Iran Needs To be Stopped

The USA and Israel have launched a war against Iran. 

The USA seems to have thought that the regime would topple if pushed, especially after recent anti-government demonstrations and the slaughter of up to 30,000 Iranian citizens in the streets.  

Israel took the opportunity to try to exterminate every single Iranian leader and member of the Revolutionary Guards that it could possibly reach. 

Both the US and Israel also tried to destroy what was left of Iran's nuclear program, as well as its miliary forces, especially its missile armaments.

What do we know to an absolute certainty now?

We know that Iran's nuclear program is focused on the acquisition of nuclear weapons, and nothing else. To produce nuclear power, Uranium only needs to be enriched to between 5 - 10%. Iran has enriched Uranium to 60%. If they wanted a nuclear reactor, the fact is that they have had the Uranium to power such a reactor for quite some time. Instead, but for the interference of American and Israeli bombs, they are hell-bent on the continued enrichment of Uranium. When they get to 90%, they will have enough weapons-grade Uranium to build multiple bombs.

That would be a bad thing.

Here is what Iranian leaders have threatened and/or said over the last decades regarding their hatred of certain people, and related to what they would like to see happen to them.

1979–1989 (Ayatollah Khomeini): Following the revolution, Khomeini branded Israel an "enemy of Islam" and the "Little Satan," adopting a policy of non-recognition and calling for the dismantling of Israel.

1990s–2000s: Iranian leadership supported terrorism in the form of Hezbollah and Hamas, therefore translating their rhetoric into action through relentless terror attacks against U.S. and Israeli targets.

2000 (Ali Khamenei): Supreme Leader Khamenei referred to Israel as a "cancerous tumor of a state" that "should be removed from the region".

2005–2013 (Mahmoud Ahmadinejad): President Ahmadinejad frequently called for Israel to be "wiped off the map" and described it as a "disgraceful stain". He also stated that "the U.S. and its allies" supporting Israel would face destruction.

2010s–Present (Ali Khamenei/Rouhani/Raisi): Leaders continued calling for the "elimination of the Zionist regime". Khamenei has described Israel as a "savage, wolf-like creature" (Thank you, Wiki!)

Hmmm, there seems to be a pattern to these many statements and proclamations! 

To put it simply, "Israel is Satan and needs to be destroyed." Note that many of the above-mentioned leaders have also denied that the Holocaust happened. World leaders and antisemites usually deny the Holocaust because they want to repeat it.

Question - What other countries in the world have threatened to destroy another country that is not even one of its neighbors for the last forty years?

Answer - There aren't any.

Given its consistent, demented and ideologically-driven hatred of Israel, and its constant threats to destroy that country, should Iran gets The Bomb there is a very real risk they will actually use it. In fact, Israel is so small that one would think that two or three bombs would just about do it.

It will never happen.

The moment Israel suspects that Iran actually has a functional bomb, it will do whatever it has to do to destroy it before it is launched. Israel has between 80 and 250 nuclear weapons. It will use them if it thinks it has to. If Israel were to use nukes to stop Iran, millions of people could perish from a combination of blasts and radiation, with most of these people living in Iran itself.

The world has an obligation to make sure this turn of events never happens. Unfortunately, the person leading the charge against Iran these days is not only bereft of the moral clarity it needs to deal with this issue, but he can't negotiate his way out of a wet paper bag. "The Art of The Deal" should have been named "The Art Of The Con" or "Confessions Of A Serial Loser" (Truly, how do you go bankrupt when you own casinos, no less than four times?)

Can we envision something a tad different? 

The people of Iran, formerly Persia, have ranked near the top of human civilization through their achievements and leading human progress in the areas of mathematics, science, literature, architecture, medicine, the fine arts, and even games like chess, for millennia. This ingenious people has languished under the yoke of a demented, Fascist, Suicide Cult and Ideological Tyranny for decades now. 

Dare we hope for a better time when the people of Iran live in peace with their neighbors, forswearing support for terrorism, building a successful economy and society, settling disputes peacefully, and taking their place in a world that would welcome them with open arms?

We here at mewetree.blogspot.com do.

Note - nothing in this should be taken as excusing Israel for its actions in Gaza and/or the West Bank and/or Lebanon, which were and continue to be deeply troubling.

 

   

Alberta Oil

Alberta is Canada's energy powerhouse.  

In 2025, Alberta exported about 3.56 million barrels per day (bpd). There are numerous export expansions in the works including an expansion by Enbridge which will optimize its mainline oil pipe operations in Canada adding up to 150,000 bpd by 2026-2027 and potentially another 250,000 bpd by late 2028, and the TMX pipeline will see additional growth via an expansion beyond the existing 890,000 bpd to a "Phase 2" pump station expansion could add another 360,000 bpd by 2028. 

Together, these changes will expand Alberta's exports to about 4.35 million bpd by 2028.

President Trump has approved an expansion to the Bridger Pipeline from Albert to Wyoming that could add another 550,000 bpd to exports. The governments of Alberta and Canada are working on another pipeline to move Alberta oil to the West Coast of Canada that could see up to 1 million bpd more oil exported from Alberta by 2035.

If these planned pipeline expansions come to fruition, Alberta could be exporting about 5.9 million bpd day by 2035. That would make Alberta the third largest exporter of oil on the planet after Saudi Arabia and Russia, and ahead of the USA and Iraq, assuming the war in Ukraine ceases and Russia can again export oil as it did prior to the war.

For context, it is worth noting that in 2015 Alberta only exported 2.5 million bpd. If planned pipeline expansions and construction goes ahead, by 2035 it would be exporting 235% more oil than it exported two decades prior.

There is an independence movement in Alberta that has complained loudly that Alberta's economic potential has been purposely quashed by federal government policies that have seen the cancellation of pipelines and the implementation of climate change policies. This sentiment is widely shared by the majority of Albertans who want Alberta to remain in Canada. One would hope that the planned expansions of Alberta's oil exporting capacity noted above will go a very long way to address these concerns.