By Poya Saffari

Iran has always been an amalgamation of ideologies, histories, languages and ethnicities, layered with religious, class, urban-rural and gender complexities and divisions. These various communities and identities are tied together by the presumptuous and ultimately false notion of “Iranian nationhood.” Iran, like so many other nations, should be understood as a complex mix of incongruities and differences.

By Robert Dreyfuss - Znet

Besides hitting dozens of sites alleged to be part of Iran's nuclear research program, the attacks would target Iranian air defense and missile sites, communications systems, Revolutionary Guard facilities, key parts of Iran's military-industrial complex, munitions storage facilities, airfields, aircraft facilities, and all of Iran's naval facilities. Eventually, they say, the United States would also have to attack Iran's ground forces, electric power plants and electrical grids, bridges, and "manufacturing plants, including steel, autos, buses, etc."...That an important adviser to President-elect Obama would sign on to such a report should be shocking, though it has received next to no attention.

By Haaretz Staff and Agencies - November 24, 2008

Former Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Moshe Ya'alon was quoted as saying, by an Australian newspaper this week, that the West must consider all options necessary to stop Tehran's nuclear program, including assassinating Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad..."We have to confront the Iranian revolution immediately"...There is no way to stabilize the Middle East today without defeating the Iranian regime. The Iranian nuclear program must be stopped."

By Jonathan Steele - The Guardian

Israel gave serious thought this spring to launching a military strike on Iran's nuclear sites but was told by President George W Bush that he would not support it and did not expect to revise that view for the rest of his presidency, senior European diplomatic sources have told the Guardian.

By Yves Engler - September 13, 2008

...[D]id you know that over the past year or so Canadian naval vessels have been regularly patrolling Iran's coast?...Canada's central motivation is to support U.S. policy. If tomorrow the U.S. decided to once again support an undemocratic, repressive Iranian government (as it did [during] the Shah's regime for decades) would Canada's warships remain? Of course not...From the military sphere to the economic realm Ottawa is trying to squeeze Iran...The diplomatic sphere may be where Ottawa is most active in attacking Iran.

by Mark Franchetti in Moscow - September 7, 2008

Russia is considering increasing its assistance to Iran’s nuclear programme in response to America’s calls for Nato expansion eastwards and the presence of US Navy vessels in the Black Sea delivering aid to Georgia...The Kremlin is discussing sending teams of Russian nuclear experts to Tehran and inviting Iranian nuclear scientists to Moscow for training, according to sources close to the Russian military.

The Bush administration's possible blockade on Iran threatens a widened Middle East war.

“Iran’s president is a holocaust denier and refers to Israel by what can only be described as the most hateful of terms.”-Bob Rae

Conflicting crosscurrents point in both directions.

by Professor James Petras - 06.08.08

One of the hallmarks of totalitarian ideologues is the use of the big lie: a virulent attack on a defenseless group and then a categorical denial turning victims into executioners and executioners into victims...Zionist genocide promoter, Benny Morris practices the Big Lie. He claims, "I have never supported the brutal expulsion of all Palestinians["]...In a recent interview in Israel, Morris states, “Under some circumstances, expulsion is not a war crime. I don’t think that the expulsions of 1948 (of nearly a million Palestinians) were war crimes. You can’t make an omelet without breaking eggs. You have to dirty your hands.["]

By Justin Podur - July 14, 2008

Most societies seem to combine both irrationality and hypocrisy in their drug policies. These serve those who profit from the drug war, the monies, the weapons, and the pretexts that it provides. They do not serve addicts, users, or farmers. An end to prohibition and an end to the drug war would take a powerful weapon away from the war on terror.

Veteran Israeli peace activist, journalist and author Uri Avnery weighs in on the debate over whether a U.S./Israel attack on Iran is imminent.

By Amos Harel - 08/07/2008

Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards have begun a military exercise with a warning that Israel and the U.S. naval force in the Persian Gulf would be prime targets if Iran is attacked...The report quotes guard official Ali Shirazi as saying Tel Aviv and American warships in the Gulf would be among the first targets if Iran comes under attack.

By PATRICK COCKBURN - July 5/6, 2008

Iraq will be plunged into a new war if Israel or the US launches an attack on Iran, Iraqi leaders have warned. Iranian retaliation would take place in Iraq...The Iraqi government may be militarily dependent on the 140,000 US troops in the country, but its Shia and Kurdish leaders have long been allied to Iran.

by Seymour M. Hersh - Sunday, June 29, 2008

Clandestine operations against Iran are not new. United States Special Operations Forces have been conducting cross-border operations from southern Iraq...since last year. These have included seizing members of Al Quds, the commando arm of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, and taking them to Iraq for interrogation (read torture - MW), and the pursuit of “high-value targets” in the President’s war on terror, who may be captured or killed. But the scale and the scope of the operations in Iran...have now been significantly expanded, according to the current and former officials.