:har:

Good one man. Very good.:up:

Good question. To be honest I really dont know why, its been one big mess over there for the last several centuries. Maybe because Iran is a much larger country and the terrain more varied. Could have made logistics and decisive operations like 73 Easting kind of difficult. There would have also been sympathetic shiite populations in Iraq to our rear. Getting stuck in the middle could have turned out to be a major charlie foxtrot.

On the other hand Iraq has always been deeply divided and after Kuwait invasion was ripe for regime change. Now was invasion to free Kuwait or part of some long term plan to confront Iran and its nuclear ambitions. Maybe China's creeping influence butting heads with our Carter doctrine which dictates we protect the oil resources in the middle east I dont really know. Could have been all three and more reasons together. Whatever the case we are knocking on Iran's front door now from Iraq and Afghanistan. Couple that with sanctions, internal anti-government protests, and resistance groups killing off government officials and scientists inside Iran seems to be chipping away at things. No rush though we got all day.

As for Israel, yes they may have contributed something, intel maybe? But I dont think its enough for me to hop on the same bandwagon as the Iranian Red Guard and blame Israel for the attack.

@ Catfish, because the first Bush didn't finish the job and go all the way to Bagdad ... so his son steps in a finishes the job.

Iran is still cruising for a bruising and will find out sooner or later why we call our fighter jets Hornets :yep:


When did Iraq attack Kuwait?

August 2, 1990 – August 4, 1990


What happened between Iraq and Kuwait?

After a series of failed negotiations between major world powers and Iraq, the United States-led coalition forces launched a massive military assault on Iraq and Iraqi forces stationed in Kuwait in mid-January 1991. ... Hostilities continued until late February and on 25 February, Kuwait was officially liberated from Iraq.

Why did the US attack Iraq in 2003?

The 2003 invasion of Iraq was the first stage of the Iraq War. ... According to U.S. President George W. Bush and UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, the coalition aimed "to disarm Iraq of weapons of mass destruction, to end Saddam Hussein's support for terrorism, and to free the Iraqi people."

I got a strong feeling of déjà-vu when I read this thread title, and I don't know why.

Regarding Irag and Iran two factors must be considered for understanding why the region is such a hellhole.

First, the war between Shia and Sunni, and the ethnic tensions linked to that.

Second the artificial borderdrawing by colonial masters from the West who set these lines on maps in explicit ignorration of ethnic distribution patterns on the ground, ripping apart what belonged together and forced together what does not go well together.

Bush sn's premature ending of the second Gulf War, was stupid, cynical, and short-sighted.

Bush jn's triggering of a war against Iraq while it had nothing to do with the 9/11 attacks, was even more stupid. The lies used to defend it, were blatant. The ammount of naivety and incompetent plannign for the time after, was breathtaking. The mess Iraq today is in, is a result of this dilettantism.

The new "friendship" between Israel and Arab nations, is not really friendship, but owes to the perception of a shared enemy, Iran, and narcissism of Arab leaders who want to boast with F35s. The general antisemitic sentiment against Jews are not affected by all this, Islam's hostility against Jews (any everything not being Islam's) lives on. The situaiton has a certain effect of containign Turkey, which slowly raises to one of the biggest troublemakers.

No surprises in the fact that Hassan Rouhani has blamed Israel for the assassination (see link below)
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-55111064

But parts of his announcement which includes wording such as "Iran would retaliate over Mohsen Fakhrizadeh's killing at a time of its choosing."
" would respond in due course" "would not push Iran into making hasty decisions." "In due time, they will answer for this crime"

Leads me to believe they will bide their time and prepare to attack a 'soft' target rather then anything major such as launching missiles into Israel.

Possibly even the bombing of an Israeli embassy.

Whatever it is I am confident Israel will retaliate using superior force.

Bush Sr. had the backing and participation of the U.N., Egypt, U.K., Canada, Saudi Arabia, Argentina, France, Syria and dozens of other nations for the specific reason of removing Iraqi forces from Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.

The so called second war by Bush Jr. wasn't nearly as popular. But we went to oust an increasingly troublesome dictator. Could have been we went in to remove a loose cannon and tie up incriminating loose ends, maybe the fear of a nuclear 911 influenced the decision to get closer to Iran and squash their ambitions, or the Carter Doctrine dictated we expand our presence to head off Chinese and Russian influence in the region or any combination thereof. We'll probably never know for sure and I bet there's a truck load more going on than we'll ever know.

Iraq was already divided and once Hussein was ousted it was inevitable that new borders would develop between the predominate Shiite tribe and the minority Suuni and Kurdish tribes. As for ending the war it can be said overt military aggression has ceased. But coalition forces are still operating in the area, still building bases and expanding our presence there. We never left, and I think until Iran's current leadership is replaced with someone more to our (coalition) liking we're going to remain in Iraq, and the predominately Suuni Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia.


I tend to agree, and likely why Shiite nations like Iran continue to blame Israel for everything going on to weaken those relations.

As for the idea Israel is training the fighters which attacked Mohsen Fakhrizadeh. I'd go short on that stock, byt anything is possible I suppose. I'm thinking there's no way in hell the militant Islamic M.E.K. or some other militant Islamic rebel groups are training in Israel to fight in Iran. Instead I'm thinking they'll be found in the European and NATO member state of Albania.

https://www.nejatngo.org/en/posts/7714

Bet ya'll didn't have a clue there are militant Shia Islamic 'freedom fighter' training camps in Europe.

https://www.nejatngo.org/en/posts/11183


And to top it off that simple li'l ol' loose knit tradin' union called the European Union? They're probably paying for it. :har:

But when your own media focuses your attention on things that really dont matter, you tend to miss out on those things that do.

This post and your other posts in this thread are about as good a break down and assessment as I have seen on the current situation in the Middle East. Thanks for your enlightening posts. :up:

Saw the news here at 8. Iran will pick time and place for their revenge.

Hmm could they do another Iraq ?

Meaning they call the leaders in Israel telling them, that they are planning on sending 4-5 missile against Israel, but they will land in the desert.

I know will not happen a direct attack against Israel is out of discussion.

Markus

Can't see any point in that :doh:

Iran is more into fear ... they've already tested the delivery systems

Perhaps they will actually test a nuclear device somewhere underground just to show off which would then get brother Kim in NK the same idea to test his.

They don't really know where Biden stands yet ... this would give them some idea of how far they can go :yep:

You are right.

I saw the news at 8, well not the first 4 minutes and when I changed channel from my science to the news channel a journalist appeared on the screen, maybe standing in Teheran,

His first word I heard was...Like they attacked American bases in Iraq, we can only wait and see which response Iran will send

Then they returned to the studio and the news anchor

Markus

I wouldn't fancy currently being in any Iranian underground nuclear facility.

You may be safe from a direct blast but being buried alive is certainly not my cup of tea should Israel strike.

https://apnews.com/article/internati...864d2055af54c6

I'm thinking they are just trying to discredit the Islamic Shiite MEK exiles by associating them with Israel. When everyone in the world, except Europeans, already knows they are sheltered and trained in Europe.