Speak loudly about a big stick you claim to have

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Read related » Cyber attack on Iran expands: Tehran threatens long-term war in reprisal
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“Iran admitted Monday, Sept. 27 it was under full-scale cyber terror attack. The official IRNA news agency quoted Hamid Alipour, deputy head of Iran's government Information Technology Company, as saying that the Stuxnet computer worm "is mutating and wreaking further havoc on computerized industrial equipment." […] Revolutionary Guards deputy commander Hossein Salami declared his force had all the defensive structures for fighting a long-term war against "the biggest and most powerful enemies" and was ready to defend the revolution with more advanced weapons than the past. […] DEBKAfile's Iranian and intelligence sources report that these statements are preparing the ground for Tehran to go beyond condemning the states or intelligence bodies alleged to have sponsored the cyber attack on Iranian infrastructure and military industries and retaliate against them militarily. Iran is acting in the role of victim of unprovoked, full-scale, cyber terror aggression.”
— DEBKAfile Exclusive Report September 27, 2010 (debka.com)

“Speak softly and carry a big stick.”
— U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt’s corollary to the Monroe Doctrine

“I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.”
— Albert Einstein

“Sticks and stones may break my bones (but words will never hurt me).”
— A well known adolescent taunt

There is an ultimate-stakes scenario being played-out in plain sight, and it is being played for keeps. Everything else of a contentious nature, which may be concurrently in play, pales in significance. It is absolutely fascinating in a macabre sense, especially with Halloween just around the corner.

The leading-light of darkness for the axis-of-evil has self-identified by its adoption of a "bomb-making bombast" gambit. And supporters of this rogue regime include many of the usual suspects who are rooting for this rogue to wipe out the target they all love to vilify, but which refuses to be f*cked-with at will.

In gamesmanship on any scale, prognosticating winners and losers is what it's all about. But in this particular doomsday-scenario, there are only two possible outcomes: either the good guys win; or everybody loses. And the reason why the axis-of-evil can not win outright, is mutual assured destruction. They either lose; or everybody loses.

So, all the lesser players have an important decision to make. Do they align with the evil ones, or with the ones who are not so easy to f*ck-with anymore. In a full-blown doomsday scenario nobody gets a pass.

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