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July 14, 2006

You Might Want to Rethink This Gift Package, Guys

Western Incentives for Iran Released
The world powers are prepared to provide Iran with advanced technology and possibly even nuclear research reactors if it agrees to suspend uranium enrichment under a package of incentives revealed in full for the first time Thursday.

The package - put together by the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany - was given to the Iranians on June 6 and some details were leaked at the time.

But the full proposal showed a broader range of economic, political and energy incentives. They include promoting Tehran's membership in the World Trade Organization, and the possible lifting of U.S. and European restrictions on the export of civilian aircraft and telecommunications equipment.

Under the incentives, the six powers are prepared to help Iran build state-of-the-art light water nuclear power reactors and to give legally binding guarantees that nuclear fuel will be provided for these civilian reactors meant to produce energy.


It's über generous, but I see beard boy's sticky fingerprints all over a Lebanese map...
Minutes before the fire Hizbullah's al-Manar showed a new rocket which they said will hit "the strongholds of the Zionist enemy."

"Need some more rockets?"

UPDATE: Yup. We'll take 'em.

Hezbollah retaliated by raining more than 100 Katyusha* rockets into northern Israel, hitting big population centres such as Nahariya and Haifa, a city of 250,000 people that is 30 kilometres (18 miles) inside Israel.

The SURPRISE in this report? Knock me over with a feather:
But Saudi Arabia broke ranks with the Muslim world, indirectly blaming the crisis on the “irresponsible actions” of Hezbollah.

And after letting Hezbollah run the southern half of the country for the past 20 years, Lebanese leaders are finally waking up:
Lebanese critics as well as allies of Hezbollah insist that the Israeli response was disproportionate. But at the same time, in meetings Thursday, Lebanese officials began to lay the groundwork for an extension of government control to southern Lebanon. Hezbollah largely controls southern Lebanon, where it has built up a network of schools, hospitals and charities.

"To declare war and to make military action must be a decision made by the state and not by a party," said Nabil de Freige, a parliament member. He belongs to the bloc headed by Saad Hariri, whose father, Rafiq, a former prime minister and wealthy businessman, was assassinated in 2005, setting off a sequence of events that forced the Syrian withdrawal. "It's a very simple equation: You have to be a state."

After a cabinet meeting Thursday, the government said it had a right and duty to extend its control over all Lebanese territory. Interior Minister Ahmed Fatfat said the statement marked a step toward the government reasserting itself.


Here's hoping you still have a country left to extend control over.

UPDATE: I firmly and wholeheartedly believe that Iran is the puppetmaster behind this entire crisis ~ what do they care about Hizbollah, other than there are enough of them to cause some damage and take the hits? While searching for reports of massive groups of Iranian "tourists" headed to/in Syria (Bingley gets me careening off on these tangents, curse him), I found a strangely prescient paragraph concerning the Iran/Syria relationship:

Ahmadinejad's January 2006 visit to Damascus left little doubt that Syria and Iran remain united more united than ever and committed to sponsoring rejectionist forces in the Middle East. The Iranian president met not only with Assad and Nasrallah, but also with the leaders of Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and the PFLP-GC.[16] At a joint press conference, the two presidents vowed to fight the plots of "world arrogance and Zionism" in Lebanon and called for "continued resistance" to Israeli "occupation of the holy Islamic lands."[17]

Syria has clearly drawn some strength from Iranian solidarity. Fearful that Syria's alignment with Tehran will create a powerful "Shiite crescent" in the region, the Saudis and Egyptians have been trying to mediate between Damascus and the West. However, so long as Assad is unwilling or unable to make the kind of compromises that would facilitate a rapprochement (e.g. full cooperation with the investigation into Hariri's death), he cannot really make use of this leverage. For better or for worse, he is committed to the "special relationship." With all signs pointing to a prolonged standoff between Tehran and the West over the nuclear issue, some analysts suggest that Syria, as the low-hanging fruit of the duo, will bear the brunt of Western retaliation.



Who's yer buddy, who's yer pal, Bashar?


*Lebanese Katyusha:

In Lebanon the several versions of the Katyusha rockets were used by the Palestinian militias during their attacks on Israel and during the Lebanon War the rockets were used by almost al parties: the PLO, Lebanese Forces, the Lebanese Army, PSP and after 1984 by the Amal Movement as well. But of course the most well known militia which used the Katyusha rocket is without any doubt the Hizbullah. At this moment the Hizbullah has several thousands Katyusha rockets and Fahr-3(the Iranian Katyusha model, with a range of 45 kilometres), along the border with Israel ready to fire if Israel launched a large scale offensive against Lebanon.

Posted by tree hugging sister at July 14, 2006 07:48 AM

Comments

Here's a better incentive: "Give up the nukes and we'll let your sand remain sand."

Posted by: Ken S, Fifth String on the Banjo of Life at July 14, 2006 12:11 AM

I am truly appalled with the "bonus package" offered to this whack job. Hezbollah is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Iran (and Syria I guess). And they seem to find it amusing to send their missiles into resort towns and religious/mystical centers of Israel, where there is absolutely zero military interest involved.

Does anyone else know any Lebs or descendants of Lebanese who got out of Lebanon while they could? Whether it was 50, 40, 30, 20 years ago? Lots of Lebanese in my former hometown. With Anglicized last names like "Thomas."

As well, the father of the point guard at the University of AZ was the President of the American Univerisity in Beirut when it was bombed and he was killed. I was a kid. But I remember Steve Kerr playing his heart out about 72 hours after his father was found in pile of rubble.

Dunno, guess I am sorta reflective this morning about how the shitbirds have managed to destroy the world so handily.

Posted by: Susanna at July 14, 2006 08:25 AM

With a lot of Western complicity, too, Susanna.

Posted by: Mr. Bingley at July 14, 2006 09:04 AM

We lost a dear friend in the Marine Barracks bombing. I could only stand to go to the Beirut Wall Memorial in Jacksonville, N.C. and touch his name once. And I've never forgiven Reagan OR Bush Sr. OR Congress for it. We should have crushed the murderous f*ckers long ago.

Posted by: tree hugging sister at July 14, 2006 09:15 AM

I just hope that we are eying the Israeli issue, looking for Iran to be provoked to get stupid. This may be enough to make them blink, watching their paid cronies get turned into worm-food en masse by the Zionist dogs.

Posted by: Crusader at July 14, 2006 09:16 AM

looking for Iran to be provoked to get stupid

Personally? I think it's IRAN doing the provoking already. They don't give a sh*t about Hizbollah, they're front line shock troops. Expendable. No one's talking tough about Iran's nuclear agitation when their attention's diverted. AND, if someone goes after Iran, voila. They get to blame the Jooz for the WHOLE mess.

Posted by: tree hugging sister at July 14, 2006 09:29 AM

I give Reagan big hurrah for many things, but for not turning around and stomping those f*ckers? I am with you on this.

I think it's time to act swiftly, HEAVILY, heavy-handidly, ham-fistedly, harshly, cruelly, inhumanely, knee-jerkedly, etc. and all those words the critics can come up with. So that we can finally come down on the right side of history with this thing.

Yes, I think that's really it. The idea is to ultimately come down on the right side of history. And when you're dealing with nutters whose heads are stuck in the 7th Century, then you use 7th Century means (in a manner) to resolve it.

Posted by: Susanna at July 14, 2006 09:40 AM

Two poignant scenes from "The Root : The Marines in Beirut,August 1982-February 1984" stand out in my mind. The first was the emotionally destroyed Marine on guard, sobbing as he tried to explain how he watched the smiling truck driver rocket past him, knew something was horribly, horribly wrong and could NOT GET HIS WEAPON LOADED to stop him. That's right. The Marines were prohibited from carrying LOADED WEAPONS. This poor kid had a split second to fish a magazine out of it's case, get the rifle loaded and take a shot. It didn't happen. The truck drove through the lobby doors, detonated and all that kid on the 'gate' could do was watch. The second was when Bush Sr. had them turn off the rescue jackhammers because they were interfering with his press conference.

Being in that building broke every bivouac in the books. But the Admininstration didn't want Marines spread out in defensive positions because it would look like they were there to take sides, not be 'peace keepers'.

And then we crawled home. And did the same thing in Somalia. And now? There were lessons learned in those experiences, but the students were the Islamists. Collectively, Americans have learned nothing. Just look at the Fox Poll and AP/Ipsos released last night.

Posted by: tree hugging sister at July 14, 2006 09:58 AM

I agree sis, and what irks me further is a quote I read from a Marine officer (don't recall where I read it, but it was in the last year or 2), who said that part of the reason we pulled out was that the Pentagon was telling the Administration that they had no plan for this type of warfare, nor were our troops trained for it, so getting out of Dodge was the best course of action. My first thought was "What a crock!", we had already lost those men, why not make their sacrifiuce meaningful and learn on the job how to fight this new warfare? I remember major dad telling me they could not carry loaded weapons, and could not believe it. We should have settled it there and then, but perhaps it is time to make up for lost ground.

Posted by: Crusader at July 14, 2006 10:24 AM

As I recall, it was the MEU commander that decided to put everyone in that building, not any politician. Reagan took the responsibility for it, but that was pretty controversial at the time because so many Marine officers didn't want to dilute the commander's responsibility for reacting appropriately to the tactical situation.

I'm still perplexed why we didn't react afterwards. It was treated as though it were a natural disaster instead of an act of war.

But our being there was ridiculous from the start. The Israelis were sending jets to "thump" our helicopters as they shuttled diplomats. They were driving tanks and APC's where they weren't supposed to go, and generally working against us. The rag heads were also working against us and then bombed us. It was kind of hard to figure out which side we should attack. I favored attacking both.

Ignoring the bombing was a terrible disaster. But there wasn't much we could do except all out war, and we weren't prepared for that. We lost.

Posted by: Mike Rentner at July 14, 2006 10:34 AM

Mike ~ the MEU commander doesn't get his orders from the President in a letter, right? It's all interpretation of directive 'playing telephone' and there was alot about how to minimize the Marine presence.

Posted by: tree hugging sister at July 14, 2006 10:41 AM

I'm wantin' to leave links all over the blogosphere, but am going to refrain- as this is the www...

& I'm not the nyt:p

Posted by: Faith at July 17, 2006 07:21 AM