I do not see Iran wasting military capabilities on a futile attempt to close the strait of Hormuz. A more realistic course of action for Iran to retaliate for damaging economic sanctions or a military attack on its nuclear sites would probably include an attack on Saudi and other oil terminals in the area. This would require only limited military assets and could be done in a short time frame maybe even hours without much defensive measures possible.
This scenario could eliminate a couple of million barrels per day of world oil production and throw the US and Israel's economy into a death spiral. Funny thing is that the Armageddon hopefuls of the Christian Right like Ron Rhodes just salivate to see 'The Oil Storm' happen.
I wonder if the GOP's pandering to these lunatics has already had a detrimental effect on their national security views.
Thank you Dr. Cole for being the voice of reason and for putting up with all the defamation and smear. But there is still a plethora of unresolved issues like e.g. curveball, yellow cake etc. that need to be investigated by a congressional commission. Too many people have died in this war. We need to know why.
The idea of combined Arab forces getting involved has many advantages and it looks like Hillary Clinton is working hard to accomplish this: link to af.reuters.com
I doubt though if the urgency of military action needed to stop Qaddafi's onslaught on Benghazi allows for this. Co-ordination of multinational task forces is cumbersome and time consuming and given the complexity of the operation I vote for an US led air assault with only token UK, FR and Egypt participation.
Angela Merkel gave a rather sad example of cheap electioneering to placate a weary public before regional elections. Had the German vote been decisive to block the UN Security Council resolution the political cost would have been exorbitant.
Juan, thank you for highlighting the important role the Libyan tribes play in this uprising giving me cause to read more about the subject e.g. link to globalsecurity.org
From a Western point of view Qaddafi's intent to substitute tribal rule and customs with education and merit based bureaucracy outweighed his inflammatory rhetoric and his history of terrorist activities. What role do you think will the tribes play in the future? Will they try to roll back Qaddafi's reforms and substitute lineage, wealth, and piety as leadership criteria?
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I do not see Iran wasting military capabilities on a futile attempt to close the strait of Hormuz. A more realistic course of action for Iran to retaliate for damaging economic sanctions or a military attack on its nuclear sites would probably include an attack on Saudi and other oil terminals in the area. This would require only limited military assets and could be done in a short time frame maybe even hours without much defensive measures possible.
This scenario could eliminate a couple of million barrels per day of world oil production and throw the US and Israel's economy into a death spiral. Funny thing is that the Armageddon hopefuls of the Christian Right like Ron Rhodes just salivate to see 'The Oil Storm' happen.
I wonder if the GOP's pandering to these lunatics has already had a detrimental effect on their national security views.
Thank you Dr. Cole for being the voice of reason and for putting up with all the defamation and smear. But there is still a plethora of unresolved issues like e.g. curveball, yellow cake etc. that need to be investigated by a congressional commission. Too many people have died in this war. We need to know why.
The idea of combined Arab forces getting involved has many advantages and it looks like Hillary Clinton is working hard to accomplish this: link to af.reuters.com
I doubt though if the urgency of military action needed to stop Qaddafi's onslaught on Benghazi allows for this. Co-ordination of multinational task forces is cumbersome and time consuming and given the complexity of the operation I vote for an US led air assault with only token UK, FR and Egypt participation.
Angela Merkel gave a rather sad example of cheap electioneering to placate a weary public before regional elections. Had the German vote been decisive to block the UN Security Council resolution the political cost would have been exorbitant.
Juan, thank you for highlighting the important role the Libyan tribes play in this uprising giving me cause to read more about the subject e.g. link to globalsecurity.org
From a Western point of view Qaddafi's intent to substitute tribal rule and customs with education and merit based bureaucracy outweighed his inflammatory rhetoric and his history of terrorist activities. What role do you think will the tribes play in the future? Will they try to roll back Qaddafi's reforms and substitute lineage, wealth, and piety as leadership criteria?