Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Israel may have destroyed Iranian centrifuges simply by cutting power

theintercept.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

91–100 of 287 posts

Re: Israel may have destroyed Iranian centrifuges simply by cutting power

#91

Post by jariel »

refenestrator wrote: post #42
nullserver wrote: post #19

Israel is fighting for its existence. Iran leadership routinely makes threats to destroy America and Israel. This often get ignored or dismissed. But like waving a gun in a cops face. Well bad things happen. One nuke will piss America off. One nuke and Israel will just be gone, completely. Iran is probably capable of this, or close. From Israel standpoint the logical step is to bomb Iran military into the Stone Age.…

There's no indication that Iran is any less deterrable than every other nuclear power. We didn't start WWIII when Kruschev banged his shoe at the UN like a maniac, it would also be a bad idea to do it over Iran's posturing. The US killed their national hero last year and we got a measured, proportionate response rather than lighting Iraq on fire. Trying to pre-emptively "bomb Iran into the stone age" would not only b…

A 'hail of scuds' would be temporary and mild in comparison to a 'real' nuclear threat from Iran.

Of course - nobody has any intention of actually dropping nukes on anyone.

It's about power and leverage, and Iran's ability to project their dominance towards destabilizing and overthrowing House of Saud, and maybe disrupting/overthrowing Israel some day as well.

Since House of Saud actually has nukes (they paid for Pakistani program so that 'in a time of need' nukes will magically appear in their arsenal) all of this is bad for everyone.

In the 'balance of power' it actually makes a tiny bit of sense that 'small actor surrounded by 10 enemies', Israel, has 'secret nukes' because from a strategic perspective, it would be suicidal for them to use in anything other than an existential scenario of defence. If they were not building homes in Occupied Territories, I think more people would probably more readily acknowledge their defensive requirements. Also of course the fact that most people alive today don't have living memory of the many times Israel was invaded/fought wars with direct neighbours, many times bigger than it, and the outcomes were never going to be clear.

It would be better for everyone if Iran just gave up it's nuclear ambitions - there is zero chance anyone is going to invade them, they could join the rest of the world and start using their Oil dollars to buy plastic junk from China and software from the US, and physical gear from Germany - just like the rest of us - their people can be much wealthier, and we could all get along.

Re: Israel may have destroyed Iranian centrifuges simply by cutting power

#92

Post by whimsicalism »

Zhenya wrote: post #60
cyberscientist wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let's be honest though, had Iran carried out such attack we would have called it a terrorist attack. I know you're about to go on about how awful Iranian regime is and they SAY they want Israel gone. But remember, Israel actually DOES carry out associations.

Terror attacks are against civilian targets - hence terrorizing civilians. An attack like this is military - which could be carried out by terrorists or a govt. The difference is important.

Both Iran and Israel carry out rogue bombing and assassinations targeting civilians.

This is in contrast to the MO of most of Europe and even the United States.

Re: Israel may have destroyed Iranian centrifuges simply by cutting power

#93

Post by eunos »

CivBase wrote: post #51

> To mark the event and send a message to its negotiating partners, technicians at Natanz began to operate a small batch of IR-6 centrifuges as well. The majority of centrifuges at Natanz are a model known as IR-1, which is much less efficient at enriching uranium than the IR-6 design. The nuclear agreement signed with Iran in 2015 (known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA) limited it to using only I…

Leverage for the next JCPOA.

Re: Israel may have destroyed Iranian centrifuges simply by cutting power

#94

Post by Alupis »

sschueller wrote: post #34

So who takes responsibility when one of these attacks results in a meltdown? And why does Iran not have the right to build their own atomic bomb when the US, Russia or China have them and are building new ones? We ALL should be reducing nuclear weapons including the US. But sadly the US has not been taking a leadership role recently Edit: Nice to see that my global nuclear disarmament comment is getting downvoted. /s

> But sadly the US has not been taking a leadership role recently.

I'd wager the US will dismantle it's nuclear weapons the day other nations stop seeking to produce nuclear weapons. ie, this will never happen.

The US, China, Russia, India, UK, etc having nuclear weapons is a lot less of a threat to global security than a nation-state such as Iran, which vows to destroy it's surrounding nations every chance it gets.

The history of humans has been rife with armed conflict. It's an anomaly that the last 70 years have not seen massive global armed conflict, particularly in the "digital age". Perhaps nations that have nuclear weapons, but don't desire to use them are the reason? Perhaps not... but what is certain is Iran has stated they intend to use nuclear weapons, and that's not ok by anyone.

Re: Israel may have destroyed Iranian centrifuges simply by cutting power

#96

Post by myth_drannon »

Daho0n wrote: post #27
nullserver wrote: post #19

Israel is fighting for its existence. Iran leadership routinely makes threats to destroy America and Israel. This often get ignored or dismissed. But like waving a gun in a cops face. Well bad things happen. One nuke will piss America off. One nuke and Israel will just be gone, completely. Iran is probably capable of this, or close. From Israel standpoint the logical step is to bomb Iran military into the Stone Age.…

If much of the world wants you dead (your words, not mine) then maybe it's time to look in a mirror. Edit: HN commenters are so thick. First of all GP says everyone hate Israel. So that must include you the reader of this comment. If you actually take that shit serious and then have a problem with my comment instead all I can say is that you should look in a mirror too. It's a fat lie. Not everyone hates Israel. Actu…

Right... , blacks in US also should look in the mirror. All the police brutality, racism is all their fault. Dont you get it? /s

Re: Israel may have destroyed Iranian centrifuges simply by cutting power

#97

Post by pepperonipizza »

hoka-one-one wrote: post #44
mvzvm wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Iran is a theocracy that has stated multiple times a desire to "Wipe X off the face of the earth", where X is another country / race / religion.

Is Israel that much different? It seems like if you're committed to empowering all BIPOC you would not restrict their access to the weaponry needed to defend their homelands. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samson_Option

Is this some kind of a bad joke? Because some countries have BIPOC if they want nukes to not hinder their empowerment nobody should intervene. If all the countries in MENA have nukes, this would be terrible for everybody, it would exponentially rise the risk of nuclear warheads being used.

Re: Israel may have destroyed Iranian centrifuges simply by cutting power

#99

Post by [deleted] »

sbierwagen wrote: post #57
bowmessage wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow, you don't say, a country which issues its own fiat currency?

None of the 19 countries in the Eurozone issue their own currency. Ecuador, El Salvador, Zumbabwe, and a couple Pacific islands use US dollars.

[deleted]

Re: Israel may have destroyed Iranian centrifuges simply by cutting power

#100

Post by kziemio »

refenestrator wrote: post #42
nullserver wrote: post #19

Israel is fighting for its existence. Iran leadership routinely makes threats to destroy America and Israel. This often get ignored or dismissed. But like waving a gun in a cops face. Well bad things happen. One nuke will piss America off. One nuke and Israel will just be gone, completely. Iran is probably capable of this, or close. From Israel standpoint the logical step is to bomb Iran military into the Stone Age.…

There's no indication that Iran is any less deterrable than every other nuclear power. We didn't start WWIII when Kruschev banged his shoe at the UN like a maniac, it would also be a bad idea to do it over Iran's posturing. The US killed their national hero last year and we got a measured, proportionate response rather than lighting Iraq on fire. Trying to pre-emptively "bomb Iran into the stone age" would not only b…

"There's no indication that Iran is any less deterrable than every other nuclear power."

Iran is an extremist theocratic dictatorship with a history of violence and threats.

There's very little rational concern about the U.S. or the U.K or China using nuclear weapons against Iran. If nothing else, they've had decades to do so and have chosen not to.

There is completely valid concern that Iran might use nuclear weapons against Israel or the U.S, in some future circumstance.

At the very least, Iran might hold Israel hostage by threatening to use nuclear weapons.

Dismissing this as an extremist, imperialist, or Zionist viewpoint just doesn't cut it. This would be a very reasonable viewpoint of for any rational disinterested observer.

"We didn't start WWIII when Kruschev banged his shoe at the UN like a maniac"

The U.S. had tons of evidence and intelligence that proved beyond a reasonable doubt that the USSR had zero interest in a full scale nuclear exchange. In fact, the U.S. employed the "Mad Man" strategy throughout the Cold War, which meant it was generally more belligerent about threatening nuclear war.

Post reply on HN