Well, looks like we already picked out our next target: IRAN

[monkspider]

The incompetence of Shrub has caused average Americans to lump moderates like Mohammad Khatami with radical fundamentalists like Ali Khamenei and Hashemi Rafsanjani.

Way to go Shrub.

On the other hand, I don't think we would even need to invade, what with all of the earthquakes and meteors Persia is getting hit with these days.

[Evil Knevil]

Originally posted by Drake Tungsten
Do people still honestly believe that there is a fundamental and uncrossable divide that now and forever seperates fundamentalist Shiites and fundamentalist Sunnis? Or was that just another troll?

So is that to be the new administration line?

If you read Wahabi 'literature' you see that shia's a pretty badly abused. Even such wonderful independant terrorist movements like Hezbollah.
After all, the Shia are heavily repressed* in Saudi Arabia.

*Can one be 'heavily repressed'?

Can't you just miss these guy's out and go directly to North Korea, and not collect $200?

[mrmitchell]

For the sake of all those poor souls there, North Korea better find oil, and soon.

[Chemical Ollie]

There are evidence that the hi-jackers spent much time in Florida before the attack. Go invade Florida and install democracy!

[GePap]

at the "plans" of the admin. thought I seriously doubt the validity of any of the speakers save the commission.

The opposition in Iran is, as Ramo said, weaker today than four years ago. The state has plenty of oil money to keep itself going, and military action vs. Iran short of full scale invasion and regime change would only encourage Iran to make a mess for us in Afghanistan and Iraq, something Iran can do. IN the end, striking at Iran now save for a full scale invasion, wich the US simply can't do, owuld only serve to make our "sucess" in Afghanistan and Iraq even more perilous.

If the admin. wants to encourage regime change in Iran, for now they have to go slow thanks to their Iraq blunder.

[GePap]

Originally posted by Drake Tungsten
Do people still honestly believe that there is a fundamental and uncrossable divide that now and forever seperates fundamentalist Shiites and fundamentalist Sunnis? Or was that just another troll?

You mean a troll like your posts? Nah, nowhere as trollish as that.

[Whoha]

This is old news, Iran has Natural gas!

[Pekka]

I don't think it will happen. The Axis of Evil is a joke IMO anyway. Why would you call it Axis of Evil anyway? This is not Star Wars? The guys who come up with this names are undermining everyones intelligence, it's an insult.

However, Yeah, I believe based on my feelings and past articles I've read that Iran is more in connections with the terrorists than Iraq. Well, Iraq turned out to be even less connected with the terrorists than it was first thought, but.. yeah I don't think there will be an invasion against Iran. First of all, there are already two fronts that require a lot of attention, Afghanistan and Iraq. Those two take up lot of resources, and I don't see why there would be enough resources to go after Iran if there is so much problems boosting up the amount of troops in Iraq, priority number one.

Basically it woudl be a mistake, if there was any actioin against Iran at this point, it would be a huge sign of .. it would mean that we are after ME as a whole, and that we don't have much in for them, except war. It would be dangerous sign of some kind of inevitable imperalism, that sign of a need to have more influence in that region, and quite frankly I think that this message, be it wrong or right, would be taken very badly in that region and causing the opposite results instead of what we'd be looking for.

Too much too soon. It's a mistake. No doubt there are some rogue dirty bastards there, but IMO it just doesnt' rank anywhere near the top of priorities and as such should be dealt with other ways. The odds for major FUBAR are too big.

.. NOW, what about Saudi Arabia?! I think if there needs to be fighting done, that's the place we should start.

Because basically I think that if we start goign after the lesser enemies, we are playing into the hands of terrorists and the real enemies. If we use distraction or somekind of other tactics, this will only strengthen the fundie leaders, no doubt. And this should be avoided to the last step, because it's all about acceptance, and at this rate there's no acceptance for basically all westerners in that area. So we should go straight to the source of many problems, Saudi Arabia. And then try to mediate things with other countries. If there's fighting needed to be done, I see that as only option. Or then there shouldn't be any fighting at all.

[Pekka]

Besides this war is likely to be very difficult to contain, say Iran wanted to really fight, they could just threaten Pakistan. Line up with India. Or the opposite. Then we'd have a major nuke threat. There are just too many things Iran could do, to make the situation really hot and we couldn't stop it if they'd go for it. I say: Bad idea.

[Pekka]

This is my major concern over the whole thing with these wars in that region:

basically I think, that there might be, and should be concerns that the west or the US is taking them one by one. They should go for stronger alliances together to fight us together. They don't want to get into it, because they're afraid they'll get some too, but at some point they will realize that it will happen anyway, and that it will be too late at some point to team up and fight.

And I'd say that fight we can't do, unless we're really prepared for, with strong alliance of our own, plus then it's up to many other questions too like what are the reasons, is this necessary etc.

They feel the rope tightening on their necks. At some point someone will act. Or, some countries that are targeted and unable to talk to form a real alliance, they'll start scrambling. Say, US declared war on Iran. Iran declares war on Pakistan if they grant the use of their soil for the troops to what ever. India gets nervous when Pakistan is at ready, everyone is reaching for their alliances, just too big of a mess, too many variables. Not worth it unless they are really threatning us and I think they're not threatning us.

And basically then it comes to how big of a mess it would be, chances are it would be something that would exceed Iraq and all other recent conflicts. If it goes all out war, there will be many casualties, including their casualties, and when it's all over, and we look at those thousands, tens of thousands at the worst case even hundreds of thousands of casualties from mostly their side, it comes down to why it went down and who started it and if it should be us who started the aggression.. that's just not good. We can say terrorism here terrorism there, but if there are casualties up to those numbers from their side, assuming mostly innocents or their soldiers, us starting it, well.. it's a question of one of ours means 1000 of yours, and that's just too ****ing biblical to make any sense. If we want to call them the Axis of Evil and what not, we better make sure we don't become the evil. And at the end, there would be more terrorists than in the beginning and as a bonus our own allied wouldn't be so strong anymore if there would be feelings we're not doing the right thing here anymore.

The bottom line is, we can't contain that war. I mean it's a possibility, but the cards are in the hands of Iran. And this wouldn't stabilize the area at all. Except if we think that sending our officials to be our puppets and we'd be the masters, that just won't work. It would be a plan, but I think that's just a bad plan. What I think we could do is to support some kind of resistance in there if there was one, or try diplomatic ways. Threatning wouldn't get us nowhere. Except to a factory with full of **** and we'd all need to swim in it.

[Sava]

Vote Bush... FOUR MORE WARS!!!!

[Pekka]

nah I think Bush wouldn't make that move. I just don't see that happening.

[Dinner]

All hail the mighty banana.

[Drake Tungsten]

If you read Wahabi 'literature' you see that shia's a pretty badly abused.

So are Americans, but that didn't stop them from accepting our help against the Soviets.

Can't you just miss these guy's out and go directly to North Korea, and not collect $200?

It's too late to deal decisively with North Korea. That problem is going to continue to fester for the forseeable future, given that we were dumb enough to let them get nukes. I'd rather not see the same scenario play out in Iran, thank you very much.

[Uncle Sparky]

Originally posted by DinoDoc
Canada is closer.

Ah, but you already have our oil. Since the demize of Petro-Can, Canadian oil is American owned. No need to invade.

I suspect there are similar reasons the US lost interest in attacking Sudan. Sudan still trains terorists, and is staging a genocidal war against its non-Arab population, but it did open its oil and gas industry a few years ago to outside investment (eg - US & Europe). Now they are OK by Dubbya.