Iran emboldened and it's the religion stupid

Iran's President Ahmadinejad said today, 'Atheism of big powers is rootcause of man's plight' and 'the only remedy to the plight is recourse to God and injunctions of the divine messengers'. I suppose he will agree with Zawahiri's video inviting the world to Islam, since Ahmadinejad has already sent a letter to President Bush issuing a similar invitation.

Iranian nation is on the path to progress, setting God Almighty as its ultimate goal.

He said strong faith in God and monotheism are the key to durable peace and calm. (source)

Iran seemed to be emboldened by the early reports of Hezbollah's 'win' against Israel. It was 'a proxy conflict by default' and Hezbollah seemed to be the victor ... until the dust cleared. Looking at the situation after the fact, it seems that Hezbollah really didn't win anything because of the vast destruction they brought down on the Lebanese people. It also appears that Israel did much more damage to Hezbollah's leadership and munitions that first thought.

But an attempt by Iran to use this strategic and political capital offensively will likely backfire; causing Iran to fall victim of over-reach should it embark on a strategy of overarching regional supremacy. Indeed the Islamic Republic would do well to observe the recent experience of the Bush administration in its recent attempts to re-orient the Middle East. [snip]

As the Chatham House study on Iran asserted, there is a danger that Iran's perception of Western weakness may encourage it to become overly ambitious ... source

The United Nations will meet early in September, but what will Russia and China do? Will they keep their word and support sanctions? I doubt it. Russia today said, 'regrets Iran's decision not to halt uranium enrichment by a U.N. deadline', but Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov says Russia 'cannot join ultimatums'.

Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, however, signaled that Russia continued to have a dim view of efforts to quickly impose sanctions on Tehran. He said Russia wanted to keep all options open — a statement that appeared to be a response to U.S.-led efforts to quickly bring sanctions against Iran.

"We take past experience into account and we cannot join ultimatums that only lead everyone to a dead end," he told reporters. "There are many countries whose policies raise questions and provoke concern but we live in one world and we need to search for solution through dialogue, involve them in dialogue, and not through isolation." source

I think most of us hope Israel will take the initiative and take out Iran's nuclear sites. Ahmadinejad hate the United States because of our support for Israel and has stated Israel should be wiped off the map.

"If this continues, at some point the Israelis are going to say to us, either you take care of this with some well-placed bombs, or we'll have to," said John Pike of GlobalSecurity.org, which analyzes military arsenals and strategy.

A new report by a key U.S. House committee portrays Iran as a growing threat and lambastes intelligence agencies for what it claims are overly cautious assessments of the Islamic republic's weapons programs. source

Former Israeli General Yossi Ben-Ari believes that Iran is the 'greatest problem that Israel is confronted with today'.

I think that if Israel will have new elections tomorrow, Kadima would simply disappear from the political arena and that Bibi Netanyahu, as the leader of the Likud, would enjoy much greater support compared to what he had in the last elections. ...

My personal judgment is that Israel should jump into a political process in order to cut off Iran from our close surroundings. If there were a chance to bring Bashar [Assad] in, we might be able to create some kind of Sunnite belt around us, consisting of Syria, Lebanon, as well as Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and the Palestinians. ...

Israel Pensioners Minister Rafi Eitan warned that if the U.S. attacks Iran, Israel will be the first to be counter-attacked. ...

Maybe a better preference would be to get into some bad times with the White House, and thereby ease the threat from the eastern side. After all, we have had our differences and disputes with previous U.S. administrations, but it didn't affect the overall strategic relations of both sides. source

So getting into 'bad times', translated - conflict, with the United States would be good for Israel? It might be good for the United States too, but is that really what this situation with Iran has come down to, backing off from the only country that really supports Israel? Hopefully the General's opinion is not shared by others in Israel.

Of course another option for Israel could be to just convert to Islam like Ahmadinejad and Zawahiri have suggested for the world. No? I didn't think so.

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