aerdil posted:

US officials skeptical of Iran’s capabilities blame a malfunction, but so far can't explain how Iran acquired the drone intact. One American analyst ridiculed Iran’s capability, telling Defense News that the loss was “like dropping a Ferrari into an ox-cart technology culture.”

lol, i love it when our government officials fuck up due to their own racism and exceptionalism

babyfinland posted:
lol iran leads the world in scientific production according to the standardized metrics (which are kind of silly but nontheless, they are our Western Ways)

what does this mean? PhDs or papers published normalized by GDP or population or something?

Crow posted:
and what the hell changed since those earlier days?

Well I suppose nothing substantial. Establishment is as Establishment is after all. That said, I would hope that we would at least respect these "rogue states" as clever enemies.

The United States is weird.

WASHINGTON — A senior Iranian official on Tuesday delivered a sharp threat in response to economic sanctions being readied by the United States, saying his country would retaliate against any crackdown by blocking all oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz, a vital artery for transporting about one-fifth of the world’s oil supply.

The declaration by Iran’s first vice president, Mohammad-Reza Rahimi, came as President Obama prepares to sign legislation that, if fully implemented, could substantially reduce Iran’s oil revenue in a bid to deter it from pursuing a nuclear weapons program.

You get the idea. Now personally, this seems like empty words. Iran wouldn't play one of their big trump cards so soon like this. What this does indicate is that Iran's economy will suffer dramatically on the timescale where alternatives to sanctions can take place (eg dev of shell companies to have indirect business transfer, finding new markets, etc) or that the damage will be unreversible. I guess fascist western powers should take delight in the effectiveness of on-going sanctions. I heard from someone that eggs are $1 each thanks to sanctions...

christmas_cheer posted:
here's how things will go down.

we will continue to sanction iran until they are as poor as north korea

the regime will continue to stand at the line and bluster

one day either they will cross the line and then lose a war, or their people will force the anti-western regime out of office

lol

christmas_cheer posted:
here's how things will go down.

we will continue to sanction iran until they are as poor as north korea

the regime will continue to stand at the line and bluster

one day either they will cross the line and then lose a war, or their people will force the anti-western regime out of office

May I just say, Lmao

jools posted:
The global heroin addict convention has decided to boycott afghanistan

https://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2323488571

Nuclear Iran ‘not an existential threat to Israel’, says Mossad chief


The director of Israel’s primary external intelligence agency, the Mossad, has said that it would be wrong to consider a nuclear-armed Iran an “existential threat” to Israel.

For years, senior Israeli politicians and American military planners have described the prospect of a nuclear-capable Iran as an “existential threat” to the Jewish state. But this widespread belief is apparently not shared by Tamir Pardo, head of Israel’s revered Mossad intelligence agency.

Pardo outlined his view while speaking yesterday before an audience of over 100 Israeli ambassadors and consuls general, at a conference dealing with diplomatic security issues and public affairs. Lectures at the conference, which is held annually at the Israeli Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem, are given behind closed doors. But Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz quoted three Israeli ambassadors who attended Pardo’s talk; they confirmed that the Mossad director rejected the view that Israel’s existence would necessarily be endangered by an Iranian nuclear arsenal, and dismissed the maxim “existential threat” as a “term used too liberally”. The Israeli newspaper quoted Pardo as saying: “Does Iran constitute a threat to Israel? Certainly. However, if we were to claim that a nuclear weapon in Iran’s possession was an existential threat , it would simply mean that we would have to terminate and go home. But this is not the case. The term is used too liberally”.

The unnamed ambassadors told Ha’aretz that Pardo’s comments did not imply that the Mossad would stop its covert war on Iran, nor that Israel would accept the prospect of a nuclear Iran as inevitable. “However, what remarks undoubtedly imply is that he does not view a nuclear-armed Iran as an existential threat to Israel”, they said. Pardo’s comments closely echo those of his predecessor, Meir Dagan, who last May condemned a possible Israeli attack on Iran as an act that would be “patently illegal under international law” and “the stupidest thing ever heard”.

In June, hawkish Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu effectively stripped Dagan of his diplomatic passport, after the longtime Mossad Director called Israel’s leaders “reckless and irresponsible” people, who will not hesitate to engage in military adventurism in Iran to ensure their political primacy at home. IntelNews readers may remember that Israel’s Science and Technology Minister, Daniel Hershkowitz, urged the government to indict the former Mossad chief, for “compromising state security”. It is not presently known how the Netanyahu government will react to Pardo’s remarks.

http://intelnews.org/2011/12/30/01-898/

TIME TO ATTACK IRAN

Opponents of military action against Iran assume a U.S. strike would be far more dangerous than simply letting Tehran build a bomb. Not so, argues this former Pentagon defense planner. With a carefully designed attack, Washington could mitigate the costs and spare the region and the world from an unacceptable threat.

MATTHEW KROENIG is Stanton Nuclear Security Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and the author of Exporting the Bomb: Technology Transfer and the Spread of Nuclear Weapons. From July 2010 to July 2011, he was a Special Adviser in the Office of the U.S. Secretary of Defense, responsible for defense strategy and policy on Iran.

aerdil posted:
this came in the mail today.... hahahahehehahaho

http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/136917/matthew-kroenig/time-to-attack-iran

TIME TO ATTACK IRAN

just look at his cold, dark eyes



there's nothing i hate more than polisci kids who try to pick up something beyond their breadth. how a kid who gets his phd in 07 magically turns into a nuclear security fellow without actually playing in DOE or with grey beards in RAND really kills me.