BTW. Isn’t it time the ISS got itself a proper name? I’d suggest O’Neil-1, Babylon-1 or Goddard-Tsiolkovsky but I’d even take the original ‘Freedom’ above that dull acronymn.

“@StevoR

But this is getting way off the original BA topic of Iran’s failure at launching a rocket into space so this is all I am going to say on the subject, you may respond if you want, but that’s it for me.”

Okay, thanks for giving your permission & letting me have the last word I will respond & correct you.

Yes, of course, I know the regions history – clearly quite a bit better than you do.

The truth is Israel was imposed on the entire Muslim world, built on stolen land won by – lets never forget Zionist terrorism (it was the Jews who actually introduced terrorism to the region) – in violation of the British promise to the leaders of the Arab Revolt that the region would be theirs as a reward for them overthrowing the Ottoman Empire in World War I.

The British – then the worlds’ Imperial superpower – also promised the same land – that was promised already to the indigenous population – to the Zionist fanatics who founded Israel – but the Balfour declaration actually stated that any jewish state was dependent on “… NOTHING being done which may prejudice the civil & religious rights of the existing non-jewish communities.” A condition Israel has completely violated by discriminating against the Palestineans and others.

(Source : page 11, Wasserstein, Bernard, ‘Israel & Palestine’, Profile Books, 2003.)

Israel was wrongly created against the wishes of the majority of people in the region. So much for democracy or respecting the will of the people. The Israelis then used “ethnic cleansing” type genocide (look up Deir Yassin for just one of all too many examples) to make their colonial outpost more Jewish and having been promised an already excessive 55% of the then Mandate of Palestine went on to occupy the 100 % of the entire Mandate by brute force – plus much of neighbouring lands Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan & Syria.

These countries – quite understandably sought to protect themselves and their neighbours and to restore the land unjustifiably seized by an invading and occupying group of imperialists and ideological & religious extremists. They were & still are quite within their rights to do so just as the French resistance were quite within their rights to resist the Nazi occupation of their land.

As for Iraq’s nuclear reactor – yet again we see odious and racist double standards. Israel has the Bomb – but none of its neighbours are allowed nuclear equality with it? Not even as a potential deterrent against Israel attacking them by nukes. Israel is allowed to threaten its neighbours with annihilation yet they must simply roll over and beg : “Yes massa Israel, don’t kill us poor neighbours massa, let us live, please massa we’ll do as you say!” Come on! This is just incredibly biased, Islamophobic and, yes, racist.

Either all soverign nations have the right to nukes – or none do. Picking out only your friends and yourself and saying they can have such apocalyptic weapons but not those you dislike is unfair and unjustifiable. Period.

If Israel cannot live with a nuclear armed Syria, Iraq, Iran, Palestine or wherever, if they are incapable of getting on with their neighbours, then maybe its time the Israelis faced that stark reality and spared themselves, the region and the entire planet an apocalyptic calamity by voluntarily evacuating from the SW Asian / Muslim world region where they are not welcome over to the USA or Europe. (Perhaps they could buy up New York & its surrounds or maybe Germany should host this moved “Israeli” state?) Because, sooner or later, Israel’s neighbours will – and should – get the same sort of nuclear and other WMDs that the Israel already has.

The reality-based community needs to accept this reality and prepare accordingly – not by attacking Iran, Syria or where-ever else but by telling the Jewish lobby to get real – and to either get along with its neighbours peacefully or just get out peacefully while they still can and before they cause yet another disastrous tragedy for everybody, incl. themselves.

——————-

“True peace is not merely the absence of tension, it is the presence of justice.”
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

‘Since it is impossible to coerce thought, the way to social harmony is to discuss conflict and pursue truth; the more people speak their minds freely, the more they are likely to be loyal citizens.’ – Jewish Dutch 17th C philosopher, B. Spinoza

Since the creation of Israel in 1948 :

200,000 Palestinians have been killed.
5,000,000 refugees have been created.
21,000 square kilometres of land has been annexed.
385 towns and villages have been destroyed.
300 billion military dollars have been spent.
100 plus WMD’s have been manufactured.
65 UN resolutions have been ignored.

Source : ‘The Age’ newspaper, 4-5-2004.

Hmm.. How is that much different from saying “Godspeed John Glenn” or wishing othermissions “God speeed & so forth?

Or even the Apollo 8 crew reading from the book of Genesis as theyorbited the Moon? Did you laugh at that too?

A little consistency please – the hypocrisy and double standards really get to me.

Go Iran! If the USA can have a space program why shouldn’t they?

Additionally, Iran is a democracy (of sorts – for better of worse). The last president, Khatami, was considered quite the progressive – which I guess just goes to show how little influence the president actually has.

Literacy is at 82%, which isn’t bad after only 27 years. And the populace is generally young (sadly a result of the first Gulf War – Iran-Iraq – anyone remember that?), so it would be safe to say that change would likely be forthcoming.

But of course we do our best to antagonise yet another generation, so now you’ll continue to be The Great Satan for yet another coupla decades or five. Both sides will be able to rally against “The Other” and everything will be exactly the same for the unforseeable future.

Bah!

You know that Syria was one of the nations that declared war on Israel in 1948, right? Oh and one of the nations that launched one of the surprise attacks in the Yom Kippur war? Or one of the nations massing troops for a war in 1967, sparking the Six Day War?

I also remember the invasion of south Lebanon, it was a response for repeated rocket attacks on civilian centers in Israel, what nation wouldn’t launch a counterattack like that if they could? As for Iraq in 1981, I don’t blame them, I wouldn’t want a regime that hostile who supported terrorist groups against me either building a nuke.

But this is getting way off the original BA topic of Iran’s failure at launching a rocket into space so this is all I am going to say on the subject, you may respond if you want, but that’s it for me.

I just hope the space program goals of Moon colonization, Mars manned exploration, Darwin’s search for rocky extra-solar worlds, the international space station, as well as New Horizons, MESSAGER and related probes are successful. There, that is my hope. Peace out dude.

——–
BMcP

“Judaism hasn’t been a t(h?)reat to anyone anywhere in recent memory ..”


Just ask the Palestineans!

Or the Iraquis!

In the last few deacdes Israel has attacked all those nations and not a one of them has attacked it – except the Palestineans who are legitimately fighting for their freedom & their country against overwhelming odds like the French resistance did.

Yes the Holocaust happened & was blody awful (& for all the Gypsies, slavs, disabled, homosexuals, German dissidents & other non-jews who also died)

But no, I don’t think that means the Jews deserve “slack” when it comes to committing atrocities against others – quite the reverse –
they better than anyone else should understand how it feels and go to any lengths NOT to copy the Nazi-like tactics they currently are engaging in.

Sadly, Israel is Hitler’s greatest triumph – in his legacy of transforming the Jews into a people as ugly, nationistic, brutal, cruel and thuggish as the Nazis.

Hitler’s defeat would have been if the Jews had returned to their old homes and resumed their lives in Europe – wiser and more compassionate &
better for their suffering rather than brutalised and hardened into savages by it.

“Never again” should mean just that NOT “Never again” against us only – & allowing us to do that to others.”

Hitler’s defaeat would have been if the Jews had returned to their old homes and resumed their lives in Europe – wiser and more compassionate &
better for their suffering rather than brutalised and hardened into savages by it.