Theodore's World

This story must be exagerated... the government of Iran is not the most inteligent of collectives, but they are not suicidal. They know perfectly well that the current US government would really like an excuse to bomb Iran back to the stone-age. They also know that if the US did invade... well, it might very well fail to keep hold of Iran afterwards, but it would have no trouble wipeing out the current government there.

So, bragging about having an army of suicide bombers is the equivilent of painting a country-sized target.

No, actually - its the equivilent of turning their back to the US, leaning forward and dropping pants. Its just inviting an invasion. Particually with Bush in his current situation - nothing to lose now, career at its peak, convinced he is leading a holy war, and desperate to make himself a place in history as the person who single-handedly civilised the islamic barbarians.

Unless, perhaps, Iran has become so isolated the people there are barely able to admit a world outside the middle-east exists.

Right now, there is only one thing preventing a war - congress. I have no doubt that Bush personally would invade Iran in a moment. With God on his side, he would not be worried about things like approval, logistics, overstretched military, the constitution, oil proces... but he does not have the authority to launch a war alone. He cannot do that without support from congress, and they know that the consequences would be severe.

I think the Captain and Crew stationed on the USS Vincennes in 1988 needs to be decorated. On July 4, 1988 the USS Vincennes celebrated the 4th of July by shooting down an airplane full of future terrorists.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/inatl/longterm/flight801/stories/july88crash.htm

Another threat by someone who has already stated he wants to destroy America and the West is just posturing. It may hurt him more at home by adding fuel to the fire of those Iranians who want a change of government.

Actually, I think the intention is quite the opposite. An attempt to stir up anti-western sentiment. Portrey the West as a monster poised to attack Iran. Point to the now-constant bombings in Iraq as evidence of the destruction the West brings. And then convince the people that only by fully supporting the government in every way can they hope for protection from this dangerous enemy. Then anyone who is not a supporter can be denounced as threat to security.

Where did I put that quote... ah,

"Why would some poor slob on a farm want to risk his life in a war when the best that he can get out of it is to come back to his farm in one piece? Naturally, the common people don't want war. That is understood. But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy or a fascist dictatorship or a Parliament or a Communist dictatorship. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country."

Herrman Goering. Nuremberg trial. He was right - it worked for the Iraq invasion, and it will work for the government of Iran. All they need to do is a careful balancing act - keep the country on the brink of war, where the political advantage is theirs, but never let it actually come to war. For they would be crushed.

Suricou:

Where do I begin? I suppose with this...which is that you possess the late Marxist, collectivist mentality, which always assumes "the common people" (Goering's quote)are the pawns of arbitrary and sinister leadership. The truth is, we have no way of knowing what effect Ahmadinejad's brinkmanship will have with Iranians not already disposed to follow or reject him. Period.

Moreoever, ascribing secondary motives to the Mullah government is an avoidance, on your part, of the simple fact that we have, in place at the top of the Iranian society, an apocalyptic death cult whose public statements are simply true, whether or not ten or 60 million Iranias agree with them.

You also continue with the cliche that the Mullahs and their rabid little dog are trying to stir up anti-Western sentiment, which in the ME had already at saturation wherever Islamism has a presence. How much does one need? You claim they aren't suicidal? You clearly misunderstand the millenarian tendencies of these loons. Suicide means nothing to men whose primary interest is the afterlife.

I also find your association of Goering's principle to the American public's willingness to fight the Iraq War as not only noxious and idiosyncratic, but also perverse. Your understanding of American society, and this war is primitive, at best. But given your other intellectual tendencies, which are contaminated by the theoretical disturbances common to people, like yourself, who see all political life in terms of movements, schemes, historical forces, religious wickedness and devious uses of power, you can think in no other way.

You should also free your intellect from the dead weight of your paranoia about Bush, his religious leanings, and religion in general. I have no doubt that, if you respond, your sentence will begin with "I have no complaints with religion, per se...", but then launch into a series of complaints.

You are really quite confused about many, many things.

Suricou:

PS: I suspect you're an Englishman. I'm a recovering Anglophile myself. It took forty years, but I've given up on the Brits. Sure, you're in Iraq, too, but I'm sure you have some explanation for that.

Since you feel so free to evaluate American society, understand this. Blairistan is essentially a deconstructed version of the thing it tried to replace. New Labor is Old Labor with the snobbery, pretense and sense of entitlement of the hereditary classes intact. Alongside is the silly egalitarianism of socialism. Cockburn was right. There is almost nothing left of the things you used to be, except in a theme park form. In the end, The Webbs and their kind won the battle for your culture.

But what I find particularly offensive in leftist thinking, and especially in its British version,is that all of it is finally a critique of mass society. It's spreading to this country, too, and it reaches its pinacle in ideas like yours. The individual matters for nothing, except insofar as he/she is abused, exploited or used.

Whatever you've written can ultimately be reduced to a defiled relationship between the rulers and the ruled. Whether its Iran, or the US, or East Jebrewistan, it's the same old thing. It's boring, unimaginative and tired.

I agree Bob that is a great idea!!! Thanks for the link too.

Hi Tom they just never end their stupid threats. sheesh

Thanks for commenting.