Iranian hardline students leave to fight Israel

[sabra]

http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=1086602006

Iranian hardline students leave to fight Israel

TEHRAN (Reuters) - A group of hardline Iranian students left for Lebanon on Wednesday pledging to help Hizbollah fight Israeli forces there, witnesses said.

Iranian hardliners have made great public show of recruiting volunteers for "martyrdom-seeking operations" in recent years, but there is no record of any of these Iranian volunteers taking part in attacks in Iraq, or against Israel.

"The Prophet Mohammad's army is on its way to fight against the Zionists," chanted some 50 volunteers at Tehran's Behesht-e Zahra cemetery, where a large tree-lined area is dedicated to Iran's "martyrs" killed in the 1980-88 war with Iraq.

"A group of 200 volunteer students will be dispatched to Lebanon via Turkey. We are leaving Tehran today by bus," Amir Jalili, a spokesman for the group, told Reuters.

[bemildred]

1. Cannon fodder. nt

[Teaser]

2. The way the fight seems to be going

it's perhaps the other side that's playing cannon fodder.

How long till Israel decides it can't win this way and does something really dangerous (like simply causing beirut to practically cease to exist)?

[bemildred]

5. These are "students", they have no idea what they are about.

They are being used for propaganda purposes. If they were trained soldiers or militia, I would view it differently.

[Teaser]

6. misunderstood you

thought you were proclaiming hezbollah's fighter's "cannon fodder".

Agreed, these students would not be prepared for combat. But how much of this is bullshit bluster (will they even go to Lebanon?)

[bemildred]

12. No problem.

Hizbullah seems to be giving a good account of themselves so far.

For the guys down thread: I am skeptical that these guys mandatory service is going to help them much in Lebanon, but I could be wrong. The question as to how they will get into Lebanon in the first place is a good one too. I don't expect they will get an entry visa. Syria would seem the only route, and that could raise "issues" that are hard to predict.

[MadHound]

7. Actually most of them are trained soldiers

Iran has a mandatory two years of military service for every capable man. This service is usually done before college. Therefore these students are indeed a trained military force. A bit more serious deal than simple propaganda. This is probably the ramp up to Iran officially jumping into this fray. Or at the very least it will provide the needed excuse for Bushco to say that Iran is militarily aiding Hezbollah, and then invade Iran.

[RaleighNCDUer]

8. We can't invade Iran. As you say --

"Iran has a mandatory two years of military service for every capable man."

With a population of 80 million, they could put 5 million in the field within a few months, mobilizing all the reserves.

Which is why we're going to nuke them.

[MadHound]

9. Read your PNAC friend, we're going into Iran and Syria both

True, it won't initially be a ground invasion, that will be later after an intensive bombing campaign. And no, I won't rule out a nuke or three being dropped, either by us or Israel.

[RaleighNCDUer]

11. It would require (god help us) a new, new pearl harbor

to get a draft going. We don't have the troops or the proxies to do it otherwise. That's why i was expecting a couple missiles to hit the evacuation cruise ships leaving Lebanon - a direct attack on hundreds of Americans, with a link straight back to Iran. I think that elements in the administration were expecting it too. Why else the delay, guaranteeing that those being evacuated would be nearly all American, and a big, slow, easy target?

Maybe someone decided it wouldn't be enough.

(Yes, my inferences about the level of evil in this administration know no bounds.)

[Jim__]

3. Looks like Iranian hardliners have more balls than American neocons - n/t

[gratuitous]

4. Maybe . . .

But did any of those Iranian students just get accepted to a really great b-school? 'Cause that makes all the difference, you know.

(This post inspired by the chickenhawk warmonger who couldn't join the military because he'd just been accepted to business school, and you know, while he really wanted to go fight terrorists, it would just weaken America too much if his particular skills weren't developed to their fullest and he wasn't making a six-figure salary.)

[Igel]

10. And how will they get from Turkey to Lebanon?

They share no border.

[goforit]

13. Now Israel has given passion to their enemies to fight.

[CountAllVotes]

14. perhaps but,

they are fools to underestimate them.

:kick:

[AndyA]

15. Oh, goodie! The more the merrier!

Bush, were you looking for a reason to bomb the snot out of Iran? It may have just presented itself...

[Moderator]

16. Kick

[Bhaisahab]

17. CNN: Iranians volunteer to fight Israel (around 60 dudes)

Surrounded by yellow Hezbollah flags, more than 60 Iranian volunteers set off Wednesday to join what they called a holy war against Israeli forces in Lebanon.

The group -- ranging from teenagers to grandfathers -- plans to join about 200 other volunteers on the way to the Turkish border, which they hope to cross Thursday. They plan to reach Lebanon via Syria on the weekend.

Organizers said the volunteers are carrying no weapons, and it was not clear whether Turkey would allow them to pass.

A Turkish Foreign Ministry official, speaking on condition of anonymity, would not say Wednesday if Turkey would allow them to cross. Iranians, however, can enter Turkey without a visa and stay for three months.

Iran says it will not send regular forces to aid Hezbollah, but apparently it will not attempt to stop volunteer guerrillas. Iran and Syria are Hezbollah's main sponsors.

"We are just the first wave of Islamic warriors from Iran," said Amir Jalilinejad, chairman of the Student Justice Movement, a nongovernment group that helped recruit the fighters. "More will come from here and other Muslim nations around the world. Hezbollah needs our help."

Military service is mandatory in Iran, and nearly every man has at least some basic training. Some hard-liners have more extensive drills as members of the Basiji corps, a paramilitary network linked to the powerful Revolutionary Guard.

CONTINUED AT: http://edition.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/07/26/iran.volunteers.ap/index.html

[BooScout]

18. I posted this last night....

They locked the thread and said it was a duplicate because someone else had posted another thread about Iranian students volunteering to fight as well. The moderater never bothered to read far enough to see that it was two completely different stories about two completely different events.

That being said, it looks like the ME is but a step away from exploding all over the region. I hope Bush, Blair and Israel are happy now.

[Behind the Aegis]

19. rolling eyes...

"That being said, it looks like the ME is but a step away from exploding all over the region. I hope Bush, Blair and Israel are happy now. "

Yes, they are the only ones responsible. :eyes:

[BooScout]

22. Well maybe I should have added Hezbollah....

But the continuing escalation and death could be stopped. But instead a blood bath is ensuing. All in the name of God. I am sick to death of religion in this world.

[Bhaisahab]

23. amen, bro. amen n/t

[Behind the Aegis]

24. ya think?!

I also noted that you named two leaders and a country...how interesting. And is this really in the name of G-d? No, it is in the name of destruction!

[BooScout]

26. And who the hell is doing most of the destruction and killing?

:eyes:

And who the hell is giving them all the time in the world to continue blasting Lebanon back into the Stone Age? :eyes:

Bush sends bombs to Israel while he sends food to Lebanon. Lets kill them with their bellies full shall we? :sarcasm:

[Behind the Aegis]

27. OIC!

Not enough dead Israelis! Heaven forfend that the Israelis don't mount the same causality toll. Even if they did, most wouldn't give a shit!

As if on cue...nothing is ever good enough.

[BooScout]

29. Typical reply.........

Too much killing is the point....on either side. But then again Israel is the land of God's chosen people so the death of one Israeli soldier is certainly worth the death of 10 Lebanese children isn't it? And while we're at it.........let's destroy the infrastructure of Beruit that had just started to appear normal again after the last go round of death and destruction.

[Behind the Aegis]

31. It is not about religion.

Why is that what you and others want to make this about? Sounds like conflating to me. Isn't that the same shit you bitch about when Jews do that?

And YOURS was a typical response..."...so the death of one Israeli soldier is certainly worth the death of 10 Lebanese children isn't it?" And I said that WHERE?! I think the real equation is one non-Israeli death should equal 100 Israeli deaths.

[cali]

32. That's a disgusting comment

not to mention ignorant. The only people I see calling Israel the land of God's chosen people are those who want to slam Israel. Israelis are mostly secular, to begin with, and don't think of themselves in that way.

In addition, most people consider the death of one child to be more of a tragedy than the deaths of 10 soldiers: Soldiers sign up to fight. Children don't.

I completely condemn the Israeli attack on Lebanon, but that doesn't hinder me in seeing how repellent your comment is.

[saigon68]

21. Two gangs of Thugs slugging it out in Lebanon

One gang came from Europe the other just happened to live in Lebanon

Now all the sponsors are being drawn in to the cat fight.

[Name removed]

25. Deleted sub-thread

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[saigon68]

34. Au Revoir voyez-vous

[HuffleClaw]

20. yeah yeah yeah

so it begins anew, an anti-iranian propaganda push.

[JI7]

28. how many of the Mullahs and Clerics who preach "death to Israel"

and other hate have volunteered ?

[magellan]

30. About as many as in the Repug leadership who preach the WOT (nt)

[Bhaisahab]

33. now THAT is a good point n/t