We went through how many rounds of “sanctions” followed by concessions toward North Korea the get them to stop their nuclear WMD program? Sure, they’ll take the food aid and fuel oil and promise to stop it.

And what was that little firecracker the NORKs set off the other day to let the UN (and the US) know what what they think of our response to their ballistic missile launch? Not to mention the sinking of the Cheonan and their shelling of Yeonpyeong.

All the sanctions, all the carrier battle groups, all the forces we move around in the ME aren’t intended to impress the Mullahs. We aren’t going to use them. Hagel has said a war with Iran would be “unthinkable.”

That is Obama’s policy. A nuclear Iran is thinkable. Just like the government let the NORKs go nuclear while pretending for the domestic of the low-information that it was serious about doing something about it, the same thing will happen in Iran.

Hagel isn’t competent to be SecDef. He’s never run such a large complex organization. By all accounts he’s an overbearing, obnoxious mismanager of people.

But he does see eye to eye with the other incompetent he’ll be working for that Israel is the problem, that we should be working with the Mullahs, Hamas, the MB, etc. And he will slash and burn this way through DoD completely emasculating it because, like Da Won, he agrees the US is a bully.

He’s an idiot, but he’ll be Obama’s useful idiot. As long as he can keep from telling us what the real plan is, like he did at the hearing when the Democrats had to correct him to toe the party line on what the fake plan they’re selling to the voters and our allies.

Call for Iran to end house arrest of opposition leaders

Saeed Kamali Dehghan
guardian.co.uk, Friday 15 February 2013 07.57 EST

In mid-February 2011, following calls for street protests in solidarity with the pro-democracy movements in Egypt and Tunisia, dubbed the Arab spring, Iranian authorities placed Mousavi and Karroubi, along with their wives, Zahra Rahnavard and Fatemeh Karroubi, under house arrest.

Security forces initially blocked access to the houses of each couple in Tehran and did not allow them to leave, or their family members to enter the premises. Within a few weeks, the authorities who had surrounded the area entered the residences, ransacking rooms and confiscating documents, limiting the movements of the opposition leaders in an unprecedented fashion. Since then the authorities have released Fatemeh Karroubi from house arrest but increased the restrictions on the remaining three.

The Islamic republic has so far refused to put the men on trial and the decision behind the house arrests is believed to have come from the very top, Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Iran opposition leader Mousavi’s daughters arrested

11 February 2013 Last updated at 07:22 ET

Two daughters of Iranian opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi have been arrested after security forces raided their homes in the capital, Tehran.

It comes almost two years after their parents were put under house arrest.

Obama’s from Chicago; he knows you just can’t let the opposition run around unmolested if you’re going to steal elections.

Hell, any legitimate leader knows that.

http://www.captainsquartersblog.com/mt/archives/004702.php

http://www.rferl.org/content/iran-fallafian-candidacy-presidential-election/24907608.html

http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2013/02/ex-guantanamo_detain_1.php

I thought that a revelation that Hagel was essentially paid off by Iran was going to torpedo him. Unfortunately, the “money changing hands” part has yet to be substantiated — and even if it is, eventually, it looks as though Hagel’s main opponents don’t have the will to sustain their opposition.

I never thought that would kill his chances. Not with this crowd. Recall how Obama was tripping over himself to get to a phone to congratulate Ahmadinejad when he stole the last election. And he was silent for quite a while as the regime’s henchmen killed the protesters.

I don’t believe Obama has heard of an anti-American regime he didn’t think was legitimate. Like Hagel said referring to the government of Iran at his confirmation hearings.

Apologies for any unwarranted optimism you may have experienced as a result of my pronouncement. I’m just as disappointed as you are.

Hagel could have announced he had just pooped himself in response to one of the many questions he didn’t know the answer to at that hearing and his fellow Senate club members would have confirmed him.

http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/friends-hamas-rumor-started-article-1.1268284