It’s Not a Nuclear-Armed Iran That Israel and Saudi Arabia Really Fear

[eridani]

http://www.thenation.com/article/its-not-a-nuclear-armed-iran-that-israel-and-saudi-arabia-really-fear/

 It’s that the Vienna Agreement opens the door for the United States and Iran to develop important financial and trade ties.

 Despite the best efforts of the United States, Iran is now the co-dominant power in the Middle East. And rising. (Washington remains the other half of that “co.”)

Another quick plunge into largely forgotten history: The United States stumbled into the post-9/11 era with two invasions that neatly eliminated Iran’s key enemies on its eastern and western borders—Saddam Hussein in Iraq and the Taliban in Afghanistan. (The former is, of course, gone for good; the latter is doing better these days, though unlikely to threaten Iran for some time.) As those wars bled on without the promised victories, America’s military weariness sapped the desire in the Bush administration for military strikes against Iran. Jump almost a decade ahead, and Washington now quietly supports at least some of that country’s military efforts in Iraq against the insurgent Islamic State. The Obama administration is seemingly at least half-resigned to looking the other way while Tehran ensures that it will have a puppet regime in Baghdad. In its serially failing strategies in Yemen, Lebanon, and Syria, Washington has all but begged the Iranians to assume a leading role in those places. They have.

 And that only scratches the surface of the new Iranian ascendancy in the region. Despite the damage done by US-led economic sanctions, Iran’s real strength lies at home. It is probably the most stable Muslim nation in the Middle East. It has existed more or less within its current borders for thousands of years. It is almost completely ethnically, religiously, culturally, and linguistically homogeneous, with its minorities comparatively under control. While still governed in large part by its clerics, the country has nonetheless experienced a series of increasingly democratic electoral transitions since the 1979 revolution. Most significantly, unlike nearly every other nation in the Middle East, Iran’s leaders do not rule in fear of an Islamic revolution. They already had one.

[leveymg]

2. Israel's politics and economy are so dependent on conflict that peace is an existential threat

[malaise]

4. Bingo

Have you seen the latest Amnesty International Report re last year's war crimes?

[kelliekat44]

13. Yes. If it were any other nation, Obama would be criticized for coddling a state that sponsors

terrorism and human rights violations.

[jwirr]

6. Particularly its present political leadership.

[Nuclear Unicorn]

7. Let me guess, they have a protocol for it.

[leveymg]

8. Nice jab, but, the militarization of the Israeli economy has been noted for >40 years.

The default position for failed I/P arguments is a baseless charge of antisemitism. "Protocol." You lose.

[Nuclear Unicorn]

10. How dare they have defenses after being attacked by literally every country that borders them!

[leveymg]

11. Israel hasn't faced a serious military challenge since 1973

Which is the year it also nuclear blackmailed the US into restocking its depleted conventional stockpiles. It's Israel's nuclear arsenal and first-strike threats that are actually feared most.

[Johnyawl]

5. Israel could begin that process...

...by abandoning their aggressive colonization of the West Bank and genuinely working on the two state solution.

[bemildred]

3. Top US General Urges Countries to Bolster UN Peacekeeping

NEW YORK—

The United Nations needs rapid response forces, equipment and training to bolster peacekeeping, the United States' top general said on Tuesday ahead of President Barack Obama's planned summit of world leaders in September to win new commitments.

Army General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power met with dozens U.N. ambassadors and military advisors in New York at the 69th Regiment Armory.

"The U.N. requires commitments from member nations to provide rapid response forces for emerging crises," he said.

"The rapid deployment of units within 30, 60, or 90 days - for a finite period - can help resolve developing crises, prevent expanded conflict, and in the process save more innocent lives."

http://www.voanews.com/content/us-general-dempsey-urges-countries-to-bolster-un-peacekeeping/2882233.html

So I guess we don't want to be the world's policeman now.

[Uncle Joe]

9. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, eridani.

[kelliekat44]

12. TRUTH!! nt