He speaks simply and clearly, and he gets to the heart of an issue much in the same way Lincoln was able to do.

Iran is a radical, irrational, and medieval state. They have threatened to destroy Israel. They cannot be allowed to have nuclear weapons.

And this has nothing to do with "killing all the brown people" as some liberal clowns on this board have alleged.

Somehow, our political system is broken. We don't get the best people to the top. Does anyone seriously believe that the most capable people to lead our country are George W. Bush, Al Gore, John Kerry, Barack Obama, or John McCain? But those are the choices we've had in the last 12 years. Are we going to have a better choice this fall?

Netanyahu is the leader of all people who want to live free. There is no second banana, he stands solo on the world stage.

Netanyahu is a delusional Likudnik who is playing our Congress and people against our president, and who thinks he's Churchill and might start WWIII against the sober advice of the US intelligence community, his own intelligence community and his own defense minister.

(03-06-2012 12:12 AM)Max Power Wrote:  against the sober advice of the US intelligence community

Good point. I mean, who could possibly doubt the advice --nay, the SOBER advice! -- of the US intelligence community? Especially when there's nothing at stake except the mere existence of your nation and people.

For God's sake, you might as well rely on the sober advice of a Ouija board.

Quote:his own intelligence community

The idea that anyone posting on this board is privy to the communication between an Israeli PM and the Mossad is quite rich.

Quote:and his own defense minister.

same as before.

(03-06-2012 12:12 AM)Max Power Wrote:  Netanyahu ... is playing our Congress and people against our president

True, but Obama willingly -- deliberately, it would seem -- left himself open to that line of attack. Like it or dislike it, but no one should be surprised by Netanyahu's response. Not only is it rational and logical from Israel's standpoint, but any other response would be irrational and illogical from Israel's standpoint.

Quote:and who thinks he's Churchill and might start WWIII

I don't believe that, and I doubt that you do, either. But if you or other people really do believe that, then it's all the more reason to make sure that nations sworn to Israel's annihilation do not acquire nuclear capability.

(03-06-2012 01:19 AM)Native Georgian Wrote:  

(03-06-2012 12:12 AM)Max Power Wrote:  Netanyahu ... is playing our Congress and people against our president

True, but Obama willingly -- deliberately, it would seem -- left himself open to that line of attack. Like it or dislike it, but no one should be surprised by Netanyahu's response. Not only is it rational and logical from Israel's standpoint, but any other response would be irrational and illogical from Israel's standpoint.

Quote:and who thinks he's Churchill and might start WWIII

I don't believe that, and I doubt that you do, either. But if you or other people really do believe that, then it's all the more reason to make sure that nations sworn to Israel's annihilation do not acquire nuclear capability.

Why do you not believe that?

(03-06-2012 12:12 AM)Max Power Wrote:  Netanyahu is a delusional Likudnik who is playing our Congress and people against our president, and who thinks he's Churchill and might start WWIII against the sober advice of the US intelligence community, his own intelligence community and his own defense minister.

Netanyahu > Chamberlain.

(03-06-2012 12:12 AM)Max Power Wrote:  Netanyahu is a delusional Likudnik who is playing our Congress and people against our president, and who thinks he's Churchill and might start WWIII against the sober advice of the US intelligence community, his own intelligence community and his own defense minister.

Right.

And Iran has not threatened Israel with annihilation.

And Iran has not sent terrorists into Israel.

And Iran is not building a bomb.

Now who is delusional, Max? I think it may be you .....

Liberals see the world as they want it to be, not as it truly is. There is no clearheaded thinking left of the aisle.

When dealing with Mini Power folks you have to remember where he starts.

Iran good, Jews bad.

(03-06-2012 07:38 AM)Ninerfan1 Wrote:  When dealing with Mini Power folks you have to remember where he starts.

I was thinking more like he starts with a Forrest Gump-like IQ.

Max is exceedingly dim-witted.

(03-06-2012 01:01 AM)Native Georgian Wrote:  

(03-06-2012 12:12 AM)Max Power Wrote:  against the sober advice of the US intelligence community

Good point. I mean, who could possibly doubt the advice --nay, the SOBER advice! -- of the US intelligence community? Especially when there's nothing at stake except the mere existence of your nation and people.

For God's sake, you might as well rely on the sober advice of a Ouija board.

Quote:his own intelligence community

The idea that anyone posting on this board is privy to the communication between an Israeli PM and the Mossad is quite rich.

Quote:and his own defense minister.

same as before.

Jerusalem Post: Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak thinks Iran is a rational actor, that he does not "delude" himself into believing Iran is an existential threat that wants the nuke for offense like Netanyahu, that he would be trying for a nuke too if he were Iran and that he would be a terrorist too if he were Palestinian! I don't have to be privvy to what is said behind closed doors because this was on Charlie Rose.
4
http://blogs.jpost.com/content/ehud-bara...onal-actor

(03-05-2012 10:49 PM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:  Somehow, our political system is broken. We don't get the best people to the top.

Populist movement helped break ths system. Broadcasting amplified the problem. Public schools sealed the deal.

I don't know how it gets fixed easily. Entropy is at play here as well. It's going to take a lot of energy to rectify things.

Haaretz: " An attack on Iran, American or Israeli, will most likely create chaos of currently unpredictable and possibly unprecedented proportions in the Middle East, including but not limited to: a massive retaliatory campaign Israel, regional conflicts, more upheaval in the Arab world, and, judging by the tone of Russian President Putin’s recent warnings, the first major confrontation between Washington and Moscow since the end of the Cold War.

America would be denounced once again as an enemy of Islam. Americans, soldiers and civilians alike, could become targets of both military and terrorist operations throughout the world. And, perhaps more importantly for our purposes, the world’s oil supplies would probably be disrupted in a way that will lead to a spectacular spike in oil prices. If the price of $5 a gallon is currently being portrayed in America as economic purgatory, what would happen if Americans are plunged into the hell of truly unaffordable gasoline coupled with endless queues at gas stations similar to those during the Arab oil boycott in the wake of the Yom Kippur war?

http://www.haaretz.com/blogs/west-of-ede...d-1.415392

Daily Beast: As it happens, both the American and Israeli governments boast military and intelligence agencies charged with answering exactly these sorts of questions. And with striking consistency, the people who run, or ran, those agencies are warning—loudly —against an attack.

Start with the first question: whether Iran would be suicidal enough to use or transfer a nuke. In 2007, the U.S. intelligence community’s National Intelligence Estimate on Iran argued that the Iranian regime—loathsome as it is—is “guided by a cost-benefit approach.” In 2011, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper testified before Congress that “we continue to judge Iran’s nuclear decision-making is ga cost-benefit approach.” Last week, Gen. Ron Burgess, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, told Congress that “the agency assesses Iran is unlikely to initiate or provoke a conflict.” Last weekend, Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told CNN’s Fareed Zakaria: “We are of the opinion that Iran is a rational actor reed Zakaria: “We are of the opinion that Iran is a rational actor.”

Most of the Israeli security officials who have commented publicly have said similar things. In December, Haaretz reported that Mossad chief Tamir Pardo had called Iran a threat, but not an existential one. Earlier this month, former Mossad chief Efraim Halevy echoed that view, declaring that “it is not in the power of Iran to destroy the state of Israel.” That same week, former Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Dan Halutz said virtually the same thing: that “Iran poses a serious threat but not an existential one.” In other words, Iran might use a nuclear weapon to put additional pressure on Israel, but not to wipe it off the map.


http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/20...ebate.html

Everything I said is mainstream thought by all the experts, and the only dissenters are Netanyahu and GOP neocon hawks. Even Netanyahu's own administration dissents. If you people really care about Israel you should be more careful about using them as justification for another ill advised American middle east war, because once this goes south public opinion and support for Israel will follow and they'll be blamed.

(03-06-2012 10:45 AM)Max Power Wrote:  Everything I said is mainstream thought by all the experts, and the only dissenters are Netanyahu and GOP neocon hawks.

Oh yes, they're "experts" since you agree with their opinion. And you call people names if they disagree.

Typical.

I can't quite believe that -- where an Israeli Defense Minister or other high-ranking national security official is concerned -- anyone would take public statements made to US- or Western-media as equivalent to actual advice given to the Prime Minister in private. ESPECIALLY when the statements are about an issue as sensitive to Israeli security as the potential possession of nuclear bombs by the ayatollahs in Tehran. I just didn't think anyone could really be quite so naïve. But maybe some people really are.

And why would the Defense Minister and last 3 Mossad chiefs underplay the Iranian threat in the western media if they didn't really mean it?

Netanyahu: "Hey guys, I want you all to deny Iran is an existential threat and say they're a rational actor in the media while I go around saying the exact opposite!"

That's what you're suggesting?