[Ter]

Russia is the one that is doing the provoking. It's not that I want a nuclear war but I also wouldn't let them push us around either. They just need to back off.

I do not see how Russia is America's enemy.
It is just a hype based on nothing.

Trump is too much of a coward to stand up to the Russians.

I am horrified at your lack of respect towards your Commander in Chief.
Is that what they taught you when you were in the army ?
Or are you just making political statements ?

He is not a level headed guy but at his core, he is an insecure coward that when confronted with a power like Russia who is a militarily stronger opponent than say Iran, he quickly backs down like the insecure coward and bully that he is.

I think you suffer from Trump Derangement Syndrome. Are you a member of the Democrat Party or something ?

But Trump certainly seems to like to pick on countries that are significantly militarily weaker, like Iran.

Iran has taken Ameruca's embassy personnel hostage, Iran calls your country The Big Satan and tramples on your flag.
Iran has a despicable regime and I applaud Trump's attitude and steadfast engagement towards that enemy.

[Politics_Observer]

@Ter

I am no longer in the service, i am now a civilian (I am a war veteran but I have a right to express my political opinions publicly given I am now a civilian and no longer in the services). When I was in the service in Afghanistan, Obama was my Commander in Chief and I was tremendously proud to have him as my CiC.

Of course, while in the service, I would simply keep my mouth shut if I didn't have anything good to say about whoever was Commander in Chief and I wouldn't be posting here or have any social media accounts if I was still in given you pretty much cannot express your political opinions publicly and must remain apolitical.

Moreover, I liked Obama while I was serving though he could have backed up his Syrian "red line" comment. He made a mistake by not backing up his talk. I mean, I don't like Iran or anything, but I am also not somebody to go around using American power to pick on or bully weaker countries either. I don't know why Trump pulled out of the Iran deal as that just made things worse.

[Zionist Nationalist]

@Ter

I am no longer in the service, i am now a civilian (I am a war veteran but I have a right to express my political opinions publicly given I am now a civilian and no longer in the services). When I was in the service in Afghanistan, Obama was my Commander in Chief and I was tremendously proud to have him as my CiC.

Of course, while in the service, I would simply keep my mouth shut if I didn't have anything good to say about whoever was Commander in Chief and I wouldn't be posting here or have any social media accounts if I was still in given you pretty much cannot express your political opinions publicly and must remain apolitical.

Moreover, I liked Obama while I was serving though he could have backed up his Syrian "red line" comment. He made a mistake by not backing up his talk. I mean, I don't like Iran or anything, but I am also not somebody to go around using American power to pick on or bully weaker countries either. I don't know why Trump pulled out of the Iran deal as that just made things worse.

Iran deal was a shit deal that given Iran everything they wanted Iranian regime is sponsoring terrorism around the middle east and have no problem slaughtering their own people. this regime is illegitimate it should be sanctioned and boycotted until they are overthrown

[Politics_Observer]

@Zionist Nationalist

Iran deal was a shit deal that given Iran everything they wanted Iranian regime is sponsoring terrorism around the middle east and have no problem slaughtering their own people. this regime is illegitimate it should be sanctioned and boycotted until they are overthrown.

Ohh there is no question that Iran is a state sponsor of terrorism or that they would have no qualms about slaughtering their own people. Still, I am not so sure if Trump's action of pulling out of the Iran deal was a good idea. You can't trust anybody completely in the Middle East. I do trust the Israelis more than anybody else in the Middle East, but I wouldn't trust anybody completely in that part of the world.

That being said, when you look at the Turks, even though they are backstabbers, at least they had the balls to shoot down a Russian plane that invaded their airspace repeatedly. The Turks had warned the Russians beforehand and the Russians didn't heed their warnings. So, the Turks at least backed up their talk and shot down a Russian plane when their warnings went unheeded. I can respect that. And the Turks don't even have the kind of military power at their disposal that the US has. At least they had the courage and the balls to stand up for themselves and mean what they say.

[Politics_Observer]

@Zionist Nationalist @Ter

We have an old saying here in America. It goes "Walk softly but carry a big stick." It means, don't go around talking big and bad or messing with other people or causing trouble but if somebody messes with you or causes trouble with you, you stand up for yourself. That's how the US or any country really needs to conduct itself. Trump is somebody who doesn't walk softly as he should be. Plus, Trump should have NEVER abandoned our Kurdish allies to the Turks, Russians and the Assad regime.

[Ter]

Iran Guard commander threatens ‘terrorist’ US Navy after Trump’s tweet

US president had threatened to sink Iranian vessels after ships harassed US warship; escalation comes a day after surprise Iranian satellite launch



TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — The leader of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard warned on Thursday that he has ordered his forces to potentially target the US Navy after US President Donald Trump’s tweet the previous day threatening to sink Iranian vessels.

Iran also summoned the Swiss ambassador, who looks out for America’s interests in the country, to complain about Trump’s threat coming amid months of escalating tensions between the two countries.

While the coronavirus pandemic temporarily paused those tensions, Iran has since begun pushing back against the Trump administration’s maximum pressure policy both militarily and diplomatically. The Guard on Wednesday launched Iran’s first military satellite, unveiling a previously secret space program.

Speaking to state television Thursday, Guard chief Hossein Salami warned that his forces “will respond any action with a decisive, effective and quick counteraction.”

“We have ordered our naval units at sea that if any warships or military units from the naval force of America’s terrorist army wants to jeopardize our commercial vessels or our combat vessels, they must target those (American) warships or naval units,” Salami said.

The latest dispute comes after the US Navy said last week that 11 Guard naval gunboats had carried out “dangerous and harassing approaches” to American Navy and Coast Guard vessels in the Persian Gulf. The Americans said they used a variety of nonlethal means to warn off the Iranian boats, which eventually left. Iran, meanwhile, accused the US of sparking the incident, without offering evidence for the claim. Speaking to state television Thursday, Guard chief Hossein Salami warned that his forces “will respond any action with a decisive, effective and quick counteraction.”

“We have ordered our naval units at sea that if any warships or military units from the naval force of America’s terrorist army wants to jeopardize our commercial vessels or our combat vessels, they must target those (American) warships or naval units,” Salami said.

The latest dispute comes after the US Navy said last week that 11 Guard naval gunboats had carried out “dangerous and harassing approaches” to American Navy and Coast Guard vessels in the Persian Gulf. The Americans said they used a variety of nonlethal means to warn off the Iranian boats, which eventually left. Iran, meanwhile, accused the US of sparking the incident, without offering evidence for the claim.

Iran has had tense encounters at sea for years with the US Navy in the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz, through which 20 percent of all oil passes. The US has patrolled the area to protect global shipping for decades, something Iran describes as akin to it patrolling the Gulf of Mexico.

Trump on Wednesday, facing a collapsing global energy market and the coronavirus pandemic amid his reelection campaign, tweeted out a warning to Iran, saying that he ordered the Navy to “shoot down and destroy any and all Iranian gunboats if they harass our ships at sea.”

“We don’t want their gunboats surrounding our boats, and traveling around our boats and having a good time,” Trump told reporters Wednesday evening at the White House. “We’re not going to stand for it. … They’ll shoot them out of the water.”

The International Crisis Group, noting the tensions, urged both countries to create a deconfliction hotline to avoid a possible military confrontation.

“In the absence of a major diplomatic breakthrough, an indirect military communications channel could go some way toward ensuring, at least, that a single incident will not spark a wider conflagration,” it said in a report Thursday.

Iran in the past has rejected idea of a hotline.

Meanwhile, the Guard surprised analysts by sending a satellite into space on Wednesday from a previously unused launch pad and with a new system. While Iran stresses its program is peaceful, Western nations fear such a program will help Iran build intercontinental ballistic missiles.

State television on Thursday said Iran received signals from the satellite, without elaborating. While American officials have not acknowledged that the satellite reached orbit, open-source data from the US military suggested the “Noor,” or “Light” satellite was now orbiting the Earth.

Uzi Rubin, fellow at the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security and the founder of Israel’s missile defense program, said the launch showed the Guard’s “further gain in wresting for power and in building its own state within a state.”

“The very act of launching a military satellite in the midst of the coronavirus crisis that is affecting Iran too is a statement of self confidence and perseverance by the ayatollahs to the West but mainly to its own population,” Rubin said.

France said Thursday that it strongly condemns the launch and called on Tehran to “immediately halt any activity related to the development of ballistic missiles designed to be able to carry nuclear weapons, including space launch vehicles.”

“Given that the technology used for space launches is very similar to that used for ballistic missile launches, this launch directly contributes to the extremely troubling progress made by Iran in its ballistic missile program,” France said.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova meanwhile rejected assertions that the launch violated the UN Security Council’s resolution on Iran, noting that Iran has the right to develop its space program for peaceful purposes.

Later on Thursday, Iranian general Amir Ali Hajizadeh, the head of the Guard’s aerospace division, told state TV that ground stations in Iran are communicating with the satellite, which takes about a week to reach its full capacity. He said. without elaborating, that the Guard plans to send more such satellites into even higher orbits in the future.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/iran-guar ... mps-tweet/

I wonder what would happen if the Iranians tried to sink an American war ship, preferably an aircraft carrier.

[Zionist Nationalist]

Empty threats. They just want to raise the oil prices

[skinster]

I think this warning will be heeded by the Iranians.
Or not ?

Not seems more likely, after reading Gareth Porter and John Kiriakou's most recent book on Iran. The rules of the game have changed in Iran's favour. I recommend reading that book, a lot of its content is based on papers written by people and think-tanks you support.

More:

[skinster]

Re: Iran : War or Regime Change ?

Majority of Trump supporters don't want war with Iran.

[Ter]

Strikes attributed to Israel hit Iran-linked defense labs, Shiite militia bases

Monitor says buildings attacked near Aleppo were depots run by pro-Iranian forces; additional attacks reported in Deir Ezzor against Iran-backed militias

Airstrikes presumed to be Israeli targeted Iran-linked arms warehouses east of Aleppo in northern Syria and militia bases in Deir Ezzor in the east of the country late Monday night, a Syrian war monitor said.

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor, the sites in Aleppo that were hit were weapons storehouses run by Iranian forces and Iran-backed militias adjacent to Syrian defense laboratories.
The raids caused “violent explosions” in the area, according to the Britain-based monitor.

Further strikes were reported near the town of el-Mayadeen in the Deir Ezzor region, according to the Observatory. Though it was not immediately clear who was responsible for the Deir Ezzor attack, the war monitor said it was “likely” to have been Israel.

Monday night’s attacks appeared to be the sixth and seventh strikes attributed to Israel against Iran-linked forces in Syria in the past two weeks. There was no immediate comment from the Israel Defense Forces, which rarely comments on individual cross-border raids.

It was not immediately clear if there were casualties in the raids.

Citing a military source, Syrian state media outlet SANA reported that the attack outside Aleppo targeted several “military depots” in the al-Safira area southeast of the city.

“Syrian air defenses intercept an Israeli aggression on a research center in Aleppo province,” SANA reported.

The defense laboratory is believed by Western intelligence services to be used in the development of chemical weapons by the Syrian regime with help from Iran.

The official Syrian news outlet said that several of the incoming missiles were intercepted by the country’s air defenses. Security analysts generally see these claims as exaggerated if not outright fabrications.

A Syrian security official told the Kremlin-backed Sputnik news outlet that the Israeli aircraft that conducted the Aleppo attack came from the al-Tanf region of Syria, which is under the control of the United States military.

Western intelligence officials told the Reuters news agency that Iran-backed militias have established a number of bases and headquarters in the Aleppo area, as well as warehouses for storing advanced munitions.

The reports of the Monday night strikes came days after Israel bombed a munitions warehouse in central Syria on Friday morning in a rare daylight strike that sparked a massive explosion, according to reports from Syria.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the arms cache that was bombed on Friday morning was located outside Homs and contained missiles and ammunition belonging to the Iran-backed Hezbollah terror group.

Damascus officially denied that Israel was responsible for the explosion, saying it was the result of “human error” while transporting munitions, Syrian state media outlet SANA reported. This was widely seen by defense analysts as an attempt to cover up yet another Israeli strike on Syrian soil.

According to Syrian media, the attack triggered huge secondary explosions, apparently as the munitions inside the warehouse detonated. SANA reported that at least 10 people were wounded in the blasts.
Photographs and videos from the scene showed massive damage to the surrounding area as shells and other munitions inside the warehouse were set off by the explosion.

The Friday morning attack, which would be a highly irregular though not unprecedented daytime strike, came less than a day after a reported attack by Israel against pro-Iranian forces in southern Syria and followed a series of strikes on Iran-linked forces in Syria in recent weeks.

Defense Minister Naftali Bennett last Tuesday appeared to confirm that Israel was responsible for attacks against pro-Iranian forces in Syria, saying that the military was working to drive Tehran out of the country.
“We have moved from blocking Iran’s entrenchment in Syria to forcing it out of there, and we will not stop,” Bennett said in a statement.

“We will not allow more strategic threats to grow just across our borders without taking action,” he said. “We will continue to take the fight to the enemy’s territory.”

An airstrike last Monday on a military airfield outside Damascus killed four pro-Iranian fighters, according to the Observatory for Human Rights. Three Syrian civilians were also reportedly killed by shrapnel, though it was not clear if the fragments came from the incoming missiles or Syria’s air defenses.

The Observatory said a number of Iranian-linked command centers were destroyed in the attack. A private Israeli intelligence firm on Thursday released images showing the aftermath of the airstrike, which targeted a warehouse outside of Palmyra and the entrance to an underground facility near Damascus, according to the satellite images.

Bennett did not explicitly confirm Israel’s involvement in that airstrike, though his comments were seen as a clear hint to that effect.

Israeli military officials have warned that acknowledging such strikes adds pressure on Iran and its proxies to retaliate in order to save face.

Jerusalem says Iran’s presence in Syria, where it is fighting in support of President Bashar Assad, is a threat, as Tehran seeks to establish a permanent foothold along Israel’s northern borders. Israel has also threatened to take military action to prevent Iran from providing the Lebanon-based Hezbollah terror group with advanced weaponry, specifically precision-guided missiles.

Though Israeli officials generally refrain from taking responsibility for specific strikes in Syria, they have acknowledged conducting hundreds to thousands of raids in the country since the start of the Syrian civil war in 2011.
These have overwhelmingly been directed against Iran and its proxies, notably Hezbollah, but the Israel Defense Forces has also carried out strikes on Syrian air defenses when those batteries have fired at Israeli jets.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/airstrike ... ar-aleppo/

Israel must have good and timely intelligence to locate precisely where the terrorists are keeping their goodies.

[Patrickov]

Some little news on Iran...

Iranian champion wrestler Navid Afkari executed despite global outcry

Donald Trump's tweet is laughable on this matter because the United States is arguably the cruelest Western country in this sense -- he should have done something in his homeland first.

However, this again brings us the question: What are those human scums supporting these regimes heads-to-toes thinking?