Things may actually be heating up

Maybe Iran is heading for some really bad days:



http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/simon_tisdall/2007/09/tehrans_misguided_defiance.html

(where as Tisdale says:

"Russia and China, playing strategic power games of their own, have meanwhile once again underscored their opposition to any talk of force, or to additional sanctions outside the ambit of the International Atomic Energy Agency. Their stance is bringing ever closer an Iraq-style split in the UN security council - a split that far from benefiting Tehran, could doom it to a military attack.

Condoleezza Rice, the US secretary of state, having fluttered uncertainly between hawks and doves since taking over from Colin Powell, now appears to have belatedly recognised the danger of another unplanned, disastrous Middle East conflagration. With the Pentagon's discredited chief, Donald Rumsfeld, no longer around to block her, and backed by his successor, Robert Gates, she is mounting another effort, beginning on Friday in Washington, to knock security council heads together and rebuild a consensus on diplomatic action.

Hers is an uphill task, as noise levels rise and calmer voices are shouted down both in the west and in Iran. Mr Cheney and the neocons, Israeli hawks and ideologues, Arab states terrified of Iran's expanding regional power, and Iran's complacent, uncomprehendingly hardline leaders are now coming together in an unholy coalition of the willing - and chilling.

Their shared destination is confrontation, their common cause is fear. They all believe, without a shadow of doubt, that they are right, and they may take some stopping now."


http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewForeignBureaus.asp?Page=/ForeignBureaus/archive/200709/INT20070917d.html

billythrilly7th said:

I thought this thread was about global warming.

And I was like "Things "may be" heating up? Duh, it's been heating up for decades but conservatives were too stupid to admit it and now the entire world is in jeopardy of catyslcimic climate change that could bring floods, draughts and superstorms. Like Duh."

But it's about Iran.

Cool.

Click to expand...

Well...the Syria-Iran thing definitely has the potential to jump straight to the level of a massive war. I had thought the Syrians, at least, had a little more sense, but this is like the classic chain of small allies problem such as started the First World War.
The dynamic is that small terrorist groups (like the Serbian group that shot the Archduke and touched off WWI) are useful and larger states back them. So Hezbollah is backed by Syria and Syria is backed by Iran who is backed by Russia and nobody up that chain can afford to dump anybody down the chain. Syria suddenly looks like the point where the problem could be defused, but the pressure on Syria could easily backfire and Iran might feel the need to do something really idiotic and then we would see a global mess such as has not been seen since WWII.
And the US is not remotely ready for that. Of course neither is anyone else.

billythrilly7th said:

I thought this thread was about global warming.

And I was like "Things 'may be' heating up? Duh, it's been heating up for decades but conservatives were too stupid to admit it and now the entire world is in jeopardy of catyslcimic climate change that could bring floods, draughts and superstorms. Like Duh."

But it's about Iran.

Cool.

Click to expand...

And this looks bad too (ie probably reflects a real potential for a real war):

http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/09/18/asia/18korea.php?WT.mc_id=rssasia