“Well, that certainly explains why the mullahs looked at what we did to Iraq, and what we didn’t do with North Korea, and realized it would be to their advantage to develop nuclear weapons ASAP.
How wonderful of Bush to give them that incentive”.
Swopa Iran has been seeking nuclear weapons for at least as long as Iraq and certainly before the war.
… isn’t it so much better to have a large army on dry land next door…
“Well, it might be nice if we weren’t up to our eyeballs dealing with an insurgency that Iran has an extensive ability — and, as you note, every incentive — to support.”
You are not up to your eyeballs against an insugency,the situation resembles Northern Ireland in many ways with the violence being localised in certain parts of the country.Note that Iran has been the enemy of the US since the fall of the Shah.
A lot of the so called “insurgency” is direct intervention by Iran and is largely based on territorial claims going back to before the Iran Iraq War.Iran wants to control the Southern Iraq oilfields to further its ambitions to be a regional superpower.This also is why they want nuclear weapons.There is probably sufficient evidence to declare Iranian intervention an act of war,the chosen course of action in this an election year would seem to be to encourage Iran’s internal opposition.No doubt elements of this are being armed and trained now.
“This just shows how utterly inept and naive the strategic thinking of Bush and the neocons was. What did they think, the mullahs would just sit patiently by until Iraq was stable and we could invade Iran? Why should anyone be surprised if they’re fighting us in Iraq so they don’t have to fight us at home?”
Naive? One way or another Irans nuclear capability will go,either the easy way or the hard way,the easy way will be to acquiesce to the demands to cease,the hard way is that Israel will decommission ther nuclear facility.It is a minute to midnight Swopa,I hope your nuance is Kevlar coated.
BTW Do gives us the benefit of your strategic thinking,if you were going to invade Iran where would you start from? After you had negotiated and been lead by the nose by a regime to whom you have nothing to give.
