Japanese naval forces

Keeping the trade lanes open is part of what the historical mission of a Navy has always been for.

I don’t particularly agree with him, but at least he makes some sense.

And the big winner would be Israel. The Israelis are working very hard to get the US involved in a bigger Mid-east war.

The Biggest Loser? Not hard to tell.

I just heard today that 40% of the oil that goes through the Strait of Hormuz goes to China. So if we go to war with Iran over the Strait one of the major benficiaries will be one of our biggest trade and political rivals.

Maybe Ron Paul is right.

In context, it was still a violation of international laws. And, frankly, had I been an Iranian ruler I would have put those folks on trial and half of them, the CIA operatives, would have been shot.

That did not happen in a vacuum, it happened as the result of years of American sponsored repression of the people, starting with the overthrow of Mohammed Mosedegh and the installation of the Shah in order to gain easier access to oil.

America’s hands are dirty. America is over there, doing ugly things to them and if they retaliate one can’t blame them. One can blame the US for being over there, committing repeated acts of war against them.

This is not a case of quid pro quo. It’s a case of aggression, a larger, more powerful country against a weaker one with valuable resources.

They broke into our embassy and took diplomats hostage. In my book, that’s equivalent to shooting men carrying a white flag. Even liberals have a right to get pissed off, especially at right-wing religious fundamentalists.

Secondly, the US has vowed to destabilize the Iranian government.

Those are acts of war.

Third, the US is over there harassing them. They are not over here harassing us.

There is no even-handed response by the Iranians. You cannot look at this as a tit-for-tat situation, or one where both parties are equally at fault. It ain’t so.

The US is continuing a long history of working over the Iranians, even supplying Saddam with WMDs and the means to deliver them.

Again, the US is over there.

There simply isn’t a way to look at this as a two-sided affair. It’s true the Iranians have fought back a bit, but they haven’t shot down an American airliner.

If some English guy moves into the house across your alley, starts throwing garbage in your back yard, plants microphones in your house, kills your dog, and you get irritated you are probably right in retailating. But it wasn’t an even situation.

The Iranians come from a history of having their government manipulated and overthrown by the US, and a cruel pro-American puppet Shah installed. We have since led a constant diplomatic, economic and political war against them, and supported and lavished military aid on her hostile rivals. Our combat troops are occupying two of her neighbors, we have bases all around her and our fleet is offshore, with major support bases that can keep it there indefinitely. We are conducting (or facilitating) a covert war on Iran right now, one including assasination, sabotage, cyberattack, and our allies have bombed her and her allies. Most important, we have already demonstrated the willingness and capability to misinterpret or fabricate evidence in order to invade and occupy countries in her part of the world who we have declared to be threats to security, and we have the audacity of declaring that other nations are not permitted to acquire nuclear weapons, which we and our allies possess in overwhelming numbers.

Having said that, we have every right to be suspicious of Iran. They are a dictatorship ruled by intolerant religious fanatics capable of cruelly putting down her own people and of menacing her neighbors. They constantly foment trouble in the region, actively or through surrogates, and are almost certainly developing weapons of mass destruction. Most disturbingly, Iran has shown itself to be a country with no respect for diplomatic communication, to the point of violently attacking and occupying embassies and taking hostages. This makes the normal channels nations use for resolving disputes impossible. These madmen now threaten to cut off a trade route upon which the entire world, even countries who have no stake in our quarrel, depends. And worst of all, this isolated, paranoid, country believes it has a messianic, apocalyptic religious role and is on the verge of arming itself with nuclear weapons in order to better fulfill it.

I think we have every right to be on our guard, particularly since we have no reason to believe simply ignoring these people will make them setttle down. There may be places where you can criticize American policy now, and certainly so in the past, but the fact remains the Iranian problem will not just go away, and it is not ALL our fault. We need to be ready to do anything, or we will be forced to do what someone else wants.