should the West invade and/or bomb the fuck out of Iran?

Iran is currently under a serious amount of threat - a lot of it is actually from the US. I'm not pro-nuclear weapons but if the US are allowed them then why the fuck aren't Iran?

IMHO, the next two decades are going to be a time of rapid growth and progression in the middle east, similar to what we've seen in Japan and more recently India. The US cannot go around being surprised by this.

are they under a nuclear threat from the US?

are you serious?

you may be alarmed but a lot of people out there do seem to be asking this question.

So, which countries have nuclear warheads & delivery methods?

..And which countries have ever used one? .. (That's rhetorical.)

and i'll form the head!

fair enough, but can a sense of boredom prevail against the horror of seeing Iran invaded / seeing Iran drop a nuclear bomb on Baku?

In addition to other effects, a nuclear weapon detonated in or above the earth’s atmosphere can create an electromagnetic pulse (EMP), a high-density electrical field. An EMP acts like a stroke of lightning but is stronger, faster, and shorter. An EMP can seriously damage electronic devices connected to power sources or antennas. This includes communication systems, computers, electrical appliances, and automobile or aircraft ignition systems. The damage could range from a minor interruption to actual burnout of components. Most electronic equipment within 1,000 miles of a high-altitude nuclear detonation could be affected. Battery-powered radios with short antennas generally would not be affected. Although an EMP is unlikely to harm most people, it could harm those with pacemakers or other implanted electronic devices.

like the infrastructure-crippler list above, it wouldn't kill too many people directly, but it would cripple the hell out of the north america.

to use the words of some americans... "bomb them back to the stone age!"

military equipment is supposed to survive such an attack, but... the last EMP test was in the early 60s.

i'm not saying that's a good case. hardly. does iran even have the missle capability for a high altitude detonation over kansas or thereabouts?
m.

huh?

xpost

it's not boredom just depression.

or china.

it's nice to have beijing owning that nice big stack of american cash and bonds, i guess. way to go, dubya.

The electric field caused by the blast would be strong enough to reverse the flow of current through a transistor, thereby destroying all transistor-based electronic equipment, i.e. computers.

I believe the reason they don't do EMP tests anymore is because the military had vacuum-tube backups of all their computational equipment. Transitors built using vacuum tubes instead of semiconductors are more robust wrt voltage breakdown and would be expected to survive a nuclear attack. But by the 1960's, computers became too complicated -- building vacuum tube backups became impractical and therefore, there was no need to continue with EMP tests.

Now, they probably store important computer equipment in huge metal cages (and/or way underground) to keep out EM radiation.

"probably"

:)

they just base all their computer equipment in Windows so that staff are well drilled on downtime procedures.

Yeah but I'm seriously wondering whether these people really exist!

well, yes. having nuclear capability to shit up your neighbour is not the same as having it with the intention of using it. it's the same as carrying a knife.

that said: as every wee ned up in court for murder knows only too well, "it just got out of hand" isn't much of an excuse when you've just stabbed someone to death.

Not to be too much a of a pedant, but vacuum tubes are not transistors.

UK military steps up plans for Iran attack amid fresh nuclear fears

Iran is crazy right now because of the power struggle between Khamenei and Ahmedinejad

http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/137038/jamie-m-fly-and-gary-schmitt/the-case-for-regime-change-in-iran

The Case For Regime Change in Iran
Go Big -- Then Go Home
By Jamie M. Fly and Gary Schmitt
January 17, 2012

smh

can't even bear to read that, or really even talk to anyone who would think that invading iran is a good idea

Schmitt's bio says he works at that right-wing thinktank, the American Enterprise Institute.

Ayatollah Khamenei said that Iran “had its own tools” to respond to such threats and that it would use them “if necessary,” the semiofficial Mehr news agency reported.

“The threat of war would disfavor the United States itself,” he said, adding that war with Iran “would be 10 times worse for the interests of the United States” than it would be for Iran, he said.

“Americans say all options are on the table, even the option of military strike,” he said, according to a Reuters translation of his televised remarks. “Such threats show that they have no sufficient discourse against Iran’s logic and discourse.”

No sufficient discourse against Iran's logic and discourse.

in slavish imitation:

http://www.salon.com/2012/02/03/iran_is_the_root_of_all_evil/singleton/

is this a good time for a patriotic, non-islamic iranian-american to apply for a job with the us intelligence community? would that be a power move?

Zoroastrian?

Yeah the "Iran Al-Qaeda Terror Plot" headlines of late have been giving me the queasy feeling of becoming aware that I'm old enough to have heard this one before and yet it will probably work again.

baha'i

i'm going to answer my own q by saying i'm pretty sure getting a job w/ in the intelligence community would require moving to some godawful place (ie outside california) but maybe somebody (tombot?) knows more about this than i do?

How's your Farsi?

getting a job w/ in the intelligence community would require moving to some godawful place

Virginia?

farsi is fluent but i am illiterate

I'd rather see better translations in the news media. In the intelligence community your work will likely be ignored if you don't provide the politically approved translation.

is this a good time for a patriotic, non-islamic iranian-american to apply for a job with the us intelligence community? would that be a power move?

oh hell yeah. how are you with battery cables?

battery cables??

ABC News was particularly disgusting yesterday: Martha Raddatz on a warship in the Strait of Hormuz aiming for that warmonger verite.

CNN drumbeat by Pentagon 'reporter' Chris Lawrence:

"Iran already has a missile that could reach the U.S. if it could put it on a ship and move it to within 600 miles of the American coastline."

http://www.salon.com/2012/07/16/cnn_on_the_iran_threat/

and move it to within 600 miles of the American coastline.

Still more afraid of a suitcase bomb than this scenario.

It's amazing how the range of Iran's missiles adjusts according to how badly we want to attack them.

THE MISSILES ARE COMING FROM INSIDE THE HOUSE.

Oh wait I didn't even read that link, shit is pretty lol

i'm in the UK & i have a rock that could burrow a metre deep down into antarctic snow so long as someone rows me to the edge of antarctic water so i can throw it

Anyone know what Bulgaria is? A friend of mine is there and was close to being blown to shreds in a tour bus. Netanyahu blames Iran. Is this serious or just SOP for the area?

Bulgaria is a country in central europe iirc

Yes, yes. It appears to be near Albania, ffs. It sounds so old-timey.

it seems like a pretty random place to stage a terrorist attack, I'm not sure what to make of it. Netty blames Iran for everything fwiw.

This kind of thing is completely unheard of in Bulgaria, as far as i know. The Black Sea resorts are super-popular with Israeli tourists.

suspect sure doesn't look Iranian to me but what do I know

http://img2.wpdigital.net/rf/image_358w/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2012/07/19/Foreign/Images/APTOPIX_Bulgaria_Israelis_Attacked-04fad.jpg

YES

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1386809/Eye-eye-Woman-blinded-scorned-lover-given-permission-throw-acid-eyes-Iran-court.html

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Monday he was ready to be the first human sent into orbit by Iran's fledgling space program, Iranian media reported.

The launch added to Western concerns about Iran's space program because the same rocket technology could potentially be used to deliver a nuclear warhead on a ballistic missile. "I am ready to be the first human to be sent to space by Iranian scientists," Ahmadinejad said on Monday, on the sidelines of an exhibition of space achievements in Tehran, according to the Mehr news agency. "Sending living things into space is the result of Iranian efforts and the dedication of thousands of Iranian scientists."

I think we should encourage this.

rocket manejad

Statement from Iranian commies on the current situation:

http://www.solidnet.org/iran-tudeh-party-of-iran/tudeh-party-of-iran-statement-of-the-tudeh-party-of-iran-on-the-popular-protest-movement-in-the-country-29-december-2017-en

http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2018/01/02/women-are-leading-in-iran-where-is-their-voice-support-from-left.html

^^ lol

israel to iran, today

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lz3Vfme-2qg

look at all that secret shit

https://i.imgur.com/nP4j1m8.jpg

bibi's presentation style is ... interesting

red black and green binders a nice touch

actually should have been red white and green now that i think about it

my brain is off today

https://i.imgur.com/XkEeFfV.png

thought this thread might be useful for non-UK politics takes on this, apologies if i've missed another revive

Most talk has been over here.

ah thank you