The threat of nuclear arms is the most potent fear mongering tactic that the Bush administration has used in justifying a pre-emptive strike, anyone remember the "Don't let the smoking gun be a mushroom cloud" analogy used prior to the Iraq war?

In reality a nuclear armed Iran is several years, if not decades away. Even then it lacks the proper delivery system that would in anyway pose a threat to the Israel let alone the US. Further more, it even pointing something missile shaped in the direction of Israel would result in the entire country being flattened to dust by the 5 carrier groups that circle in the Persian gulf restlessly or a surgical strike by IDF much like the one on Iraq's nuclear facilities.

Nuclear arms is not something the majority of the Iranian population wishes to even possess (we're talking about a nation which relies almost exclusively on it's oil exports to survive economically) but is dumbstruck by the hypocrisy of US backing other nuclear states like India, Pakistan and Israel which still keeps its program closely guarded albeit 'open' secret.

I wouldn't be suprised one bit if the failure of the surge will be blamed by the White house on Iran, so it can justify expanding the war there, extending the war right up to January of 2009. This is of course without due thought to what will it mean for US force capability, but then planning and insight is not something the Bush Administration is known for.

I recommend reading Charles Peña's article - "Nuclear Fear Factor"

Last mushroom cloud is a shot from The Day After, a TV movie from 1983 which was the highest rated television event until about the 90s.

That last mushroom cloud is pretty.

Iran is about as big a threat to the US as a lil' kid is towards a wrestler. Please stop panicking

Iran's economy is oil based on export, they can't refine any of their own crude so rely on imports from other nations. They are actually rationing fuel right now. Their army is under manned, under trained, and hasn't fought a war since the 1980s which they lost. Their air force is formed of out Phantoms F-4s from the Vietnam era, their navy if you can call it that is non-existent, mainly light boats. More importantly the government is under heavy criticism by the populace.

They are going nuclear because thats the only way to get noticed in today's world. And look it's working out. The US/UK government are painting them out in the same way Iraq was painted... 'Don't let the smoking gun be a mushroom cloud'

This is darwin-esque, doesn't something here have that "begging for something to go really wrong" look? Like blasting a litre of liquid nitrogen on the front row person due to the out of control mushroom cloud? That said I loved the video.

.....with Frosty Squirrel-Ass flavour crystals!!!

Really, if that SQF would have been real, that methane burst would have created a voluminous mushroom cloud of fiery doom in that forest....truer to the nature of the little rodents..

My personal belief is that we must always address the questions of the people no matter how ridiculous initial claims are.

- Copernicus was prosecuted for his ideas about the Solar system.
- Galileo was prosecuted for his ideas.
- We still can't separate religion from goverment policy. In the US and elsewhere.
- Gulf of Tonkin incident was ridiculed as well, then it turned out to be dubious.
- Agent Orange is still claimed to have caused no harmful effects.
- Depleted uranium still is denied having any effects post Gulf War 1 and Gulf War 2.
- PTSD was only identified post-Vietnam when effects were seen in WW2, at the time they were dismissed as 'battle fatigue' and 'cowardice'.
- We went to Iraq for WMD. Don't let the smoking gun be a mushroom cloud.
- The US administrations handling of the war is claimed to be reactionary in light of overwhelming odds, when it reality is it failing due to mismanagement and poor planning.

And on and on and on....

Why does the Bush Administration have to show anything? The short term profits from the Iraq War have already been gained.

My question is not whether they planned it or had a part in it. But whether they used it as a pretext for neocon reform in the Middle East specifically with Iraq. The whole world was for the engagement of Osama Bin Laden in Afghanistan post 9/11 as a show of unity with the American people. Not for Iraq. Remember how the Iraq war was sold? Tugging at the heart strings formed by the heart ache of 9/11?

"Don't let the smoking gun be a mushroom cloud"

Terrible events like this shouldn't be defiled in justifying a unilateral war.

Whhoooa! I learned a new acronym today! You are on a roll now silvercord!! Soon you'll be a born-again kablloooey voyeur.
Personal love for this viddy, in 1977, I was 11 in Dallas, TX, was drawn like a moth, along with most of the residents of the immediate area, to a column of flame shooting 75 feet in the sky, which was the aftermath of a tankcar fulla propane, that had derailed and exploded...we got to a spot in a parking lot about 200 yards away, to gawk. As we watched the flames, and felt the heat, another tankcar exploded, sending an orange mushroom cloud about 300 feet into the sky....I remember standing, transfixed, while a sea of fellow gawkers ran past me and away from this primo vantage point....and the next thing I remember was being scooped up and clumsily run with, by my dad...the next day some of our biker friends came over, who had had a better view from nearer the blast, wearing melted pleather jackets!...(they were wannabe, weekend warrior, crackers, hence the fake leather.)

ahhhhh memories.

I believe this clip is from the same people who made Trinity and Beyond. If you're not haunted by the sight of a mushroom cloud, watch that movie and you will be.

http://imdb.com/title/tt0114728/

Oh hey, it's September 13th and I don't see any mushroom clouds outside. I guess he was wrong.

I wonder what's next for this looney?

"What's really sad is that archliberals like Olbermann, by default, HAVE to want us to lose in Iraq. After all, if Iraq makes it as a free nation, that means WAR WORKS."

There is no way I would ever put the words 'war' and 'works' together.

But honestly everything the guy says is and has been around for the last 2 years, he's probably the first one in the journalistic community to come out and say on air hoping to attain Edward R. Murrow status. He's already preaching mostly to the converted.

The fourth estate in the USA is crippled beyond repair now I believe, for democracy to exist there needs to be a biased free fourth estate. But even so, looking at 9/11, at all the freedoms of information provided in the USA, a country can still be convinced to go to war fairly easily through fear and a few Powerpoint presentations.

First it's Afghanistan which was fair game, then Iraq which was fear tactics and "don't let the smoking gun be a mushroom cloud", now it's stuck in a war it can't really leave without losing face. Isolationism at it's finest. All the meanwhile the enemy, Osama Bin Laden is nowhere to be seen, the faceless enemy George Orwell warned us of in 1984. This is all an example of the perpetual war http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perpetual_war

And don't bring Israel into this. That's beyond the realm of understanding, as there are no innocent parties there anymore, for every atrocity Hamas and Hezbollah commited the IDF has commited in kind.

Do your seriously believe that QM - or am I feeding the troll? Do you really think simulating the destruction of the most holy place in the world for Muslims will make them think
"Hmm, oh well - I guess it's time to give up this whole Islam business, where can I buy me some rosary beads?"

>>>> What I think the islamofascists will think is, "The West is stronger than us. If we persist in attacking the infidel, they will wipe us off the planet. We cannot win." The islamofascist mind only understands brute force. They are not like Westerners or even--God forbid--the milksops of Europe who have just about rolled over.

>>>> Islamofascists cannot be reasoned with, bribed, brokered with. They do not share our Western values, and in case you're not sure what that means, THEY are the inferior non-civilization.

>>>> We are dealing with a suidical threat to the world's stability and here we are in the West, asleep.


Have you no sense of human nature and psychology?

>>>> I wonder the same thing about liberals anywhere, over the age of 25...

>>>> Well gang, I know what I propose (in simulation for now) sounds harsh, but here's the alternative: pick your most favorite large city, if you have one. Now imagine it consumed by fire under a mushroom cloud, followed by enough radiation to make the land uninhabitable for 1000 years.

>>>> The islamofascists would do it in a heartbeat, if they could get the suitcase nuke in. So far they haven't. Why do we have to wait for them to nuke us before wiping them off the planet? Why wait? Are you still not sure these savages want us dead?

My favorite too, dag. Oh how I wish he played Mace Windu like Jules.
my other fav is:
"Well, I'm a mushroom cloud-layin' motherf**ker, motherf**ker. Every time my fingers touch brain, I'm "SUPERFLY TNT." I'm "THE GUNS OF THE NAVARONE!"

priceless isn't it?