Less Than 10 Seconds To Midnight...

admiralofthefleet

is it possible that we are staring at world war 3 right in the face. Israel have attacked a nuclear facility in syria. link here from sky news

princess-lala

Oh lord:eek:

nesf

*waits patiently for a more "sober" source to talk about it*

mukki

nuclear war would be great, it freezing outside tonight

admiralofthefleet

mukki wrote:

nuclear war would be great, it freezing outside tonight

maybe thats what the wind is!

simu

Hey, Israel's just doing its bit to get Maddy back...

Jesus Wept

as Nelson Muntz would say

'ya gotta nuke something!'

Jigsaw

Fcuk it

o1s1n

*In before the Holocaust*

Gillo

Israel, it really is a nation of kn&b's isn't it?

Reku

Israel... one of the few places to come close to causing as much trouble as the US IMO...

Harsh I know but part of me hopes it gets nuked off the face of the earth just so the Israelies will stop picking fights with everyone in the region, then at least the region can go back to as it was before this mistake of a nation was spawned. The country is only 60 years old FFS and yet they tend to behave like they own the entire region.

mukki

Fcuk it
__________________
Yer arse

fcuk my own arse???

SimpleSam06

Bleh storm in a teacup tbh. The Israelis though the Syrians were buying NK centrifuges to produce nuclear weapons, so they took out the place they thought it was stored in. Nothing to see here...

Oriel

admiralofthefleet wrote:

is it possible that we are staring at world war 3 right in the face. Israel have attacked a nuclear facility in syria.

Drama Queen much?

Terry

I grew up in the 80's.
This is nothing.

Exit

gillo wrote:

Israel, it really is a nation of kn&b's isn't it?

But not full knobs

MOH

Um, has anyone even read the article?

For a start, it happened over two weeks ago.

Reku

Terry wrote:

I grew up in the 80's.
This is nothing.

True, probably all be forgotten by the start of October.

Gillo

Exit wrote:

But not full knobs

Quick witted, I never even thought of that.
No wonder they have a chip on their shoulders, I always thought it was something to do with the Holocaust.

indough

Probably got something to do with centuries of persecution going back well before the holocaust. I don't blame them for having a chip on their shoulders. They should be a little bit more tolerant of the Palestinian people though

Personally I doubt that much will come of this incident, if it happened at all (I read somewhere that the bombing is speculation)

biko

The Jews starting WW3, who would have thunk it?

Dave!

http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSBLA95106320070919?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews&rpc=69

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran, responding to Western debate about the possibility of war over its nuclear plans, said on Wednesday it would use any means to defend itself if attacked and could bomb Israel if the Jewish state launched a strike.

Its latest swipes came despite French efforts to row back from a comment by its foreign minister that publicly raised the specter of war over Tehran's disputed nuclear activities.

The semi-official Fars News Agency quoted an air force commander as saying Iran had drawn up a plan to bomb Israel if the Jewish state attacked it first.

Some analysts have speculated that Israel could seek to stage a pre-emptive strike against Iran's nuclear facilities, where Israel and Western nations believe Tehran is developing technology to build bombs. Iran denies the charge.

"We have drawn up a plan so that, in the event of foolishness by this (Israeli) regime, Iran's bombers can retaliate by attacking Israel's soil," Mohammad Alavi, deputy commander for air force operations, was quoted as saying.

etc

digitally-yours

biko wrote:

The Jews starting WW3, who would have thunk it?

its sad but true.

but one thing is for sure "israel" is first on the target list of Iran.

No one in Middle East can stand israel.

Fanny Wank

digitally-yours wrote:

No one in Middle East can stand israel.

not really surprising, forming a Jewish state on the land of displaced Arabs was never gonna be poplular! Without US support Israel might well be a smoking hole in the ground by now.

Manic Moran

If the bombing of the publicly known, Fench-provided Osirak reactor didn't start WWIII, I strongly doubt a purported (by someone, certainly the Israelis and Syrians are keeping quiet about what happened) secret nuclear asset provided by a furtive North Korea will do the job.

Without US support Israel might well be a smoking hole in the ground by now

Without Soviet support to its Arab neighbours, Israel would still be around even without US support.

NTM

Fanny Cradock

Terry wrote:

I grew up in the 80's.
This is nothing.

Wow, you're so wise, Terry.

Long have we been told, and long have we believed that one man would come to tell us the stories from the time before time - 'The 80's'

Last I heard there wasn't a peep from either country about what really happened. As there was near complete censorship regarding the matter it was left to foreign journalists to report the 'truth' - much of which was based on speculation. I would be very reluctant to believe Sky News on this. Only time will tell!

Victor

farohar wrote:

Harsh I know but part of me hopes it gets nuked off the face of the earth just so the Israelies will stop picking fights with everyone in the region, then at least the region can go back to as it was before this mistake of a nation was spawned.

And return to fighting amongst themselves.

Terry

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Doomsday_Clock_graph.svg

Reku

Victor wrote:

And return to fighting amongst themselves.

But at least they'll be too busy targeting each other than "western civilisations". Besides, it's not as if they're not fighting among themselves as well, it's just that they're fighting Israel as well.

As for Manic Moran's belief that:
(a) the soviets are supplying the arabs
and
(b) Israel would still be around without US support

(a) only as they supply anyone else who has money to buy weapons and munitions off them, they are not giving it away. They are one of the top 5 arms dealing nations in the world.

(b) The US is Israel's main creditor, with about half of their debt being to the US. Israel has a heck of a lot of debt ~$82Bil (more than half a year's GDP for them) and has also recieved $240Mil economic aid from the US. Consider the fact that they spend about 5-10% (was ~25% at one point) of their annual GDP on defence and I really don't think they'd still be here without this aid proping them up, or certainly they wouldn't be throwing their weight around so much and seeming to behave like the local bullies.

Manic Moran

farohar wrote:

As for Manic Moran's belief that:
(a) the soviets are supplying the arabs
and
(b) Israel would still be around without US support

(a) only as they supply anyone else who has money to buy weapons and munitions off them, they are not giving it away. They are one of the top 5 arms dealing nations in the world.

Well, I'd use the past tense as the USSR no longer exists. But in the various wars that really threatened Israel (i.e 1973 and prior) the Arabs seemed to have a lot Soviet support, balanced by support from Britain, France and the US for Israel. 1948 showed that the Israelis could survive Arab agression by simply scrounging whatever it could find, when the Arab countries similarly were unsupported beyond attacking with whatever happened to be left over from WWII. Had the Soviets not been pouring MiGs and T-62s into the Arab States, there wouldn't have been any need for Centurions and F-4s to be provided to Israel, and vice versa. The one cannot be viewed without the context of the other.

NTM

CantGetNoSleep

I'm not going to contribute to this thread, i'm fairly sure i'd end up banned

eoin5

Havent Israel and Syria been technically at war for eons now anyways?

slade_x

admiralofthefleet wrote:

is it possible that we are staring another insignificant minor feud that wont escalate into anything more than empty threats, right in the face. Israel have supposedly attacked a nuclear facility in syria. oh noes

There, fixed...

Reku

Manic Moran wrote:

Well, I'd use the past tense as the USSR no longer exists. But in the various wars that really threatened Israel (i.e 1973 and prior) the Arabs seemed to have a lot Soviet support, balanced by support from Britain, France and the US for Israel. 1948 showed that the Israelis could survive Arab agression by simply scrounging whatever it could find, when the Arab countries similarly were unsupported beyond attacking with whatever happened to be left over from WWII. Had the Soviets not been pouring MiGs and T-62s into the Arab States, there wouldn't have been any need for Centurions and F-4s to be provided to Israel, and vice versa. The one cannot be viewed without the context of the other.

NTM

Now I understand what you mean.:)

Still not sure myself if Israel would still be here had the US and the USSR not decided to use the region for their little political dance though as 1948 was 1 year, how would they have stood against the continuing attacks over the last 60 without support though?
Especially when you consider that OPEC wasn't formed until 1960 and quite a few of it's members are arabic states that would undoubtedly be glad to fund actions against Israel.
Then take into account the fact that even with their defence spending down to 5-10% of GNP they're still quite in debt, if they still had to spend 25% of their GNP on defence they'd undoubtedly be in a considerably worse economic situation.

Dave!

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/5DE99EBF-5809-42F1-86EB-C439239F3507.htm

Iran unveils new missile at parade

Iran has unveiled a new long-range missile among an array of armaments displayed in an annual military parade commemorating the country's 1980-88 war with Iraq.

The missile, known as the Ghadr - meaning power - has a 1,800km range, officials say, putting US military bases in the Gulf within range.

Experts say the missile appears to be an upgrade of Iran's existing long-range missile, the Shahab-3, which has a 1,300km range, according to Tehran.

etc

eep!

Reku

And here in Ireland we've only recently began unveiling fireworks at our Paddy's day parades, we're years behind!:p

Canis Lupus

I'm going to Israel for a holiday at the end of November. They better not go to war before then otherwise I'll grab the nearest AK and go on my own personal war like Rambo.

Reku

Canis Lupus wrote:

I'm going to Israel for a holiday at the end of November. They better not go to war before then otherwise I'll grab the nearest AK and go on my own personal war like Rambo.

And be incapacitated by broken glass just like the SWAT team in Die Hard!:D

Manic Moran

farohar wrote:

Especially when you consider that OPEC wasn't formed until 1960 and quite a few of it's members are arabic states that would undoubtedly be glad to fund actions against Israel.

Some of its members did fund actions against Israel. For example, Saudi and Kuwait donated cash to help fund the 1973 war, in addition to the help that the belligerents got from the Soviets. In addition, after 1967, the Israelis figured out that depending on supplies from the West was not the best way to go about surviving, and started their own industries. It's likely that this decision would have been made sooner had there not been such support up until then.

NTM

mc nuggets

DaveMcG wrote:

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/5DE99EBF-5809-42F1-86EB-C439239F3507.htm

Jaysus we only get floats on Paddys Day

Pinker

gillo wrote:

Israel, it really is a nation of kn&b's isn't it?

Israeli girls are hot!!

The guy

The middle east is the new balkans.

Reku

Manic Moran wrote:

Some of its members did fund actions against Israel. For example, Saudi and Kuwait donated cash to help fund the 1973 war, in addition to the help that the belligerents got from the Soviets.

But that was my point, that the anti-Israel groups only really began to get funding after the US and USSR got involved and had they not gotten involved the arab sourced funding would still have come through where as very little of the funding for Israel would have, as such it may have gone differently.

Manic Moran

You miss mine, though: Israel + Western Support survived Arabs + Soviet Support + Oil Funding. It's not beyond possibility to consider then that if you remove the superpower support Israel + nothing could still survive Arabs + Oil Funding.

NTM

Reku

Manic Moran wrote:

You miss mine, though: Israel + Western Support survived Arabs + Soviet Support + Oil Funding. It's not beyond possibility to consider then that if you remove the superpower support Israel + nothing could still survive Arabs + Oil Funding.

NTM

But that assumes that the soviet and US support was exactly evenly matched and that would have been a rarity in the cold war...

Manic Moran

This is true, but as I said, 'not beyond possibility,' not 'guaranteed'

After all, as you point out, the level of superpower support was not necessarily the same. For example, on the military side in addition to the equipment the Soviets delivered, they also sent 'advisors' to operate some of it, particularly air defense and communications equipment. Israel just got equipment from the West without people to help them use the difficult bits on the scene. After all, even if you have the funding, if you can't use the equipment you buy, it's not much use to you.

NTM

Victor

Manic Moran wrote:

For example, on the military side in addition to the equipment the Soviets delivered, they also sent 'advisors' to operate some of it, particularly air defense and communications equipment. Israel just got equipment from the West without people to help them use the difficult bits on the scene.

I'm not sure if it was that simple. It well known that Israel has been perfectly willing to use anyone of Jewish origin (and others) in its military, especially thsoe with prior military or security experience.

Manic Moran

At least anyone of Jewish origin is entitled to apply to be an Israeli citizen. Indeed, given the country was only 20 years old in 1967, by default pretty much everyone who was fighting had to have been of Jewish origin and imported from elsewhere.

Not sure I can say the same about Soviets and Arabs.

NTM