ALEXANDER/HOENIG: Iran's 'perfect storm'

How does 'technological progress' equal 'confirms its strategic ambition to play a dominant role regionally'. As Max Rodenbeck wrote: "Can’t we just admit that American support for Israel is strategically burdensome and is driven by the passion of several domestic constituencies rather than cold cost-benefit geopolitics? Can’t we see that the temptation to intervene in places like the Middle East arises as much because “they” are weak as because “we” are just and noble? No matter what good will America’s “policy community” proclaims toward the Middle East, this mix of blinkered indulgence of Israel and disdain for the rest of the region, as well as a predilection for Wilsonian dreams over achievable goals, suggests we will remain in the wilderness for some time to come." Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/24/books/review/Rodenbeck-t.html?ex=1377316800&en=1d5d08dd82801c86&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink For a reality check on Iran, please see http://www.bibijon.org/iranimage/

The perfect storm may be what Putin is relying on as a force multiplier in his energy intimidation against NATO.

Israel is the one blackmailing the world by threatening to destablize the Mideast unless it gets it way on Iran. Even the Israelis themselves privately conceed that they're not really threatened by Iran's nuclear program: "Livni behind closed doors: Iran nukes pose little threat to Israel Ha'aretz 10/25/2007 Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said a few months ago in a series of closed discussions that in her opinion that Iranian nuclear weapons do not pose an existential threat to Israel, Haaretz magazine reveals in an article on Livni to be published Friday. Livni also criticized the exaggerated use that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is making of the issue of the Iranian bomb, claiming that he is attempting to rally the public around him by playing on its most basic fears. Last week, former Mossad chief Ephraim Halevy said similar things about Iran..."