Pierre wrote:
FEOS wrote:
Pierre, the point I'm trying to make is that many on this forum talk about the US warmongering toward Iran, making threats, calling their mothers names, etc...yet conveniently overlook the fact that the EU has been telling the US repeatedly that we aren't taking a strong enough stance WRT Iran's nuclear ambitions. How exactly could that be if we're constantly "warmongering"? The answer is, of course, that the US isn't warmongering or threatening Iran. The US isn't working alone in trying to get Iran to stop their nuclear program (as it currently stands).
Are you sure about that? Is that the official position of the EU? Links?
I have seen it elsewhere, but can't find the link for it. I do know (and you can easily Google) that the EU disagrees with the NIE on Iran.
Pierre wrote:
The US isn't warmongering or threatening Iran? I've must have miss-interpreted the words of Bush, Cheney and others then for the last 5+ years (I don't take into account the messages on this forum about turning Iran into a big glass crater, it's after all just a video game forum). My mistake. I'm sure Adm. Mullen, who I quoted earlier, must have had the wrong sources too.
ADM Mullen is stating the position of the government.
Do you have sources that show Bush (Cheney is irrelevant) "and others" have threatened Iran for the last 5+ years? We've been down this road in other threads. Bottomline: No, the US government has not threatened Iran with anything. Saying you won't take military options off the table is not threatening...it's negotiating without preconditions--something many on this forum seem to think needs to happen. So long as it's only Iran that has no preconditions, anyway.
Pierre wrote:
FEOS wrote:
The US's position with Iran has been to pursue diplomacy from day one, with other options available if diplomacy doesn't work. And the EU has said that's too soft of an approach.
Any links on that EU position? I agree that the US and EU have been using diplomacy from day one, supplemented with war rhetoric ('all options available', 'bomb Iran' dixit pres. candidate McCain) from the US.
Ref "war rhetoric": See above.
Can't find links on the EU position. I know I saw it (tied to the EU's dismissal of the Iran NIE), just can't find a link to it. Regardless, France has certainly been unambiguous about their position (military options on the table).
McCain's "bomb Iran" joke was just that...a joke. Jokes in front of an informal group at the VFW does not official US policy make.
Pierre wrote:
But lets face it: possibly the only reason Iran hasn't been invaded yet is the fact that the US lacks the military capability to put enough boots on the ground to neutralize any threat. You simply can not wage war on a third front, no matter how hard some people yell, it's like the school bully asking for your money while laying down on the ground, knocked out, in his underwear: just hilarious, and you don't respond to it.
The only reason Iran hasn't been
struck yet (not invaded...we'll get to that in a minute) is that the position of the US and EU (and Russia and China) is diplomacy first and foremost, with military action only as
a last resort.
The president also said he had a comprehensive diplomatic strategy regarding Iran and "the military is the last resort to solve problems."
"All major problems should be solved diplomatically," Bush said. "In other words, the military is the last resort to solve problems. And I believe we still have the capacity to solve this issue diplomatically, because a lot of the world now understands the dangers of Iran having a nuclear weapon. And so we're working toward that end, and we're pressuring the regime through diplomatic channels."
And another source:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080620/pl … itaryenvoyArab leaders concerned about Iran's nuclear program:
http://www.thebulletin.org/web-edition/ … ar-programNow, as to your (and others') assertion that Iran will be "invaded"...
Military action does not equate to "invasion" (ie, troops on the ground a la Iraq). In the case of Iran, any military action at this point would be limited to air strikes to take out the nuclear facilities in question. That's hardly an "invasion".