By Alan Howe | March 02
RIGHT now we are on the cusp of one of the great punctuation marks of humanity.
Soon, millions of lives could be changed in a moment and we and our children might face an unutterably grim future.
One thing's for sure.
It is incumbent on this generation - us, and now - to act to set things right.
Leave this job to our children?
Those who survive will never forgive us.
I'm not talking about the global financial meltdown.
We might all lose our jobs, but after long ago reading John Kenneth Galbraith's Money: Whence It Came, Where it Went, I am convinced, economic dill though I am, that we are experiencing the bottom of the Ferris wheel of a financial euphoria that laps us from time to time.
But much darker events are unfolding.
The clock on this particular nightmare started ticking last Wednesday when Iran's first nuclear power plant was tested.
The Iranians will tell you they just want to generate power.
Western security experts are convinced that the deceitful, dissembling and dishonest Iranian leader, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, whose measureless hate for the West, Israel in particular, manifests itself regularly, plans nuclear arms and to aim them at Tel Aviv.
Of Israel, he says: "The Islamic world will not let its historical enemy live in its heartland."
Of us?
"Anyone who recognises Israel will burn in the fire of the Islamic nations' fury".
The West and Israel "will vanish, this is a divine promise".
Ahmadinejad is quite clear about his intentions.
Only a fool would fail to see the means by which he plans to execute them.
Then President-elect Barack Obama said in November that the US needed "to ratchet up tough but direct diplomacy with Iran".
At that stage he still believed you could negotiate on an intellectual level with the Iranian leadership.
But since then something has changed and Iran should be wary of the signs, because the most influential Clinton in the White House does not wear a dress.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton may well have last week appointed Dennis Ross to be special adviser on the Gulf and Middle East - with a clear focus on Iran - but it betrays the certain hand of her husband, for whom Ross once worked.
Three months ago Obama was keen to talk to the Iranians.
Insiders now say Bill Clinton, who tried and failed, wants the Iranian issue dealt with forcefully in Obama's first term and that the new President is listening.
And that is good news for the rest of us, because Iran is believed by Western security services to be within two years of being able to launch a nuclear strike.
Last week a fascinating man passed through Melbourne almost unnoticed, but I managed to catch up with him to share some fearful insights about his country and our future.
Danny Yatom is retired now, but for many years he served in the Israeli secret services and anti-terrorism squads, rising to be the boss of Mossad.
He retired from politics last year after serving in the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, for five years.
He is depressingly convinced of Iran's intentions and is uniquely qualified to assess them.
"Iran remains the greatest threat to world peace," he told me.
"Many regimes in the world make the mistake of thinking and believing that a nuclear-armed Iran is a sole Israeli problem; it is a problem for the entire world."
Yatom believes a nuclear-armed Iran will likely choose to flex its muscle and will also be a threat to the Gulf states.
Iran is already equipped with missiles covering a range of 2500km.
They could fire off rockets this afternoon that would reach the outskirts of Vienna.
"They are in the process of building missiles that will be able to cover 4000km," says Yatom.
"That's almost to London from western Iran.
"The most important thing today is to bring the Americans and the Europeans to understand that it cannot be only the problem of the Israelis."
And confirmation that the Europeans are beginning to understand has come from an unlikely source - the so often unreliable French.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy told the United Nations that "allowing Iran to arm itself with nuclear weapons would be an unacceptable risk to stability in the region and in the world".
Yatom points to Iran's defiance of international laws as evidence it is less interested in bringing power to its villages than in demonstrating power over its neighbours.
"Well, you know they act against all the international decisions, they continue to enrich uranium.
``They do not try to hide it, and explicitly they say it is their right to enrich uranium."
Any attack on Iran's known nuclear sites, particularly at Natanz, south of the capital Tehran, will be from the air - although because they have been hidden beneath the sand, ground troops will also likely be involved.
Such attacks will necessarily involve many civilian casualties.
Iran has, at terrific expense, buried its nuclear "power plants" mostly beneath population centres.
What a great idea. If only we had thought to dig big holes to hide the unsightly Hazelwood and Loy Yang power stations. It never occurred to us!
When the Iranian-backed Hamas recently fought Israel soldiers in Gaza, they hid munitions in sensitive buildings and fired rockets from hospitals and schools, using the locals, especially children, as human shields.
Iran does this on a grand scale at home.
When the time comes, many innocents will die.
Ahmadinejad knows this well.
Indeed, he's planned for it.
RIGHT now we are on the cusp of one of the great punctuation marks of humanity.
Soon, millions of lives could be changed in a moment and we and our children might face an unutterably grim future.
One thing's for sure.
It is incumbent on this generation - us, and now - to act to set things right.
Leave this job to our children?
Those who survive will never forgive us.
I'm not talking about the global financial meltdown.
We might all lose our jobs, but after long ago reading John Kenneth Galbraith's Money: Whence It Came, Where it Went, I am convinced, economic dill though I am, that we are experiencing the bottom of the Ferris wheel of a financial euphoria that laps us from time to time.
But much darker events are unfolding.
The clock on this particular nightmare started ticking last Wednesday when Iran's first nuclear power plant was tested.
The Iranians will tell you they just want to generate power.
Western security experts are convinced that the deceitful, dissembling and dishonest Iranian leader, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, whose measureless hate for the West, Israel in particular, manifests itself regularly, plans nuclear arms and to aim them at Tel Aviv.
Of Israel, he says: "The Islamic world will not let its historical enemy live in its heartland."
Of us?
"Anyone who recognises Israel will burn in the fire of the Islamic nations' fury".
The West and Israel "will vanish, this is a divine promise".
Ahmadinejad is quite clear about his intentions.
Only a fool would fail to see the means by which he plans to execute them.
Then President-elect Barack Obama said in November that the US needed "to ratchet up tough but direct diplomacy with Iran".
At that stage he still believed you could negotiate on an intellectual level with the Iranian leadership.
But since then something has changed and Iran should be wary of the signs, because the most influential Clinton in the White House does not wear a dress.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton may well have last week appointed Dennis Ross to be special adviser on the Gulf and Middle East - with a clear focus on Iran - but it betrays the certain hand of her husband, for whom Ross once worked.
Three months ago Obama was keen to talk to the Iranians.
Insiders now say Bill Clinton, who tried and failed, wants the Iranian issue dealt with forcefully in Obama's first term and that the new President is listening.
And that is good news for the rest of us, because Iran is believed by Western security services to be within two years of being able to launch a nuclear strike.
Last week a fascinating man passed through Melbourne almost unnoticed, but I managed to catch up with him to share some fearful insights about his country and our future.
Danny Yatom is retired now, but for many years he served in the Israeli secret services and anti-terrorism squads, rising to be the boss of Mossad.
He retired from politics last year after serving in the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, for five years.
He is depressingly convinced of Iran's intentions and is uniquely qualified to assess them.
"Iran remains the greatest threat to world peace," he told me.
"Many regimes in the world make the mistake of thinking and believing that a nuclear-armed Iran is a sole Israeli problem; it is a problem for the entire world."
Yatom believes a nuclear-armed Iran will likely choose to flex its muscle and will also be a threat to the Gulf states.
Iran is already equipped with missiles covering a range of 2500km.
They could fire off rockets this afternoon that would reach the outskirts of Vienna.
"They are in the process of building missiles that will be able to cover 4000km," says Yatom.
"That's almost to London from western Iran.
"The most important thing today is to bring the Americans and the Europeans to understand that it cannot be only the problem of the Israelis."
And confirmation that the Europeans are beginning to understand has come from an unlikely source - the so often unreliable French.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy told the United Nations that "allowing Iran to arm itself with nuclear weapons would be an unacceptable risk to stability in the region and in the world".
Yatom points to Iran's defiance of international laws as evidence it is less interested in bringing power to its villages than in demonstrating power over its neighbours.
"Well, you know they act against all the international decisions, they continue to enrich uranium.
``They do not try to hide it, and explicitly they say it is their right to enrich uranium."
Any attack on Iran's known nuclear sites, particularly at Natanz, south of the capital Tehran, will be from the air - although because they have been hidden beneath the sand, ground troops will also likely be involved.
Such attacks will necessarily involve many civilian casualties.
Iran has, at terrific expense, buried its nuclear "power plants" mostly beneath population centres.
What a great idea. If only we had thought to dig big holes to hide the unsightly Hazelwood and Loy Yang power stations. It never occurred to us!
When the Iranian-backed Hamas recently fought Israel soldiers in Gaza, they hid munitions in sensitive buildings and fired rockets from hospitals and schools, using the locals, especially children, as human shields.
Iran does this on a grand scale at home.
When the time comes, many innocents will die.
Ahmadinejad knows this well.
Indeed, he's planned for it.
Source: Herald Sun
H/T: Cody
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