This story gets more bizarre by the day.

Maybe we should try the Brer Rabbit trick - "please President, Dr. Ahmadi Nejad, whatever you do, don't flood our markets with oil, anything but that".

Who knows? It might just work...

I suspect that they're playing to their "internal audience", both within the Mullah-cracy and on the Street. Nationalism is about the only card they can play...make the "suffering of the People" the fault of the West; that they were forced into a corner.

Iran really must learn to spout their rhetoric most potentially damaging to oil prices ... on days when the markets are open.

mark -
Not a bad idea, but they are already pumping and selling at 100% - can't pass up that $68/barrel windfall. They sure like America when its the American dollar!

The thought crossed my mind that, even if the Iranian Crazies shoot themselves in the foot, there's bound to be some greedy bastards around who will try to fill the gap, supply & demand being what it is. One might consider breaking such tradespeople on the wheel. But, looking around, there are very few industrial nations which don't already have serious problems with militant Islam. Both China & Russia have problem areas which may nudge them, not only to accept Iran's self-imposed problems should they occur, but to add considerably to them.....well, we can hope can't we.

Pre-emptive sanctions. We've been expecting this.

I find it likely that if Iran imposes the sanctions, it will be impossible for the MSM or the Iranian people to blame the United States, Europe, and associated allies for any further economic hardship.

Needless to say, having the people of Iran blame the current rulers for economic trouble, and increasing unrest in Iran indirectly, is certainly within the interest of the civilized world.

Damn the BBC, if they hadn't transmitted those cartoons there would be no risk of Iran refusing to sell us.... oil? Plenty of that to go round. Islamic lunacy? No shortage of suppliers for that.

What exactly is Iran exporting to make this a threat? I know that I can live without a steady supply of Ayatollah Khomeini commemorative tea towels.

Let's get busy and impose sanctions on Iran, and then say the mullahs did it. How can they deny it now?

"Wow, with enemies like that, who needs friends?"

Denmark, but more immediately Israel.

If the political leadership of Iran is irrational enough to effectively self-impose economic sanctions, then not only is today's referral of Iran to the Security Council made to look like a joke, but it should give us pause to consider what other irrational deeds this regime would be capable of were it to possess nuclear weapons. A strike on Israel without regard for the certain retaliation? Why not?

Causing civil unrest in Iran is all very well, but if it does not remove or severely disrupt the relevant State apparatus in Iran in the short to medium term future then any gains may come at a very terrible loss.

The stupidest and most surreal thing I've seen so far is a footage of a woman in the gaza strip vomiting insults and death threats and calling for a boicot of all european products..."lets hust tehm'" she said...

Well, without european aid, she'd be starving to death.

Is there a old saying in english about biting the hand that feeds you ?

Stop feeding the pigeons is my modo.

I'm busy translating this: http://atheisme.org/listeislam.html

Friendly half frog from belgium relocated in the US.

Paul

Are you kidding? The New Jerk Tunes Sunday edition already has an editorial blaming Bush for pushing the Iranians into this self-sanction regime. Iranian women and minorities hardest hit.

John:

Perhaps I was being slightly over-optimistic on the MSM...

Hmmm.

Frankly the "Brer Rabbit" trick worked with the Democrats. A lot of Republicans went on record telling the Democrats to not elect Howard Dean as the head of the Democratic Party.

Quite a few took that to mean that Republicans were afraid of Howard Dean.

Life's wierd and then someone draws a cartoon.

a short time ago, (weeks) an airplane crashed into a building in Tehran, when it was reported, the Iranians said this is because the west is not selling replacement parts for maintainence. It was, "the west's fault".

Well you see, we need to draw cartoons, because the Iranians are no longer funny enough.

"Here's to the Danes"

:-)

Iran has 20-25% of the West's oil supply; they are trying to enrich uranium LEGALLY--something the US/UK like to ignore and try to force the UN to ignore over against the facts. If Iran were to try the nuke option, Israel and the US would turn their sand to glass, and Iran knows that.

In addition--they are surrounded by US forces (as if that is a coincidence?) . . .

So--like any prisoner about to get the living shit beat out of them and raped in the ass anyway . . .

Might as well stand as tall as possible and fight. Problem is, Iran holds a few aces, and the West and Israel damn sure know they do.

But . . .

The US and GB are gonna do what they want, the idiot from Texas runs the show while Blair runs willy-nilly trying to act like a Texan, and so-called libertarians call upon government to "whack" the enemy (mind you--the US and UK define "enemy).

It all borders on the absurd.

Hell--the Mafia (Italian or Russian!) has more scruples. But since I don't agree with the war birds who love things that go boom and kill the fucking shit out of a bunch of innocents, what do I know?

What we hear of Iran is but a parroting of what we heard about Iraq, and Syria. Meanwhile--9/11 is about to get some serious review regarding the facts--which also have, thus far, been controlled by government.

That is about to change.

The truth will out eventually. That will not make bad guys less bad, but it will espose bad guys some didn't suspect.

WTC as reported is a fantasy. It is going to be exposed for the lie it is. Some folks who combine rationality with objectivity have filed. Rev up the fan blades--

And fry some bacon--there will be a lotta egg on some very surprised faces.

I could be wrong--and many are about to tell me how much so . . .

For now, anyway . . .

Fire away! :-)

Whoooaaaa guys! Everyone has missed the real WMD card the Iranians holds - check out these chilling statistics I found on this site:

Pistachio nuts - top 10 countries (% of world production)
1. Iran (52%)
2. USA (24%)
3. Syria (9%)
4. Turkey (7%)
5. China (5%)

Let's not wind President Khatami up any tighter now, he's clearly holding most of the good nuts.

A real Weapon of Munch Destruction if ever I saw one.

"he's clearly holding most of the good nuts" and discarding the unhinged jb-nut.

ic: indeed, Iran does not have a monopoly on nuts.

Weirdly enough, ic and jb have unusually similar names and e-mail addresses.

jb

you think that iran is trying to enrich uranium for peacful ends? are you INSANE??? They have publically stated their intention to wipe Isreal of the map and they are well know fanatical lunatics.

I dont know if you are aware of this, but it very easy to generate nuclear power WITHOUT enriching uranium.
Considering that heavy water reactors and gas cooled reactors run of natural uranium, do you really think that it would be worth their while to go through all this for nearly no reason?

They are being blatantly atagonistic and are extremely dangerous. It might take them 5 years but, if unchecked, they will get the bomb and the will use it.

The international community has a clear cut duty to prevent this fundamentalist state from starting a nuclear war. The fewer countries who have nukes, the less lkely they are to be used.

Im sickened that you disrespect the inocent dead from 9/11 with you spurius idiocy. Its disgusting

people like you are happy to enjoy the freedoms that out armed forces provide but are never willing to support them

fh

I sense the mad mullahs have been having phone conversations with one of their last remaining friends, Hugo Chavez of Venezuela. This is his schtick and he's been getting very cozy with the mullahs lately

If they get a nuke I really feel they will use it. These idiots don't consider the results of their actions. That is very clear to me in what they say and do.

Yes, A lot of Republicans went on record telling the Democrats to not elect Howard Dean as the head of the Democratic Party.

Quite a few took that to mean that Republicans were afraid of Howard Dean.