http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7954211.stm

Heh...I was just going to post a link to the video and you beat me to it...proof that America is losing its #1 spot:D

This is great diplomacy.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HY_utC-hrjI

We just have to acknowledge our past mistakes, and Iran will get all warm and fuzzy?

Somehow, I just don't think that's gonna happen. Neither the acknowledgement, nor the war fuzzies.

Because the other way was working so well...

Even Iran's response was indicitive of why trying to work with them will be nigh impossible.

Must recognize past mistakes, of course Iran doesn't have to , oh and quit supporting Israel ( so they can keep working to destroy them through their proxies ).

I don't know that any way, short of reducing their infrastructure to rubble, that'll ever work ( which of course is a no win situation in and of itself ). They'll take and take and demand, as has been the case lately.

The U.S. just has to label it itself "The Great Satan" and Iran will stop nuclear enrichment?

Oh and stop supporting Israel.

And pull all armed forces back within U.S. borders.

And mothball all of our arms.

And not try to stop any attacks against us on our soil.

Then Iran will stop the nuclear enrichment program?

Once again... Proud of my president!

Change from the bottom up! Make the people that hate America stop hating America, and then it makes it safer for government to about face on "America is the Great Satan"

Thank you Mr. Obama & Eid eh shomah mobarak!

Oh and to those of you ignorant enough to think this video is the entire diplomatic effort by the Obama Administration and that after this video we will simply wait for Iran to change, I LAUGH!

Oh and to those of you ignorant enough to think this video is the entire diplomatic effort by the Obama Administration and that after this video we will simply wait for Iran to change, I LAUGH!

You might want to try to clearly express yourself here. Ya sound a bit daft.

I laugh, because this is the first pre-cursor to either war, or peace. The ball is in their court and as much as Jedd wants to sit their working the shaft because he thinks Obama is doing the right thing and is going to save his beloved homeland; he's only partially right.

He's going about it the right way, he's trying the diplomatic approach, next comes sanctions, then cruise missiles, then the collective size 12 boot of the military as we invade another shithole country.

However, if it does come to that I think this time we'll have more of the international community on our side.

You might want to try to clearly express yourself here. Ya sound a bit daft.

Think while you read and you may understand!

I laugh, because this is the first pre-cursor to either war, or peace. The ball is in their court and as much as Jedd wants to sit their working the shaft because he thinks Obama is doing the right thing and is going to save his beloved homeland; he's only partially right.

He's going about it the right way, he's trying the diplomatic approach, next comes sanctions, then cruise missiles, then the collective size 12 boot of the military as we invade another shithole country.

However, if it does come to that I think this time we'll have more of the international community on our side.

The part I made bold is where you lost credibility. You believe we can Invade Iran? Are you insane?

You also believe that Obama who comes into the White House as the guy who was against Iraq, is going to declare war on a country that has attacked nobody, and is fulfilling their right to Nuclear Power? Good luck bud

It's always been hard for me to understand such stupidity. I merely ask that you put a few minutes together and try and type above your station.

The part I made bold is where you lost credibility. You believe we can Invade Iran? Are you insane?

You also believe that Obama who comes into the White House as the guy who was against Iraq, is going to declare war on a country that has attacked nobody, and is fulfilling their right to Nuclear Power? Good luck bud

As has been established time and again you know nothing of military actions/capabilities.

If I were you I'd allow Elemak his opinion , considering his much greater experience in that area.

The general point of his post stands and I happen to agree. Obama is trying to start from scratch with Iran. Take the proper steps and when Iran again succumbs to their usual bs the entire world will understand why they should be put back at the kiddies table.

Obama is absolutely dead on with trying to give Iran a chance. I happen to think it'll end up at the same place with Iran being in the cross hairs.

As has been established time and again you know nothing of military actions/capabilities.

If I were you I'd allow Elemak his opinion , considering his much greater experience in that area.

The general point of his post stands and I happen to agree. Obama is trying to start from scratch with Iran. Take the proper steps and when Iran again succumbs to their usual bs the entire world will understand why they should be put back at the kiddies table.

Obama is absolutely dead on with trying to give Iran a chance. I happen to think it'll end up at the same place with Iran being in the cross hairs.

Sorry, but I will call out wishful thinking when I see it. You can wish we have the capabilities to go to war with Iran, but we do not. We are out of money, and nobody is going to approve of a war that will cost 2 to 3 times the cost of Iraq in both money and lives when there are homeless Americans in the 30+% range.

Not to mention the sheer difficulty in fighting a ground war in a country such as Iran with so many varied terrains and climates, as well as such a high population.

By the time we would be in any shape to attack, they would already have nuclear weapons, assuming they are indeed after nuclear weapons.

Doesn't take a military genius to figure that out, wonder why you haven't!

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2009/03/20093205308488720.html

Iranian response to Obama's message, via AlJazeera:

Reacting positively to the offer, the press adviser to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian president, urged Obama to back his words with concrete action to repair what he called past mistakes.
"We welcome the wish of the president of the United States to put away past differences," Ali Akbar Javanfekr told the AFP news agency.

"But the way to do that is not by Iran forgetting the previous hostile and aggressive attitude of the United States.

"The American administration has to recognise its past mistakes and repair them as a way to put away the differences."

Al Jazeera's Alireza Ronaghi in Tehran said: "Iranians have always said they have to wait and see what exactly the changes are [between Bush and Obama].
"Now they see for the first time in many years Iran being addressed as the Islamic Republic of Iran. It is a point of recognition for Iran.

"An opportunity has been given to the current administration, [under] President Ahmadinejad, to solve outstanding issues that no other government in Iran has been able to address. He is not going to miss this opportunity."

Damn man you are an idiot.

30% homeless? Quit making shit up to sound informed. Stick to cleaning out the trap under the sink. kk thanks.

Never said I was a military genius, however it merely takes a slick sleeve Airman to make you look like an idiot.

I don't think we need to break the bank to begger Iran. A few weeks of destroying their infrastructure will suffice ( after 1 week of decimating their air cover that is ).

Zip it lucy.

Obama is doing the right thing, however he's not going to bend the knee to that country led by despots. He's merely following the procedures and giving Iran it's last chance.

Damn man you are an idiot.

30% homeless? Quit making shit up to sound informed. Stick to cleaning out the trap under the sink. kk thanks.

Never said I was a military genius, however it merely takes a slick sleeve Airman to make you look like an idiot.

I don't think we need to break the bank to begger Iran. A few weeks of destroying their infrastructure will suffice ( after 1 week of decimating their air cover that is ).

Zip it lucy.

Obama is doing the right thing, however he's not going to bend the knee to that country led by despots. He's merely following the procedures and giving Iran it's last chance.

Cause you say so right?

What a joke!

You are the expert of nothing but checking under the hood of my hummer.

30% was an exaggeration, and indeed a GROUND war (which is what we were talking about you idiot) would be just as impossible as I explained in my previous post.

Zip it jiffy lube.

The part I made bold is where you lost credibility. You believe we can Invade Iran? Are you insane?



It is very credible to state that many in the military wear size 12...I do

Only size 11 1/2 in my combat boots ;( I could stuff to get the size 12 though Rover /wink

He is talking right past the Iranian leaders.

The only thing they fear is their own people.

'However, if it does come to that I think this time we'll have more of the international community on our side.'

- You're joking if you think anyone can afford a war right now.
Let alone the US or UK.

'He is talking right past the Iranian leaders.'

- I caught that too. Very smart.

He's going about it the right way, he's trying the diplomatic approach, next comes sanctions, then cruise missiles, then the collective size 12 boot of the military as we invade another shithole country.


How are you going to do that with 12 cents and paper clip left in your collective American piggy bank? Maybe China can lend you another Trillion dollars to buy your toys and squander on AIG execs.


However, if it does come to that I think this time we'll have more of the international community on our side.



Your not going to get shit from the international community for a very long time. No way will the "international" community buy America's bullshit when it comes to invading countries for their oil... I mean WMD... I mean the good of their people... I mean... fuck? what do I mean?:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKgPY1adc0A


A few weeks of destroying their infrastructure will suffice ( after 1 week of decimating their air cover that is ).



Wow Fandros, you just passed Sixee on the "I don't have any clue what the fuck I am talking about" scale.

America won't do shit in Iran. Not until you get yourselves back on your feet in terms of economy and the republicans get back in office after they steal another election.


Cheers,

Shhhh Lokase, go back and do nothing yet talk a big bag of crap while your way of life is carried on our backs eh?

Didn't say it's what we should or going to do. However in your haste and desire to replace Elren on my boxers you once again jump before you read ( I don't expect you to think, you've never been any great shakes there )

Shhhh Lokase, go back and do nothing yet talk a big bag of crap while your way of life is carried on our backs eh?



Tell that to the over 100 Candians killed in action in Afghanistan, a country the Canadians have kept a lid on while the U.S. went off to invade the evil WMD purveyor Saddam. Oops! Thats right those WMD weren't their after all. Mmmm what are you doing in Iraq again?


Didn't say it's what we should or going to do. However in your haste and desire to replace Elren on my boxers you once again jump before you read ( I don't expect you to think, you've never been any great shakes there )


Once again, you have contributed nothing to the conversation.


Cheers,

I think of how often I hear oh the American will to fight is gone, oh the American military is stretched to it's breaking point.

Listen here Fuckers.

We have not yet begun to fight. Anyone on this planet that doubts the willpower of the American people and the might of our military has another thing coming.

We just haven't been prodded hard enough, much like before WW2 we sat on our heels licking our wounds from the depression and the first war. We tried to stay the hell out of it, but the Japanese had other ideas.

To make a whole lot of history very brief, and I mean brief; we beat the shit out the Japanese and the Germans, two very very capable militaries.

The problem we face today, is will what happens with Iran be enough to galvanize the American people back into a wartime mindset not seen since the 40s. Iran risks doing that, they risk giving us a good enough reason to overlook how much planting out own victory gardens, and rationing gasoline and other commodities will bring.

I hope to God Obama is successful in his talks with Iran. I hope that their current administration sees the light of reason and we don't have to do anything except invite them to the Whitehouse for some ceremonial bullshit.

I think it's more likely that as Obama talks past their current regime, thier current government is going to change in one fashion or another (peacefully or violently depending on the people of Iran) but one way or another their current path is not one headed for peace. If they think we're going to but out and let them create nuclear weapons they're sorely mistaken.

However, unlike our former president, Obama is taking the correct path, Bush just skipped ahaead to the Size 12 option. Which is why is was more an American + Commonwealth alliance in Iraq, when it should have been a Nato operation.

And as a point of fact Fandros, don't rib Lokase too much, a good number of Canadians put their collective asses on the line for us, even if it's not always in the numbers or the countries we'd like.

I think of how often I hear oh the American will to fight is gone, oh the American military is stretched to it's breaking point.

Listen here Fuckers.

We have not yet begun to fight. Anyone on this planet that doubts the willpower of the American people and the might of our military has another thing coming.

We just haven't been prodded hard enough, much like before WW2 we sat on our heels licking our wounds from the depression and the first war. We tried to stay the hell out of it, but the Japanese had other ideas.

To make a whole lot of history very brief, and I mean brief; we beat the shit out the Japanese and the Germans, two very very capable militaries.

The problem we face today, is will what happens with Iran be enough to galvanize the American people back into a wartime mindset not seen since the 40s. Iran risks doing that, they risk giving us a good enough reason to overlook how much planting out own victory gardens, and rationing gasoline and other commodities will bring.

I hope to God Obama is successful in his talks with Iran. I hope that their current administration sees the light of reason and we don't have to do anything except invite them to the Whitehouse for some ceremonial bullshit.

I think it's more likely that as Obama talks past their current regime, thier current government is going to change in one fashion or another (peacefully or violently depending on the people of Iran) but one way or another their current path is not one headed for peace. If they think we're going to but out and let them create nuclear weapons they're sorely mistaken.

However, unlike our former president, Obama is taking the correct path, Bush just skipped ahaead to the Size 12 option. Which is why is was more an American + Commonwealth alliance in Iraq, when it should have been a Nato operation.

And as a point of fact Fandros, don't rib Lokase too much, a good number of Canadians put their collective asses on the line for us, even if it's not always in the numbers or the countries we'd like.

The will to fight is gone... It will take a direct attack on us to get the US war machine working again. Iran will not attack us directly.

Does the US have the most powerful military in the world? Of course

Does that mean that every target is within the realm of possibility at this time or any time in the near future? No!

You have no idea how TRULY painful it would be to put boots on the ground in Iran. Holding some coastal areas, holding a bit of land here and there, is possible. No amount of gung ho crazy "we are badass" talk will make anything more then that a reality.

What you seem to miss, is if Obama comes to the American people and says I believe they are a threat, I have tried everything we could possibly do, and the international community and I both agree the only way to end this is war; it's going to be war.

However, I don't think he's going to rush us in there like cowboys, he's going to do it the way it should have been done with Iraq. And hopefully, it won't ever get that far. I think it's far more likely we'll have a revolt by the Iranian people first.

What you seem to miss, is if Obama comes to the American people and says I believe they are a threat, I have tried everything we could possibly do, and the international community and I both agree the only way to end this is war; it's going to be war.

However, I don't think he's going to rush us in there like cowboys, he's going to do it the way it should have been done with Iraq. And hopefully, it won't ever get that far. I think it's far more likely we'll have a revolt by the Iranian people first.

Let us hope you are right.

isnt the iranian election coming up soonish? i read somewhere that, sadly, khatami dropped out, which is discouraging as he is seen as the prime figure of the reformer faction (or so i read, feel free to correct me). maybe the crazed warmongers can shut the fuck up this time, so the iranian population have a rational election instead of a knee-jerk one where they elect another shithead.

He dropped out because there is a more prominent reform candidate running, who he promised to never run against.

He dropped out because there is a more prominent reform candidate running, who he promised to never run against.

ah, ok. im not really that informed on the local politics in iran, so khatami appeared to me as the figurehead for the movement.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29616978/

from the article..

Mir Hossein Mousavi, who was premier during the 1980s Iran-Iraq war, is seen by many as a strong candidate in the June election because he was once a hard-liner and could siphon votes away from Ahmadinejad's base. He announced his intention to run in a statement made available to The Associated Press.

this could be unfortunate, not because of anything he may have done, but because stupid people who know nothing of that war will shout about it.

from the article..



this could be unfortunate, not because of anything he may have done, but because stupid people who know nothing of that war will shout about it.

Fortunately the people in Iran mostly will think of him as a heroic person for his service during that time and it wont affect actually voting in a negative way.

In the end, it won't be the president of Iran that calls the shots anyway. As always, it will be the "Supreme Leader", i.e Khamenei. Until the Iranian people get rid of him, it will be the same old-same old.

In the end, it won't be the president of Iran that calls the shots anyway. As always, it will be the "Supreme Leader", i.e Khamenei. Until the Iranian people get rid of him, it will be the same old-same old.


Which might well explain the manner in which President Obama addressed the people of Iran, with his video greeting.

well the question is mainly will that happen over a long time, with reforms, or in a violent revolt? i can tell you this though; the first option is not being helped by demonizing iran.

Obama should make a MySpace and put "Iran" in his friends list...

Obama should make a MySpace and put "Iran" in his friends list...

You are so funny! :confused:

And Iran replies:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/7956504.stm

Speaking to a large crowd in the holy city of Mashhad, Ayatollah Khamenei said Iran had "no experience with the new American government and the new American president".

"We will observe them and we will judge," he said.

"If you change your attitude, we will change our attitude."

In the speech, which was carried live by Iranian television, he said Iran was yet to see such a change.

"What is the change in your policy?" he asked.

"Did you remove the sanctions? Did you stop supporting the Zionist regime? Tell us what you have changed. Change only in words is not enough."

The BBC's Sadeq Saba says the Iranian supreme leader may be acting to prevent any internal division between moderates and hardliners over how to react to President Obama's offer.

The demand for the US to withdraw support for Israel is clearly unrealistic, he says.

But any easing of bilateral sanctions or a freeze on Iranian assets could signal to Iran that the US is serious, he adds.

i just watched a 3 hour documentary on irans relations with the west, titled, surprisingly enough, "Iran and the West" (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1385208/) which i can heavily recommend for anyone interested in the area.

it was stunningly informative, some of the highlights for me include:
jack straw implying that tony blair would have been ok with military action against iran.
khomeini telling his foreign minister to 'kick them out' referring to the hostage takers in the embassy crisis.
how much Iran helped the US in Afghanistan, and how they, when offering the same help in iraq, got bitch slapped.
what a massive retard john bolton really is.
putin saying he warned bush that 'something big was going to happen' when Massoud was assassinated in afghanistan on september 9th.

'jack straw implying that tony blair would have been ok with military action against iran.'

- It was always somewhat of a political joke in Britain. When Jack Straw was at the foreign office he continuously bragged about how solid the friendship was he had spent years building up between Britain and Iran. And then of course they kidnapped our sailors and Straw was sent to the Ministry of Justice. Heheh. Although, the fact that Washington often referred to him as 'Ayatollah Straw' on account of his large muslim constituency (he stands for Blackburn in the Commons) and what I believe to be his somewhat heroic resistance to the Bush-Rice obsession with bombing Iran, his move was probably Blair's way of pleasing Bush.

'jack straw implying that tony blair would have been ok with military action against iran.'

- It was always somewhat of a political joke in Britain. When Jack Straw was at the foreign office he continuously bragged about how solid the friendship was he had spent years building up between Britain and Iran. And then of course they kidnapped our sailors and Straw was sent to the Ministry of Justice. Heheh. Although, the fact that Washington often referred to him as 'Ayatollah Straw' on account of his large muslim constituency (he stands for Blackburn in the Commons) and what I believe to be his somewhat heroic resistance to the Bush-Rice obsession with bombing Iran, his move was probably Blair's way of pleasing Bush.

well, i shouldve clarified my statement, in the documentary, this is said by straw (paraphrasing):

I told condi that under no circumstances would britain support military action towards iran, and that no one wanted another iraq. while at the same time i was quite confident that this was not true, the (and i dont remember the words he actually used here, but the meaning was very apparent) leadership would have supported said action.

this was, by the way, during the most intense period of threats from the bush administration towards iran.

edit: by the way halo, was this produced and/or broadcast by the BBC? im asking because i saw it on swedish bbc (SVT), but seeing as the documentary had an english-sounding producer and director, and knowing that SVT has a broad collaboration with the BBC, it seems likely. also, i very much doubt any other medium would have been able to get to the rather highly ranked officials of various nationalities. aaanyway...

bumping this so the scouser answers