Juan Cole: Iran: Putin Explains to Israel's Netanyahu: Air Defense System Is, Like, Defensive

[eridani]

Netanyahu is a whiny burglar griping that homeowners with locks on their doors are attacking him. An Iranian nuke would serve exactly the same purpose, but this purely defensive option is much better.

http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/29661-iran-putin-explains-to-israels-netanyahu-air-defense-system-is-like-defensive

The Putin government issued a communique that “gave a detailed explanation of the logic behind Russia’s decision…emphasizing the fact that the tactical and technical specifications of the S-300 system make it a purely defensive weapon; therefore, it would not pose any threat to the security of Israel or other countries in the Middle East.”

The full implications of the sale are difficult to anticipate because there are several kinds of S-300 systems and we don’t know which exactly is the one that Iran will get.

But it certainly is the case that S-300s are not offensive weapons and they could not be used to launch a war of aggression.

Why, then, would Netanyahu be so upset about the deal going through? Because he wants to keep an Israeli bombing run on the table.

The S-300s would make it much harder for Israel to initiate an attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities. Such an attack on enrichment facilities in Natanz would be horrible in any case, releasing redioactive material into the atmosphere and killing or sickening tens of thousands in Isfahan.

[Comrade Grumpy]

1. Some people are tearing their hair out over this. Too bad.

[malaise]

6. +1,000

[sabrina 1]

2. Netanyahu is a war monger and an enemy of this country imo. I will not forget what he said about

9/11 when asked what he thought about it.

And I will not forget his plot to use Boehner, and our Congress to undermine President Obama.

I have a feeling there is no love lost between him and this administration.

Anyone who tries to use our troops for their benefit and against the interests of this country, is an enemy of this country.

And Putin just helped Obama get that deal with Iran. But he's wasting his time trying to explain anything to Bibi.

[oberliner]

4. BS manipulated quote about 9/11

The quote that you are talking about was not made when Netanyahu "was asked what he thought about it"

Please, if nothing else, take the time to accept that you might be mistaken here.

To clarify:

Certain websites have headlines/articles suggesting that he said "it's very good" when asked what he thought about the 9/11 attacks.

The "it's very good" remark was in response to the question about what the attack will mean for relations between the US and Israel, which he said would be strengthened because of the tragedy.

Very different when read in context (which certain websites like to deliberately omit and/or manipulate).

[DetlefK]

3. *facepalm* Fortresses are tactically defensive and strategically offensive.

Even an air defense system can be used as part of an offensive strategy, because it frees other ressources to be used for offense rather than defense.

War is not that easy and clear-cut.

[eridani]

7. What offense? Iran hasn't invaded another country for 300 years n/t

[oberliner]

8. They prefer proxy wars

Sending arms to other folks to have them do the dirty work.

[eridani]

9. You mean like the US proxy wars sponsored by Israel and Saudi Arabia?

What Iran does is send money to home grown Shia organizations.

Lebanon's shock resistance went beyond protest. It was also expressed through a far-reaching parallel reconstruction effort. Within days of the cease-fire, Hezbollah's neighborhood committees had visited many of the homes hit by the air attacks, assessed the damage and were already handing out $12,000 in cash to displaced families to cover a year's worth of rent and furnishings. As the independent journalists Ana Nogueira and Saseen Kawzally observed from Beirut, "That is six times the dollar amount that survivors of Hurricane Katrina received from FEMA." And in what would have been music to the ears of Katrina survivors, the Hezbollah leader, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, promised the country in a televised address, "You won't need to ask a favor of anyone, queue up anywhere." Hezbollah's version of aid did not filter through the government or foreign NGOs. It did not go to build five-star hotels, as in Kabul, or Olympic swimming pools for police trainers, as in Iraq. Instead, Hezbollah did what Renuka, the Sri Lankan tsunami survivor, told me she wished someone would do for her family: put the help in their hands. Hezbollah also included community members in the reconstruction—it hired local construction crews (working in exchange for the scrap metal they collected), mobilized fifteen hundred engineers and organized teams of volunteers. All that help meant that a week after the bombing stopped, the reconstruction was already well under way.

In the U.S. press, these initiatives were almost universally derided as bribery or clientelism—Hezbollah's attempt to purchase popular support after it had provoked the attack from which the country was reeling (David Frum even suggested that the bills Hezbollah was handing out were counterfeit). There is no question that Hezbollah is engaged in politics as well as charity, and that Iranian funds made Hezbollah's generosity possible. Equally important to its efficiency, however, was Hezbollah's status as a local, indigenous organization, one that rose up from the neighborhoods being rebuilt. Unlike the alien corporate reconstruction agencies imposing their designs from far-off bureaucracies via imported management, private security and translators, Hezbollah could act fast because it knew every back alley and every jury-rigged transmitter, as well as who could be trusted to get the work done. If the residents of Lebanon were grateful for the results, it was also because they knew the alternative. The alternative was Solidere.

pp 460-62 in the hardcover edition of Naomi Klein’s The Shock Doctrine.

[geek tragedy]

5. Of course, someone could explain the US's missile defense systems to Putin

in much the same manner.