Iran's long-range missiles, secret commando units, global terrorist allies

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

Military analysts say price of war with Iran could be severe

RAW STORY

Published: February 11, 2006

http://rawstory.com/news/2005/Military_analysts_say_price_of_war_0211.html

A chilling new look at Iran's military capability in response to a U.S. strike will appear in Sunday editions of The Boston Globe, RAW STORY has learned. Headlined "Iran is called capable of launching strikes," the piece provides a sobering analysis of Iran's capabilities.

"Iran is prepared to launch attacks using long-range missiles, secret commando units, and terrorist allies planted around the globe in retaliation for any strike on the country's nuclear facilities, according to new US intelligence assessments and military specialists," the Globe's Brian Bender writes. Excerpts:

"US intelligence officials have said that Iran, which fought a war with Iraq from 1980-1988 that cost one million lives, still has the most threatening armed forces in the immediate region. Its combined ground forces are estimated at about 800,000 personnel. The CIA has concluded that Iran is steadily enhancing its ability to project its military power, including by threatening international shipping.

"A major worry: newly acquired long-range missiles. Obtained with the assistance of North Korea, the Shahab 3 could strike Israel and perhaps even hit the periphery of Europe, according to a recent report by the Pentagon's National Air and Space Intelligence Center. "The missiles could also be tipped with chemical warheads and threaten US military bases in the region. Iran is believed to have at least 20 launchers that are frequently moved around the country to avoid detection.

[rzemanfl]

1. Plus assistance from Muslim space aliens, assorted genies,

fifth column belly dancers and flying carpet bombers. I really don't know whether this is "hit them now" or anti-war propaganda.

[ragin_acadian]

11. don't forget the 80' mutant scorpions they have been breeding

through yellowcake nuclear mutation with the help of korean geneticists! probably what their "super-secrit" commando's will be riding into battle all over the world. :scared:

if it is a "hit them now" type piece, we can probably count on the rest of the world to back us up, especially china, india, and russia:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4567150.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4662676.stm

[acmejack]

2. Are you terrified yet?

If so, join the groundswell movement demanding preemptory strikes now!

edit to unspell check myself!

[leftchick]

3. well if that is the case

why does the US want to fuck with them so bad? Are the neofreaks really just that deranged?

:hide:

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

4. All part of the "New American Century" vision, I guess...

[Greeby]

5. Short answer: Yes

Long answer: YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!

[RazzleDazzle]

13. Totally, totally true

They are AT LEAST that deranged. Maybe more.

[HereSince1628]

8. Excuses we seek excuses to pursue global hegemony

[TomClash]

9. This is peculiar

If you read Bodansky's pre-Iraq War books (not his last unsourced, Iraq War propaganda piece) you will see how he and other neocons emphasized the Iranian threat. They believe the Iranians are like the Germans in '36 - and it is more important to them than Iraq because of the "threat" to Israel. Still, war will not work - in part because I suspect the Iranians either have nuclear weapons or are close to developing/procuring them, with the requisite redundancies - they have learned from Osirik. Of course, like every other nation, they won't use nuclear weapons because they will be annihilated by the US/Israel or others.

[TomClash]

6. Read this piece in conjunction with Ritter's latest remarks

. . . about a preemptive NUCLEAR strike. That makes it all the more chilling.

:nuke:

:scared:

[saltpoint]

7. I think it would be a real good time for as many spiritual leaders as

possible across the world -- whether as high-profile as the Pope and the Dali Lama or as unfamous as a community pastor or rabbi -- to publicly condemn any government that launches pre-emptive assaults on sovereign nations, that engages in lying and deception and false representations to justify their demonization and eventual assault of those nations, and that practices violence against civilians directly or indirectly.

I want to hear their voices rise and drown the lying and corruption and rot of the Bush adminisration's obvious crescendo to an attack on Iran.

[pretzel4gore]

10. what's iran's military budget?

alot smaller then canada's or australia's, it appears, according to this set of stats...

Defense Spending
Experts once argued whether Americans would finally grasp the enormity of the
military budget when spending reached $100 billion. Now $416 billion, and
candidates still arguing over who will spend the most, it would appear people still
haven't grasped a budget beyond comprehension.
Here's how political leaders are
spending the discretionary budget.
World's Largest
Military Budgets:
($U.S. Billions)
United States 416.0
Russia* 65.0
China* 47.0
Japan 42.6
U.K. 38.4
France 29.5
Germany 24.9
Saudi Arabia 21.3
Italy 19.4
India 15.6
South Korea 14.1
Brazil* 10.7
Taiwan* 10.7
Israel 10.6
Spain 8.4
Australia 7.6
Canada 7.6
Netherlands 6.6
Turkey 5.8
Mexico 5.9
Kuwait* 3.9
Ukraine 5.0
Iran 4.8
Singapore 4.8
Sweden 4.5
Egypt* 4.4
Norway 3.8
Greece 3.5
Poland 3.5
Argentina* 3.3
U.A.E.* 3.1
Colombia* 2.9
Belgium 2.7
Pakistan* 2.6
Denmark 2.4
Vietnam 2.4
North Korea 2.1
Czech Republic 1.6
Iraq 1.4
Philippines 1.4
Portugal 1.3
Libya 1.2
Hungary 1.1
Syria 1.0
Cuba 0.8
Sudan 0.6
Yugoslavia 0.7
Luxembourg 0.2
Source: www.cdi.org.

[Greeby]

12. Aye, but they could still defeat us if we invaded

Why? I'm guessing because they put their money into the basics: a man and his rifle, and don't have a massively bloated Military Industrial Complex