War And Oil Games
"Shorter and longer-range, ground-to-sea, surface-to-surface and surface-to-air missiles will be tested on Saturday." Commodore Mahmoud MousaviThat's the Islamic Republic of Iran flexing its military-technology muscle. To demonstrate how able it is to prosecute its agenda, to follow through on its threats. And any who doubt are invited to watch. The threat to choke the Strait of Hormuz off to oil shipments has had investors watching, and the stock market reacting, just as has China, India and the European Union, with great dismay, see a potential threat to their prosperity.
There has been a rise in the price of a barrel of oil, and nations are biting their figurative fingernails in suspense. But such threats work both ways; Iranians are rushing to secure their assets if they have any, cleaning out their bank accounts, trying to invest elsewhere. Could it be they have so little faith in their Ayatollahs' capability to pull off their bluff? Do they not relish the prospect of a brief but gory war between their country and the United States and its allies?
Are they not proud of the military prowess of the Republican Guard, their glorious military, and their Supreme Leader who sits confidently beside the throne of Allah, listening as he is bidden to perform the wholesome duties that Islam has conferred upon him? Now they have another item to be proud of; their country can now boast it has produced its initial nuclear fuel bar, defying Western experts.
The Atomic Energy Organization of Iran claims to have manufactured and successfully tested the sample fuel bar of uranium. The fuel rod has been placed, so they claim, into the core of the Tehran Research Reactor, claiming the while that this will remain a research reactor for the production of radio isotopes for medical use. Solely. What other purpose could it conceivably have?
For the world and the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency is clearly incorrect in claiming that Iran's intention is to produce nuclear warheads. So obviously unlike peace-loving and -dedicated Iran. And so, the war games now proceeding in the Strait have succeeded in mine-laying and shooting aerial drones. On schedule, and so proudly. Why not?
And while the United States is behaving so unsportsmanlike about Tehran's threats issued in a self-protective move to impress upon those issuing ultimatums to it, and threatening further to isolate it and restrain its oil exports, thus cutting off its financial resources completely, it has offered to return to nuclear talks with the 5+1 contact group; Germany plus the five permanent Security Council members.
With China and Russia's classic sympathetic tack on trade-reciprocal Iran, and the European Union so clearly concerned about future economic prospects as it is managing to swim out of the global downturn, and wrestles desperately with the euro problems and the Greek bailout, and Italy's dire financial straits, it would far prefer a smoother transition to compliance.
If Iran could see itself through to persuading the European Union that things could be smoothed over, and it presents no threat to the free passage of oil through the Strait after all, it is only seeking to protect itself, and through this stalling tactic bringing France and England and Germany to its side, along with China and Russia, why it has foxily outmanoeuvred the United States, hasn't it?
No need after all, for the United States to threaten poor Iran in such an ill-bred manner: "Interference with the transit - of vessels through the Strait of Hormuz will not be tolerated." To which Iran responds of course that "Not a drop of oil will pass through the Strait of Hormuz. The enemies will only drop their plots when we put them back in their place."
Divide and rule has always worked for the crafty. Iran has proposed to rejoin the nuclear talks; it has all been a sad misunderstanding, after all; and it merely seeks to protect its interests that have been badly tampered with by the imposition of sanctions related to its nuclear program; remove the sanctions, restore the free flow of oil. And call off the war machines.
Simple, just as simple as that.
Labels: Iran, Technology, Terrorism, Traditions
posted by Pieface @ Sunday, January 01, 2012
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