Monday, June 26, 2006

Adding Up the Pieces

From Louis Freeh's May 20, 2006 WSJ column about the FBI's investigation into the Khobar Towers bombing:

”Over the course of our investigation the evidence became clear that while the attack was staged by Saudi Hezbollah members, the entire operation was planned, funded and coordinated by Iran's security services, the IRGC and MOIS, acting on orders from the highest levels of the regime in Tehran.”


From Uzi Rubins analysis of Iranian missle capability The Global Range of Iran's Ballistic Missle Program, June 20, 2006, Jerusalem Issue Briefs:
”Iran's political leadership is now aiming toward global power projection in the name of Islam, demanding recognition that Islam comprises 25 percent of humanity and should occupy its rightful place in decision-making in world affairs. Statements like this are not about self-defense.
Iran is Seeking to Deter the United States

What is the rationale behind the Iranian missile program? Prior to 1991 and the first Gulf War, the main threat to Iran was Saddam Hussein's Iraq. The Iranians began developing their missile program under fire when Saddam Hussein launched missiles at them and they had nothing to respond with except for a few Scud-Bs that they got from Libya, the only country that supported Iran.

Since 1991, the United States has replaced Iraq as threat number one for Iran. The Iranian military's reference threat scenario is a massive U.S. military action against Iran, aided by U.S. allies in the region including the Gulf States and Israel, which they see as an outpost of the United States.
The Iranians are realists. They don't aim to win a set piece battle against the United States. They know it's impossible. Their policy is to deter the United States and its allies by threatening a war that will cause such damage at such a price that this option will become unacceptable to the United States. With this perspective, they are not focusing their efforts on renovating their quite large armed forces. Rather, they are investing very smartly in deterrence enhancers and force multipliers. Replacing obsolete equipment has secondary priority.”


From Caroline Glick's June 26, 2006 column North Korea and Iran:
”Iran campaigns against Israel, the US and the EU. From Teheran's perspective, if it can place the world's undivided attention on its war against Israel, it will be able to deter the US and Europe from contending with the fact that it is also working to undermine their security. Teheran has to this end worked assiduously to hide the fact that its Shihab ballistic missile program is directed mainly against Europe and the US, and not against Israel.”

2 comments:

Tiger said...

Once more ...

How many times do we have to show that this war on terror is necessarily a global war on Islam.

This is all about survival. The Dems don't get it, most of the Repubs don't get it, the EU certainly doesn't get it.

Anonymous said...

I don't know if they still don't get it or are too frightened to acknowledge it.

Things I get:
1. 20% of British Muslims "sympathise" with the Subway bombers.
2. The Muslim world is blind to the good deed of deposing Saddam. They rather see the Iraqi people under his brutal thumb than freed by America the "infidel invader." Turkey's anti-American quotient has gone up substantially since OIF began.
3. Muslims throughout the west are being rounded up almost daily for terrorist plots. Thankfully most of them are dumbasses.
4. Leftists all over the world would have delighted in seeing America defeated in Iraq. These idiots actually see the US as a "greater threat."
5. Even though there are remaining areas to clear and hold in Iraq, I'm about ready to declare the experiment concluded and have the US say hasta la vista. I don't not like the sudden flurry of military prosecutions. I rather get our boys out of there than have to prosecute them. This is something that is beginning to disturb me.
6. The grand experiment of bringing Democracy to the Middle East is still in doubt but I am increasingly skeptical about it.
7. Iran is an enemy.
8. Saudi Arabia and Pakistan will have to be dealt with eventually.
9. Russia and China are not to be trusted.
10. We need that damn Iraqi oil.