Iranians Sieze Iraqi Oil Field

[IliketoPuck]

I'm just wondering if anyone has some more information on this. I was catching up on what was going on in the markets today, and noticed this headline, which piqued my interest.

Would this have the potential to result in a war between Iraq and Iran? Or is it just a small skirmish?



http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Oil-ju...1&asset=&ccode=

[SeeGeeWhy]

I think that Iran's recent missle testing has more potential to spark a war than this.

[IliketoPuck]

I would agree with that, but isn't this a breach of Iraq's sovreignty? Most countries tend to get pretty pissed when another country starts throwing sand in their sandbox......If the US just casually invaded Alberta for a oil field, I can't say I wouldn't be some kind of angry.

[CaptainCrunch]

Pretty elegant if you ask me. Between launching the upgraded missile and invading Iraq, Iran is going to be heavily condemmed by the internation community. Iran will then use the us against them strategy to quell the discontented people in their country.

The question is, will it work.

[Displaced Flames fan]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

The question is, will it work.

No. Iranians are way to educated a people to fall for such trickery. There will be a revolution in Iran soon enough.

[IliketoPuck]

I hadn't thought about this in conjunction with the current prostesting going on in Iran. Do you think that this will distract the world while the Iranian government takes some heavy handed measures to quiet down the dissenters?

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by IliketoPuck

I hadn't thought about this in conjunction with the current prostesting going on in Iran. Do you think that this will distract the world while the Iranian government takes some heavy handed measures to quiet down the dissenters?

They've been pretty effective at it so far. They've jailed most of the leaders, shot or beaten down most of the protests.

Iran is more interesting then most because they not only don't care about how the world views them, but they manipulate world view to serve their means inside of their own borders.

They're a lot like South Africa was under apartheid, they didn't care about sanctions, or world views of protests. But they sure used the whole "The World hates us" to prop up their government.

[IliketoPuck]

So here's my question then: Even if the Iranian people see through this, and get mad enough to do something about it, can they actually be effective? Or will they just get slaughtered by the government?

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by Displaced Flames fan

No. Iranians are way to educated a people to fall for such trickery. There will be a revolution in Iran soon enough.

As much as I'd like to see it, I don't see any revolution happening in short order there. People can protest all they want, but when you have the older population and lots of guns on your side, you're eventually going to wear down the protesters.

Their deposing of the Shah worked because the revolutionaries had the army on their side, thats always the big lynch pin.

The coup attempt in Russian failed a bunch of years back because the army wasn't on the side of the people that wanted to depose the government.

[Locke]

Ingenious, why dont more countries pillage Iraq? I mean, at the moment whats Iraq gonna do about it? They've got bigger problems....

[IliketoPuck]

Originally Posted by Locke

Ingenious, why dont more countries pillage Iraq? I mean, at the moment whats Iraq gonna do about it? They've got bigger problems....

Yea, the bigger problems stem from a few aircraft carrier battle groups in the gulf......

[peter12]

Originally Posted by IliketoPuck

Yea, the bigger problems stem from a few aircraft carrier battle groups in the gulf......

I actually think they are the solution to some of the bigger problems going on in Iraq.

[IliketoPuck]

That right, I forgot that the U.S. found all those weapons of mass destruction that Saddam was hiding.

The only thing Saddam was hiding was himself. In a hole. In the ground.

[peter12]

Originally Posted by IliketoPuck

That right, I forgot that the U.S. found all those weapons of mass destruction that Saddam was hiding.

The only thing Saddam was hiding was himself. In a hole. In the ground.

Right now, I think protecting the people against indiscriminate attacks by Islamic jihadists is of the utmost importance.

[FlamesAddiction]

This will be a big test for Obama. He wants to diminish the occupation of Iraq, but now with Iran invading Iraqi territory, he may not be able to do that. This was actually one of my arguments for why invading Iraq could backfire. Iran has a long history of antagonizing Iraq, and now they don't have too much they can do about unless the Americans pretty much lead the way.

[Locke]

Okay, based on the last 2 posts this thread is heading for a derailment of monumental proportions.

Lets not get on the WMD tangent shall we? Its a circuitous path through hell and just keeps going and going and going.....it makes stops at "Saddam Station" and "Osama Underpass." Lets try and keep this thing 'reasonably' on topic.

My point was that infrastructure and organization of anything in Iraq has all of the structural integrity as a ball of twine, and I might be doing twine a disservice with that statement.

In reality, neighbors could start encroaching on Iraq's non-guarded assets and the only people who could really do anything about it is the Americans and its a bit of a dilemma. Iraq cant do anything about it because they're busy with the Americans and the Americans cant do anything about it because they're busy with the Iraqis.

[IliketoPuck]

Originally Posted by peter12

Right now, I think protecting the people against indiscriminate attacks by Islamic jihadists is of the utmost importance.

I completely agree with you, this is very critical.

I'm just a bit biased in my opinion about the war in Iraq, sorry I just personally have always thought it was a mistake to start with.

[FlamesAddiction]

Originally Posted by peter12

Right now, I think protecting the people against indiscriminate attacks by Islamic jihadists is of the utmost importance.

True, but it's a problem that didn't really exist in Iraq until the aforementioned military presence in the Gulf. The situation feeds off of itself now.

[peter12]

Originally Posted by FlamesAddiction

This will be a big test for Obama. He wants to diminish the occupation of Iraq, but now with Iran invading Iraqi territory, he may not be able to do that. This was actually one of my arguments for why invading Iraq could backfire. Iran has a long history of antagonizing Iraq, and now they don't have too much they can do about unless the Americans pretty much lead the way.

As an armchair general etc... I think the Americans have to do something but are certainly confounded by the Iranian nuclear threat. This is a breach of Iraq's sovereignty and under any circumstances deserves a military response.

[IliketoPuck]

Eaxctly Locke, thats why I found the article so interesting, I mean what reaction can the Iraqi's really have, and what is the reason for Iran doing it? I see it as a smoke screen to cover what's going on inside Iran with the protests etc..