Meanwhile Back in the Sandbox...

[Guest]

Re: Meanwhile Back in the Sandbox...

The stupidest thing he could have done. I can just picture Romney getting the champaign out.

[BadJuju]

Re: Meanwhile Back in the Sandbox...

The stupidest thing he could have done. I can just picture Romney getting the champaign out.

I do not understand why people presume Romney would win because of this. It doesn't really jive at all as far as I am concerned. Furthermore, I think Netanyahu is all talk and will ultimately NOT attack. Obama has called his bluff. And how can Netanyahu even know if Romney would actually support him? Romney flips around on every issue practically by day.

[Guest]

Re: Meanwhile Back in the Sandbox...

Because you only have two candidates! The survival of Israel is at stake. If Obama is perceived as not having Israel's back, people will contribute and vote accordingly. This is a huge issue to many people and is non negotiable.

Could someone post a few links to what the US press says about Obama not meeting Netanyahu?

[BadJuju]

Re: Meanwhile Back in the Sandbox...

Because you only have two candidates! The survival of Israel is at stake. If Obama is perceived as not having Israel's back, people will contribute and vote accordingly. This is a huge issue to many people and is non negotiable.

Could someone post a few links to what the US press says about Obama not meeting Netanyahu?

The American people are vehemently against war right now. They may support Israel, but they are not going to support another war and certainly not when Israel is making so many demands of them. Also, relying on Romney to win would be insane for Netanyahu. First, he has to hope that he can somehow tip the scales in Romney's favor enough to ensure a victory, which is no small task given Obama's lead right now. People seem to forget that there is a massive group of people that absolutely do not want any more American soldiers at war right now. And then he has to hope that Romney follows through on what he says, which as history shows is not a very reliable prospect.

Israel's survival isn't at stake here. Iran is years away from being able to build a bomb, which one of the top Israeli nuclear scientists even said.

[Guest]

Re: Meanwhile Back in the Sandbox...

It is all about the Benjamins if the money flow shrinks, Obama's lead will evaporate. Israel's survival IS at stake. Now or within the next four years.

[EJ]

Re: Meanwhile Back in the Sandbox...

EJ, what do you think is the liklihood of this happening in the U.S.?

Zero.

I have sophisticated friends who feel otherwise. One is the managing general partner of a major VC firm. He convinced that the probability is high enough that he has invested in a large generator, propane tanks to run it, and a water and food supply all good for several months for him and his family.

Maybe he knows something I don't but he sights Newt Gingrich's warnings as evidence and I don't consider a man who proposed to build a moon base as a campaign promise as the most credible source for military threats analysis.

[BadJuju]

Re: Meanwhile Back in the Sandbox...

It is all about the Benjamins if the money flow shrinks, Obama's lead will evaporate. Israel's survival IS at stake. Now or within the next four years.

The thing is, my friend, is that a lot of people are getting very annoyed with Israel's jingoism. Yes, I realize America has been very jingoistic as well, but Americans are also largely sick of that as well. Americans are not going to look favorably upon Israel as they try to draw them into a war that they do not want. People on both sides, whether Democrats or Republicans, are sick of the wars.

I think you are worrying way too much about Iran. If it comes down to it, the option will be there to stop them in the future; however, attacking them now will do nothing to stop them unless you just outright obliterate the country. And that will just make other countries want to obliterate Israel.

[BadJuju]

Re: Meanwhile Back in the Sandbox...

Zero.

I have sophisticated friends who feel otherwise. One is the managing general partner of a major VC firm. He convinced that the probability is high enough that he has invested in a large generator, propane tanks to run it, and a water and food supply all good for several months for him and his family.

Maybe he knows something I don't but he sights Newt Gingrich's warnings as evidence and I don't consider a man who proposed to build a moon base as a campaign promise as the most credible source for military threats analysis.

It just isn't a likely event at all. And if it came to that, there is really no point in thinking about it because it pretty much presumes the extinction of human life. You would just be keeping yourself up at night for no good reason.

[rogermexico]

Re: Meanwhile Back in the Sandbox...

Maybe he knows something I don't but he sights Newt Gingrich's warnings as evidence and I don't consider a man who proposed to build a moon base as a campaign promise as the most credible source for military threats analysis.

I see your rapier wit is in fine shape these days. : ) I agree, by the way.

[shiny!]

Re: Meanwhile Back in the Sandbox...

Thank you, EJ and lakedaemonium.

[metalman]

Re: Meanwhile Back in the Sandbox...

We wouldn't want to think that the only acts of mass political stupidity currently underway in this world are restricted to the environs of Washington, D.C...

Blasts rock Tripoli, NATO targets Gaddafi compound

Sun Jul 24, 2011 2:28pm EDT

TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Explosions rocked central Tripoli for the second night in a row and Britain said weeks of NATO bombardment had inflicted extensive damage on Muammar Gaddafi's heavily-fortified compound.

Libya's leader is clinging to power despite a four-month-old NATO air campaign and a lengthening conflict with rebels seeking an end to his 41-year rule and who have seized large swathes of the North African country...

..."Gaddafi has for decades hidden from the Libyan people behind these walls. The vast Bab al-Aziziyah compound is not just his personal residence, but more importantly is also the main headquarters for his regime, with command and control facilities and an army barracks," Pope said Sunday...
[Four months of bombing and they just figured this out now? ]

As Western nations intensify diplomatic efforts to foster an exit from the conflict, a European diplomat said a U.N. envoy would seek to persuade warring parties in Libya to accept a plan that envisages a ceasefire and a power-sharing government, but with no role for Gaddafi...

...Hopes for a negotiated settlement are growing as Europe and the United States grapple with fiscal crises at home.

This week, France said for the first time Gaddafi could stay in Libya as long as he gives up power...

[...and agrees to buy some EFSF bonds...]

meanwhile, back in libya...

American killed in attack on US Consulate in Libya, security official says, following Egyptian protest at US embassy

Published September 11, 2012

One American was shot dead and another was wounded when armed men in eastern Libya stormed the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, a Libyan security official says. Earlier in the day, mainly ultraconservative protesters climbed the walls of the U.S. embassy in Egypt's capital and brought down the American flag, replacing it with a black Islamist flag to protest a U.S.-produced film attacking the Prophet Muhammad.

"One American staff member has died and a number have been injured in the clashes,'' Abdel-Monem Al-Hurr, a spokesman for Libya's Supreme Security Committee, told Reuters.

----

meanwhile in iraq...

New Iraq attacks bring day's death toll to 64

Three evening bombings and a shooting in and near Iraq's capital have killed 20 people at the end of a deadly day of attacks around the country.

The latest violence brought Sunday's death toll to 64, with more than 285 wounded.

Police said car bombs in three western Baghdad neighborhoods Sunday night left 15 dead and 47 wounded.

A few hours earlier, authorities said gunmen killed three security officers and wounded a fourth at a checkpoint in the town of Abu Ghraib, just west of Baghdad. Two gunmen also were killed in the firefight, and a third was captured.

The casualties in all four cases were confirmed by police and hospital officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not allowed to release the information to reporters.

---

meanwhile in syria...

In Syria’s largest city, fighting and airstrikes send civilians to overstretched hospitals

By Associated Press, Updated: Tuesday, September 11, 3:54 PM

ALEPPO, Syria — It had been a calm day in Aleppo’s Shifa Hospital, said Dr. Osman al-Haj Osman, his face etched with exhaustion from just three hours of sleep. Then, a man burst in bearing the shrieking bundle of a 6-year-old girl who’d had a machine-gun bullet rip through both her knees.

Two months into the battle for Syria’s largest city, civilians are still bearing the brunt of the daily assaults of helicopter gunships, roaring jets and troops fighting in the streets.

Shoving aside the orderlies and armed rebels milling around the cramped lobby Tuesday afternoon, the man deposited Fatima Qassem onto a gurney as a nurse swooped in and began cutting away the blood-soaked bandages on her knees.

---

seriously... with this kind of chaos nearby no wonder israel is freaking out.

[llanlad2]

Re: Meanwhile Back in the Sandbox...

seriously... with this kind of chaos nearby no wonder israel is freaking out.

Maybe. But for the most part they are civil wars. There is no reason they would spill into Israel. Even if Israel disappeared tomorrow the place would be unstable. Part of the problem is the Western encouraged dream of running the area democratically. It's too tribal to work without getting a tyrrany of the majority scenario. Some places are better off with dictators....(Syria and Iraq for sure).

[flintlock]

Re: Meanwhile Back in the Sandbox...

That doesn't really make sense from my perspective, though. Israel has proven time and time again that they are not paper tigers. They have won every war they have engaged in...

Only with military assistance from the USA and others. I think there may be some doubt in the world that the USA still has their back.

[BadJuju]

Re: Meanwhile Back in the Sandbox...

Only with military assistance from the USA and others. I think there may be some doubt in the world that the USA still has their back.

That is true; however, they aren't necessarily meek without the aid of the USA, either. Even if the USA ceased all foreign aid to them, they would still have a strong military coupled with a sizable nuclear weapon stockpile.

[flintlock]

Re: Meanwhile Back in the Sandbox...

Maybe. But for the most part they are civil wars. There is no reason they would spill into Israel. Even if Israel disappeared tomorrow the place would be unstable. Part of the problem is the Western encouraged dream of running the area democratically. It's too tribal to work without getting a tyrrany of the majority scenario. Some places are better off with dictators....(Syria and Iraq for sure).

They are freaking out because the instability will likely bring about radical leadership that have a track record of talking about the destruction of Israel, and a history of actual attacks on Israel. Guys like Assad talked the talk but used the anti-Israel rhetoric mainly to unite factions behind the government. Israel may be correct to assume the next regime won't just talk. I think Israel's position has come about as a result of the combination of chaos in the ME, plus what they feel is a distinct lack of support from the Obama administration. Netanyahu and Obama clearly don't have a good relationship. Israel may never have more leverage over Obama than before the election.