Merkel likens Iran threat to Nazi era

[aways]

http://today.reuters.com/news/newsarticle.aspx?type=worldNews&storyid=2006-02-04T182634Z_01_L0444484_RTRUKOC_0_US-NUCLEAR-IRAN-MERKEL.xml&rpc=22

MUNICH, Germany (Reuters) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel likened Iran's nuclear plans on Saturday to the threat posed by the Nazis in their early days, as top U.S. officials urged a tough line to stop Tehran from making an atomic bomb.

U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld accused the Islamic republic of being the world's leading sponsor of terrorism, a charge his Iranian counterpart rejected as "ridiculous" and "outrageous".

Addressing the annual Munich security conference, Merkel said countries around the world had underestimated the Nazi threat as Adolf Hitler rose to power.

"Looking back to German history in the early 1930s when National Socialism (Nazism) was on the rise, there were many outside Germany who said 'It's only rhetoric -- don't get excited'," she told the assembled world defense policy makers.

"There were times when people could have reacted differently and, in my view, Germany is obliged to do something at the early stages ... We want to, we must prevent Iran from developing its nuclear program."

As she was speaking a few hundred metres (yards) from the Munich pub where Hitler launched his "Beer Hall Putsch" in 1923, the board of governors of the U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency voted in Vienna to report Iran to the U.N. Security Council over concerns it is secretly trying to develop nuclear weapons.

Iran says its nuclear program is purely aimed at civilian energy production.

But Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has compounded concerns in the West and elsewhere with recent comments denying that the Nazi Holocaust happened and calling for Israel to be "wiped off the map".

Post-war Germany, conscious of the Nazis' crimes, has made support for Israel a pillar of its foreign policy and Merkel said her country could not tolerate Ahmadinejad's stance....

This is a serious situation. I think we'll end up having to take military action to set back the Iranian nuclear program. My best guess is sometime in early '07.

[dtw]

Wonder if anyone else will take the lead for a change. Germany?

[Joeaksa]

This one could be difficult. The Israeli's do not back down, period. Europe has already had enough of their games, and America as well. They are a terrorist nation, and have supported terrorism for decades.

Again, this one could be difficult and its escalating at a rapid pace. The one good thing is that the majority of the rest of the world is on the same sheet of music.

joe A

[FrayAdjacent911]

They're steppin up for an a$$-whoopin.

I hope this time we won't be going in alone. I would be very happy if the UN, and individual countries like Germany, lent their muscle to the whooping we are probably going to have to throw them.

[Tobra]

Europe is a lot more concerned about Iran than they were with Iraq. This is going to the UN Security council, which means nothing, unless the EU pulls their collective heads out and takes a little sniff of the coffee. This will be the World vs Iran.

[Rick Lee]

Whatever happens, we will be involved. The only way Israeli jets can get to Iran is through Iraq, whose airspace we control. We get the blame no matter what, so we might as well pitch in and give Iran the a$s whoopin' they so richly deserve.

[red-beard]

I'm surprised Merkel (Germany) is saying this. I hope they are in it for real.

[Rick Lee]

Merkel is part of the solution. She's on our side. But she does not call all the shots in Germany. Unfortunately, most present day Germans are so pacified, they think nothing is ever worth fighting for.

[Flatbutt1]

We will once again be the muscle in the US led coalition and therefore be blamed for all ills. This time someone may wish to take the Gen G Patton stance and just roll on through all of them the way he wanted to do to Moscow.

[Moses]

Given the present state of our military, a successful engagement with Iran could not be completed with conventional weapons.

If Israel is involved on any level, expect Iraq, Syria, Egypt and the Palestinians to join the fray.

[Rick Lee]

I don't think those countries can do anything to help Iran. Iran will be on its own. It's 3x times the size of Iraq and amazingly, they still manage to fly some of the F-14's we sold to the Shah. I can't imagine they'd be able to do much if we call their bluff and they don't have a working nuke to use on anyone yet. 50% of their money comes from oil revenue. If the west got serious about an embargo, it would definitely sting Iran.

[fastpat]

There's no likely military action in the works this year against Iran. For several reasons.

1. There's an election coming up this fall here.

2. The non-proliferation Treaty that the Bush'ists are waving around like a bloody shirt doesn't carry military action as one of the things UN member nations may use to enforce it. Any military operation againt Iran will be naked aggression which will carry with it UN sanctions. That's a complicating issue for the middle east which no one wants, except Israel.

3. Israel refused to sign the NNPT which enabled them to build their 200 nukes and delivery mechanisms without sanction, which they constantly use to bully their neighbors. This imbalance in armaments will not continue forever, and other nations can't use the threat to Israel rationale when it's Israel that is the nuclear threat to the region.

4. Israel will have to overfly Jordan to get to the target areas, Iraq is the wrong way. In any case, any US government assistance to an illegal Israeli military strike would be illegal as well. The US government should act, as much as possible, to prevent any aggressive military operations in the area.

5. Any military aqction against Iran by Israel will likely stimulate Pakistan, North Korea, China, and Indonesia to come to the assistance of Iran and any of those countries could supple either one or several nuclear devices, excepting N. Korea, and would do so. The best possible scenario if events get this far, and I hope they don't, would be if Iran sets off a nuke inside their borders as a warning to everyone, just like Pakistan did.

The nuclear genie is out of the bottle, when a country is under constant intimidation and has had the west meddling in their affairs for nearly 100 years; the case in Iran; then you've got to expect them to take action to insulate themselves from further incursions from their tormentors.