I really hope you are right about our fighting back... but the dem's reduction in our military has left us pretty thin... so having multiple fronts going is going to cause us some pain... something they will fight tooth and nail...

But we still need to stand up for our allies, even if it involves bringing the entire reserves and guard on-line.
Fistandantalus | Email | Homepage | 07.14.06 - 8:11 am | #

I think the waiting game will progress a little further, until Isreal makes known its strategy. Syria sits as key - will they strike when Isreal leaves its left flank open or will they set Iron Clad assurances that they will restrain the Hezbollah. The latter is unlikely because of the costs. Iran, as you noted in your post yesterday, has been planning for this since the White House was a peanut farm.
Bob Zwaan | Email | Homepage | 07.14.06 - 9:14 am | #

I don't think the Islamics have much of a sense of how to develop a winning military strategy. Their inherent desire to fulfill their death wish seems way too dominant.

Likewise with the Fake Libs. Maybe the November elections will be unnecessary. Spontaneous abortions do occur, and often for a good reason.
J. Peden | Email | Homepage | 07.14.06 - 11:12 am | #

A Cautionary tale, when hoping against hope that we rise up and destroy these guys.
tree hugging sister | Email | Homepage | 07.14.06 - 11:30 am | #

We have nothing to fear but fear itself.


.
The Machine | Email | Homepage | 07.14.06 - 2:00 pm | #

It is always a mixed sign when your opponent adopts a high-risk strategy.

1. It means he believes his previous strategy was less effective than he hoped.

2. It places everyone at greater risk.

3. It tends to clarify alliances and enmities.

4. The behavior of all players becomes less predictable.

5. Significant improvement of your overall position is possible.
Assistant Village Idiot | Email | Homepage | 07.14.06 - 2:49 pm | #

More on the Tracinski article, especially the drawbacks of interminable diplomacy.
neo-neocon | Email | Homepage | 07.14.06 - 3:26 pm | #

Or is Iran placing their hope in the free-floating Fifth Column (MSM, Dems, academia, other useful idiots) here in the States?

But then, their End Time Prophecy charts say they're doing God's Will bringing about Armageddon, so they can't possibly lose...
Headless Unicorn Guy | Email | Homepage | 07.14.06 - 6:23 pm | #

> since the White House was a peanut farm.

...Or since the head in the White House was a peanut farm.

...Or was it that it was just filled with the stuff they spread on peanuts to make them grow?

...Something like that.

.
OBloodyHell | Email | Homepage | 07.14.06 - 7:39 pm | #

It is time to get tough with Iran. Since most of our allies are afraid of them, I pray that Israel bombs Tehran back to the stone age.
dr. jeff | Email | Homepage | 07.14.06 - 8:30 pm | #

It would not take too many conventional bombs, either, to bomb Iran back to the stone age - or syria, for that matter.
Kenny | Email | Homepage | 07.14.06 - 8:53 pm | #

Assume the West bombed half the Middle East off the face of the earth. We'll have the reactions from Russia, China, North Korea, and what's left of the Arab countries. Will any retaliate, or will they get the message that the West will play hardball, if necessary, with any one of them?
Joanne | Email | Homepage | 07.14.06 - 11:59 pm | #

Keep in mind other things, closer to home, which may be happening. This can affect what we are about to do. After all, Bush and the folks in Foggy Bottom and the Pentagon can see what the police and troop movements in Havana are. We can't.

HINT: Check out Babalu
RS | Email | Homepage | 07.15.06 - 1:09 am | #

> Iranian-funded organizations run out of Syria, a close Iranian ally, launched incursion into Israel to kidnap Israeli soliders--a provocation that cannot merely be shrugged off, but which demands extended Israeli military action. Neither Hamas nor Hezbollah would have launched these attacks without Iranian permission and support.

As David Twersky in the New York Sun concludes, "The war with Iran has begun." He describes the Iranian strategy with a chess analogy:

Each one of these players--Hamas inside Gaza and in Damascus, Hezbollah in Lebanon, and the Assad dictatorship in Syria--are chess pieces on the Iranian board. The pawn moves, drawing in the Israeli bishop; the Lebanese rook challenges; the Syrian queen is in reserve.


OK, wait a minute!

I thought the SAUDIs were funding Hamas, as the West has withdrawn support?


It is not clear either whether Saudi Arabia can disown Hamas, .... Saudi cash smuggled in through Gaza has kept the Hamas regime afloat in the face of a boycott by Western powers...

NOW -- if that IS the case, then we have another consideration possible --

The SAUDIs may be manipulating the situation (same source):

Dallas Morning News editor Rod Dreher spoke to Saudi Minister of State Abdullah Zainal Alireza on June 28, who stated "that the US cannot allow Iran to get the bomb". Dreher asked him, "What if it happens anyway?" The Saudi minister, Dreher reported, "repeated, firmly, that it must not be allowed to happen. Period. The end."


Maybe it's the Saudis are trying to force the issue into action, to eliminate the Iranian threat.

Hmmmm?
Oh Blutige Hölle | Email | Homepage | 07.15.06 - 11:31 am | #

> The Iranians believe that they can head off a war with America by initiating a war with Israel.

THIS is inherently stupid. War with Israel -- if Israel isn't winning -- IS going to be war with the USA. We certainly don't do a good job of defending them verbally, but we're a long ways from letting them get wiped out.
Anonymous | Email | Homepage | 07.15.06 - 11:49 am | #

Remember the Good old Days in which Bush was feared as a war monger, and people were p*ssing themselves not to enrage him?

Those days were over the moment Bush had his psychological profile mapped.x
Ymarsakar | Email | Homepage | 07.15.06 - 7:33 pm | #

Iran has been at war with the US since 1979, and we haven't fought back yet, Bush Doctrine notwithstanding. I think Iran's moves are not quite as risky (for them) as you seem to think, because it is astounding how much murder we have already let them get away with.
Brad | Email | Homepage | 07.21.06 - 2:50 am | #