That Cato Institute clip is truly staggering in it’s depth of ignorance, in regards to Iran’s imagined Nuclear weapons program…!

Today, the Heritage Foundation released this ‘scholarly’ report on the House of Saud… Thinking the Unthinkable: Modeling a Collapse of Saudi Oil Production

…U.S. Military Intervention in a Saudi Crisis

The United States has a vital interest in ensuring that no hostile power exercises hegemony over the Middle East, which is not only a key region for energy production, global trade, and investment, but also a potential source of transnational terrorism and nuclear proliferation. The U.S. will likely need to selectively use force to ensure the continued flow of oil from the region, as it did in Operation Desert Storm. Securing the oil fields and supporting allies, especially GCC members and pro-American elements in Saudi Arabia, may be imperative.

If the U.S. government determines that military intervention is necessary, U.S. actions military could include:

-Supporting civil authorities;

– Assisting in humanitarian efforts, provide force protection for nongovernmental organizations (NGO) humanitarian assistance, and protect humanitarian infrastructure;

-Conducting counterterrorism operations;

– Ensuring the Strait of Hormuz remains open;

– Deterring Iran from stepping into the power vacuum;

- Ensuring that a hostile, radical Islamist power or movement does not seize control of key oil and gas infrastructure in Saudi Arabia and the Persian Gulf.

The U.S. needs to be prepared for the sudden loss of access to bases in the region. Furthermore, ballistic missile defenses (BMDs) need to be increased significantly to mitigate the threat of missile attacks by Iran or other regimes…

Hmmm… Now, where have I heard that very same ME FP garbage before…?

Maybe, from those very same Foreign Policy wonks on Afghanistan, Bahrain, Iraq, Libya, Yemen, possibly Egypt, soon-to-be Syria, and most particularly, Iran these days…?

The Brookings Institute’s Saban Center also chimed in recently, and coughed up this warmongering hairball ‘memo’… Saving Syria: Assessing Options
for Regime Change (PDF! 16pgs)

…This memo lays out six options for the United States
to consider to achieve Asad’s overthrow, should it
choose to do so:

1. Removing the regime via diplomacy;

2. Coercing the regime via sanctions and diplomatic
isolation;

3. Arming the Syrian opposition to overthrow
the regime;

4. Engaging in a Libya-like air campaign to
help an opposition army gain victory;

5. Invading Syria with U.S.-led forces and toppling
the regime directly;

6. Participating in a multilateral, NATO-led effort
to oust Asad and rebuild Syria.

The options are complex, and policymakers will probably
try to combine several in an attempt to accentuate
the positives and minimize the negatives, which
will inevitably be difficult and bring out new complications.
But by focusing on discrete approaches, this
memo helps expose their relative strengths and weaknesses.
For each course of action, this memo describes
the strategy inherent to the option and what it would
entail in practice. It also assesses the option’s advantages
and disadvantages.

This memo does not endorse any particular policy option.
Rather, it seeks to explain the risks and benefits of
possible courses of action at this moment in time. As
conditions change, some options may become more
practical or desirable and others less so. The authors
mostly agree on the advantages and disadvantages
of each approach but weigh the relative rewards and
costs differently.

Honestly, it astounds me how skewed the Western Media propaganda apparatchik is towards Syria’s ‘insurgents,’ and, the blame squarely put on Assad for his brutality…! Syrian opposition refuses to give regime guarantees…

Now, it’s really tragic how all those Think Tank Brainiacs, all do seem to agree that ‘military intervention’ in either Iran or Syria, will in fact, lead to a ‘region-wide’ conflict…!

Ironically, I’d found two little ‘coinky-doinks’ today…

Exiled Son of Shah of Iran Calls for Israel’s Help…

…The exiled son of the toppled shah of Iran called on Israel not to bomb his home country, but rather to help the opposition to the ruling system, in an interview aired Monday on Israeli television.

Prince Reza Pahlavi told Israel’s Channel 10 TV from his home in Washington that bombing Iran would play into the hands of the regime. Instead, he appealed for help saying the Jewish state should put its “technological, financial and other resources at our disposal.” {snip}

…”The best thing you can do for the regime is to tell that, ‘We are going to attack you,’ or in fact attack you,” he said. “You will be giving Khamenei and all his clique, when they have no answers anymore to the country’s ills, the greatest gift of all by doing that. That is just crazy. That just doesn’t make sense.” {snip}

…”Who in this planet doesn’t know that there is a military option, but are there other options?” he said. “The best option is to utilize the best army in the world in place ready to strike, which is the Iranian people themselves. And if you don’t help that, God help us all.”

Yes indeedy…!

The other one has a Japanese ex-PM questioning his compadre, Yukiyo Amano’s cosy role as head of the IAEA, in Tehran too…!

Tokyo ticks off ex-PM for Iran visit, words on IAEA…

…Yukio Hatoyama, whose short stint in the top job ended in June 2010 after just nine months, was publicly admonished by his own party after reportedly criticising the UN’s nuclear watchdog for “double standards“.

During a trip in which he met with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Hatoyama said Tehran was not being treated properly by the International Atomic Energy Agency.

“International trust-building and respecting regulations are important issues for the world community,” he said, according to a statement issued by Ahmadinejad’s office.

“They should be seriously pursued given the double standards by the IAEA towards some nations, including Iran, which is not fair.”

Hatoyama late Monday denied making the comments and said Tehran had “completely fabricated” them, Kyodo news agency reported.

“I have made no comments that deviate from the stance of the Japanese government,” Kyodo quoted him as saying on his return to Tokyo.

Hatoyama’s reported comments in Iran had come under fire from Tokyo, which said he was at odds with the official position.

“Japan respects the IAEA’s role in solving nuclear-related issues,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Osamu Fujimura told reporters.

“Japan is asking Iran to thoroughly cooperate with the IAEA so that it can solve pending issues over its nuclear programme.”

I suppose it was only a Freudian slip by Hatoyama…!

In summing up, here’s some real clear-eyed thinking…

Thinking the Unthinkable on Iran…

…President Obama has said that all options are on the table in dealing with Iran in particular and nuclear proliferation in general. Are these options still on the table?

I truly hope that all ‘options’ are indeed on the table…!

*gah*