Which will be any time now, the oil speculators will dress themselves in sack cloth and ashes so that they can justify the heinous rise in crude oil prices that must necessarily follow such a thing; Why oil has even gone up on the rumor of an attack, a sure fire sign of just how powerful the speculation end of the market really is.

Russian political boss Vladimir Putin will take the stage with solemn warnings for both the United States and Israel and will offer to Help the Iranians in a proxy war ( which they are already apparently doing ) wherein they will sell Russian weaponry and Technology to Iran. Cha-ching!!!

United States Politicians will be divided into two camps, those who back Israel and those who don't...it will all depend on where the voting potential lies. Politicians don't actually care about world events they just care about what their constituents think is a world event worth having an opinion about and they they reinvent themselves to suit the occasion..so stop condemning those guys... they-R-us!

Condemnation for the attacks will come from the mouthpieces of the European Union and allies while terror alerts reign supreme here in the US. There will be a call for the reestablishment of fallout shelters and schools will issue little red white and blue stickers for students who bring in canned and dry goods. Police departments will sound the financial alarm as they struggle under the massive burden of Union imposed overtime wages!! Car 54 where are you??

China will remain at a distance even as they condemn the actions while sneaking around behind the scenes looking for political advantage, oil contracts and investment opportunities. Chinese goods will continue to pour into American ports while American dollars continue to pour into China, at that point though the Chinese may be using it for toilet paper.

Pakistan will issue a statement of hatred and threat against Israel which will further strain relations with the US and be labeled as Anti-Semitic. The US will condemn Pakistan for this publicly using words like deplore and despise.

Food prices and commodities will sky rocket and corporate raiders will rake in hundreds of millions of wind fall as new military contracts are signed with weapons makers and security firms for the benefit of a few powerful Washington D.C. Wallets that suck up to both Political parties. Hors D'oeuvres anyone?

We will move one step closer to self imposed Oblivion on our way to not understanding a damn thing about human nature or the ultimate driving force behind humanity....Greed. People with flying saucer hats will gather atop tall buildings waiting for Elvis to return. Ender will ruminate, Daveto will satirize and Tartuffe will demand proof just before he is reduced to a cloud of vapor. Hell, he will demand proof after that too!

We grow so much corn in this country that we use it as a sweetener for foods... not that corn syrup tastes good with strawberries, but it is cheaper than sugar. And we also turn corn into ethanol for gas, not that corn is the best crop to do that with (sweet beets from Michigan would work far better) but it's just that we grow so much corn and you have so much left over after feeding the animals and humans.

So, now we have a corn based food price worked into the entire food industry. But flooding has destroyed millions of acres of corn, making the price quadruple overnight. Suddenly, corn is expensive, which means our whole world has turned upside down. Suddenly, it costs more to feed the cattle than the cattle are worth, so the ranchers will bring record volumes of cattle to the slaughter houses. Which means this summer is the best time to throw that big bar-b-que party and invite all the neighbors; meat will be cheap this summer - until we get to the point where it becomes twice as expensive as it is now. Time to pull those old "the end is near" signs out of the attic and party it up.

Russia wouldn't pull out those old nukes and retaliate against Israel, would they? You don't have to wipe out cities full of people, they could nuke Israel's military installations. Anyone who thinks that Israel will attack Iran without secretly working a deal with Russia is forgetting the real world. By all rights, Russia is obligated to Iran to come to their defense when someone attacks Iran. This isn't Iraq. Attack Iran and it goes nuclear.

Iran's key nuclear facilities were designed to to be almost impervious to conventional bombing. The Bush Administration found Iran's modest foresight on this point so frustrating that they floated the concept of destroying those facilities with tactical nuclear weapons.

The world didn't buy it. China obliquely threatened us with nuclear retaliation, and Bush backed off.

If we can't get away with using nuclear weapons on Iran, neither can Israel. Hopefully they're not crazy enough to try it

I know for a fact he is living as a hermit in a cabin near Chicken, Alaska, under the name of Feodor Kuzmich.

As for attacking Iran, wouldn't that be a little like the Japanese bombing Pearl Harbor after running commercials on The Bell Telephone Hour that they were planning a big, big surprise for the American people?

it would imply a green light from the US, and that would be a most despicable act of national cowardice. (Is there anything worse than putting somebody else in your line of fire?)

Not atypical for Bush, and for Bush's America, but still ...

Facts in evidence are nice, though. Preponderance of same better yet when you're asserting something as fact. But, at the very least, you could spare us the obvious counter-factuals -- i.e., fanciful, whimsical assertions (pulled, apparently, straight from your ass) that are directly contradicted by the preponderance of facts in evidence.

Despite your regular railing against it, it really doesn't seem so much to ask. But, hey, maybe that's just me.

but he is first and foremost a business man.. he will make a huge public display and condemn like hell but in the end there's no way he'll allow Russia to commit to anything that will cost money and of course you are right...Isreal will make a deal with him before they attack.

I have actually held you in high esteem for your insistence on facts...It has helped me to curb my prediclections though admittedly I am still lazy...there is nothing wrong with your position and yes I am picking on you some but in reality it is admiration....and a little sense of humor...maybe a little overdone.

enormously heavy missles that that come straight down at incredible speeds penetrating up to 50 feet of concrete...I believe that the US has sold them to Israel already.

that's some awesome crystal ball ya got there!

I'm just quaking in my boots - the end of the world is near.

Oh wait.

That's just more fear for sale.

"The sky is falling. The sky is falling."

If President Bush decides that the use of nuclear weapons in Iran is warranted, I can't imagine that he'd subcontract it out to Israel, because:

1) If we sanction a nuclear attack by Israel, we'll be on the hook to defend them against whatever comes their way as a result of it, and Israel (unlike the United States) is within the direct military reach of the entire Arab world.

2) If Israel drops nuclear bombs on Iran with our blessing, that will necessarily reveal theit possession of nuclear weapons in violation of God knows how many international laws, *and* that we knew they had such weapons. If the radioactive material turns out to have our signatures, that will prove that we *supplied* nuclear weapons to Israel. . legally and diplomatically, we'd be better off just dropping the bombs ourselves.

3) If Bush leaves America holding the smoking gun, the next President will be committed to dealing with the consequences of the bombing as a matter of national survival. If Israel does it, the next President will be left with the option of cutting his losses if the war goes badly.

4) If Israel hits Iran with nuclear weapons, there's a very strong likelihood that they'll face nuclear retaliation from China or Pakistan, among others. If we do it, nations sympathetic to Iran will be forced to weigh the much scarier prospect of starting a nuclear war with the United States. At the end of the day, the world will settle for dealing with us by diplomatic isolation and economic sanctions. (Probably. . . )

The only way I see Israel carrying out the attacks themselves is if we tell them not to do it and they slip the leash. I honestly don't know what would happen in that case. Bush would probably commit to fully support them anyway; Obama would commit to defend them as well, but he might be tempted under these circumstances, to seize the political opportunity to drive a very, very hard bargain with them. (e.g.: by dragging the Israeli Prime Minister to a bargaining table and simply slapping a peace treaty down on the table in front of him that follows the lines of previous bargaining positions but resolves all the outstanding issues left at the last round of negotiations in the Palestineans' favor. If Israel signs it and the Palestineans don't, we'll commit to defend the current borders as they stand. If Palestine signs it and the Israelis don't, we'll commit to defend them for 15 years and offer visas, travel vouchers, and permanent resident status in the U.S. to any Israelis who want to emigrate here. Whether they decide to stay there, move here, or move somewhere else, after the 15 years are up, we're pulling out and ceding the entire country to Palestine).

If the Bush Administration thought they could eliminate the Iranian nuclear program by dropping conventional explosives on them, they'd have done it already, probably right before the 2006 election.

The Administration announced that it was designing a nuclear bunker buster several years ago, and they tried (unsuccessfully) to get Congressional approval for test detonations. Tests or no tests, I'm reasonably sure they're done building the things, and are satisfied that they'll work.

would be strengthened by a war with Iran rather than weakened by it. The dollar would be strong because the world would see that American resolve and financial and military strength was still such that it might continue to be a powerful nation with a leadership role to play.

If oil prices threatened to demolish the U.S. economy pressure would be applied to open the taps of the world's oil supply, and prices would stabalize.

If necessary a ground war would be waged to shut down Iran's nuclear arms race. Nukes would only be used in retaliation, and at this point most of those who seem like they might be crazy enough to use them still don't have them.

The worst possible scenario is that the U.S. and the world succumbs to threats and blackmail, allows mentally-disturbed bigots, terrorists, and religious whackos to advance their schemes and weaponry, in which case the U.S. will slide rapidly into decline and the whole world will suffer for it.

There may come a time for the U.S. to reliquish its role as the world's only superpower and dominant influence but now is not the time. Look at the alternatives!

you are full of crap.