This poll was taken in March. Zero relevance at this point. Which is the exact same amount of experience that Robert Barnes has in military and political strategy.
[Lavrov] is an unsurpassed diplomat who serves Moscow with intelligence, energy and considerable arrogance'', Richard Holbrooke, former US ambassador to the UN said speaking about Russian Minister Sergey Lavrov. Armenian who Was Born on Ararat Street: Sergey Lavrov – the Unsurpassed Diplomat Lavrov is generally considered to be the best diplomat in the world. He speaks at least 6 languages and as a young man wanted to major in physics. Russia's diplomatic team has excellent lawyers that try to ensure that Russia adheres to international law. The US counter to Lavrov during the Biden years was the inept Antony Blinken who backed genocidal terrorists in Ethiopia (TPLF) and as Ukrainians were being slaughtered he went to a Ukrainian bar and played Neil Young's Rockin' in the Free World. Regarding US prestige, it took a huge hit during Biden's withdrawal from Afghanistan. It degraded further during the recent Iran-Israel conflict as Trump showed the world: 1) He could not control Israel or 2) The US will state that Iran negotiations are going well and then treacherously allow the bombing of Iran's negotiating team, military leaders and people. So why would anyone trust the US? As Putin said, Russia has concluded that the US Is agreement incapable. Articles from publications around the world attest to falling US prestige, which is a serious matter. I said Iran may already have nukes based on articles I've read that date back as far as 1992. In "The High Cost of Peace" (2002), page 77, famed terrorism expert Yossef Bodansky writes that in December 1991 "Iran made its first purchase of nuclear weapons. The deal included two 40-kiloton warheads for a SCUD-type surface-to-surface ballistic missile; one aerial bomb of the type carried by a MiG-27; and one 152-mm nuclear artillery shell. These weapons reached initial operational status in late January 1992 and full operational status a few months later." See http://128.121.186.47/ISSA/reports/Iraq/Dec1202.htm for more detail. Arnaud de Borchgrave writes in an August 12, 2005 column that in June, 2002, Yuri Baluyevsky, then Russian Deputy Chief of Staff, stated that "Iran does have nuclear weapons. But these are non-strategic." By non-strategic, according to de Borchgrave, Baluyevsky is indicating that Iran has not yet developed nuclear warheads small enough to fit on the 1200-mile range Shahab-3 missiles that Tehran says it has. De Borchgrave writes that Israeli intelligence believes that Iran is only "a year or two away from pulling it off." For those unfamiliar with Yossef Bodansky, consider the following: In 1993 he wrote in his book 'Terrorism Today' that Islamists were planning to attack buildings in The West with airplanes. In 1994, he wrote that, since 1993, North Korea already had a dozen nuclear weapons. In 1995, 47 days before the OKC bombing, Bodansky wrote that Islamists, perhaps using "lily whites" (persons with no criminal record who could not be connected to Islamists), were going to attack a Federal Building in the American heartland. Oklahoma City was number five on his list of fifteen likely targets (US News & World Report in 2001 indicated that Iraqi phone numbers were found in McVeigh's car). On October 28, 2002, over four months before the Iraq War began, Bodansky wrote that in late August and early September of 2002 Iraq had moved WMDs into Syria. In November, 2002, he described Saddam's plans for a guerilla war. The lists of intelligence firsts for Bodansky (and de Borchgrave) goes on and on. Space does not permit a more comprehensive listing. See www.strategicstudies.org for Bodansky reports. De Borchgrave archives are at Newsmax, the Washington Times, or Benador Associates. This is from a PDF you can Google: The Secret History of the Joint Nuclear Program of Iran and North Korea Yossef Bodansky July 2015 Executive Summary * The much heralded agreement with Iran, attained in the early morning hours of 14 July 2015, is based on the premise that Iran will honor its commitment not to seek nuclear weapons in return for an array of economic and political incentives. * The top priorities of the rogue leaders in both Tehran and Pyongyang are self-survival and self-preservation. When these leaders study the US proposals regarding their own nuclear weapons programs they remember two things: First, it’s an article of faith that had Saddam Hussein had “The Bomb” he would still be alive and in power. Second, Qadhafi believed the US, disarmed fully, and was then toppled by the US. Therefore, nobody at the top of Tehran and Pyongyang is going to surrender their real capabilities and thus their guarantees of survival against a hated and mistrusted US/West no matter how cajoling Obama might be. * Presently, a quarter of a century after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the beginning of pax-Americana, the international posture finally permits the dramatic breakout of the rogues-led oppressed of the third world. It is finally possible to not only start undermining the Western-imposed world order - but also to exact painful revenge for centuries of real and perceived abuses. To assume that the US-led West can nego- tiate - under the banner of arms control or any other banner - a reversal of this breakout is the heights of folly. Besides the secret history of Iran and North Korea working to develop nuclear weapons, there have also been claims from a former Iranian diplomat (Homayun sic) that Iran bought quite a few nukes from Ukraine when the USSR dissolved. The Russian General Staff has stated that they did not get all there miles back from Ukraine. So, I said I thought it was possible that Iran had nukes. CaptUSMCNole laughed. He also has little respect for Russian diplomatic expertise and he thinks US prestige is not in decline. Opinions vary
My guess would be that Israel is thought of less favorably today. Israel has lost its moral legitimacy. I posted a video of an Israeli journalist calling out the Israeli people. I didn't watch it. Deleted for being antisemitic. As Joe Sobran noted, the word antisemitism is never defined because then it would lose its utility.
Just because Blinken was terrible doesn't mean that Lavrov is good. They can both be terrible. Just like how Russia's Special Military action in Ukraine is going. Yeah, I'm sure the Iranians have had a nuclear weapon since the 1990's and it was completely left out of the history of the Iranian Nuclear program that the Mossad stole out of Tehran in 2017.
So you posted a video that you did not watch? Sure. You posted it because it was antisemitic which is something you have a history of posting on this board.
Why can't you and the others claiming I've said something antisemitic or engaged in a blood libel provide a couple of quotes showing what you're talking about. I treat Jews like everyone else. Do you believe Israel and Israelis should be immune from criticism when they starve and bomb civilians? One of my 2 best friends growing up was Jewish. Myron (he went by Mike) died in a plane crash. Before that we played tennis in Maitland at the Jewish Community Center. I think he'd agree with everything I've posted on Israel, as would his dad. His Jewish sister took me to my Jewish eye doctor for surgery a few months ago. Super Jew Daniel Pipes thanked me for promoting his book Militant Islam Reaches America on the Glenn Beck Show. My content appeared on the political blog Power Line (run by 3 Jews). My Jewish friend Arnaud de Borchgrave criticized Israel and was called an antisemite for doing so. If it's wrong for Hitler to engage in ethnic cleansing/genocide than it's wrong when Netanyahu does it. So call it out. Define "antisemitic." I watched a few seconds of the video and then posted it. Just watched the full 2:20 a few minutes go. It was very good. An Israeli Jewish journalist calling out the mentality of his ethno-cousins, trying to reestablish Israel's, moral legitimacy imo. The words he quoted from Prime Minister Golda Meir are not easily forgotten: "We will never forgive the Arabs for making us kill their children." That's the mindset the Israeli journalist was criticizing.
I'll give you a great example, the Jewish Way of War post you made from that crack pot site Moon of Alabama that stated the Jews make war by engaging in total war and completely wiping out all of their enemies and their dependents. History shows that is completely wrong. It is Blood Libel. So is claiming that what Bibi is doing is the same thing as the Holocaust.
I agree with this WaPo editorial, which basically states that Netanyahu started this, on his timeline, and he should finish it, without our Massive Ordinance Penetrator (MOP.) Here are some alternatives to us going hot: "Israel could bomb the entrances to Fordow, which is buried deep inside a mountain, and the outside infrastructure that sustains it, such as electrical facilities and approach roads, to render it inoperable. Israel could also send commandos to the facility — a risky operation, but more achievable with Iranian air defenses destroyed and its military in disarray.
Hard to know, what with Israel banning videos of damage, but there are reports that large sections of Tel Aviv are beginning to, ironically, look like Gaza.
It may be difficult to define, like "obscene," but you definitely know it when you see it . . . and lumping all Israeli people together (as was stated in the text of the Tweet, not the video itself) was anti-semitic.
The first option is not a solution at all to me. Why is anyone suggesting a “solution” that is largely reversed by excavation? It’s absurd. I don’t have a problem with telling Israel to do it alone - they should never start a war with the expectation that we’ll finish it. I do think this represents a unique opportunity for us, but I’m also with taipan in that we don’t need to and shouldn’t rush into a decision on this. If we delay maybe Israel will handle it themselves with boots on the ground.