military intervention in iran? "premature", says robert gates to the italian state TV. "premature"?!

[demoleft]

damn, i expected "excluded", "definitely not in the agenda".

of course, both officially and in the interview he calls for unity of countries to pressure on iran with sanctions.

"The US defence secretary urged the world to "stand together", saying there was still time for sanctions to work.
Pressures that are focused on the government of Iran, as opposed to the people of Iran, potentially have greater opportunity to achieve the objective," Robert Gates said during a visit to Italy."
(bbc, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8502705.stm )

but when i heard the translator on the italian state tv news pronounce the word prematuro, "premature", in reference to a different solution than sanctions - well it chilled me.

the italian foreign minister, together with gates, states officially that the military option is anyway not under consideration.
and to this i stick.

[DJ13]

1. Premature warulation is bad

Its a limp policy.

[alfredo]

2. The military intervention threat is just that a threat, a

bargaining chip.

[demoleft]

3. i would not even consider the idea that it is something else, really. it would be crazy. n/t

[alfredo]

8. No more crazy than the idea that Iran would actually use

nuclear weapons. They want the bomb, not for use, but as a bargaining chip.


It's good internal politics in a right wing nationalistic nation. Most of the bellicose language out of Ahmadinejad is for a domestic audience, not for us or Israel.

[iceman66]

4. Hey

Gates was instrumental in convincing Bush NOT to attack Iran when Cheney and the neocons were pushing hard for it.

Of course they're never going to rule anything out, but he knows very well that this would be a very bad idea.

[demoleft]

6. i'm sure about it. not him, but the word chilled me. the bare possibility. n/t

[optimator]

5. Republicans haven't decided when to invade yet

they will just promise Obama that they will "like" him and then he will orgasmically invade anywhere the GOP wants.

[ipaint]

7. He's too busy worming his way militarily into pakistan.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

9. If they want peace, nations should avoid the pin-pricks that precede cannon shots. Napoleon Bonapart