Virtual Sandbox > Open Forum II

The Rogue Nation in the Middle East

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Jimmy:
Speaking in an interview broadcast on CBS, President Barack Obama alleged that “all the evidence” available to him showed that Iran’s civilian nuclear program was secretly aimed at developing nuclear weapons.

The claim was just the latest in a long line of similar allegations by the Obama Administration and, as with the previous claims, did not come with any details on what all this evidence was, nor any explanation for why all the evidence available to the American public, up to and including the most recent National Intelligence Estimate on Iran, points in exactly the opposite direction.
In fact, less than two months ago Obama’s own spokesman Robert Gibbs claimed Iran didn’t even have the ability to enrich uranium beyond 20 percent, let alone to rich to weapons grade, which would be above 90 percent. Just days after Gibbs made this statement he insisted that the US would not rule out attacking Iran.
In addition to the usual unsourced allegations, President Obama reiterated the repeated false claims from the State Department that the international community was “unified” against Iran, a claim which flies in the face of opposition to the US position by China, Russia, Turkey, Brazil, and other UN Security Council members.

THEREFORE, it is extremely unfortunate for VFW members to be subjected to a propaganda piece in our national magazine, portraying Iran as, somehow, being a threat to the United States. Iran hasn't attacked anyone in the Middle East. The aggressor in the Middle East is our "ally", which is a nuclear power who has not signed the Non Proliferation Treaty. There should be a cover story in the VFW Magazine on that rogue nation.  >:(jQuery(document).ready(function($){jQuery(function(){jQuery("#msg_19236").css("min-height", "50px");jQuery("#msg_19236").hoverIntent(function(){jQuery("#msg_19236").css("overflow-y", "hidden");jQuery(".sharethis_19236").delay(100).fadeIn();},function(){jQuery(".sharethis_19236").delay(300).fadeOut();});});});Tweet

Jimmy:
One of the more remarkable features about the endless drumbeat of alarm about Iran is that it pays virtually no attention to Iran's actual capabilities, and rests on all sorts of worst case assumptions about Iranian behavior. Consider the following facts, most of them courtesy of the 2010 edition of The Military Balance, published annually by the prestigious International Institute for Strategic Studies in London:
GDP: United States -- 13.8 trillion
Iran --$ 359 billion  (U.S. GDP is roughly 38 times greater than Iran's)
Defense spending (2008):
U.S. -- $692 billion 
Iran -- $9.6 billion (U.S. defense budget is over 70 times larger than Iran)
Military personnel: 
U.S.--1,580,255 active; 864,547 reserves (very well trained)
Iran--   525,000 active; 350,000 reserves (poorly trained)
Combat aircraft:
U.S. -- 4,090 (includes USAF, USN, USMC and reserves)
Iran -- 312 (serviceability questionable)
Main battle tanks: 
U.S. -- 6,251 (Army + Marine Corps)
Iran -- 1,613 (serviceability questionable)
Navy:
U.S. -- 11 aircraft carriers, 99 principal surface combatants, 71 submarines, 160 patrol boats, plus large auxiliary fleet
Iran -- 6 principal surface combatants, 10 submarines, 146 patrol boats
Nuclear weapons:  
U.S. -- 2,702 deployed, >6,000 in reserve
Iran -- Zero

One might add that Iran hasn't invaded anyone since the Islamic revolution, although it has supported a number of terrorist organizations and engaged in various forms of covert action.  The United States has also backed terrorist groups and conducted covert ops during this same period, and attacked a number of other countries, including Panama, Grenada, Serbia, Sudan, Somalia, Iraq (twice), and Afghanistan.

By any objective measure, therefore, Iran isn't even on the same page with the United States in terms of latent power, deployed capabilities, or the willingness to use them. Indeed, Iran is significantly weaker than Israel, which has roughly the same toal of regular plus reserve military personnel and vastly superior training. Israel also has more numerous and modern armored and air capabilities and a sizeable nuclear weapons stockpile of its own. Iran has no powerful allies, scant power-projection capability, and little ideological appeal. Despite what some alarmists think, Iran is not the reincarnation of Nazi Germany and not about to unleash some new Holocaust against anyone.  
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