http://www.zerohedge.com/news/world-verge-war

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/postcards-furious-china

Postcards From A Furious China

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 09/16/2012 19:59 -0400

Over the past 48 hours we have written much, describing the perfectly expected surge in nationalist fervor and anti-Japanese sentiment, as the Senkaku Islands Snafu hits its boiling point (a Japan whose GDP is now declining in real terms, whose economy has been crippled by years of deflation, whose infrastructure is impaired due to anti-nuclear power sentiment, and one which generally cannot afford an all out diplomatic, political and economic conflict with China, and may thus ask itself: why escalate and just who prompted it do so now?). Instead we'll let the pictures do the talking.

From brightonatreddit

Demonstrations in Changsha, Hunan

A store display in Nanjing bears the sign THE DIAOYU ISLANDS BELONG TO CHINA!.

A banner on a store called pattad reads: "pattad firmly defends China's right to the Diaoyu Islands. / We will give a 15% discount to customers who yell THE DIAOYU ISLANDS BELONG TO CHINA! in the store / We will give a 20% discount to customers who yell JAPAN ALSO BELONGS TO CHINA!"

Demonstrations in China

Chinese protestors congregate outside the Japanese embassy in Beijing.

At an auto show, a Chinese brand car is draped in a PRC flag that reads PATRIOTIC SPENDING / BUY CHINESE GOODS.

Chinese flags outside a sushi restaurant.

A sushi restaurant in Suzhou is demolished by protestors.

Rioters in Qingdao demolish shops.

"JAPANESE GUESTS ARE NOT CURRENTLY BEING ACCOMMODATED BY OUR HOTEL"

Rioters smash cars, burn buildings

Rioters smash cars, burn buildings

A man in Xi'an holds a sign that reads CAR SMASHINGS AHEAD, JAPANESE CAR OWNERS SHOULD TURN BACK NOW

Protestors rally outside a Heiwado shop in Changsha, Hunan.

Demonstrations

A pig wears a headband that resembles the Japanese flag

Rioters loot a Rolex store

Demonstrations in this location turn violent

A hair salon named "Korean-style Haircuts" hangs a banner that says JAPANESE AND DOGS NOT ALLOWED INSIDE

Employees at a dealership hold up a sign that says WE WILL KILL EVERY JAPANESE PERSON EVEN IF IT MEANS DEATHS FOR OUR OWN; EVEN POVERTY WILL NOT DETER US FROM RECLAIMING THE DIAOYU ISLANDS

Demonstrators flanked by policemen

Protestors in Chaoshan hold up a sign that says GET OUT OF THE DIAOYU ISLANDS, JAPANESE DOGS

Japanese brand cars are overturned by rioters

A woman tries to stop rioters from demolishing her Japanese brand car

An unidentified building is set on fire

The sign in the foreground reads DEFEND DIAOYU ISLANDS TILL OUR DEATHS and FUCK JAPAN

A private company has rented a bus to drive around town bearing the messages THE DIAOYU ISLANDS BELONG TO CHINA and GET THE FUCK OUT OF DIAOYU, JAPAN

A woman discovers her Japanese brand car has been demolished

A display outside a Uniqlo shop

A Honda owner drove his car to the nearest Honda dealership and set it on fire; banners in the back read DEFEAT THE JAPANESE DEMONS

A Toyota dealership in Shanghai is set on fire

Demonstrators in Chongqing

Demonstrators in Nanjing

The owner of a Japanese vehicle has covered his car in the following messages: BOYCOTT JAPANESE GOODS, WRECK THE JAPANESE ECONOMY / I BOUGHT THIS CAR BEFORE JAPAN FUCKED THINGS UP / FROM NOW ON, I WILL BOYCOTT ALL JAPANESE PRODUCTS

Demonstrations in Yunnan

and regarding Iran.....

http://www.infowars.com/iran-responds-to-massive-u-s-armada-gathering-in-the-persian-gulf/

Iran Responds to Massive U.S. Armada Gathering in the Persian Gulf

Kurt Nimmo
Infowars.com
September 16, 2012

Following a story published in The Telegraph reporting an armada of U.S. and British ships amassing in the Persian Gulf, a top commander in Iran’s Revolutionary Guard warned Sunday that “nothing will remain” of Israel if his country is attacked.

“Our response to Israel is clear: I think nothing will remain of Israel (should it attack Iran). Given Israel’s small land area and its vulnerability to a massive volume of Iran’s missiles, I don’t think any spot in Israel will remain safe,” said Gen. Mohammad Ali Jafar.

He also said Iran would close down the Strait of Hormuz, strike U.S. bases in the Middle East, and withdraw from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

“The US military bases sprawled around Iran are considered a big vulnerability. Even the missile shields that they have set up, based on information we have, could only work for a few missiles but when exposed to a massive volume of missiles, the shields will lose their efficiency and will not work,” he explained.

According to The Telegraph, leaders in the West are certain Iran will move to close down the Strait of Hormuz if its nuclear facilities are attacked. Approximately 35 per cent of the world’s oil supply currently moves through the Strait.

“If a war breaks out where one side is Iran and the other side is the West and U.S., it’s natural that a problem should occur in the Strait of Hormuz. Export of energy will be harmed. It’s natural that this will happen,” said Ali Jaffer.

The Telegraph says Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps navy will use an “access-denial” strategy and directly target warships and attack merchant shipping.

The newspaper reports warships from more than 25 countries, including the United States, Britain, France, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, began a 12-day exercise on Saturday in the Gulf. The multi-national force includes three US Nimitz class carrier groups hosting more aircraft than Iran’s entire air force.

The war game is the largest ever conducted in the region. It will concentrate on breaking an Iranian blockade of the Strait of Hormuz and perform drills to counter Iranian mining.

In October, Iran will stage its own exercises in the Persian Gulf to demonstrate its ability to defend the country against the threat of attack. Iran is showcasing the exercise as the “biggest air defense war game in the Islamic Republic’s history, and will be its most visible response yet to the prospect of an Israeli military strike,” according to The Telegraph.

During the exercise, Iran will use aerial drones, surface-to-air missiles, and radar described as state-of-the-art. In an effort to ward off an Israeli air attack, the Revolutionary Guard will test the defenses of 3,600 strategic locations around the country.

Sources inside the Obama administration believe an attack is inevitable and will come prior to the election in November.

In late August, it was reported that Israel will strike Iran before the election. Alon Ben-David, described by the Daily Mail as a well-informed military correspondent for Israel’s Channel 10 News, claimed that Israel was “closer than ever” to a strike against Iran.

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2012/09/20129162155028597.html

Israeli PM demands US 'red line' on Iran

Binyamin Netanyahu insists in TV interviews that Tehran is nearly "90 per cent" finished developing an atomic weapon.

Last Modified: 16 Sep 2012 23:22

Feedback

Israeli leaders toast the Jewish new year, which began sundown on Sunday, hoping for "stability amidst storms" [EPA]

The gap between Israeli and American perspectives on Iran appeared to widen on Sunday as Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu insisted on a "red line" from Washington, claiming Tehran is "90 per cent" finished developing a nuclear bomb.
Netanyahu, speaking on two US political talkshows, pressed the need for a categorical bar on Iran making a weapon, saying such a safeguard had averted nuclear calamity with Russia during the Cold War and could ensure peace again.

The US says all options - including military action against Iran - remain on the table, but top officials reject so-called "red lines" as political grandstanding that might leave them at a strategic disadvantage.
On CNN and on NBC's "Meet the Press", Netanyahu maintained that telling Iran there is a definite line it must step back from would serve as a pre-emptive and effective deterrent.
"If they know there's a point, a stage in the enrichment or other nuclear activities that they cannot cross because they'll face consequences, I think they'll actually not cross it," he told CNN's "State of the Union".
"It's important to put a red line before them, and that's something we should discuss with the United States."
'No daylight'
The Israeli leader said Iran was moving rapidly to finish enriching enough uranium needed to produce a nuclear bomb.
"In six months or so, they'll be 90 per cent of the way there," he said.

In-depth coverage of a growing regional debate

But his call for a change of tack and stiffer warnings from Washington was rejected by Susan Rice, the US ambassador to the United Nations.
Rice, who spoke on five separate television talkshows, maintained there was "no daylight" between the US and Israel on preventing Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon, but her comments on the timeline of Tehran's ambitions jarred with Netanyahu's.
"We think that there's still considerable time for this pressure to work," Rice said, refusing to acknowledge the red lines argument and insisting that US sanctions were effectively hobbling Iran's currency and oil production.
But she added: "This is not an infinite window, and we've made very clear that the president's bottom line is Iran will not have a nuclear weapon."
Israel has consistently said a nuclear-armed Iran would pose an existential threat to its existence and has wielded the suggestion of unilateral military action, but the US favours sanctions and diplomatic arm-twisting.

Iran has steadfastly denied that it is seeking the bomb and says its uranium enrichment program is meant for medical and energy uses.
'The real world'
Relations between Netanyahu and President Barack Obama are viewed as frosty, and US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta further highlighted policy differences in an interview published on Friday.
"The fact is, look, presidents of the United States, prime ministers of Israel or any other country - leaders of these countries don't have, you know, a bunch of little red lines that determine their decisions," Panetta said.
"What they have are facts that are presented to them about what a country is up to, and then they weigh what kind of action is needed to be taken in order to deal with that situation," he told Foreign Policy magazine.
"That's the real world. Red lines are kind of political arguments that are used to try to put people in a corner."
The White House was forced in recent days to deny a report that Obama had refused to meet Netanyahu in New York City later this month and said the two spoke by telephone on Tuesday and were united in their stance toward Tehran.

In-depth coverage of the US presidential election

With Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney accusing Obama of being a poor friend to Israel, Netanyahu has denied that he is meddling in US politics ahead of elections on November 6.
Rice said that US-Israeli relations were "stronger than ever", and insisted the only reason Netanyahu and Obama would not meet at the upcoming UN General Assembly in New York was because their schedules did not match.
But Senator John McCain, the Republican presidential nominee who lost to Obama in 2008, said there was a clear gap between Israel and the White House on where the red line lies.
"In the administration's view, it's when [Iran] has a nuclear weapon, and in Israel's view, it's when Tehran has reached the level where they can quickly assemble a nuclear weapon," McCain told CBS's Face the Nation. "That's a big difference."
The threat of war, however, remains severe, according to Martin Indyk, a former US ambassador to Israel.

"I'm afraid that 2013 is going to be a year in which we're going to have a military confrontation with Iran," he said on the same show.
Meanwhile, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps commander-in-chief Mohammad Ali Jafari on Sunday dismissed Israel's threats of attack on Iran, saying Israel was having trouble persuading the US to back its actions.
"Our answer to Israel is clear. In the face of such actions by the Zionist regime, nothing of Israel would remain," he said.
He said any Israeli attack on Iran would also trigger retaliatory action on US bases in the region and that trade via the Strait of Hormuz would be disrupted.

and....

A World On The Verge Of War?

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 09/16/2012 14:48 -0400

Here is a summary of where the world stands:

Unable to reach a compromise over the weekend, South Africa is now in an all out labor strike, with the police again firingrubber bullets at miners with lethal escalation guaranteed
Back from vacation, the once again penniless citizens of Spain,Greece, and Portugal have resumed protesting austerity
US embassies attacked, in many cases with numerous casualties, in Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Morocco, Sudan, Lebanon,India, Balgadesh, Indonesia, and others.
Japan "appropriating" China-contested islands provoking a firestorm of retaliation including demands for "war with Japan"
The Japanese ambassador to China dying mysteriously
Netanyahu telling Meet the Press Iran will have a nuke in six-seven months and must be stopped beforehand
Warships from more than 25 countries, including the United States, Britain, France, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, launching a military exercise in the Straits of Hormuz
A third US aircraft - the CVN-74 Stennis - carrier is en route to Iran with an ETA of about 10 days
And finally, a potential catalyst to light this whole mess on fire, Iran's Revolutionary Guard announcing that its troops are now on the ground in Syria.
From Reuters:

Members of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) are providing non-military assistance in Syria and Iran may get involved militarily if its closest ally comes under attack, commander-in-chief Mohammad Ali Jafari said on Sunday.

Jafari's statement is the first official acknowledgement that Iran has a military presence on the ground in Syria where an 18-month-old uprising has left tens of thousands dead.

Western countries and Syrian opposition groups have long suspected Iran has troops in Syria. Iran has denied this.

"A number of members of the Qods force are present in Syria but this does not constitute a military presence," Iranian news agency ISNA quoted Jafari as saying at a news conference.

Qods is an IRGC unit set up to export Iran's ideology. It has been accused of plotting attacks inside Iraq since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein.

Jafari did not indicate how many IRGC members were in Syria but said they were providing "intellectual and advisory help".

The Islamic Republic has backed Syria's President Bashar al-Assad since the crisis began and regards his rule as a key part of its axis of resistance against Israel and Sunni Arab states.

Jafari also said Iran would change its policy and offer military backing if Syria came under attack.

"I say specifically that if Syria came under military attack, Iran would also give military support but it ... totally depends on the circumstances," he said.

Next up: satellite photos somewhere "confirming" beyond a reasonable doubt that weapons of mass destruction are being prepared for usage, and a preemptive war is the only way to not only preserve peace, but to be awarded the Nobel prize in said activity.

What is perfectly obvious to anyone but the most jaded and biased, is that the West will use any opportunity of conflict escalation which in turn will send crude, and gas, prices soaring, to commence the launch of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve release, arguably at just the right time to push down gas prices, which as we showed on Friday have never been higher on this day in history. "Right time", because any SPR release will have the short-term benefit of boosting Obama's re-election chances even more, even if it means surging gas prices after the election.

The reality of course is that the bulk of upside pressure on commodity (crude and gas included) prices is as a result of the Fed and ECB's recent monetization expansion and liquidity tsunami, which does the usual: soothes the symptoms for a few weeks, crushes volatility and creates the impression that all is well.... if only to lead to yet another far more grave outcome. And since there is now officially no limit much debt the Fed will monetize, there is so no limit on how high commodity prices will go.

So while in reality any war, supposedly one which is "regional" and "contained" will merely be a smokescreen to the central banks officially taking over ownership of the insolvent developed world, the likelihood is that a war will neither be "regional" nor "contained" as both countries that make up the axis of a future hard-backed currency, China and Russia, have already made it quite clear that any intervention by the US in regions they themselves consider strategic, such as the Senkaku Islands, Syria and/or Iran, will result in retaliation.

And retaliation by one or more rising superpowers to another fading superpower, will inevitably lead to yet another World War.

Needless to say, nobody could possibly foresee war as the outcome to the global depression ver 2.0: certainly not the Princeton historian who will be, more than anyone else, responsible for it.

Catharsis Ours

Sunday, September 16, 2012

World on the verge of war ? Tinder looking for a spark .....