July 17th 2006 -

For the first time since German reunification Germany is truly a world player again. With one of the largest militaries in Europe with about 76,200 air force personnel, 221,000 armed forces personnel, 230,600 army personnel, 26,700 navy personnel, 2,300 tanks, and some of the most advanced aircraft in the world in the modern German Luftwaffe Germany is truly "loaded for bear".

Chancellor Angela Merkel likened hard-line Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to Adolf Hitler in April of 2006, saying the world must act now to stop him before his country developed a nuclear bomb. "We want, we must prevent Iran from developing its nuclear program further," Merkel told top policymakers from around the world in a speech to the annual Munich security conference. Referring to the rise of Hitler in the 1930s, Merkel added: "Now we see that there were times when we could have acted differently. For that reason Germany is obliged ... to make clear (to Iran) what is permissible and what isn't." "Iran has blatantly crossed the red line," Merkel said. "I say it as German chancellor. A president that questions Israel's right to exist, a president that denies the Holocaust, cannot expect to receive any tolerance from Germany."

In addition to the nuclear dilemma, Iran is considered to be one of the biggest state sponsors of terrorism. And now with the escalating conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, Iran along with Syria are being called "the puppet masters" pulling the strings of Hezbollah and is accused of supplying rockets and arms to the terrorist organization.

Unfortunately, Germany seems to also realize that Iran's missile capability may also threaten the German homeland it's self in addition to Israel. It is accepted belief that Iran currently has the capability to not only reach Israel, but major sections of Europe including Germany. With rapid development of the Shahab-3 MRBM with a range of 1300 km it's almost a shoe in that Iran could indeed reach Germany soon if in fact they could not already. Even more disturbing is The Rumsfeld Commission further reported that Iran has the technical capability to test an ICBM-range missile capable of hitting the United States: 'A 10,000 km-range Iranian missile could hold the U.S. at risk in an arc extending northeast of a line from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to St. Paul, Minnesota.'

The United States, Britain, Germany and France have made it clear in June they want an answer from Iran by the July 15-17 summit of the Group of Eight (G8) nations in St. Petersburg, Russia.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Iran would give its answer by August 22, prompting President Bush to complain that Iran was dragging its feet. This makes me wonder what Iran has up it's sleeve, when you add 2 and 2 together it comes up to trouble. First Iran ramps up it's rhetoric, then Iran puts on a demonstration of military weapons, then Iran tries to stall the deadline on ceasing it's uranium enrichment program until August, and now during the G8 summit which was stated as the deadline Hezbollah starts a war with Israel.

In a speech carried on state television July 16th, supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei branded "Zionists" as "an evil and cancerous being and an infected tumor". "The Zionists wanted Lebanon to be the meat between their teeth. The powerful limbs of Hezbollah have prevented the Zionists' dream of trouble from being realized," Khamenei said. His comments, on the fifth day of an Israeli onslaught against its northern neighbor following Hezbollah's capture of two soldiers, prompted chants of "Hezbollah will win, Israel will be destroyed". Khamenei replied: "Yes, that is what we say". With rhetoric like that how can you not consider Iran as a key planner in the conflict?
Obviously the Iranian president and the Ayatollah's that pull his strings are being taken as madmen, and I'm sure that this is the case, however I don't believe that they are stupid. They must know that sooner or later someone is going to take action, be it Israel, the United States, or Germany, so what are the Iranians planning? Now take into account the recent missile tests in North Korea as a thumb in the eye to the western world and Japan, and the widely held belief that Sadam Husein's weapons of mass destruction were funneled into Syria before the Iraq war and I think we have a recipe for disaster.

German chancellor stated during a joint press conference with United States President Bush in Stralsund, Germany on July 13th that the responsibility for dealing with such countries as Iran 'ought to be shouldered by more and more countries -- that goes for Russia, that goes for China.' So what if Russia and China do nothing, or even worse and block efforts to sanction or hold Iran accountable? Do we then look at yet another "unilateral" military action with only a handful of countries such as Germany, the United States, Brittain, and Israel? And what if Iran, North Korea, and Syria plan on creating another world war as a new "Axis" power? This is why I believe that Germany will not allow this to go that far, I would not be surprised if we saw German "Tornado" fighter bombers flying sorties over Iran in the next few weeks. Hitler and Nazi Germany is still very much a raw nerve in Germany today and I would not only be surprised, but disappointed if Germany did not take the lead in neutralizing the Iranian threat soon.

Not only should Germany take the lead in removing the current Iranian regime, it must. Iran is a huge country with waves of fanatical Basij fighters that are basically units of human wave suicide bombers. During the Iran-Iraq war Iran created and mobilized the Basij units against the Iraqi lines which basically amounted to human waves of lightly armed (if armed at all) fanatics to rush the Iraqis until they ran out of munitions. This is the very tactic that kept Iraq from winning the war. With the United States bogged down in Iraq and the necessity to keep troops deployed in South Korea the Germans will almost certainly need to take a pivotal lead role in any action against Iran. How about this for irony; Germany and Israel leading a war against a fascist regime that wants to exterminate the Jews?