CAIRO, Egypt — Yes, Iran has medium-range ballistic missiles that could reach American air and naval bases in the Persian Gulf and possibly hit Israel or southern Europe.
The Iranians may have some longer-range missiles. Or maybe their arsenal contains little more than faulty North Korean, Russian and Chinese knockoffs, some of which are descendants of Germany's World War II V-2.
News Flash: Every missile on the planet is a descendant of the V-2. Captured German rocket scientists were a war prize for both us and the Soviets and both sides' first missiles looked suspiciously like the V-2 these guys already knew how to build. With a different paint scheme, of course.
President Bush repeatedly has pointed to an Iranian ballistic missile threat as the main reason for building a billion-dollar missile-defense system in Eastern Europe to protect Europe and the United States.
Ah, bullshit. The real reason is to line the defense industry's pockets with yet still more of our money. And to make an inadequate little twerp feel like a big man, of course.
Here's the money shot:
Critics of the U.S. proposal to build a ballistic missile shield in Poland and the Czech Republic describe the project as, in Coyle's words, "a system that doesn't work for a threat that doesn't exist." They say the shield would stop only an "unsophisticated threat," meaning one or two missiles that were launched without decoys.
"Do you think Iran would attack Europe or the United States with just one missile and sit back and see what happens?" Coyle said.
They know damn well what would happen to them. "Gee, let's lob a rock at the giant sitting over there on that big pile of rocks and make him run away!". I don't think so.
The Bush administration's fixation on Iran also worries Western officials eager to avoid the embarrassment of another Iraq-style preemptive strike based on incomplete or bogus intelligence, some of it from exile groups with obvious agendas.
With absolutely no sense of history himself, and a brain full of holes instead of a memory, Bush probably thinks no one will remember.
"Nobody is going to believe that hogwash about WMDs, not anymore, not after Iraq," the senior Egyptian diplomat continued, speaking on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to discuss Iran publicly. "The U.S. would be alone on this one. Nobody can afford another such dangerous adventure."
Got news for ya, Egypt Man - we couldn't afford the first one, either. We'll be paying off on this subprime president for generations.
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