DONG DONGS DONGS

When is the US going to bomb Israel's nuclear facilities? Those nasty, deceitful nuclear proliferationists.

==Get a job...==

Get sober. Then apply to Blackwater to shoot unarmed Iraqis - should mesh well with your deeply felt Christianity.

Dimitry:
If anything - you are cosistant.
Consistantly wrong and inaccurate - that is.
Get a job...

==The bottom line to this is that it benefits a whole bunch of nations, when somebody bombs some site that a country has spent a load of cash on.==

So, if someone blows up the Hoover dam, that would be a good thing?

==Assuming that it was a reactor building in Syria, now that its been destroyed, Syria blew a load of cash and it got destroyed==

I guess that would be the same assumption we used to blow up most of Iraq. We have been paying for that assumption ever since. Now, you may have very deep pockets and don't mind in the least that your tax dollars are going for Falujah reconstruction (not very effective, apparently), but I do.

The bottom line to this is that it benefits a whole bunch of nations, when somebody bombs some site that a country has spent a load of cash on.

Assuming that it was a reactor building in Syria, now that its been destroyed, Syria blew a load of cash and it got destroyed. Since there is no money back guarantees from North Korea, Russia or Iran for that matter, if Syria wants to continue the program, they have to blow another load of cash.
Same thing with Iran. If the Iranian nuclear facilities are hit and destroyed, then Iran has to turn around and spend a boat load of cash with Russia, China or whomever (or trade in oil) to rebuild.
So even though China and Russia may yell, secretly they don't mind various countries having to spend more money with them.

Steve

==Once again, you have proved that you do not know anything about me; you are so far from correct - as usual. Completely wrong. There you go again, assuming and believing only what you want to believe from the archive. Typical psuedo lib to the core.==

What assumption? You statements prove you haven't read the archive. At least go aheas and read it now, after being exposed as ignorant on the subject, once again. And please disabuse yourself of a self-centered notion that I am interested in "knowing things about you" - I don't, you are a VRIO and your self-descriptions will change to suit the situation. I look strictly at what you write over time - and it isn't a pretty picture, VRIO.

==BTW; why aren't you at work? I have a legitimate reason not to be at work. I'm in the one of the Tall Grass Prarie States on family business with our farm. I drink red wine, and only two glasses per day. You have a family to support; why aren't you at work? Getting your tickets for mother Russia I assume...==

BTW, why is my location any business of yours?

Wait, let me guess - like numerous times before, psuedo-patriots will "volunteer" to inform "my company" of my "nefarious, treasonous" activities...Dovetails nicely with you insistent calls for me to change my proffession.

As far as your "drinking report" - don't bother with the fibs. You are a binge drinker, and you often post when drunk.

//You obviously did not read the archive, or are already drunk, so early on the West Coast. It's a sure sign of inebriation for you to start seeing a Russki under every bed. Lately it comes with regularity - vodka has become your everyday friend\\ -Dimitry

Once again, you have proved that you do not know anything about me; you are so far from correct - as usual. Completely wrong. There you go again, assuming and believing only what you want to believe from the archive. Typical psuedo lib to the core.

BTW; why aren't you at work? I have a legitimate reason not to be at work. I'm in the one of the Tall Grass Prarie States on family business with our farm. I drink red wine, and only two glasses per day. You have a family to support; why aren't you at work? Getting your tickets for mother Russia I assume...

Hey Dave in Boca This is the first time I've been called a "Pollyanna wing of the ultra-left Pinkos. " Is is because I don't like nukes? Or perhaps because I don't like Imperialism from any direction?
All I said was We don't have the right or the moral high ground to tell any soverign nation what they can or can't do.
That is 1950's thinking at it's best for us to assume because we have DVD's and A/C that we are morally superior. If we followed your way of thinking we would bomb everyone who disagrees with us. Wait a minute, I didn't give you my address did I??

==The Mossadeq files point out that the US didn't want to destroy the delicate balance that existed in Iran. But the Ruskies needed to destroy our dealings with many nations - including Iran. For them to kill Mossadeq would be the coup they had hoped for; they knew they would screw us in royal fashion. They didn't care if they messed with the sovereignty of Iran at all, they just needed to do is make the US look like we did it. SWISSHH - points scored for Russia! Too bad for the US; is that what you think? Or is it what you hope for? I think it is the latter...==

You obviously did not read the archive, or are already drunk, so early on the West Coast. It's a sure sign of inebriation for you to start seeing a Russki under every bed. Lately it comes with regularity - vodka has become your everyday friend.

==BTW - I find your lack of dealing with the realities as utterly irresponsible. As I said before, you really should quit your job - if you simply do not have the testicular fortitude - which apparently you don't have. You are a walking conflict. You must think that your philosophy about war is right. Soooo sorry... ==

Always a pleasure to get free "psycho" advice on the web, from a loser of a VRIO, no less!

==Then go back to Russia, and you can complain to them for doing the very same things. Then - you will also be back to square one. War isn't to be relished or desired; but one cannot simply run away from them either. Except for you, fly away to Russia; fly, fly, fly...==

Obviously, you are drunk again. Repeat after me - vodka is not a morning drink.

The Mossadeq files point out that the US didn't want to destroy the delicate balance that existed in Iran. But the Ruskies needed to destroy our dealings with many nations - including Iran. For them to kill Mossadeq would be the coup they had hoped for; they knew they would screw us in royal fashion. They didn't care if they messed with the sovereignty of Iran at all, they just needed to do is make the US look like we did it. SWISSHH - points scored for Russia! Too bad for the US; is that what you think? Or is it what you hope for? I think it is the latter...

BTW - I find your lack of dealing with the realities as utterly irresponsible. As I said before, you really should quit your job - if you simply do not have the testicular fortitude - which apparently you don't have. You are a walking conflict. You must think that your philosophy about war is right. Soooo sorry...

Then go back to Russia, and you can complain to them for doing the very same things. Then - you will also be back to square one. War isn't to be relished or desired; but one cannot simply run away from them either. Except for you, fly away to Russia; fly, fly, fly...

America may not have invented evil,
however, we certainly have not been shying away from it.

It is as if truth is no longer of any significance, if it ever was Da Buffalo! I understand that the majority of aboriginal Jews in the Middle-East get along just fine with Arabs and Muslims and vice versa.

I also understand that the problem situation in Israel between the 3-groups is much like it is in America, the people want to resolve the ten degrees of seperation, however, their leaders, many European Jews and descendants of European Jews, are simply not interested in peace, but capitulation!

In America, our national leaders along with too many of our fellow citizens have simply staked out a position, which they refer to as American policy. And given America's defacto national policy:

1. America has decided who will be America's friends, regardless of their behavior or policies; right doesn't matter!
2. We have decided who our enemies will be, even if they haven't done anything to us or to any of our friends.
3. We have concluded that 'it is what it is', we have the guns and our enemies (see point 2) will have to capitulate or else!
4. Any non-patriotic America citizen who will not go along with the current insanity, is simply naive, and doesn't understand how the world operates!

Is it any wonder that other nations of the world have become as fatalistic as we have been for about a century now, many of them choosing, like us, to seek a nuclear annihilation threat or solution over diplomacy!

Another "win" for the enemies of freedom, enemies of America:

-------------------------------------------
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/28/nyregion/28school.html?pagewanted=1&hp
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God damn these people.

==The use of mercenaries are for 'Black Ops'. They are not tied to the US in any way, and act independantly. ==

That's just chicken$4it. Look at the Mosssadeq archives - they are published on the web in near entirety. It was a fully owned and funded operation, run by active CIA agents. They hired local thugs, but that's just how the jobs gets done - that's like blaming the drug runners for what the cartels do.

I have to assume no one takes "rationales" like that seriously anymore, if they ever did. Certainly not after the Church commission, which investigated the CIA activities, not some hired muscle. And by the way, the most explosive activities uncovered had nothing to do with any foreign policy "adventures", but rather with completely illegal stateside surveilance and general criminality.

And I have to make it very clear that the appeals to "we only do what the other guys do", really tick me off. My parents did not uproot their entire lives to come to a country where the government does the same things as "the Russkies". I am sorry if in your world that constitutes a "reasonable defense." I am always shocked to find natural born Americans that are as shockingly cynical about their own country as I see in your posts.

//Did they actually say silly things like that in front of the Church commission\\ -Dimitry

Let's use the example that Da Buff used - Mexico. What happened there was influencing those in the Mexican gov't to make decisions that were both favorable to the US and Mexico - and not in the favor of insurgents, Cubans, and Ruskies. If the Mexican gov't chose to perform an action, it was by their choice - not ours. This is only ONE avenue that we have used and still do to this day.

The use of mercenaries are for 'Black Ops'. They are not tied to the US in any way, and act independantly. Don't be so quick on the draw to blame the US; the Ruskies, the Chinese, and jihadist groups all do the same thing. In fact, if we didn't respond in like fashion, they would have a chance to get a leg up on us. And I am sure that you would be upset if that ever came about; wouldn't you? BTW, this is usually done if all else fails; it is not our first choice of action. Usually, it is the last straw...

There are other gov'ts that will act on behalf of our gov't - so that we are not involved at all. We do the same for them - a kind of trade if you will. Like the Ruskies did - as an example.

Again, remember that the Russians used Bulgarians in WWII to the same thing - this is not about who is guilty of a illegal action - it is about partnership and mutual interests. If you want to blame the US and GB; then you must also blame Russia and their buddies, China and their partners, and so on...

==Destroying the facility was the right move, hopefully more incriminating evidence will surface. In the meantime the world is a safer and quieter place to live in.==

But what was destroyed? Wasn't attacking Iraq meant to make the world safer as well? What was the result? There was also "hope that evidence will surface". It didn't - and now we have a long-term illegitimate occupation and hundreds of thousands dead, millions displaced and the world a far more dangerous place.

==They are barbarians enough even to bomb cities full of civilians - women and children.==

Is Syria bombing cities?

It is an interesting phenomenon - a power that actually bombs cities, issues declarations that we must prevent third world countries from "bombing cities" - by bombing them now.

We must kill the "barbarians" from preventing the "barbarians" from attacking us. We, after all, are civilized!

I grew up reading the WashPost. My folks lived in Edgewood and then Frederick, MD, and for some reason we got the Post instead of the Sun.

Then I joined the Army, travelled the world, and found myself reading one bad paper after the next.

But it wasn't that those papers were bad... it was just that the Post has always been so damn good. Great beat reporters, great features folks, and the best opinion staff in the business.

Keep up the great work!

Israel has the right to bomb it? Sure. The civilized world cannot aloud crazy people having nuclear power. They are barbarians enough even to bomb cities full of civilians - women and children.

"Even if Syria managed to complete a plutonium production reactor, and then managed to operate it for the months would be needed to manufacture the materials it needed, and then managed to machine that plutonium, and then design and fabricate a nuclear weapon, many months if not years would go by. Such a program would be detected, proven and probably thwarted by the international community."

I guess you mean the same resolute way the so-called 'International Community' is thwarting the 20 years old Iranian nuclear program. It would be a much bigger mistake for the world to wait and hope someone would do something about the weapons in Syria. Destroying the facility was the right move, hopefully more incriminating evidence will surface. In the meantime the world is a safer and quieter place to live in.

Dimitry forgot the link:

http://www.juancole.com/2008/04/more-on-syrian-reactor-bombing-from.html

More questions on the Syrian "nuclear site":

-------------------------------------------
An informed reader writes:

What little information provided in the CIA videotape concerning the destruction of the purported Syrian reactor only provokes more questions.

Ha ha ha haaa!

//Do you know who runs this "other CIA"?\\ -Dimitry

==Yes I do.==

Is it you, man? Wow!

//Do you know who runs this "other CIA"?\\ -Dimitry

Yes I do.

More questions on the Syrian "nuclear site":

-------------------------------------------
An informed reader writes:

What little information provided in the CIA videotape concerning the destruction of the purported Syrian reactor only provokes more questions.

The alleged reactor is described, because of its dimensions and shape, as a duplicate of the North Korean reactor at Yongbyon. The reactor at Yongbyon is a rough copy of an old British design. It is graphite-moderated and cooled with gaseous carbon dioxide. Its core is composed of a large number of highly-purified graphite blocks. For example, each of the first two Magnox reactors at Windscale in the UK used 2,000 tons of graphite. Even if this purported Syrian reactor vessel were half the size of one of the original UK reactors, it would require roughly 1,000 tons of graphite. That's 14,400 cubic feet of highly-purified graphite. Would all official entities fail to notice the production and transfer of that amount of highly-refined graphite to Syria?

The voice-over on the CIA videotape asserts that the reactor in Syria was "nearly completed." If the plant were "nearly completed," those graphite blocks would have been substantially in place. Bombing and fire would have spread bits of carbon all over the site, or scattered whole blocks of graphite around the site. The "after" photos didn't seem to indicate that this happened.

If the reactor were substantially complete, neutron-absorbing boron-10 carbide (or possibly cadmium alloy) control rods would have been installed. Had those been burned or exploded in the bombing, those, too, would have left a chemical signature on the hills surrounding the site and in the prevailing winds. As far as I know, this hasn't been discussed.

Then, too, there is the matter of fuel rods. Syria is reported not to have uranium yellowcake stocks in appreciable quantities. (One particularly large phosphorite field, the Charkiet formation, is known to contain uranium, but the phosphate fertilizer plant built to process that ore was done by a Swedish company which would certainly alert the IAEA if there were non-compliant diversion. Moreover, Syria has cooperated with the IAEA in the past to develop its commercial uranium extraction processes, but those have not progressed, according to SIPRI.) There's no evidence presented that Syria has built fuel processing and fuel rod assembly facilities. That would suggest production elsewhere, and such production can be tracked. So, if it was almost complete, where are the fuel rods?

The primary weapons benefit of such a reactor is its ability to be refueled on the fly, so to speak (it's necessary to get the fuel rods out of the reactor before the optimum quantity of plutonium-239 is degraded by neutron capture to less suitable isotopes), so, why does U.S. intelligence say they have "low confidence" that the plutonium that might be produced is for nuclear weapons? It must be that Syria does not have the necessary fuel processing, fuel rod assembly and spent fuel reprocessing plants, and there's no evidence of bomb-manufacturing facilities (all this infrastructure should ideally go forward concurrent with fuel production to produce a bomb in the shortest period of time); does this suggest that the purpose of the facility might not be nuclear in nature, or that it was nuclear, but would have had a non-weapons purpose? If there's no evidence for the existence of the rest of a weapons-making complex, how credible is the claim of "near completion" of a reactor which is well-suited for producing plutonium?

So far, the government's primary evidence seems to be a photo of a North Korean who is reputed to be NK nuclear scientist Chon Chibu, standing next to someone "believed to be his Syrian counterpart" (quote from the London Times). That photo, as well as others, likely was provided by the Mossad, so its provenance is in question. Given that the Israelis bombed the site, one can't evade the reality that they're an interested party in the matter.

What is shocking in this assertion is the lack of physical evidence available for independent inspection, and the apparent complete failure of U.S. authorities to seek international inspection via the IAEA before the Israelis bombed the site in question, despite the fact that the U.S. was apparently aware of Israeli intentions well ahead of time. Syria has been a ratified signatory of the NPT since 1969, making it obligated to accept inspections. If, as the CIA asserts, the Syrian facility has been under construction since 2001, there was more than ample time to inform the IAEA of a signatory's possible failure to abide by the treaty. Repeated unannounced overflights of Syrian territory by Israeli jets in recent years indicates long-term planning of this mission.

Possibilities? The Bush administration might prefer to use this event to imply nuclear weapons production on Iran's part, because it is an ally of Syria, or the claims of North Korean assistance might provide cover for eventually abandoning the six-nation talks involving North Korea and provoking them in some way. Suggestions that the Israelis wanted to use the bombing raid to penetrate and compromise Syria's Russian-built air defenses preparatory to a future attack on Iran are not wholly out of the realm of possibility.

It's possible that the Syrians were building a bomb-fuel reactor with North Korean assistance, and imagined, wrongly, that they could escape detection. Certainly, North Korea's economy is so awful that they would be desperate for revenues. But, there's no physical evidence of such activity which has been independently verified, and the Bush administration's record on this sort of thing is, well, dubious, at best. Nor can one discount Syria's previous cooperation with the IAEA, and the necessary evidence would have come from an IAEA inspection. It's also possible that the Syrians were building something military in nature that they wanted kept secret, and which had nothing to do with a nuclear program, but which alarmed the Israelis, anyway, such as an early warning facility, ground-based laser, something along those lines.

The CIA video depends heavily upon computer models, and those models add substantial pieces of equipment not shown in the photos of the "nearly completed" facility. Remember that Colin Powell depended upon artists' renderings of "mobile bioweapons labs" instead of physical evidence, and that Rumsfeld used cartoonish illustrations to show lavish al-Qaeda complexes, replete with living quarters, office space, truck parking and ventilating systems, like the Islamist equivalent of Cheyenne Mountain, buried inside Tora Bora. Those, too, were never found.

One more final consideration: the Yongbyon reactor, from the descriptions by inspectors in 1994, is a real hunk of junk, by contemporary standards. The inspectors could tell from the condition of the spent fuel rods that there were many operating problems and shutdowns because of problems. Nuclear safety at the site was marginal to non-existent. The bomb test using plutonium from it was very likely a fizzle yield. If the Syrians got a duplicate copy of the Yongbyon reactor, as the CIA claims, they were very likely wasting their money.
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==The 'skullduggery' they have often been accused of is NOT the CIA. That's the difference between the 'movie CIA' as opposed to the genuine article. ==

Thanks, that clears it up. Must be some other, "Non-CIA" CIA that does all that stuff that is in the "regular" CIA's archives. Do you know who runs this "other CIA"?

Did they actually say silly things like that in front of the Church commission, or you just like fairytales?

Da Buff:

The CIA primary function - contrary to popular belief - is to inform the policymakers. They also prepare the Presidential Daily Brief for the same reason.

The 'skullduggery' they have often been accused of is NOT the CIA. That's the difference between the 'movie CIA' as opposed to the genuine article. Usually, getting 'heavy-handed' is a fucntion of the various military branches to do the 'wet work' after such orders are scrutinized and approved. It is not something that is taken lightly or is done ham-handedly.

To take out the Syrian plant was - no doubt - thoroughly and painstakingly agonized over. That is to say that all other options must be thoroughly considered before any irrevocable action(s) are to be taken. Then it must go through the approval process, then the appropriate branch gets their orders so as to facilitate the action with logistical support. Accuracy and expediency are the means; the reasons are policy based...

...and the CIA IS NOT the agency of diplomacy. That's State department diplomatic personnel work.

Just like putting State department people in a war zone called the Green Zone (Mostly red nowadays, have they been allowed to sleep outside their bunkers yet?), they take umbrage at working in areas that aren't stable.

The CIA's job is to make 'it' happen when diplomacy DOESN'T work or the region/government is too unstable to DO diplomatic work.

As you read on about the CIA's corruption of the standing Mexican government in the 60s, think of their involvement ('penetration', as one retired State department pesron told Juan Cole) in the early Baathist party and Saddam Hussein's rise to power.

He was ALWAYS our "boy".

..and I'm fact-oriented, NOT paranoid.

Believing Syria has a nuclear weapons program is paranoid given the lack of proof... right in there with Chemtrails and other nonsense.

Hey Buff:
I guess my answer is - that you are paranoid of the CIA.

So, I can agree that the CIA intervened in another gov't to sway things our way. Is this the thing that you are upset about?

I've always liked this quote from a blogger on this page from awile back. I think he said it best:
"It is both disingenuous and foolhardy to advocate that the U.S. simply stand aside and never try to influence the direction of events in foreign lands. Every nation does this to the greatest extent of its ability. I defy any of those decrying U.S. efforts to stablize a nuclear-armed Pakistan - as an example - to say with a straight face that Russia, China, and other nations don't do everything they can to tilt events their way."

I don't know if this is satisfactory to your dilemma/issue; but I think that it is important to understand why we have and need the CIA and other intelligence agencies. We need to have our own 'tilt'. We need to exert maximum influence to minimize the need for military force. It is not only effective, but it saves lives on both sides of most dilemmas. Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvedor, etc, had recieved a great deal of foreign influence by Russia through Cuban subversives in this region. When/how do we deal with it? You gotta put your foot down at some point and make a stand. Send in the spooks; better them than an issue of our troops. We can always use the troops when all else has failed - or the situation needs to be taken to the next step.

Thanks for going the distance to point out that info concerning the Agency's history in Mexico. I'll read the link the next chance that I get...

plainfacto, I've answered your query on the previous blog:

"//a CIA operative on the order of President Eshevaria (sp?) of Mexico in the 1960s who was a CIA op even as he was the sitting president of his country\\ -Da Buffalo"

" Newly-declassified U.S. government documents and interviews shed new light on what the American Central Intelligence Agency knew--and did not know--about the terrible events of 1968 in Mexico City.

Winston Scott, the CIA's top man in Mexico at the time, was a brash and charming 59-year-old American who operated out of the U.S. Embassy on Reforma. The CIA documents, now publicly available in the U.S. National Archives in Washington, show Scott relied on his friendship with President Gustavo Díaz Ordaz; then-Secretary of Gobernación Luis Echeverría; and other senior officials to inform Washington about the student movement whose demands challenged the government's monopoly on power.

The documents, reported here for the first time, show that Scott recruited a total of 12 agents in the upper echelons of the Mexican government between 1956 and 1969. His informants included two presidents of Mexico, and two men who were later indicted for war crimes."

See The previous blog posting for details from the National Security Archive, George Washington University

Just to show everyone the ...umn... people who call themselves Israeli jews nowadays

Israeli ambassador to the UN Dan Gillerman called Carter a bigot for his diplomacy.

Gillerman called Arabs "animals" in summer of 2006. Would he like to expand the reference to include other races? How many of us exactly are Untermenschen in his view? For Likudniks to call Jimmy Carter a "bigot" is sort of like the Ku Klux Klan denouncing Nelson Mandela for racial insensitivity.

http://www.juancole.com/2008/04/million-palestinians-threatened-with.html

As a Jew, I can only imagine the Muslims, looking at these people with the rituals and trappings, Talis, tefillin et al, of religious Jews and thinking there's something wrong. "They LOOK like Jews, but act like Christians (Of the Zionist, racist persuasion)"

Rev's posting: "How was it fair to force semitic Palestinians to give up their lands, domiciles, stores, schools, furnishings, memories, burial grounds... to European Jews?"

...is right on mark...

I saw that exact scenario while growing up in Brooklyn in the early 60s... The indigenous Palestinian Jews, who had lived there peacably for years were squeezed out of the middle, and emigrating to New York, with the European jews in Israel treating them as 2nd class citizens, and the Arabs etc instinctively knowing that Jewish is a 'tribal' issue, no longer trusting people who had lived there peacably for centuries.

This is what the intent was and is, beyond the oil, in Iraq... Iran also if we get the opportunity... and why there are so many warhawk, israel connected jews amongst the neofasc... cons.

What happened in Palestine was the new model for domination in the middle east.

The west is losing rapidly.

It will break them economically and they know it... hence the endless lies to support the Nazi-like genocide committed there.

The only reason they want nukes... is in defense of THE USA?

It is too bad that the world lacked a Superpower nation that was strong enough at the time, to stop the USA from doing then what it is forbidding other nations from doing now, ie., to collaborate with other nations in order to acquire secrets necessary to develop their own fission and subsequent hydrogen bombs (to save the lives of their citizens - from the USA - as the USA claimed that it had to do in WWII).

The third-world nations mentioned in this piece are experiencing their version of aa American inspired world war, i.e., the USA and Great Britain primarily, behaving as Germany did in order to force its will on other nations, on Muslim and Arab nations in the region who won't capitulate.

Can you blame them for attemtping to follow the example set by the USA in order to save lives (by killing us)!

Where was the moral turpitude in the 1940s for developing nuclear technologies? The current turpitude of the USA today, is of the kind that augurs that we will not destroy our nuclear weapons, however, no one else in the 3rd world (except Israel) should be permitted to have them (even though we share technology with Israel and provide nuclear weapons to Israel at will)! Netanyahu refused to deny that Israel had not received nukes already from the USA!

I smell a rat! Those other nations mentioned in this piece are victims of American duplicity and American threat. If the USA was an honest nation, its enemies instead of fearing the USA would trust the USA for protection - then those outdated nuclear treaties and agreements would make sense - and America's enemies would not be seeking nuclear weapons technology to protect themselves from the USA!

Let's face it folks, the only reason that that our enemies believe that they need nuclear weapons in the first place is because of their fear of one nation alone -the United States of America (The Late 20th and beginning of the 21st Century Republican Reich)!

Yes... Lets look at the facts.

The facts are, you can't hide major weapons systems development.

Here is a page that's often hit upon by various government... entities, when they want to find out about Israel's Tomahawk missile program, the clone's capabilities and it's US/EU/other connections.

http://leighm.net/nws/files/israelsfist.html

It was compiled by someone on a listserv I frequent from publicly available information and posted on my site as general information.

The Navy was looking at it just the other day according to my hit counter.

The pressure must be on about that JINSA spy ring.

If Syria were developing an atomic bomb, it would be easy just as to find out.

Repeat after me now Saddam Al Qaeda WMDS, Syria Bomb, Saddam Al Qaeda WMDS, Syria Bomb

there is no nuclear bomb in syria..how funny u said the same thing to many other contries and all you want is the oil..

Source: The Jewish Viritual Libary

Resolution Date Subject Vote US Vote
89 11/17/50 Expulsion of Palestinians.

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/UN/sctoc.html

SMK80
How was it fair to force semitic Palestinians to give up their lands, domiciles, stores, schools, furnishings, memories, burial grounds... to European Jews?

We had plenty of open space in the USA that would have easily accomodated a couple million Jews, 5 million in Palestine by today's count.

What was the U.N.'s motive (being pushed by Great Britain and the USA), for forcing the indigenous people, men, women and children off of their lands?

Oh that's right, the same thing was done to the native Americans by Great Britain and the USA - it gets easy after awhile doesn't it? Now Iraq has been taken over by the American satrap along with the help of Great Briain!

Wait until your turn comes smk80, it will be interesting to hear what you have to say then! It might happen when your own nation fails to protect you when your house gets repossessed! Comeuppance?

==Well, I don't know why they made it such an available target. Perhaps they were doing it that way to be defiant. Or maybe it was because they had a lot of faith in the Russian anti-air defense sysytem. Or more likely - both. Either way they were convinced of their superiority and the confidence they had in their Russian advisors.==

Like I said, do try to look at the facts. they had no air defenses anywhere near the site. The site was a stand-alone building in the open desert, not even checkpoints, apparently. Less than a year ago, Israel's jets flew all around Damascus, buzzing Asad's palace. Syrians typically don't even turn on their radars, much less fire anything - the military consensus is that they are essentially defenseless against Israeil air incursions, anywhere in their airspace. Russian air defenses like their 300 system, or the newer "Favorit", would generally have no trouble hitting non-stealth aircraft, and air forces that dismiss them, do so at their peril. I would guess Syrian acquisition is quite limited, rarely gets turned on and is centered around their important military installations. Apparently, their "prized" nuclear reactor was not one of them.

==What I wonder still, is WHO provided the money for that project. Couldn't have been cheap. Maybe a Russian gift for testing their system/technology. Perhaps the Russians would even know that it would fail, and they used the Syrians as gunea pigs so as to make the US overly confidant in our own abilities to counter theirs.==

I know you are completely fixated on "The Russians", but you really don't test surface to air missiles by giving it to the Syrians! Most Russian weapons work quite well - probably not as well as ours, but well enough for government work! We look at their stuff from time to time and it is OK.

==I think this is an indirect conflict - thruogh the Syrian proxy - with the Ruskies; a small return of the cold war living on - perhaps? My Mom once told me that 'You don't go to sleep as a communist and wake up a capitalist'. Wise. That is a possible element that needs to be considered - I think..==

I think Russians have much more sophisticated levers to push in their various frictions with the West. Financing a Syrian "target practice reactor", build by the infamous North Korean Yungbyon's Reactor company seem to be a rather remote possibility. It is all very strange, indeed.

Also, consider the overall response - Congress is hopping mad at the Executive hiding all of this for half a year, IAEA is upset that they were not brought in, and Israel is playing dumb - reactor? What reactor?

daBuffalo,

Thank you sir, you know by the time I saw the misspelling, it was too late to make the correction.

The USA is, possibly, on the verge of going through a proverbial paradigm shift. We still have some holdouts in this nation who will never be confused with being either humanitarians or communitarian's! Conquest and usurpation is all that matters to them!

Marge,
I like what you had to say as well. Assuming that you are female and grew up with male siblings or friends, you probably learned in your formative years that males love to tussle, fight and one other thing!

The world needs the female principle to be reinstituted, for some of these old school males will simply keep on killing, taking and raping (women, nations and weaker people)!

//Building it on top of a hill in the middle of the desert - that's equivalent to painting a bull's eye on the roof.\\ -Dimitry

Well, I don't know why they made it such an available target. Perhaps they were doing it that way to be defiant. Or maybe it was because they had a lot of faith in the Russian anti-air defense sysytem. Or more likely - both. Either way they were convinced of their superiority and the confidence they had in their Russian advisors.

What I wonder still, is WHO provided the money for that project. Couldn't have been cheap. Maybe a Russian gift for testing their system/technology. Perhaps the Russians would even know that it would fail, and they used the Syrians as gunea pigs so as to make the US overly confidant in our own abilities to counter theirs.

I think this is an indirect conflict - thruogh the Syrian proxy - with the Ruskies; a small return of the cold war living on - perhaps? My Mom once told me that 'You don't go to sleep as a communist and wake up a capitalist'. Wise. That is a possible element that needs to be considered - I think..

==Furtermore, they did it thinking they were out of striking distance. That's right. They had just installing the latest Russian air defense sytem - state-of-the-art I might add. Apparently, the Russians weren't as hip to US capabilities to penetrate their airspace undected. The Syrians bet the farm on this play - AND THEY LOST FACE AND CREDIBILITY TO THE WHOLE WORLD. And let's thank the Russians for being inept enough to not fully consider our ability to counter their latest systems. ==

Are you done creaming your pants?

If so, you may consider, that Israel has complete air superiority in Syrian air space and uses it on a regular basis. They recently buzzed Assad's palace, to make sure he knew how defenseless he really is. Also, I am sure this is just an overexcited Freudean slip by you, but it was Israel who penetrated Syrian air space, as it has done lots of times in the past, not "US".

Now, once you get your breath back, you may want to light up a ciggie and consider why, knowing that Israel can come a-knocking on their door (any door) at any time, did the Syrians decide to build an exact replica of the world famous North Korean plutonium reactor, probably the best known sattelite profile in the world, in the middle of their easily accessible desert.

Now, Arabs have shown remarkable military stupidity in the past, and Assad, apparently, is no genius, even by regional standards, but this action really takes the cake.

==The Syrians are all about one thing: Destruction of Israel.==

That must be why Israeli jets buzz the Syrian capital on a fairly regular basis - these powerful Syrians must be lulling Israel into a false sense of security - untill the spring the "secret weapon". After all, every military engagement they had with Israel went so well - I am sure during the next war they can hope to go all the way to the Mediterranean.

==It's OK to break sharia law to further Islam.

They do it all the time.==

Then it must be OK for us to break Christian law to spread "democracy".

We do that all the time, too.

==If Syria built a nuke breeder reactor with the help of N Korea, then they could also just as easily teach them how to build a plutonium device/weapon. Unless the preceeding coincidences are too much for you to keep in mind in order to consider how this adds up.==

The question is why? Their action is about equivalent of OBL building a chemical weapons plant in the middle of a Pakistani village, easily visible from drones and sattelites. Whey did they not build it underground? If they were serious at acquiring a plutonium capability, you would build it undeground and disperse it as much as possible. Building it on top of a hill in the middle of the desert - that's equivalent to painting a bull's eye on the roof. I guess a simple explanation would be utter government incompetence - ours surely often is, theirs likely even more so. Still it is very surprising - even more so the Israeli and American behavior, which usually would call for immediate public anouncement of a "justified hit" - PF's ecstatic response here is proof positive of the beneficial PR one can get from something like this.

I would venture a guess that the story behind all of this is much more complex them meets the eye. Why build a replica of Yungbyon in the middle of the desert, with no fuel and no reprocessing facility and no nuclear weapons program to support it? Given our intelligence's "low confidence" or a nuclear weapons program in Syria, the whole excercise seems very weird. Now even Israel is saying that majority of Syrian senior leadership was not aware of this site. So how does something like this get build, a big bull's eye in the desert, sitting high and dry with no fuel and no support infrastructure, waiting to be bombed?

Hey Buffalo,

It's OK to break sharia law to further Islam.

They do it all the time.

Just like the suicide murderers do.

Just like those people that jumped for joy during the 9/11 attacks caught by CNN cameras.

Just like the terrorists that lob rockets into Israeli towns.

And just like those nice people that have constantly attacked Israeli preschools.

Well, I guess those folks should have a reactor that is used for making plutonium too. Hey, where was the turbine and generator for that peaceful power? Did you see any steam supply system in those videos??

ANYONE that has been critical of the Israeli airstrike against the Syrian nuclear facility has some baggage --

Well let's see...

They love world peace?

They believe Syria is a responsible citizen of the world capable of supporting a free and open democracy?

Syria would never support terror organizations?

Syria would never start a war with it's neighbor.

Give it a rest Israel bashers. The Syrians are all about one thing: Destruction of Israel. Israel has every right to defend itself..EVERY right to defend itself. Get over it. Never Again. Remember. Never again.

Hey - Da Buff

Syria has a bad sense of timing to build something of this order - didn't they? Is that the reason - or what? We didn't build it - they did. And who persuaded them to pick this most opportune time to do this?

Furtermore, they did it thinking they were out of striking distance. That's right. They had just installing the latest Russian air defense sytem - state-of-the-art I might add. Apparently, the Russians weren't as hip to US capabilities to penetrate their airspace undected. The Syrians bet the farm on this play - AND THEY LOST FACE AND CREDIBILITY TO THE WHOLE WORLD. And let's thank the Russians for being inept enough to not fully consider our ability to counter their latest systems.
YIPPEE KI -YAAY!

Plainfacto... Do you want oil from the Middle East without the people there living as a 2nd world? Then they need nuclear power. It's just that simple... want their oil? Then they need to have other energy sources.

Just because the US government tends to be infested over the last 50 years or more or so with warmongering lying cretins does not mean that the Syrian leaders are such, and Iran... How many times do their top clerics have to say that nuclear weapons violate sharia laws before everyone here realizes that Iran doesn't have Pat Robertson and other anti-christic demagogues advising the political leaders? No Jim and Tammy show either.

Judging other nations motivations by your own government's fallibilities is a suckers game.

...and WE'RE expected to be the suckers, by the crop of cretins currently running the US government.

Of all the things that Syria could choose to do with their time - and what do they do? Build a soccer stadium to play N Korea? No. Mediate with Hamas and Hezballah to cool their jets - after all 'hey guys, we are right in the middle of your war with Israel; don't wipe us out too'. Nope. No such luck...

At least, one would think they would do SOMETHING to remain neutral. But no - what do they do? Push a great big bug up Israel's butt by building a plutonium plant authored by N Korea - no less. And did Syria scream about their need for a nuclear-powered future? Of course! RIght at the time when there is a war raging, thast's pretty stupid! Especially since Israel already destroyed a nuke plant in Iraq when Hussein was still in power. Thr Russians just kept purring on in their ears that it would be necessary to do this to further damage relations with the West and Israel. Yeah, that's pretty cleaver...

You remember the N Koreans - right? The guys who built a plutonium device and set it off in their own countries test site awhile back - y'all remember that gig don't ya? Or did you choose to have mass selective amnesia?

And you dumbasses are still trying -SOMEHOW - to turn this around and blame the US for this too? I must say, that you are crafty, but you are also counting upon the ignorqance of your audience.

If Syria built a nuke breeder reactor with the help of N Korea, then they could also just as easily teach them how to build a plutonium device/weapon. Unless the preceeding coincidences are too much for you to keep in mind in order to consider how this adds up.

More half-truths bordering on nonsense: "Note that EB & his stooges at the IAEA had nothing to say about N.Korea!"

Maybe it's because there's nothing going on to condemn them for?

Is that too simple for you?

OTHOH You must consider that South Korea was OUTRAGED, because the US allowed N Korea to ship Russian weapons re-supplies to Ethiopia because they're fighting our dirty little war in Somalia for us with assistance from DynCorp.

EVERYONE knows all about THAT slimy little back-door arms trade deal...

Did You?

Dr. Khan was, and may still be, a CIA asset.

Try again Dave.

Arkin writes:

" ... the best road is transparency and accountability ..."

I agree. Now how does the IAEA get Syria onto that road, Arkin??? You seemed to have avoided that part in your plana of the "what to do" entirely.

" ... But because of the intelligence failures in the past -- and because of the exaggeration that accompanies the atom -- the goal of non-proliferation is undermined and a lot of people are confused about the truth."

What???? I don't follow how intelligence failures undermine non-proliferation attempts. Someone explain it to me, please. Because Arkin sure didn't!

==I say may not be true because it is important to understand that the intelligence -- both American and Israeli -- is limited and even elliptical, and though I don't doubt that the two countries cooperate on weapons of mass destruction -- Hezbollah's main long-range missile used against Israel in the 2006 war was a Syrian/North Korean hybrid==

Why exaggerate more? Hizbolah's crude SHORT range missiles (no, binky they don't even qualify as medium range) are certainly NOT weapons of mass destruction - that's a category reserved for nuclear weapons and sometimes gets applied to chem/bio weapons.

Further, it was pointed out numerous times that this "nuclear site" had no reprocessing plant, which is what you need to make the plutonium into a usable material for a bomb. No fuel was in evidence, either, without which any plant is an expensive prop. Additionally, this whole incident is very murky, as independent observers voiced surprise that Syria would build an exact replica of Yungbyon in the middle of the desert. Why would they do it? To have it bombed? Very strange...

skippy meadows demonstrates how leftist simpletons simply don't understand that El Baradei & his buddy Dr. Khan in Pakistan are both trying to facilitate an Islamic Bomb in the hands of anti-Israel nutjobs---pure and simple. That's why they gave this terrorist-wannabe & the IAEA a Nobel Peace Prize, just to destroy the brand further! Plus to mau-mau the flak-catchers in the Bush Administration.

This time the gun is smoking. Saddam got his WMD that he didn't destroy out of Iraq to Syria [& Lebanon?] but the MSM needs the narrative that the BDS libtards live on.

Note that EB & his stooges at the IAEA had nothing to say about N.Korea!

El Baradei is such a retardo that he should be kept in the IAEA slot just to demonstrate the total uselessness of the UN!

Skippy is a prime specimen of cloud-cuckoo "thinking" that pervades the Pollyanna wing of the ultra-left Pinkos.

The argument that countries like Iran and Syria lack responsibility when its comes to nukes is not viable. This is the view of the western world who wants to stay as top dog. Put youself in Irans position, this is a country with great history and civilisation. The people of Iran are proud patriots and they can not accept being bullied around by anyone. Everyday in the news you hear about an Iran attack. How would you feel if Iran sailed its navy close to your shores yet you send fleet after fleet to the persian gulf. When you take a balanced view, you can see how irrational the arguments put foward by israelis and the western world are. If you want OIL ask nicely and you get it at MARKET value. There are no freebees for you in IRAN.

Skip Meadows ids correct.

As I mentioned previously, WWII was Fascist nation fighting Fascist nation for territory and economic power.

Any other interpretation is just rationalization, denial, and lying to oneself.

One of them, Germany, just happened to have more murderous nutcase that the others. A nutcase who didn't care that the world knew about the genocide of everyone who wasn't considered (incorrectly) Aryan.

The US had already cut a deal with Stalin to take Japan (because the US has always preferred shedding someone else's blood) and there were Russian troops on the Sakalin peninsula ready to go, when someone in the US government said something to the effect of:

"Wait a minute! If we do that we'll be giving the Russians a territorial jump on the Pacific Rim and ALL THOSE ISLANDS we just took from the Japanese!

What WERE we thinking!"

So it ended up that the US Bombed Bombed Bombed BombedBombed Japan.

Visualize John McCain when you read that last sentence, and shudder, because that's what he'd like to do to most of the Middle East if they don't conform to the demands of the Western industrialized nation and their organizational lackey, The UN.

Imagine the world today if Hitler's Germany or Tojo's Japan had atomic bombs before the United States did? Imagine the world if Iran or Syria had atomic bombs and Israel did not???

It's nice of the US government to make the presumption that Syria HAS a weapons program at all.

I'm sure it's just as robust as Saddam Hussein's non-existent program.

Just ask "Wolfie"... He's in charge of the State department's Arms Control department and He KNOWS, FER SURE!

Just as surely as he knew about Iraqi WMDs.

What WOULD America do without it's hypothetical boogeymen? We'd finger each other as terrorists and kill ourselves off...

By the way, Rev, if you're reading, I borrowed a quote from something you said previously (with a minor spelling correction, Buchanan from Buchan)and used it as the weekly quote for my blog header:

""The good thing about most of the characters in this 7-year wrecking crew is that they are far enough along in age that they won't be able to mount another campaign, say thirty or thirty-five years from now. That was just about how long it took for Cheney, Rumsfool and others from the days of the Nixon Administration and later the Reagan administration to make a combeback and please include Pat Buchanan in with the bunch! And how did it end, as usual with similar lies, killing, war and humiliation? .....Their elegy will be as follows: "This generation beat their wives & children, bombed and invaded nations, ignored the common good of all people and the rule-of-law; their solution to every problem was to beat or kill someone." And guess what their solution failed!" -The Rev, April 25, 2008 12:08 AM, blog.washingtonpost.com/earlywarning/"

Bin Netanyahu.., not associated with Yahoo Incorporated...

was asked point blank whether the Israeli Air Force attacked Syria... or not! The punk responded with a 'wry grin'. I really wish America would stop giving my tax dollars to Israel.

And to boot the above incident happened not too long after N-yahu made derogatory comments about an American President, Jimmy Carter. The man has gall. Why didn't Bush chastise him for speaking so condescendingly about an American President?

It is because certain individuals who are a part of America's 51st state, are more in bed with officials in Washington DC, than current Washington DC officials are with former Washington DC officials, citizens and Presidents.

The former have more to do with shaping American policy than some American citizens and American officials - this is dangerous!

This gives new meaning to the term, globalization, let's call it the globalization of politicians = American conservatives aligned with international conservatives vs. American citizens!

Everyone knows that Israel, through US Jewish organisations and personnel in sensitive positions, shapes US foreign policy in the Middle East. Good luck to it but any so-called intelligence about an Arab country potentially hostile to Israel simply has no credibility.

Invariably young American men and women and the US tax payer end up fighting and funding Israel's wars and alienating the entire Islamic world.

In the decades-old war between Syria and Israel, the notion that one can use the term "preemptive" to discribe an act, is hyperboilc and pure hubris. This is utter political trash, not reporting.

I also believe the US and UN sometimes overstep boundaries when it comes to telling other countries what they can and cannot do. However I believe this is a necessity in today's political climate. People ask why can the United States have nuclear weapons while other countries can not? Well the fact of the matter is we developed them out of necessity to fight an enemy who attacked us first over 50 years ago. To most people the thought of nuclear weapons is just a thought; they are disconnected from the tangible destruction they can cause. As Ben Parker so famously put it, with great power comes great responsibility and responsibility is something I feel Syria, Iran, and North Korea all lack.

All I want to say is that firstly the US must promise to give its own nukes before it trys to stop other countries. Who is the US to tell nations like Iran what to do. 'I'm white and superior' I thought that was a thing of the past. I hope Iran gets nukes so that it can not be pushed around by crappy little states like Israel. I think Israel will be attacked sooner or later, The only way to stop this is to get palistine and israel to merge and live in peace, call it israel or palistine, it doesnt matter.

About the end of WWII, there still remains the belief that the atomic bombing saved American lives by avoiding a bloody confrontation with a sucidal enemy on the sucidal enemy's turf. Though the same thing cant be said for the wives and children of the enemy.
I see United States in actively telling other countries what to do as a way for it to maintain their image as a superpower. It is like a political showbiz where the one who speaks the loudest/most gets the attention. Afterall, the United States has an image to maintain. US can choose not to do the showbiz but that would allow countries like Russia or China to pitch their own versions of good-vs-evil (Good-vs-evil idea from Naom Chompsky) and win the hearts of the world from the 'west'.
Nuclear weapons is a very dangerous thing. For now, i see it being used as a political bomb to ensure the survival of a regime -- until it is actually being exploded(irony). The world has to actively manage this because such things cannot be left to the opinions of different cultures and idealogies. I say this because if others are like me, i sometimes dream of a major calamity in my school so that exams would be cancelled or my disasterous exam paper destroyed somehow.

It should be troubling to the world that the US and Israel conspired together to ignore international law and violate the border boundaries of a sovereign country and bombed its property. The matter of Syria's alleged nuclear factory should have bee reported to the UN or IAEA for an investigation and resolution. Instead, the US oked Israel's plan to bomb Syria, and makes Israel, with its population of 6 or 7 million Jews, the highway patrol of the Middle East, which has about a billion arabs.

Iran and arab countries should get out of the UN and IAEA and work openly on getting nuclear bombs, same as Israel. The argument that Israel is the only country in the Middle East trustworthy enough to have nuclear weapond is ludicrous. Israel is the only country in the Middle East to to freguently makes the news for either violating border boundaries, land stealing, killing Palestinian civilians, bombing its arab neighbors, or staging a pre-emptive strike.

Iran and the Arab countries should never allow 6 or 7 million Jews to control almost a billion Arabs. It makes no sense!!!!

Preemption did achieve something. It set back Syria's nuclear ambitions by at least a year. In addition, it caused financial pain to the Syrian government who financed the project. Finally, Israel effectively created a deterrent to Syria and other neighbors looking to embark on a nuclear program.

Israel should take the same approach with Iran.

boltsandnuts, I'm not ever going to come to your house and try to sell your cookies. I'm afraid I might get shot.

Oh man, I love the inclusion of that classic "Fool me once" statement in the comments here. Funny thing on this is, I'm just reminded of that Israeli nuclear spying conviction that was in the news this week (albeit concerning actions several decades ago)... spying on the United States. That's what U.S. courts said happened, right? Pot calling kettle black?

Anything to keep my yard clean and safe is always good for me and my family. Israel did just what they need to keep them safe and not to wait for its neighbors' help who may not even lift a finger to keep Israel's yards safe. When it comes to choices, neighbors would always to chose to get out of the way to avoid being dragged into somebody else's problem. So why the heck should Israel and the US wait for somebody else to do the work for them if they can do it and be assured of their nation's safety?

the problem with people like skip is that they don't understand the world beyond his own values and experience. America has made mistakes but the fact that the nations that have access to nuclear weapons are largely responsible about it is an accident of history and value specific. i wish the world luck cause it;s guys like this who run the UN.

Only the dead have seen the end of war.

William M. Arkin has pointed to the right target, and pointed to it accurately. In a climate of bluster and fear, confusion and very poor intelligence, he has made a point worth listening to.

Let them kill each other and have their god sort it out. Hey, they worship the same god and must kill each other over their views of him. I personally have had enough. My hopes are that they wipe each other out and we as a race can concentrate on meaningfull matters like feeding the hungry and saving our dying planet.

You left wingers are gutless and stuck on stupid.

Do you really think bombing an unfinished reactor does nothing to stop the proliferation of Nucular Weapons?

Of course it does! It sends the following message: "Go ahead, spend the millions and millions it takes to build a reactor, we'll just take it out before you can ever use it."

That's the way you deal with rabble. Make them afraid of us. Makes sense to me.

Roy Warden, aka "The Notorious Mexican Flag Burner"

520 881-0535
roywarden@cox.net

As I have commented on numerous occasions, Neither Israel or Syria can use nuclear weapons on each other without suffering collateral damage themselves.Nuclear weapons are Weapons of uncontrolled mass destruction. An attack on Israel would also take out the Palestinian, and part if not all of some neighboring countries. Let us not forget that Jerusalem would also be destroyed, which is sacred to Islam, as well as Christians and Jew. For a Muslim, it would be like bombing Medina and Mecca. I think the supposed attack was designed as a disinformation campaign against Syria and North Korea. The reason it reemerged as an issue was to counter Carter's Peace feelers to Syria and Hamas. The Neoconservatives are rearing their ugly heads again.

Fool me once, shame on--shame on you. Fool me--don't get fooled again.

Let's just attack anywhere I say there are WMD's. Woohoo! Global war with no end!

The appelation king, would more appropriately fit King George(Bush), supreme ruler of Erus and the Universe, and apparent successor to the late King George III of England - he would also send his military around the world in order to force his will on other people, not the colonists, the native Americans.

The motivation of all nations who are seeking to acquire WMDs is a reaction to the innocuous, lawless and aggressive behavior of the USA, and its historical ability of manipulating the U.N. given its power in the UN Security Council.

The USA has taught the world over half a century now, that once you join the nuclear club - you get respect. The USA does not want certain nations to have any power or respect! When will the USA give us its nukes? Answer: Never - the whole world will be blown apart before it ever will give up its nukes! We are developing a more sophisticated generation of nukes as we speak!

Skip's comment is well taken, but what's going to happen when a nuke is exploded in the middle east, probably on Isreal and probably by Iran. Hillary just said this week that we would "obliterate" them. Also, don't let my father and uncles, who were on ships in the Pacific, ready to invade the Japanese homeland that exploding the nuke was "unnecessary."

You forgot to mention in your article that Syria and Israel are still technically at war. So a pre-emptive stike can't be compared to other situations or countries.

The USA dropped atomic bombs on Japan because it saved millions of American lives AND millions of lives of the Japanese.

Anyone who says it was for "political expedience" is sorely uneducated.

I have always wondered why we in the West think that we are the only ones who should have nukes? How is it that we feel so superior that we tell other countries that nukes are too dangerous and 3rd world countries can't be trusted with them? We in the US are the only country who has ever used them and YES, I know the arguments for why we did it. However, I think history has shown that that decision was wrong and not necessary for the successful conclusion of WW II. It was done for Political expedience and not military necessity. The people who have the nukes now of course want to belong to that exclusive club and keep everyone else out but it ain't gonna happen. you cannot uninvent the things so we must live with them. I inderstand the danger of a bunch of radical muslim terrorists getting hold of them or even some common home grown terrorists. However, I don't think that any country has the right to tell another soverign country that they can or can't have something. I think this is a prime example of one of the major problems with the US in the past 50 years. We need to stay out of other peoples business until they involve us and then we can get all belligerent and military if necessary. I wish the darn things had never existed but they do. Trying to stop them is like trying to tell the wind not to blow.

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