War in November?

You may have seen this already, but a friend of mine forwarded it to me. It is very, very sobering to think that Israel would strike Iran and what might then ensue.. Who knows what that would set off given the situation in the Middle East? I think they see it as self preservation and preemptive in that if they wait and Iran does get a nuclear weapon, it might be literally lights out for Israel. And if Iran did drop a bomb on Israel, what would be the appropriate response of the US and the rest of the world? There is no scenario there that is comfortable or foreseeably good in its outcome.

It could be lights us for the whole world at that point. I have no idea what the solution is and I suspect there is more talk with this guy Armadillojad or whatever his name is....than action, but.......if you are Israel and want to survive and the whole world is against you except for the US, what do you do? What length should they go to insure their own survival but at the same time not start World World III.

It is enough to keep you up at night. Whomever becomes President will have to deal with this in some manner that is for sure.

Dad

WAR IN NOVEMBER?

A military showdown with Iran may be fast approaching.
By Joel C. Rosenberg

(Washington, D.C., July 8, 2008) -- War clouds continue to build in the epicenter. Last month in Rome, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad vowed that the United States and Israel would soon be "annihilated," language he had not used so explicitly since October 2005 when he promised to wipe Israel "off the map" and urged Muslims to "envision a world without the United States." This week, his regime authorized a new series of Iranian war games. He ordered the digging of 320,000 graves to bury the enemies of Islam. He is calling for the unification of the Islamic world politically and economically, including the creation of a single currency.

What's more, Iranian TV is running a new anti-Semitic documentary film series entitled, "The Secret of Armageddon." Setting the stage for a coming apocalyptic war that will usher in the Islamic Messiah known as the Mahdi or the "Twelfth Imam," the series focuses on a series of Bible prophecies that inform Jewish and Christian End Times theology. While the presentation is grossly distorted, some facts do emerge. Iranian scholar Dr. Ismail Shafe'i Sarustani , for example, tells viewers that the word "Armageddon" is "originally a Hebrew word" and "is a real geographical region, situated south of Haifa," noting that "the place was shelled by Hizbullah during the 33-day [July 2006] war." Iranian historian Mohammad-Taqi Taqipour notes that "these [Evangelical Christians], along with the Jews, believe that the War of the End of Days will take place in the desert of Megiddo, in Palestine. They believe that Jesus will return, and that then there will be a millennium of happiness."

The series, however, accuses Jews who were victims of genocide -- during the very Holocaust Ahmadinejad denies ever happened -- of actually planning to commit genocide. "There is a genocidal Zionist Jewish plan for the genocide of humanity at the hand of the Zionist Jew-boys," claims one Iranian researcher interviewed for the program. "The Zionist Jew-boys talk about a 'Greater Israel' -- from the Euphrates to the Nile -- but their actual goal is world domination." At one point, Iranian researcher Shams Al-Din Rahmani argues that "the goal of the Zionists is the total destruction of Islam."

During the June 7th episode, the narrator embraces anti-Semitic conspiracy theories and proceeds to try to justify Iran's own war plans. "Today, there are many indications that the 'hidden hands' of world Zionism were involved in the 9/11 terrorist attack. According to a large group of Western intellectuals, the Zionists are the real rulers of the United States. According to irrefutable documents published by independent American media outlets, the Zionists used intelligence agents and spies, with the full cooperation of agencies with the country, to carry out this terrorist operation in full view of the world, in order to prepare the ground for taking over Afghanistan and Iraq, and to realize the dream of a greater Israel."

Top Israeli intelligence officials, meanwhile, increasingly believe that time is running out. They believe that Iran could have nuclear weapons within a year and one former Mossad chief is urging his country's leadership to launch a massive series of air strikes against Iranian nuclear and other military facilities before it is too late. Israel's Air Force just conducted a test run of such a bombing mission.

John Bolton, the former U.S. Ambassador to the U.N., says he believes Israel may strike Iran sometime in late fall or early winter, after the U.S. elections in November but before the inauguration of the next American President on January 20. A senior Pentagon officials told the Washington Post several days ago he is worried about the same scenario -- a November surprise -- prompting both President Bush and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs to make strong public statements warning the Israelis not to take such actions. Until just a few weeks ago, it was widely believed in Israel that new parliamentary elections would be held in November. But at the last moment, Defense Minister Ehud Barak withdrew his threat of voting to bring down the Olmert government for a few more months, leading some to speculate that Barak may be calculating that Israelis couldn't be fully immersed in an electoral campaign and a bombing campaign simultaneously.

The U.S. does not want Israel to strike. After all, the repercussions of such a war with Iran would be global in nature. Israel would face tens of thousands of incoming missiles not just from Iran but likely from Syria, Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza and possibly the West Bank. Some of these missiles could have chemical and/or biological warheads, even if the nuclear warheads in Iran are not yet ready. Ballistic missiles would also be likely fired from Iran at the oil fields in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States, at oil tankers in the Persian Gulf and the Straight of Hormuz, and at U.S. bases and forces in Iraq. Tens of thousands of suicide bomber cells could be activated in the region -- especially in Iraq and Israel -- and perhaps even in Western Europe and the U.S. and Canada. Iranian efforts to topple Jordan's King Abdullah II and/or Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in favor of radical Islamic regimes friendly to Tehran could also be set in motion. Oil prices could shoot from $140 a barrel to $300 a barrel or more. U.S. gas prices could spike to $7-$10 or more, with horrific domestic and global economic repercussions.

No wonder Washington doesn't want a war with Iran. No wants such a war. I certainly do not, and neither do the Israelis. Yet, the U.S. does not have a convincing plan to stop the Iranian nuclear weapons program in time. Nor does the U.N., or the E.U. Diplomacy isn't working. Economic sanctions have been imposed on Iran since 1979 to little strategic effect. Unfortunately, the words of Sen. John McCain keep echoing in my head this week. In April 2006, the senior Senator from Arizona appeared on NBC's Meet the Press. He said, "there's only one thing worse than using the option of military action, and that is the Iranians acquiring nuclear weapons." For if Iran gets the Bomb, he said, "I think we could have Armageddon."

Developing....

Breckenridge, here the Foster's come!!

This is a picture of the outside of the cabin. It is stunning on both the outside and inside.

These are some more pictures of the Jensen cabin. Mom and I went up there last weekend to check it out. It is really awesome and it will be wonderful to be here with all of you for few days. Sorry for the pictures being so lousy. Not good at this. We looked it over and came up with some tentative assignments. There are 5 bathrooms and 4 big bedrooms with multiple beds in them. It will be tight, but we can do it.

One of the 5 bathrooms. All are beautiful and most have an overhead showhead!!

One of the bedrooms with two queen sized beds in it. It has its own bathroom. This might be for Jeff and Angie and Ty and Dana and the Monica and Kelly.

This is the bunk room. We think this will hold Laura and Adam and Drew and Kristen. Megan tells us that there are two beds that pull out from the bottom. We didn't see that but those would be nice for Max and Cal. You can kind of see the two handles at the bottom. That just pulls out into another bed under both bunks. Not perfect but we think it will work.

This is the game room downstairs with a pool table and a foosball table and TV and DVD player.
Fireplace also is in this room. Hideabed in the couch here so Matt, Wendi and Sy-Guy will have this when they come up.

Upstairs looking across the living room into the kitchen and hallway. Sitting area to the right and dinning room table that seats about 10 to the left.

Looking into the kitchen from the same hallway in the center of the last picture. Table in kitchen seats about 10 also. Two refrigerators, microwave, freezer......the works. This will work great.

This is a second master bedroom. This will be perfect for Mark, Liz and their kids. (we think)

This is a huge closet that will serve as Meggie's bedroom. It is really quite large and with and air mattress will work just fine.

This is the other master bedroom that Mom and I will have. It has a big bathroom as you can see and Meggie and Mom and I will share this one.

The famous spool we have told you about. It can seat at least 10 if not more. I can see some heavy conversations coming down in this spool.

Outdoor patio with a barbeque. Some serious grilling can go on here.

That gives you a bit of a flavor of what this place is like. Of course all the snow will be gone so it will be gorgeous.

So looking forward to it. We can get in sometime the afternoon of June 11th and will have to be gone by early afternoon on Sunday, June 15th.

We still owe money to Mark as follows: (unless you have paid him already) Please try and get him paid if you haven't already as soon as you can.

Matt & Wendi - $100

Ty & Dana - $150

Jeff & Angie - $100

Drew & Kristen - $75

Adam & Laura - $75

Mom & Dad - $250 (paid)

• Mark has agreed to come up with a loose agenda of things we want to do.
• Dana & Ty will assign the meals to various families. (Let's only do one or two big breakfasts with the rest just cereal and stuff and on your own)
• Jeff and Angie/Matt and Wendi - Music entertainment
• Adam and Laura and Drew and Kristen - games and competition of some kind

Any ideas, just let Mark know what you would like to do and he'll crank it in. A lot of down time and just chilling is requested by Mom and Dad.

Dad

My German Encounter

I have been in Orlando all week at a meeting. It wasn't that much fun as the weather was lousy and it was fairly chilly for Florida and the meetings weren't all that much fun either.

On my flight home to Denver, I got on the airplane and had an aisle seat but noone had taken the middle seat yet or the window. I decided to keep standing until they got seated. I saw a young but tall drink of water coming down the aisle with a friend who was just slightly smaller. I said to myself, "please don't let them be the ones sitting next to me." It will be a horrible 4 hour flight being all cramped in with two giants sitting next to me" I failed to think about what they must have been thinking about moi being sitting next to them!!.

Anyway, as they sat down they were speaking a foreign language to each other. I now said "Oh Great!! Now it is 4 hours next to two people speaking a language I don't understand and taking up "my space!!" I was kind of in a grumpy mood after a 3-day meeting and so just wanted to stretch out and sleep. (I had to get up at 5 in the morning (3 a.m. in Denver) to catch a 7 a.m. flight so anyone of you would have been just as grumpy. About 30 minutes into this flight, the guy in the middle fell asleep and he was leaning over into me with his head in his hands. I said "Oh great" Now the rest of the way to Denver I was going to have this Bozo leaning on me."

After about two hours of this the tall drink of water touched me on the arm and had his ticket out and in kind of a panic spoke to me in very good english. His ticket showed that they were to leave Denver for LA at 10:10 a.m. and it was 9:55 a.m. already by his watch and he thought for sure they had missed their flight. I explained that tickets are always shown in local time and that there was a two hour difference between Orlando and Denver and so it was really only 7:55 a.m. and that we would arrive in Denver at 9 a.m. so they would have a full hour between their flights. He and his friend just howled and thought that was funny and expressed that they felt kind of foolish and thanked me. I said no problem and went back to reading what I had out. It was a article about Ronald Reagan's economic policies...Supply-side economics and the like and he asked me what I was reading. I explained and he said he spoke good enough conversational English to get along but when it got off of any light conversational stuff like supply-side economices he got lost. I remembered that is what you all said when you were learning foreign languages; that is was tough to talk anything not used in everyday "chit-chat" and gospel discussions.

He then asked me for my USA Today which had an article on the NBA on the sports page about all the trades that were made. He told me he wanted to know what players went to what team on the big trade day. We talked about BB a bit more and I found out that they played a bit of ball themselves. The tall drink of water was 6'7" and his friend was 6'5". We made quite the row on that flight!! I kidded them that at least they weren't as "big" as I was.

So as the flight progressed, we started talking about all kinds of things and I remarked how good their English was except they struggled with understanding me sometimes when I used words they didn't understand and their thick accent made it difficult for me as well. Turns out they were employees of Disney World and were working in the German pavilion at Epcot Center. They were on a one-year work permit and were trying to travel around the US during their days off to see the country. They were headed to LA for some vacation time. We talked about where they should go in the future to see the US. WE talked about their schooling and how it is different in Germany than in America. We talked about living here in America and how much they liked McDonalds where they could get a hamburger for $1.0 whereas in Germany they would pay closer to $3 for that same burger. They were on a one-year work visa and were going to be here till August, 2008. They told me all about how Disney recruited them in Germany and what their job was and that Disney let all they young peole like them be restaurant server's the last three months so that they could make more money with tips and all. They made about $200 per week but Disney gives them rooms and they all live together with young people from other countries. (French, Italians, Russains etc...... all of them not able to speak to each other for the most part except in English...kind of interesting) He told me that he thought English was easier to learn than German and that he had taken it in school for 7 years and it really helped to talk to me in English as he said most of the time (80% of the time) he and his friends would speak in German to each other and that is how they kind of grouped at Disney World. (by native tongue) The conversation went on for the rest of the trip or well over an hour.

As we de-planed in Denver, we shook hands and I showed them to their flight and they told me that if I got to Orlando to come to the German pavillon and they would serve us. I told him that if they served us well I would give them a nice tip!!

As we departed I was smiling because I realized that I had almost passed up a delightful experience due to my own mood and wanting to just be left alone. It was an interesting thing to experience and I thought to myself, here are two very nice young people (they were 20 years old) who were on the adventure of a lifetime and just making the most of experiencing another country and culture. I had contributed some little bit to their impression of America and Americans and we left as friends. It kind of reminded me of some of the Great American Road trips you guys have gone on yourselves.

I felt a little ashamed of how I had initially thought about them and kind of committed that I would approach such things in the future with a little bit of a better attitude.

Another learning experience for me. One of many I'm afraid that I need in life, even at my age.

Dad