Isn’t it ironic how the Muslims who are just about always the imperialists and the aggressors, always love to claim that their opponents are planning war and aggression against them? As Dr. K. points out – the Arab nations want to destroy Iran’s nuclear facilities every bit as much as does Israel. However as we have said here countless times – only the United States has the means to do it. Ahmadinnerjacket’s recent wild statements may be due to the fact that even the feckless Obama administration might actually be starting to take the Iranian threat seriously.
by Charles Krauthammer
— Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, July 26
President Ahmadinejad has a penchant for the somewhat loony, as when last weekend he denounced Paul the Octopus, omniscient predictor of eight consecutive World Cup matches, as a symbol of decadence and purveyor of “Western propaganda and superstition.”
But for all his clownishness, Ahmadinejad is nonetheless calculating and dangerous. What “two countries” was he talking about? They seem logically to be Lebanon and Syria. Hezbollah in Lebanon has armed itself with 50,000 rockets and made clear that it is in a position to start a war at any time. Fighting on this scale would immediately bring in Syria, which would in turn invite Iranian intervention in defense of its major Arab clients — and of the first Persian beachhead on the Mediterranean in 1,400 years.
The idea that Israel, let alone the United States, has the slightest interest in starting a war on Israel’s north is crazy. But claims about imminent attacks are serious business in that region. In May 1967, the Soviet Union falsely told its client, Egypt, that Israel was preparing to attack Syria. These rumors set off a train of events — the mobilization of Arab armies, the southern blockade of Israel, the hasty signing of an inter-Arab military pact — that led to the Six-Day War.
Ahmadinejad’s claim is not supported by a shred of evidence. So what is he up to?
It is a sign that he is under serious pressure. Passage ofweak U.N. sanctions was followed by unilateral sanctions by the United States, Canada, Australia and the European Union. Already, reports Reuters, Iran is experiencing a sharp drop in gasoline imports as Lloyd’s of London and other players refuse to insure the ships delivering them.
Second, the Arab states are no longer just whispering their desire for the United States to militarily take out Iranian nuclear facilities. The United Arab Emirates’ ambassador to Washington said so openly at a conference three weeks ago.
[…]
This is the kind of brinkmanship you get when leaders of a rogue regime are under growing pressure. The only hope to get them to reverse course is to relentlessly increase their feeling that, if they don’t, the Arab states, Israel, the Europeans and America will, one way or another, ensure that ruin is visited upon them.
Read the rest here: Iran starts feeling heat
Tags: Charles Krauthammer
