Is this how it will begin?

[Qdrop]

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran's Hizbollah, which claims links to the Lebanese group of the same name, said on Tuesday it stood ready to attack Israeli and U.S. interests worldwide.

"We have 2,000 volunteers who have registered since last year," said Iranian Hizbollah's spokesman Mojtaba Bigdeli, speaking by telephone from the central seminary city of Qom.

"They have been trained and they can become fully armed. We are ready to dispatch them to every corner of the world to jeopardise Israel and America's interests. We are only waiting for the Supreme Leader's green light to take action. If America wants to ignite World War Three ... we welcome it," he said.

Iranian religious organisations have made great public show of recruiting volunteers for "martyrdom-seeking operations" in recent years, usually threatening U.S. interests in case of any attack against the Islamic Republic's nuclear programme.


But there is no record of an Iranian volunteer from these recruitment campaigns taking part in an attack.

Iran's Hizbollah (Party of God) says it is spiritually bound to Shi'ite Muslim guerrillas in Lebanon but its command structure and funding are unclear.

Despite Iranian Hizbollah's insistence that it takes orders from Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei, government ministries say Hizbollah does not implement official policy. Iran's government has said it hopes for a diplomatic solution to the Israeli offensive in Lebanon.

While Iran did fund and support Lebanese Hizbollah during the 1980s, Tehran says it has not contributed troops or weapons in the latest violence. Israel says Iranian armaments have been fired against it.

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So once the draft is re-instated....if i'm 29, how long before the draft hits my mailbox?

[Echewta]

If you go to the Party of God, should you bring a gift? Like is it polite to bring chips or a bottle of wine? What do you give a guy who has everything already?

[STANKY808]

...If America wants to ignite World War Three ... we welcome it," he said.


Good to see the neo-con talking points have been picked up over there.

RUSSERT: This is World War III?

GINGRICH: I, I believe if you take all the countries I just listed, that you've been covering, put them on a map, look at all the different connectivity, you'd have to say to yourself this is, in fact, World War III.

http://mediamatters.org/items/200607170008

[enree erzweglle]

...If America wants to ignite World War Three ... we welcome it," he said.


Good to see the neo-con talking points have been picked up over there.

RUSSERT: This is World War III?

GINGRICH: I, I believe if you take all the countries I just listed, that you've been covering, put them on a map, look at all the different connectivity, you'd have to say to yourself this is, in fact, World War III.

http://mediamatters.org/items/200607170008Right. He said that on Sunday on Meet the Press. At first, I wondered if he was grandstanding to reinvigorate sales of his book but honestly, I think he and a lot of other people believe the WWIII theories and they're not just being alarmists. I rewound that bit and watched and listened to him over and over.

There has been so much happening in the middle-east for so long and a lot of people discount it, shrug it off and roll their eyes at the thoughts of this becoming more global, hitting them in some more direct way. I don't know that I'm nervous about WWIII starting from this but I think it could. And I do know that I absolutely feel desensitized or disconnected to what's going on over there in general. I've been trying to learn more about it, the history and the issues, but that's not such a straightforward set of things.

Bob ^^^ is a primo example of you sounding like someone else. You sound like nuzzolese in that post.

[Bob]

really? i was going for more of an echewta

[EN[i]GMA]

What's really fucking sad is, this really could be the start of a World War.

Iraq, Afghanistan, Isreal, Lebanon already.

How soon before Syria, Iran, North Korea?

I mean, it certainly is possible.

And we'd have none to blame but ourselves, for the Middle East mess.

[STANKY808]

Right. He said that on Sunday on Meet the Press. At first, I wondered if he was grandstanding to reinvigorate sales of his book but honestly, I think he and a lot of other people believe the WWIII theories and they're not just being alarmists. I rewound that bit and watched and listened to him over and over.



IMO, I don't think it's about book sales - just reinvigorating the neo-con base as the neo-cons had lost momentum over the last couple of years. This talk puts them back at the fore.

I too worry about this conflict widening. But what worries me about it is the faction in the Bush administration that wants this to turn this into the fulfillment of biblical prophecy and as such continue to do next to nothing to stop it.

[M.C. Guevera]

If America wants to ignite World War Three ... we welcome it," he said.

[President Bush]: Well then, BRING IT ON![/President Bush]

I've said it before, I know I'm going to be alive to witness the end of the world. I just know it.