preemptive strike on Iran

[nicky g]

Regardless of the rights and wrongs, I'm not sure it would be possible. As I understand it, Iraq had one major reactor complex, whereas Iran's nuclear work is carried out at a variety of different locations, amongst them hidden and underground installations.

[Felix_Nietsche]

but that if attacked would undoubtedly unify (the younger Iranians) behind that government.
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They probably would get angry with the USA but their anger takes a backseat to US interests.

Iran has been supporting the insurgency financially and is responsible for the new generation of road bombs that uses shaped-charges to pierce the armor of the USA armored Humvees. A lot of US troops have been killed by bombs made and designed from Iran. Time for some payback. The Iranians see Bush as a weak because he has allowed these war-like actions to go unchecked.

Another course of action is to inact a naval blockade of Iran. Without their oil revenues, their govt will be unable to finance the Iraqi insurgency, continued financing of their nuke program will be difficult if not impossible, and their govt will be severely weakened. But this will mean $80 a barrel oil and evidently too many American politicians are afraid of the reactions of the American public. I'm willing to pay for higher gasoline prices if it means we can get back at Iran.

[nicky g]

"Iran has been supporting the insurgency financially and is responsible for the new generation of road bombs that uses shaped-charges to pierce the armor of the USA armored Humvees. A lot of US troops have been killed by bombs made and designed from Iran."

Evidence? There was talk a while back that Shi'i groups in southern Iraq were using bomb technology passed to them, via Hizballah, by Iran against British troops (it later turned out to be wrong), but this is the first I've heard of the canard that Shi'i Iran is arming anti-Shi'i insurgents in a long time.

[Felix_Nietsche]

Evidence? There was talk a while back that Shi'i groups in southern Iraq were using bomb technology passed to them, via Hizballah, by Iran against British troops (it later turned out to be wrong), but this is the first I've heard of the canard that Shi'i Iran is arming anti-Shi'i insurgents in a long time.
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This took me two minutes using google. The BBC has been going into overdrive to avoid publishing stories like these. But the evidence keeps growing to the point where no responsible news organization can ignore this story.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8829929/
http://regimechangeiran.blogspot.com...s-in-iraq.html
http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/1006/dailyUpdate.html
http://www.globalsecurity.org/milita...6-33bd4158.htm

[Meech]

To Israel I say -- Let 'em rip skip.

Nobody else in the world (least of all the UN) has the balls to do anything about it.

[nicky g]

"This took me two minutes using google."

It shows. Let's take the most credible of your links, the Christian Science Monitor. It refers to the story I was talking about, which related to Shi'i groups and British soldiers, not the Sunni insurgency or US troops, and has since been discredited. The other three all refer to the same one-off story from August that nothing has been heard of since and is sourced from "coalition officials" and such credible non-ideologues as Michael Ledeen without any actual evidence being presented.

[Felix_Nietsche]

and has since been discredited.
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Evidence?

Also since you have not address the other links I posted then I assume you accept these as credible stories.

[BluffTHIS!]

If Iran wants the technology to make this, then Israel should share it with them this way.

[nicky g]

"Also since you have not address the other links I posted then I assume you accept these as credible stories."

Er, yes I did.

[nicky g]

Revealed: IRA bombs killed eight British soldiers in Iraq
Independent on Sunday, The, Oct 16, 2005 by Greg Harkin, Francis Elliott
new


Eight British soldiers killed during ambushes in Iraq were the victims of a highly sophisticated bomb first used by the IRA, The Independent on Sunday can reveal.

The soldiers, who were targeted by insurgents as they travelled through the country, died after being attacked with bombs triggered by infra-red beams while on patrol. The bombs were developed by the IRA in collusion with intelligence services more than a decade ago.

This contradicts the British government's claims that Iran's Revolutionary Guard is helping Shia insurgents to make the devices.


The Independent on Sunday can also reveal that the bombs and the firing devices used to kill the soldiers, as well as two private security guards, were initially created by the UK security services as part of a counter- terrorism strategy at the height of the troubles in the early 1990s.

According to security sources, the technology for the bombs used in the attacks, which were developed using technology from photographic flash units, was employed by the IRA some 15 years ago after Irish terrorists were given advice by British agents.

'We are seeing technology in Iraq today that it took the IRA 20 years to develop,' said a military intelligence officer with experience in Northern Ireland.

He revealed that one trigger used in a recent Iraqi bombing was a three- way device, combining a command wire, a radio signal and an infra-red beam " a technique perfected by the IRA.

Britain claims that the bomb-making expertise now being used in southern Iraq was passed on by Iran's Revolutionary Guard through Hizbollah, the revolutionary Islamist group it sponsors in Lebanon.

But a former agent who infiltrated the IRA told The Independent on Sunday that the technology reached the Middle East through the IRA's co-operation with Palestinian groups. In turn, some of these groups used to be sponsored by Saddam Hussein and his Baath party.

The former agent added: 'The photographic flashgun unit was replaced with infra-red and then coded infra-red, but basically they were variations of the same device. The technology came from the security forces, but the IRA always shared its equipment and expertise with Farc guerrillas in Colombia, the Basque separatists, ETA, and Palestinian groups. There is no doubt in my mind that the technology used to kill our troops in Basra is the same British technology from a decade ago.'

Even more alarming is the claim that the devices were supplied by the security services to an agent inside the Provisionals as part of a dangerous game of double bluff.

According to investigators examining past collusion between the security forces and paramilitaries in Northern Ireland, members of the shadowy army undercover outfit, the Force Research Unit, and officers from MI5 learned in the early 1990s that a senior IRA member in south Armagh was working to develop bombs triggered by light beams. They decided the risks would be diminished if they knew what technology was being used.

'The thinking of the security forces was that if they were intimate with the technology, then they could develop counter- measures, thereby staying one step ahead of the IRA,' a senior source close to the inquiry explained. 'It may seem absurd that the security services were supplying technology to the IRA, but the strategy was sound.

'Unfortunately no one could see back then that this technology would be used to kill British soldiers thousands of miles away in a different war.'

The agent with the Provisionals was allowed to travel to New York, where he met CIA officials and was able to purchase the equipment. But the Police Ombudsman in Northern Ireland, Nuala O'Loan, has discovered that this strategy backfired disastrously.

t A dossier naming the alleged killers of the six Red Caps murdered by an Iraqi mob more than two years ago is being handed over to Iraqi judges this week. The six members of the Royal Military Police were butchered to death in June 2003 in an Iraqi police station after being attacked by about 300 tribesmen.

Two mothers of British soldiers killed in Iraq are to stage a 24-hour 'peace camp' opposite Downing Street on Tuesday.

IOS article
Also note again that that article referred principally to a small number of attacks on British soldiers in the south of the country by Shi'i groups.