In the Shadows
What are we to make of the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction throughout the Third-World? Has the West finally met its match in the political arena after nearly 500 years of expansion from Africa to Asia and the Northern Hemisphere? Have Westerners foolishly believed that the knowledge of nuclear fire was to be used for "peaceful" purposes by those whom they themselves considered to be sub-par or perhaps too backward to pose a threat to their existence? Have we reached a point of no-return?
From the Guardian Unlimited:
It is intended as an alarm bell sounding in the boardrooms of western Europe's leading engineering companies as well as the common rooms of campuses and cutting-edge science labs.
It is also a wake-up call to EU governments, spy agencies and customs officials struggling to keep the ingredients for weapons of mass destruction (WMD) out of the hands of some of the most unsavoury regimes in the Middle East and the far east.
But if the 55-page confidential "early warning" intelligence assessment is impressive in the sheer mass of detail on the names and locations of suspect players in the global WMD game, the information may be seen as deeply troubling. It emphasises that west European engineering firms, germ laboratories, scientific thinktanks and university campuses are successfully preyed on by multitudes of middlemen, front companies, scholars with hidden agendas and bureaucrats working for the Iranian, Syrian or Pakistani regimes.
Let us not forget Iraq in this equation as well. Many a left-wing pundit has damned this Bush Administration for not locating the imagined Holy Grail of Operation Iraqi Freedom: Nuclear and Chemical WMD's. However, considering the sensitive nature of such a program as creating a nuclear bomb and a potential military counter-strike such as on Iraq's nuclear facility at Osirak 25 years ago by the Israelis, should we be surprised that these things are conducted with such secrecy and non-transparency? Of course not.
the article continues:
The report from a leading EU intelligence service obtained by the Guardian represent, it seems, the pooled knowledge of at least four major EU member-states on how countries such as Iran, Syria, and North Korea orchestrate a vast network of traders, phoney companies, state institutions and diplomatic missions internationally to procure the means to develop chemical, biological, nuclear and conventional weapons.
Given the hi-tech nature of the coveted parts and materials, the west European marketplace is the principal shopping mall, while Russia and the former Soviet Union are targeted for talented if impoverished brainpower. The Iranians, for example, are using middlemen in the neighbouring and post-Soviet countries of Azerbaijan and Armenia to tap the post-Soviet market, the document states.
With American troops still operating in Iraq and with her arms stocks fully replenished, has the time arrived for decisive action? Many arm-chair generals have disparaged the fact that we have an all-volunteer army and have complained that we don't have enough troops in Mesopotamia however the cry for "more troops" has been as American as applie pie since the days of George Washington. Every general wants more troops but ultimately it will be Washington DC that will decide if the army will receive their desired troop levels before offensive operations begin. However, there is still time for the President of the United States to activate the dreaded and infamous "draft" to induct more men and now women into the American Armed Forces. With events apparently heading for a collision course over Persia, it would be a mistake for Tehran to underestimate our resolve.
The Guardian continues:
While the Pakistani bomb project has long been realised, Iran's nuclear ambitions are not as advanced and have the makings of an international crisis. So it is not surprising that much of the document focuses on Iranian activities - not only in the nuclear field, but in bio-chemical and conventional weapons, notably its "very ambitious" missile programmes. The document lists more than 200 Iranian companies, institutes, government offices and academic outfits said to be engaged in weapons research, development and procurement, and mostly subordinate to the defence ministry in Tehran's armed forces logistics department.
Russia, which has just clinched a billion-dollar missile deal with Iran, is identified as crucial to Iran's military programmes, especially the missile development; 16 Russian companies and academic institutes are named as helping and profiting from the Iranian military effort. They range from the Glavkosmos space agency to St Petersburg's Technical University.
How much "evidence" is needed to declare war? Will the left continue to placate anti-western sentiment throughout the world, playing into the hands of our erstwhile enemies? If they have judged Operation Iraqi Freedom to be null and void because of supposed lapses in intel and a lack of weapons of mass destruction, what side will they take in regards to Iranian subterfuge? Then there is the third nation mentioned by President Bush in the Axis of Evil, North Korea. How do they figure in all of this?
the article goes on:
The Iranians, as well as the Pakistanis and the Syrians, are also benefiting from North Korean military prowess and exports, the document says, noting that "the export of arms equipment is currently reckoned to be North Korea's most important source of income."
To maintain this performance, the document says, the North Koreans increasingly depend on being able to import western goods and equipment. To this end they use a dense web of firms and offices, their roots going back to the 1970s.
More than 30 of the named companies and institutions said to be involved in the North Korean arms procurement endeavour are in China and most of those are Chinese state firms or bodies.
Last week the US State Department slapped sanctions on six Chinese companies for their alleged supplies to Iran's military industries.
The main market for the North Korean exports is the Middle East. "The most important buyers are Egypt, Iran, Pakistan and Syria."
Damascus, the document says, has been striving for self-sufficiency in its WMD efforts for years through substantial supplies of material and knowhow from Russia and through purchases in western Europe. Most surprisingly perhaps, the report says that Syria "has recently strengthened cooperation in the [arms] sector, particularly with Iran".
If the Persian theatre becomes a shooting war, I'm quite confident that the Left will still demand "proof" before we make our moves. The Left is still debating the efficacy of our enterprise, but the rest of the nation is quite confident in the veracity of the information provided by this administration since the War on Terror began. Time is slowly running out and Iran plunges ahead knowing that time is short for them as well. Throughout it all, Russia has their hands fully immersed into the Moslem dream of nuclear parity on a strategic scale stretching from Cairo and Damascus to Tehran and Islamabad. We have only begun to fight and the shadows run far and wide.
From the Guardian Unlimited:
It is intended as an alarm bell sounding in the boardrooms of western Europe's leading engineering companies as well as the common rooms of campuses and cutting-edge science labs.
It is also a wake-up call to EU governments, spy agencies and customs officials struggling to keep the ingredients for weapons of mass destruction (WMD) out of the hands of some of the most unsavoury regimes in the Middle East and the far east.
But if the 55-page confidential "early warning" intelligence assessment is impressive in the sheer mass of detail on the names and locations of suspect players in the global WMD game, the information may be seen as deeply troubling. It emphasises that west European engineering firms, germ laboratories, scientific thinktanks and university campuses are successfully preyed on by multitudes of middlemen, front companies, scholars with hidden agendas and bureaucrats working for the Iranian, Syrian or Pakistani regimes.
Let us not forget Iraq in this equation as well. Many a left-wing pundit has damned this Bush Administration for not locating the imagined Holy Grail of Operation Iraqi Freedom: Nuclear and Chemical WMD's. However, considering the sensitive nature of such a program as creating a nuclear bomb and a potential military counter-strike such as on Iraq's nuclear facility at Osirak 25 years ago by the Israelis, should we be surprised that these things are conducted with such secrecy and non-transparency? Of course not.
the article continues:
The report from a leading EU intelligence service obtained by the Guardian represent, it seems, the pooled knowledge of at least four major EU member-states on how countries such as Iran, Syria, and North Korea orchestrate a vast network of traders, phoney companies, state institutions and diplomatic missions internationally to procure the means to develop chemical, biological, nuclear and conventional weapons.
Given the hi-tech nature of the coveted parts and materials, the west European marketplace is the principal shopping mall, while Russia and the former Soviet Union are targeted for talented if impoverished brainpower. The Iranians, for example, are using middlemen in the neighbouring and post-Soviet countries of Azerbaijan and Armenia to tap the post-Soviet market, the document states.
With American troops still operating in Iraq and with her arms stocks fully replenished, has the time arrived for decisive action? Many arm-chair generals have disparaged the fact that we have an all-volunteer army and have complained that we don't have enough troops in Mesopotamia however the cry for "more troops" has been as American as applie pie since the days of George Washington. Every general wants more troops but ultimately it will be Washington DC that will decide if the army will receive their desired troop levels before offensive operations begin. However, there is still time for the President of the United States to activate the dreaded and infamous "draft" to induct more men and now women into the American Armed Forces. With events apparently heading for a collision course over Persia, it would be a mistake for Tehran to underestimate our resolve.
The Guardian continues:
While the Pakistani bomb project has long been realised, Iran's nuclear ambitions are not as advanced and have the makings of an international crisis. So it is not surprising that much of the document focuses on Iranian activities - not only in the nuclear field, but in bio-chemical and conventional weapons, notably its "very ambitious" missile programmes. The document lists more than 200 Iranian companies, institutes, government offices and academic outfits said to be engaged in weapons research, development and procurement, and mostly subordinate to the defence ministry in Tehran's armed forces logistics department.
Russia, which has just clinched a billion-dollar missile deal with Iran, is identified as crucial to Iran's military programmes, especially the missile development; 16 Russian companies and academic institutes are named as helping and profiting from the Iranian military effort. They range from the Glavkosmos space agency to St Petersburg's Technical University.
How much "evidence" is needed to declare war? Will the left continue to placate anti-western sentiment throughout the world, playing into the hands of our erstwhile enemies? If they have judged Operation Iraqi Freedom to be null and void because of supposed lapses in intel and a lack of weapons of mass destruction, what side will they take in regards to Iranian subterfuge? Then there is the third nation mentioned by President Bush in the Axis of Evil, North Korea. How do they figure in all of this?
the article goes on:
The Iranians, as well as the Pakistanis and the Syrians, are also benefiting from North Korean military prowess and exports, the document says, noting that "the export of arms equipment is currently reckoned to be North Korea's most important source of income."
To maintain this performance, the document says, the North Koreans increasingly depend on being able to import western goods and equipment. To this end they use a dense web of firms and offices, their roots going back to the 1970s.
More than 30 of the named companies and institutions said to be involved in the North Korean arms procurement endeavour are in China and most of those are Chinese state firms or bodies.
Last week the US State Department slapped sanctions on six Chinese companies for their alleged supplies to Iran's military industries.
The main market for the North Korean exports is the Middle East. "The most important buyers are Egypt, Iran, Pakistan and Syria."
Damascus, the document says, has been striving for self-sufficiency in its WMD efforts for years through substantial supplies of material and knowhow from Russia and through purchases in western Europe. Most surprisingly perhaps, the report says that Syria "has recently strengthened cooperation in the [arms] sector, particularly with Iran".
If the Persian theatre becomes a shooting war, I'm quite confident that the Left will still demand "proof" before we make our moves. The Left is still debating the efficacy of our enterprise, but the rest of the nation is quite confident in the veracity of the information provided by this administration since the War on Terror began. Time is slowly running out and Iran plunges ahead knowing that time is short for them as well. Throughout it all, Russia has their hands fully immersed into the Moslem dream of nuclear parity on a strategic scale stretching from Cairo and Damascus to Tehran and Islamabad. We have only begun to fight and the shadows run far and wide.
posted by Bruce R. McConnell | 9:12 PM
3 Comments:
Well, Welcome aboard the War on Terror! ;)
Iraq was much easier to take down than Iran was. We already had military forces staged around and over Iraq since '91. Thus, it was most logical that we invade there first. The terrain was much easier to overcome than the Persian east as well.
Military doctrine states that you should attack at the least strongest point in the enemy defense. Thus, Iraq with no real defensive capability to mass invasion was the ideal target.
Gotta start somewhere.
Forth Eaorlingas!
Who says we don't have enough troops? Well, General, how many troops do you think we need to invade Iran or fight on a two-front war?
Every general wants more troops, however, you make do with what you have. I'm quite confident that we can unleash holy hell with just a single Marine Corps Division allowed to do their job of killing and destroying the enemy.
If Afghanistan and Iraq are an indication of the fighting prowess of Islam, then we may only need one division from the Marines and one from the Army to clean up Iran quite easily. The Air Force have plenty of aircraft and munitions as a force multiplyer for what we throw at our enemies.
God Bless America!
OOH-RAH!MARINE CORPS!SEMPERFI!DO OR DIE!MARINE CORPS!HARD CORE!OOH-RAH!
Where are my blood cookies? All this talk of war is making me hungry...
Iran, more formidable? In what way? Their army barely fought off the Iraqi invasion, and we know how "great" their army was, now do we.
The people of Iran I suspect would rise up against their govt for all the years of ruthless religious dicatorship. I'm quite confident that the people of Iran would accept us with open arms.
We would not invade them to completely destroy their infastructre, so our initial bombing campaign would be directed entirely at command and control of the Iranian Mullacracy.
But you know something, we will get this done whether by "volunteers" or by "draftees". Pray and hope that Americans join our armed forces sufficiently enough so that we won't need to call up the draft.
But then again, the democrats want the draft. Hmmm....
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