Quote from: Ulrich on April 15, 2024, 13:27:18(More mixing, more tweaking?)We all know where this is going...
Quote from: MeltingMan on April 15, 2024, 12:47:29So if I understand Simon correctly, the new album is basically ready for publication.
Quote from: dsanchez on April 14, 2024, 10:44:22who was skeptical about the new album being made at all
Quote from: dsanchez on April 14, 2024, 11:06:22Fair enough, but probably they could have banned this person (which I think they did) and leave the congress continue.
QuoteThis weekend's air raids in the Middle East set a lot of records. Iran carried out its first ever direct attack on Israel from Iranian territory, launching an unprecedentedly large swarm of drones and missiles against Israeli military bases. And for the first time in history, U.S. troops engaged in direct combat in defense of Israeli territory.
QuoteThere is a historical example that shows that the Iranian retaliation against Israel could perhaps have been evaded.
The US, UK, and France prevented the UN Security Council from condemning the Israeli attack on the Iranian consulate in Damascus despite it being a flagrant violation of international law. The Iranians have hinted that had the UNSC strongly condemned Israel, Iran might have refrained from retaliating against it. Most observers have dismissed the Iranian claim, assessing that Tehran would have acted anyway.
But there is a historical example involving Iran and an attack on an Iranian consulate in which the UNSC acted swiftly and prevented an Iranian retaliation.
It was September 1998. The Taliban had just taken Mazar-e Sharif in Afghanistan and attacked the Iranian consulate there, executing several Iranian diplomats. I was working for the Swedish Permanent UN Mission at the time and Sweden was not only in the UNSC, it held the presidency of the Council that month.
The Iranian demand on Sweden was clear: Although Iran had mobilized on the border to Afghanistan and was ready to attack, a strong condemnation by the UNSC and its presidency could provide Iran with a face-saving exit and the larger war could be avoided.
Sweden ensured that the attack on the consulate - a flagrant violation of the Vienna Convention - was appropriately condemned, and Iran never retaliated against the Taliban militarily, despite the Taliban's clear aggression.
In both cases, an Iranian consulate had been attacked and several Iranian officials had been killed. In both cases, Iran did not want to go to war. But in one case, the UNSC condemned the aggression and Iranian retaliation was evaded. On the other, the US, UK, and France put their support for Israel above international law and prevented the UNSC from condemning the attack, and we are now in the middle of the Iranian retaliation.
Certainly, the 1998 episode does not prove that Iran's retaliation against Israel today could have been prevented. But it does suggest that there was an opportunity to de-escalate that the US/UK/FR ignored or dismissed.
Then again, that fits perfectly with Biden's record of the past 7 months as opportunity after opportunity to de-escalate and end the war in Gaza has been actively dismissed by him.