Panetta: Israel could attack Iran as early as April

[regexcellent]

I can't help but notice how you conveniently sidestep the entire issue of disproportional use of force. Firing rockets into a crowd to kill a target is not mimizing casualties, it is maximizing your chance to get your target, whatever the consequences may be. I don't want to imply that legally this type of war tactics are criminal, but they should be used as a last resort and not on a recurring basis. So moral high ground my ass.

1) Israel does what it can to minimize casualties while still hitting targets
2) Israel is not at fault for Hamas hiding military targets among civilians
3) Disproportionate response is designed to discourage further violence.

I always find it funny how Israel happily engages in terrorism and murder by gunning down innocent civilians around the world

Huh?

there’s nothing that Israel can do about it apart from becoming even more of a pariah state in the eyes of the world!

I get the strange feeling that this thought makes you cream yourself.

Also, Israel is not really a pariah state. Lots of countries have very close ties.

[MOBIUS]

Lots of countries have very close ties with states like Venezuela and Zimbabwe - even NK has a buddy or two...

Israel has also been doing it's best to **** over what were countries with very close ties with it - particularly spectacularly has been the reverse in relations with Turkey! With friends like Israel, who needs enemies!

[MOBIUS]

**** me, a Texan with nothing to say!

[regexcellent]

Israel has also been doing it's best to **** over what were countries with very close ties with it - particularly spectacularly has been the reverse in relations with Turkey! With friends like Israel, who needs enemies!

Turkey abandoned Israel for the sake of the neo-Ottoman ambitions of its Islamist prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

[MOBIUS]

You Israel apologists are all the ****ing same with your outrageous attempts to rewrite history!

Clearly it had nothing to do with the casual murder of Turkish nationals on a Turkish ship a couple of years ago, or the crass diplomatic humiliation of a Turkish envoy last year...?

Stop being so ****ing brainwashed and get your head out of the sand!!!

[Al B. Sure!]

military-industrial complex has two parts of it. He was clearly a high-post at the natanz nuclear enrichment facility - he doesn't have to have a rank in order to make bombs. That's how it goes in a war.

The israeli ambassador otoh.... now say they'd shoot up a member of the IDF, or one of the defense industries, I wouldn't have a moral griping with that.


come on, you are seriously equating the attempted assassination of an ambassador, with one of a person directly making bombs?
wait, Iran doesn't REALLY try to get bombs.... and if they did that would be ok anyway because Israel....

You didn't address what I said... shoot up a member of the IDF, you SHOULD have a moral gripe with that. That is an illegal act.

Since when is it lawful/moral to kill even uniformed military without official hostilities?

"That's how it goes in a war"? Is Israel currently at war with Iran?

[Al B. Sure!]

Turkey abandoned Israel for the sake of the neo-Ottoman ambitions of its Islamist prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

neo-Ottoman ambitions? Is that even a thing? I have never heard in my life about Turkey having any designs for conquest! Am I just uninformed or is this complete nonsense?

[SlowwHand]

How "official" does it have to be? Iran says, repeatedly, what their intentions are.

[Al B. Sure!]

How "official" does it have to be? Iran says, repeatedly, what their intentions are.

No. They actually don't.

Find me one governmental source from any world government, including Iran and Israel, or the UN that says that Iran and Israel are in a state of war with each other.

They're not. The killing of civilians, government employees, uniformed military, etc. on either side by either side is outside the purview of the laws of war and is simple murder by state.

[SlowwHand]

Let's see. Ben got banned here for "making threats". "Threats" that were pretty much without teeth.
Iran has said they want to annihilate Israel and will attack U.S. interests. I'll ask you again, what does it take to give Israel the rights that loinburger has received? Keeping in mind that Iran's declarations are a lot more serious in intent and probability than Ben's.

Panetta: No decision yet from Israel on Iran

Associated Press

Posted on February 14, 2012 at 10:35 AM

Updated today at 11:32 AM

WASHINGTON (AP) — Defense Secretary Leon Panetta says he does not think Israel has made a decision to launch a military strike on Iran to thwart its nuclear ambitions.

Testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee Tuesday, Panetta was pressed on the growing possibility that Israel would attack Iran. Israel has blamed Iran for recent diplomatic attacks overseas. Tehran has denied responsibility.

Panetta said Iran was a great concern and the U.S. has a common cause with Israel and the international community to ensure that Iran does not develop a nuclear weapon. He said the U.S. and other nations have taken strong steps with sanctions and stressed the importance of keeping the international community together.

Panetta said that, as President Barack Obama suggested, the administration does not think Israel has made a decision.

[Al B. Sure!]

Let's see. Ben got banned here for "making threats". "Threats" that were pretty much without teeth.
Iran has said they want to annihilate Israel and will attack U.S. interests. I'll ask you again, what does it take to give Israel the rights that loinburger has received? Keeping in mind that Iran's declarations are a lot more serious in intent and probability than Ben's.

States do not operate under the same terms of use as Apolyton Civilization Site.

[SlowwHand]

Obviously. Bull**** over substance, here.

[Al B. Sure!]

Obviously. Bull**** over substance, here.

By your logic, because of the threats, Loin would be permitted to kill Ben's family members, right? Loin was threatened, right? And he needs to take it seriously and eliminate anyone who may abet Ben.

[Al B. Sure!]

Obviously. Bull**** over substance, here.

Sloww, Obama has said no options (including military) are off the table with respect to Iran. If an Iranian agent were to kill an Air Force sergeant off-base, would that be just a casualty of war or state-sanctioned murder?

[Al B. Sure!]

Israeli Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch:
"We know who carried out the terror attacks, we know who sent them, and Israel will settle the score with them."

Israel says what their intentions are, too, Sloww.

Look, if both these countries just made it official, they can go killing all they want within the purview of Geneva Conventions I-IV (which they both signed), but they haven't. Which means everything they're doing is terrorism/state-sanctioned murder.

And making it official doesn't require a declaration of war. Our operations in Afghanistan and Iraq were undeclared wars but the US military was still held to the standards of international law.