Spot The Difference





Is it me or does Ahmadinejad looks a bit like Roy Keane?

Ahmadinejad wins surprise Iran landslide victory

• Riot police in violent clashes with opposition supporters
• Challenger Mousavi claims fraud after record 84% turnout

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has won a crushing victory in Iran's landmark presidential election, according to the country's authorities, but his moderate challenger Mir Hossein Mousavi has warned of "tyranny" and protested that the result was rigged after a record turnout of 84%.

As the official results were announced, baton-wielding riot police clashed with angry Mousavi supporters in some of the most serious unrest Tehran has seen in years.

We're Doomed!

Clinton would use violence against Tehran

Hillary Clinton today moved to secure her position as the most hawkish Democrat in the 2008 presidential race, saying she would consider the use of force to compel Iran to abandon its nuclear programme.

In an article for Foreign Affairs magazine intended as a blueprint for the foreign policy of a future Clinton White House, the Democratic frontrunner argues that Iran poses a long term strategic challenge to American and its allies, and that it must not be permitted to build or acquire nuclear weapons.

"If Iran does not comply with its own commitments and the will of the international community, all options must remain on the table," Ms Clinton said.

Elsewhere, Ms Clinton took the edge off her steely posture by saying she would abandon the Bush administration's policy of isolating its enemies, and would deploy diplomacy.

So basically, Hillary Clinton would go through with an attack on Iran but unlike Bush this time she would do it with a smile and the veneer of 'international cooperation'.

Iran stands more chance of being bombed if Hillary Clinton gets into power

CrazyLand

Iranian leader refused permission to lay wreath at Ground Zero

The Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has triggered a diplomatic furore over his request to lay a wreath at the World Trade Centre site to commemorate the September 11 attacks.

Even before setting foot on US soil for the upcoming UN general assembly, the Iranian leader has managed to ruffle American feathers by asking to visit what is considered a sacred site.

Mr Ahmadinejad, who is to due to arrive on Sunday to address the assembly, had asked New York city and the US secret service earlier this month for permission to visit Ground Zero.

So whats the issue with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad not being allowed to visit the memorial?

I know he's crazy but his country had nothing to do with 9/11, nor is the USA at war with Iran (but probably soon) yet its head of state gets banned from visiting the memorial. It would be pointless to say that Iran isn't an Arabic country and the majority of its populace are Shiites.

I don't get the controversy, logic is not a strong point of the Bush Junta nor their Neocon fellow travelers, I wonder if they will try and trip up Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and therefore creation a casus bellis to attack Iran?

Its all very puzzling

Iraq and Iran

US plans military base near Iran

The Pentagon plans to build a military base near the Iran-Iraq border, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The newspaper quoted a senior US army commander as saying that the base will be used to try and prevent the flow of weapons by Shia fighters into Iraq.

Major-General Rick Lynch, the commander of the US army’s 3rd Infantry Division, said that the Pentagon also plans to build checkpoints on major highways leading from the Iranian border to Baghdad.

X-ray machines will be installed, as well as explosive-detecting sensors, the paper reported.

Well this news is pretty ominous, time to find my tinfoil hat. I think its a dead cert that Iran is going to be bombed, if not by the USA then by Israel and probably Saudi Arabia will give it tacit support, as they dislike Iran challenging their position in the Middle East.

Friday Thoughts

*puts on tinfoil hat*

I get a definite 1914 vibe from the Middle East and at my most pessimistic I think Iran is going to be bombed, with disastrous consequences for the rest of the Gulf region.

I only get this feeling because they are insane enough to do it, Neocons have been gagging for this and have already started doing what they did with Iraq, building up, giving it serious thought.

I mean everyone knew it was a stupid idea to invade Iraq but they went ahead anyway.

*takes off tinfoil hat*

Thoughts for Today

You know Iran really shouldn't be bombed.

There is already an undercurrent from its youth for reform and change, chafing against the religious conformity, Iran is a very young country with most of its population under the age of 25, eventually the old guys at the top are going to die off.

Everyone forgets Iran had elections, so alright the clerics choose to ignore them but still why is it condemned when Saudi is even more despotic or Egypt which is just as repressive, and yet they are regarded as moderate.

If it was bombed, all it would do is strengthen the claims of the nutcases in the Iranian government.

I think its quite appalling that bombing Iran is even being discussed in the media by the very same people who advocated invading Iraq, which has proven a huge failure, just this week the US has managed to lose 190,000 weapons, why are they still considered credible experts?

Hypocrisy

Iran attacks U.S. plans for Saudi arms deal

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran's Foreign Ministry accused the United States on Monday of seeking to create fear and divisions in the Middle East after reports Washington was readying major arms sales to Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states.

A U.S. defence official said in Washington on Saturday the package could be worth some $20 billion over the next 10 years.

Washington is striving to assure its Gulf allies concerned by the growing strength of Shi'ite Muslim Iran and the war in Iraq that it is committed to the region and will stand by them, with arms sales being part of that process, U.S. officials say.

Iranian Defence Minister Mostafa Mohammad Najjar said the United States was trying to "create a fake arms race in order to make their big arms companies survive", the official IRNA news agency reported.

Fablous, an arms race in the Middle East, just what the area needs.

Curious state of affairs though considering that Saudi Arabia are believed to be funding the Sunni insurgents in Iraq to combat the rising power of the Shiites there, yet the US is giving them a $20 billion arms deal to a country run by the biggest bunch of crooks in the Middle East, a country which treats it women like shit, a batshit insane religious police and really awful human rights abuses.

This just goes to show what bullshit it is when the Bush Junta and their Neocon fuckheads are when they go on about 'democracy on the march', they don't care about the ordinary people of the Middle East, they are quiet happy to call Arab countries which serve their purpose 'moderate' like Saudi Arabia and Egypt but god forbid you step out of line, your branded a 'rogue nation'.

Iran and the Capture of British Marines

Captured sailor 'apologises over trespass'

Iranian television today screened footage of a second Royal Navy sailor apparently apologising for entering Iranian waters, sparking an angry response from a "disgusted" Tony Blair.

The man, who gave his name as Nathan Thomas Summers, is shown saying that the British party had "trespassed" into Iranian waters when they were seized last Friday.

But the videotape showed clear signs of editing, suggesting that his words were being manipulated.

Is this more disgusting than the 24 hr coverage of Saddam's execution?

Showing captured prisoners is against the Geneva Convention! Whoops, there goes that moral high ground we used to have...

Its strange, people are shocked that Iran kidnapped British troops, yet the British and American governments have no qualms about kidnapping 'suspect terrorist' and whisking them off to be renditioned, tortured and locked up without telling them what they are charged with. The MSM is concerned that these "confessions" by the British Marines may have been coerced, yet they accept KSM's (Khalid Sheik Mohammed) "confessions" that he did everything evil in the world for the last 500 years.

Links worth reading

Both Sides Must Stop This Mad Confrontation, Now

Iran and "hostages": image & meaning

A bitter legacy

The seizure of 15 British sailors by Iran is only the latest incident in a long and troubled history between the two countries. As Robert Tait reports from Tehran, most Iranians see Britain as an old colonial power that's still meddling in their affairs

Iraq

Iraqi PM rules out second term

· Maliki: I wish I could step down
· Man held over Saddam video
· Co-accused 'to be executed Thursday'

Nuri al-Maliki has said he wants to step down as prime minister of Iraq, as one of his advisers revealed that a man accused of recording Saddam Hussein's execution on his mobile phone has been arrested.

In a candid interview with an American newspaper, Mr Maliki said the most difficult decision he had ever made was taking the prime ministerial post.

"I only agreed because I thought it would serve the national interest, and I will not accept it again," he told the Wall Street Journal.

Sounds like Nursi al-Maliki wants to have a long healthy life. Who would want the poison chalice of PM of Iraq? A country which is currently engulfed in a civil war

Saddam's execution certainly pleased the Iranians.

I think out of this whole mess the Iranians have gotten the most of out of it, getting rid of an enemy on their doorstep, having a Shia friendly government installed.

Iran also scares many US/Western backed Arab dictatorships, because the Iranian people overthrew their Shah, the same could happen to them if their populace is given the right nudge yet the US has spent a fortune in lives and money giving wrong nudges, effectively forestalling the organic revolutions.

How can the US and the UK go on about 'democracy' when they back Mubarak's regime and the House of Saud? To many Muslims in the ME that appears hypocritical, so its no wonder the Bush Junta aren't 'winning hearts and minds', and that 'freedom on the march' proved shortlived.

Basically they have fucked up and its going to take decades to repair the damage done and I'm not even sure its possible and you have the I/P issues hanging over everyone's head.