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Ear to the Ground

U.S. Turns Up the Heat on Iran

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Posted on Jan 31, 2010
Wikimedia Commons

A satellite view of the Persian Gulf.

The Obama administration is increasing the speed at which the U.S. is deploying military defenses in the Persian Gulf, putting ships and anti-missile systems in the area in response to worries about a possible Iranian missile attack and in an effort to put pressure on Tehran. —JCL

The New York Times:

The Obama administration is accelerating the deployment of new defenses against possible Iranian missile attacks in the Persian Gulf, placing special ships off the Iranian coast and antimissile systems in at least four Arab countries, according to administration and military officials.

The deployments come at a critical turning point in President Obama’s dealings with Iran. After months of unsuccessful diplomatic outreach, the administration is trying to win broad international consensus for sanctions against the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps, which Western nations say control a covert nuclear arms program.

Mr. Obama spoke of the shift in his State of the Union address, warning of “consequences” if Iran continued to defy United Nations demands to stop manufacturing nuclear fuel. And Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton publicly warned China on Friday that its opposition to sanctions was shortsighted.

The news that the United States is deploying antimissile defenses — including a rare public discussion of them by Gen. David H. Petraeus — appears to be part of a coordinated administration strategy to increase pressure on Iran.

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By radson, February 1, 2010 at 3:10 pm Link to this comment

So what else is new,big story ,big farce and Big Deal

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By ofersince72, February 1, 2010 at 11:19 am Link to this comment

Am I a step or two ahead of American policy,,

but isn’t the next step to demonize and

Hitlerize a personality   in   Iran?????????????

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By gerard, February 1, 2010 at 10:03 am Link to this comment

...“months of diplomatic outreach?”  Excuse me!
Threats.  Sending more weapons into surrounding counttries.  More threats.  More weapons.  More threats.

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By ofersince72, February 1, 2010 at 9:10 am Link to this comment

ONCE AGAIN INHERIT THE WIND….........

YOU MAY CALL IT A WISE CRACK….....

CALL IT   WHAT YOU MAY…..........

PERPETUAL WAR   IS   HERE TO STAY….......

Report this

By ofersince72, February 1, 2010 at 9:07 am Link to this comment

OH, my, my INHERIT THE WIND….........

Did I not hear coming from Oh! Bama!‘s mouth

on many,  many occasions how he   was going to

straighten   the   mess   out   between Iran and

the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA ????????????????

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By diman, February 1, 2010 at 7:22 am Link to this comment

Another war is coming, slowly but surely, Iran is next in line, have to keep the Military Industrial Complex of the U.S.A busy.

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By ofersince72, February 1, 2010 at 5:28 am Link to this comment

Which makes my main agrument the the Dem supporters
They had control of Capitol Hill all through the
eighties.  Yet funding for muderous activity in
in Central America went unfettered until public
protest forced constraints…Then it was just
to defund the Contras, and temporary…The money
kept funneling to El Salvador, Hondurous, Columbia
Why did the DEMS support this??  As i have been
repeating,  the Dem track record,  where has it
been different, other than rhetoric?

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By ofersince72, February 1, 2010 at 5:16 am Link to this comment

He wasn’t involved in the Central America crap..

Iran-Contra didn’t break until after his tapes
were put out,,,,,,so he had good insight of
just what was going on there.

Is he fictional…..doesn’t matter…he was right.
As Chomsky pointed out about conspirousy theories
on 911,,,  it doesn’t matter,  the end result
was the same either way.

Report this

By ofersince72, February 1, 2010 at 4:51 am Link to this comment

I remember listening to Stockwell in 1987 when
his tapes first appeared to me.  You are right
he was here and then gone….  I thought he went
to Cuba…..he told his history….but really
can’t say myself that I checked it out.
All Stockwell really said was we went right from
Viet,  to funding all sorts of repressive regimes
in Africa as we exited.  That is true…
Most of his dialauge was about stopping
the repressive dictatoships and funding them in
Central America… Especially the Contras…
Mostly he didn’t speak of HIS experiences..but
was calling for activism against funding the
Contras that would cross the Hondurean border and
murder farmers.

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By Daniel, February 1, 2010 at 3:59 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

- Vanga predicted break out of Third World War in 2010… The Nostradamus Code:World War III (2009 - 2012)... The Bible and the Third World War - the 1000 Year Kingdom:
http://cristiannegureanu.blogspot.com/2009/06/vanga-predicted-break-out-of-third.html

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By ofersince72, February 1, 2010 at 12:18 am Link to this comment

Thats about like these petitions after the fact
on the recent Supreme Court decision.

Obama knew that was on the docket…So he had to
know what that conservative court’s decision was
going to be.

So why did he not lead an opposition to that decision
well before it was handed down?

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By ofersince72, February 1, 2010 at 12:13 am Link to this comment

Hey you Dem supporters…..

I have seen petitions going around asking for the
Democrat leadership in the U.S. Senate to take away
smoking Joe Lieberman’s chairmanship..

Thats just more funny stuff….That REID awarded him
with that is also comical.

Do you Dem supporters remember the first extra
war funding bill presented to Capitol Hill right
after the 2006 elections?  You remember the dirty
trick they used to divert attention form this night
time signing at the Bush White House?  You know,
immigration reform came that same night from the
ole White House,  changed the topic of discussion
from Iraq to   those nasty dirty MEXICANS…...
Remember that dirty trick????  Pelosi and Reid….

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By ofersince72, January 31, 2010 at 10:53 pm Link to this comment

To those that have been defending the Dems and Obama,
is this not just another extension of “Bush” policies?

And,  when i say Bush,  I mean that rhetorically.
Bush never was the root of all evils, just one in a
long line carrying out post WWII American hegemony.

I really miss his press conferences.,,much more
entertaining than Obama’s

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By waldo, January 31, 2010 at 10:44 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

Yay!  Let’s kill innocents for Israel!  Yay!  Let’s send out boys and girls into the meatgrinder for Israel!  Yay!

Our military and our government (perhaps the same thing) are traitors to America.

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By lichen, January 31, 2010 at 10:21 pm Link to this comment

Just leave Iran alone; they are not a ‘threat’ to anything; it is the US/Israel who are stoking war.

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By ofersince72, January 31, 2010 at 4:51 pm Link to this comment

Add one more thing…

We never have been the police of   the world

We always have been on the prowl for resources

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By ofersince72, January 31, 2010 at 4:48 pm Link to this comment

PSmith , thank you for all your references, I have
been using them….

Puple Wolf….I agree with with you about what
the U.S. should do , however

I don’t go for excepted line that they have been
battleing it out in the Middle East for centuries.
I believe there were many jews spread out all
through the Middle East.  A large amount in Iran of
the former Persia.

To me , it was the Western colonialism that fractured stability starting at the beginning of the
twentyth century.  They all were tribal ,even the
jews.  They squabbled at times, mostly like brothers,
but always ended up trading together. This centuries
old fight that we are handed , to me , is an excuse
for more western domination.

In history ,  I don’t believe there is any more
of a bloody history than Europe and America.

Report this

By purplewolf, January 31, 2010 at 12:23 pm Link to this comment

It’s well past time to get the hell out of the middle east and let them do as they will. They have been fighting each other for centuries and no outside force(country) will ever be able to change this.Time to end G.W.‘s “crusade” against the non-Christians-as Bush 2 let it slip in one of his b.s. speeches in 2003, “this crusade” when referring his Iraqi war or whatever name he called it at that time, as he so often lied(over 935 lies G.W. admitted to to get us in the Iraq war)to the mission, name and why we were really there. And yes, he did admit it was for the oil at a later point in his war that has left this administration with the aftermath of all of it. But to expand and continue these grievous mistakes makes this administration no better than the last one. 

America has to stop being the Policeman of the World. Trying to bully everyone else who has a different view of things.Time to quit telling other nations how to live,from a western viewpoint, which isn’t all that great if you think about it.If we were so “great” we would have full employment, adequate health care for all, a better educated population, better infrastructure, etc…

Instead we have a country that is crumbling beneath our feet. Our drop out rate for high school is over 50% in many cities and those who do manage to graduate are often illiterate and ignorant and not ready the any type of job that might be available. Latest stats claim America has a literacy rate under 25%. Unbelievable.

America spends more than all other countries combined each year on the war machine. I know that money-which is all borrowed-could be put to better use improving the real problems we have in this country. Instead, we bomb the hell out of other countries, then rebuild them better than what we have here, then the enemies bomb the newly rebuilt facilities we just completed and stupid “U.S”-we rebuild it again over and over.Why?
We cannot even take care of our wounded military when they arrive back in this country, but we do not stop being stupid and we copntinue on with more of the same.

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