hijack this web site. Please finish your marketing compain. I get enough ads on TV. It would be better if you used Google ads or like.
I also do not appreciate that you are so rude to other members. You points do not seem any more convincing to me just becasue you insult others.
Duh! War in Middle East = Disruption in Oil Flow. Pretty Simple. Duh! My "website" is just a blog. Just a place to put stuff to direct my friends to or put stuff too big to put it all here. Like I could give a shit.
Cid,
I value your posts. Keep them comming.
Thanks for all your effort!
TechGuy
agree that it is on-topic and i do find Cid's posts interesting
but I would say that Israel pro-con debates can devolve quickly on internet sites so it tends to behoove everyone to make the extra effort to be a little polite and tolerant in discourse
(and i am a stroppy bugger that argues at the drop of a hat so i know i'm stretching here - but Israel stuff does tend to get into back and forth and hijack whole sites)
--
When no-one around you understands
start your own revolution
and cut out the middle man
Not to mention since the Lebanon war it has been found out that isrial has it's own cyber-posting department. Where they had people search for places that talked about the war, created accounts, and then filled those parts of the board with their state's propaganda about it to drown out those who thought critically and thereby negatively about their actions.
I believe the term is
megaphonies
Quid Clarius Astris
Ubi Bene ibi patria
Since Iran and Syria are simply saying that they will fight back if they are attacked, I find it hardly newsworthy. So it's not a surprise that there is no coverage. It's quite natural to assume that country will be defending itself if attacked. It would be a news if they said otherwise.
Did you really expect that Iran will come out and say "If Israel attacks us we will be doomed"?
This from the 15th.
Syria Prepared to Go to War with Israel
If Israel doesn't vacate the strategic Golan Heights before September, Syrian guerrillas will immediately launch "resistance operations" against the Golan's Jewish communities, a top official from Syrian President Bashar Assad's Baath party told WND.
The Baath official, who spoke on condition his name be withheld, said Damascus is preparing for anticipated Israeli retaliation following Syrian guerrilla attacks and for a larger war with the Jewish state in August or September. He said in the opening salvo of any conflict, Syria has the capabilities of firing "hundreds" of missiles at Tel Aviv.
"Syria passed repeated messages to the U.S. that we demand the return of the Golan either through negotiations or through war. If the Golan is not in our hands by August or September, we will be poised to launch resistance, including raids and attacks against Jewish positions (in the Golan Heights)," the Baath official said.
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=56567
World Net Daily practices propaganda, not journalism.
You can lead an Idiot to a Library but you can't raise his IQ.
You can lead an Idiot to a Library but you can't raise his IQ.
Cid, How about my version.
You can lead a man to knowledge, but you can't make him think.
jc
Oh, so much better. I defer to you.
I agree with HeIsSoFly, I wonder about your agenda, Cid Yama. This blog is about energy and our future, not about trying to drum up support for a war. Bob Ebersole
Give me a break Bob. I'm not trying to build support for a war. I am #1 concerned that this is a BIG THING and not covered by the MSM and War in Middle East, Especially if BIG WAR, will disrupt OIL SHIPMENTS from the Persian Gulf. Gee, No connection to energy or our future there. Totally has nothing to do with this website. Sheesh.
Just curious, CY, if you have a theory as to why the MSM is not covering this.
And why, since everyone else seems to know exactly what the perfidious Syrians are going to do, etc., is there not an instantaneous pre-emptive strike. It seems to me that the element of surprise is somewhat lacking.
I mean, you are outlining a multi-step sequence to all-out war in the Middle East here.
"And why, since everyone else seems to know exactly what the perfidious Syrians are going to do, etc., is there not an instantaneous pre-emptive strike. It seems to me that the element of surprise is somewhat lacking."
Exactly! Israel cuts off water to Syria used for electricity production and irrigation. Syria threatens to send small units into the Golan Heights to deal with the situation if Israel does not relinquish control immediately. US Administration cannot expand war due to domestic political considerations. BUT, if Syria launches Commando assault in the Golan Heights to blow the dam preventing water from flowing to Syria, US can claim Syria attacked Israel and give it justification for expanded war. If Iran helps against Israeli retaliation, US has pretext to invade Iran.
The revolution will not be televised.
Man, once surrendering his reason, has no remaining guard against the absurdities the most monstrous, and like a ship without rudder, is the sport of every wind. -- Thomas Jefferson
I think it's more like 'see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil'
Sgage
Do you have a theory as to why the MSM reportage in advance of, and in the early days of, the Iraq war was so biased and lacking?
I suspect they are linked.
--
When no-one around you understands
start your own revolution
and cut out the middle man
Cid Yama,
That's all very well, but some of your sources are generally known as very unreliable and unashamedly pro-Israel. The World Net Daily has published lots of odd Israeli propaganda that few knowledgeable people could take seriously. MEMRI is the master of selective reporting and has been known deliberately to mistranslate sources for the sole purpose of making the "enemies of Israel" look bad. Anything coming from these two, or the extreme right-wing Jerusalem Post et al. should be viewed with a healthy dose of scepticism.
Actually, If you looked, you would have seen that Israel is INSTIGATING this war by cutting off water to Syria. Not a pro-Israel position.
Israel Diverts Water from Syria
http://www.myantiwar.org/view/123334.html
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1162378496663&pagename=JPost%...
Where is the Wihada reservoir? I haven't found any reference to it other than in various copies of this story.
I don't think it is correct to characterize the Jerusalem Post as an extreme right-wing paper. It's a pretty reputable paper which has been publishing since 1932. Although the paper's perspective is a little right of the center in Israel, they carry some left wing columnists as well. Of course, it might not be bad to treat anything one reads in the media - right, left or center - with a certain degree of skepticism.
Fair enough. It just seems to me that their readership at least is very right-wing: if you read the readers' comments on Middle Eastern politics, most of them come across as openly racist towards Arabs (and all Muslims), and generally in favour of the most aggressive policies that the Likud could contemplate (including nuking Iran).
The Jerusalem Post is one of the many newspapers that were owned by a rather dishonest and right-wing proprietor Lord Black
Please don't tell me that he did not influence what his journalists had to say about the Middle East.
By the way, you should take a look at the relationship between the phone calls by Rupert Murdoch to Tony Blair at critical points of time for the Middle East - three times in the 10 days leading up to the invasion of Iraq. I guess he was making sure that his newspapers were going to trot out the party line.
I swear it looks like the common thread in your comments is Israel, not oil... No?
Have you posted any link that does not mention Israel, Syria or Iran attacking Israel, or some other country attacking Israel? These news articles can have valid points in exposing dangers to Israel, but that's a different subject.
You made you point and it can have an effect on oil prices, but lets not do it day after day. It starting to feel like an ad that I am forced to watch.
As far as war breaking out, did it ever felt there like a peace since Israel was created? Seems like not.
Actually further disruption of the tenuous "peace" in the middle east will have a DIRECT impact on Oil, specifically oil prices.
Last year when Isreal and Lebanon were mixing it up, the fear factor alone was enough to drive Oil prices soaring.
This year, we have a 2mbpd shortfall due to a 1mbpd increase in demand and 1mbpd decrease in production as compared to last year. This alone has sent prices to near record breaking levels as is evidenced by that little side bar graph on the right of your page here provided by Yahoo on the price of oil.
Now if fear alone pushed oil up to 79+ dollars last time, what will fear and actual production shortages do this time?
Or worse if Iran does wade into this, and shuts (whether voluntarily or forecfully) their production off how much worse is this going to get?
Folks if this spins out the wrong way we could be looking 90, 100 or higher dollar per barrel oil this summer.
Now does all this war watching make a little more sense and put into proper context the escalation that we are seeing unfolding right before our eyes?
Granted, it may turn out that nothing happens, but the pieces are being moved on the board gentlemen, and their movements are very similar to what a pre-cursor to war would look like.
Aljazeera reported Ahmadinejad's comments this morning as well. Something to effect that the war with the enemies of the people of the region will be won THIS SUMMER. Strangely enough the story has now been removed from their web site. I agree with Cid this is very pertinent news.
and reportedly Israel steadfastly refuses to tell UNIFIL (resp. amongst others for de-mining) where they dropped them. It is a big bone of contention.
I've tried to avoid the older military style discussions here, but the point about cluster bombs is somewhat one-sided - much like some of the discussion about the price of oil. There was likely more to it than simply providing a boost to the bottom line of a few companies.
When the global anti-mine campaign was in full swing, before convincing most of the civilized world to stop using them (apart from the U.S. - like that ol' Willie Pete, the U.S. continues to proudly use practices that other people consider barbaric or illegal - not that those others wouldn't use them in war, but only when 'forced' to), cluster bombs became part of the discussion - much to the dismay of those Americans who felt cluster bombs were several orders more effective in war than such an old standby as napalm (which America still uses, under a new brand name and a new and improved formulation - according to government spokesmen, it isn't your father's Napalm(TM), which is why after first denying its use in Iraq, it was just a honest mistake because the question was poorly phrased).
Cluster bombs can be used as mines - when they aren't mines, of course.
Strewing tens to hundreds of millions of submunitions was a way to buy a period of time (months? a couple of years?), in a border region of no value to Israel, without any noticeable human cost to Israel.
Interesting that the government which so incompetently ran a war actually published a review of its actions , but then, some systems are more democratic than others. However, the cluster bombs are unlikely to have been considered part of that incompetence - they were just a stopgap measure, one that would only cost Israel's 'enemies' - rocket siting soldiers/terrorists/freedom fighters or kids that stray from the cleared path around what used to be their home, for example.
But at some point, the submunitions will merely become part of the background of living there, much like in Germany, where finding and disposing of WWII bombs is a fairly routine occurence - within apartment blocks, or parks, or cities, next to train stations, or schoolyards, construction sites, etc. Evacuate a few thousand people for a day or two, call in the experienced disposal crew, and get a 30 second notice in the newspaper or on the regional radio news.