Cheney Warns Iran

[soiarrai]

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/11/world/middleeast/11cnd-cheney.html?ex=1336536000&en=e5537820a00d8bbb&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss

 

On Carrier in Gulf, Cheney Warns Iran

By DAVID E. SANGER

Published: May 11, 2007

 

BRUSSELS, May 11 â?? Vice President Dick Cheney used the deck of an American aircraft carrier just 150 miles off Iranâ??s coast as the backdrop today to warn the country that the United States was prepared to use its naval power to keep Tehran from disrupting off oil routes or â??gaining nuclear weapons and dominating this region.â?Â

 

Little of what Mr. Cheney said in the cavernous hangar bay of the aircraft carrier U.S.S. John C. Stennis, one of two carriers whose strike groups are now in the Persian Gulf, was new. Each individual line had, in some form, been said before, at various points in the four-year-long nuclear standoff with Iran, and during the increasingly tense arguments over whether Iran is aiding the insurgents in Iraq.

 

But Mr. Cheney stitched all of those warnings together, and the symbolism of sending the administrationâ??s most famous hawk to deliver the speech so close to Iranâ??s coast was unmistakable.

 

It also came just a week after Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice talked briefly and inconclusively with Iranâ??s foreign minister, a step toward re-engagement with Iran that some in the administration have opposed.

 

Mr. Cheneyâ??s sharp warnings appeared to be part of a two-track administration campaign to push back at Iran, while leaving the door open to negotiations. It was almost exactly a year ago that the United States offered to negotiate with Iran as long as it first agreed to halt enriching uranium, a decision in which Mr. Cheney, participants said, was not a major player. Similarly, the speech today was not circulated broadly in the government before it was delivered, a senior American diplomat said. â??He kind of runs by his own rules,â? the official said.

 

When President Bush ordered the two carriers into the Gulf late last year, senior administration officials said it was part of an effort to gain some negotiating leverage over the Iranians. At about the same time, American military personnel began capturing some Iranians in Iraq, and some of them are still held there.

 

American officials have also been pressing Europeans banks and companies to avoid doing business with Tehran, in an effort to make it more difficult for the country to recycle its oil profits.

 

Oil seemed to be on Mr. Cheneyâ??s mind today, when he told an audience of 3,500 to 4,000 American service members on the Stennis that Iran would not be permitted to choke off oil shipments through the waters of the region.

 

â??With two carrier strike groups in the Gulf, weâ??re sending clear messages to friends and adversaries alike,â? he said. â??Weâ??ll keep the sea lanes open. Weâ??ll stand with our friends in opposing extremism and strategic threats. Weâ??ll disrupt attacks on our own forces. Weâ??ll continue bringing relief to those who suffer, and delivering justice to the enemies of freedom. And weâ??ll stand with others to prevent Iran from gaining nuclear weapons and dominating this region.â?Â

 

Some experts on Iran have questioned whether the threats that administration officials occasionally deliver to Iran aid or undercut the diplomacy with the country.

 

â??The problem with the two-track policy is that the first track â?? coercion, sanctions, naval deployments â?? can undercut the results on the second track,â? said Ray Takeyh, an Iran scholar at the Council of Foreign Relations and the author of â??Hidden Iran: Paradox and Power in the Islamic Republicâ? (Henry Holt, 2006).

 

â??There are some in Tehran who will look at Cheney on that carrier and say that everything Rice is offering is not real. Whatâ??s real, to their mind, are the coercive policies Cheney is describing.

 

â??This is a case where we are trying to get through negotiations what, so far, we couldnâ??t get through coercion.â?Â

 

The symbols of coercion were part of the backdrop on the Stennis: Mr. Cheney spoke in front of five F-18 Super Hornet warplanes.

 

But mindful of the lasting imagery of President Bush on another carrier a little more than four years ago, there were no signs proclaiming success, much less â??Mission Accomplished.â? Instead, Mr. Cheney repeated his arguments about the danger of early withdrawal from Iraq.

 

â??I want you to know that the American people will not support a policy of retreat,â? Mr. Cheney said. â??We want to complete the mission, we want to get it done right, and then we want to return home with honor.â?Â

 

Mr. Cheney is on a weeklong visit to the Middle East, and made Iraq his first stop on Wednesday and Thursday. He spoke to American troops stationed near Saddam Husseinâ??s birthplace, Tikrit, telling them in somber tones that they still had a tough fight ahead of them.

 

His assessment stood in stark contrast to the one he made two years ago, when he declared in an interview with CNN that the insurgency in Iraq was in its â??last throes.â?Â

 

The United States remains at odds with Iran over its uranium-enrichment program, which Iran says is for peaceful nuclear energy, but which America and its Western allies say is intended instead to produce atomic weapons.

 

Administration officials have also said that weapons are being smuggled into Iraq from Iran and that insurgents may be getting training in bomb-making and bomb-placing techniques in Iran. The Iranian government denies sponsoring or encouraging terrorism.

 

Mr. Cheney visited the U.S.S. John C. Stennis before, in March 2002, at a time when he was trying to build support for the invasion of Iraq.

 

He also visited Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates, where the president of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is expected to arrive in the next few days. Mr. Cheneyâ??s tour is also scheduled to include visits to Saudi Arabia and Jordan.

[Steve]

Empty threat. No way congress will let Bush do anything other than talk. They hold the purse strings. Cheney, of all people, has been marginalized and his power diminished.

[soiarrai]

Little of what Mr. Cheney said in the cavernous hangar bay of the aircraft carrier U.S.S. John C. Stennis, one of two carriers whose strike groups are now in the Persian Gulf, was new. Each individual line had, in some form, been said before, at various points in the four-year-long nuclear standoff with Iran, and during the increasingly tense arguments over whether Iran is aiding the insurgents in Iraq.

 

It says it all i guess. Congress should get on and impeach him over Iraq.

[Steve]

Dems have a far better case than the Republicans did when they went after Clinton. Is it 2/3 of the Sentate needed for impeachment? Can't recall. If so, it would never get prosecuted. Also, the evidence is perhaps too circumstantial and having the country go through it all again. Finally, they'll be gone in a year or so anyway.

 

Iran is probably thinking 'Its only Dick Cheney, we don't have to take it seriously'

 

 

 

 

[cavanami]

>the aircraft carrier U.S.S. John C. Stennis

 

Ohhhh, one of "my" old ships from San Diego :grin:

[Fidel]

Steve, it doesn't seem to matter who has the purse strings. As we keep hearing, Bush is the "Commander in Chief", so Congress better stay the f**k out of his way.

 

In any case, agreement to lob a few hundred "precision" guided missiles at "high value" targets, resulting in some unavoidable "collateral damage", is much easier to gain than agreement to put boots on the ground.

 

This Iran thing will be a long and drawn out process. I don't envisage the first strike for a couple more years at least, but it will come.

 

The US WILL NOT ALLOW IRAN TO DOMINATE THE REGION.

[elef]

USA no way have the resources to invade Iran, which of course will cost a lot of money, but an air and naval attack on Iran is possible all the time.

[ChristianTroy]

â??I want you to know that the American people will not support a policy of retreat,â?Â

 

Dear Dick, I want you to know that your governments approval ratings are now in the low 30ies. So stop pretending you know what the American people do, think and want! Stop using them in your ridiculous propaganda!

 

â??We want to complete the mission, we want to get it done right, and then we want to return home with honor.â?Â

 

Dear Dick(weed)

What would be the mission? Some people shouldn't use the word honor because it is exclusive for those who deserve it, hearing the word out of your mouth is an insult.

 

Dick, be careful, don't drift into Iranian water, you know what will happen!

 

Asshole propaganda initiated by assholes for those few assholes that still support these assholes!

 

The sad thing is that the entire world is covering the real reasons for this conflict this time! That's why it will happen for sure!

 

 

 

[soiarrai]

Dear Dick, I want you to know that your governments approval ratings are now in the low 30ies. So stop pretending you know what the American people do, think and want! Stop using them in your ridiculous propaganda!

 

He's just trying to lie to everyone again as he did over Iraq. Cheney should be held accountable for misleading the American people and the World, over the war. Despite the obvious lack of success on the ground, Cheney continued with his propaganda claiming the war was being won and Iraq's rebuilding process was a success which is obviously bullshit.

[Steve]

This would have to be the policy of the Democrats as well then. If as expected they have the White House and Congress will probably stay in their control after the next elections, will they invade or do a military strike on Iran? That is the question.