Fox News cheerleaded a war against Iraq, and now the network seems to be doing the same thing against Iran. As we all know, the war in Iraq turned out to be a tragic mistake that transformed the Middle East for the worse.
Iran, however, may turn out to be a greater threat to the world than Iraq ever was (see here and here and here), but I worry that the United States has wasted all of its political capital, trustworthiness and military resources in waging the Iraq war and is now unable to confront a real threat. No one is going to believe either Fox News or the Bush administration anymore, even if they are stopped clocks that may have it right this time.
Watch these three clips from Christian Amanpour's three-part, CNN series on "God's Warriors" for more background. The first two clips describe Shi'ite extremism in general, and the third explains how Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad seems to incorporate that theology into his politics. ("God's Warriors" looks at Jewish, Islamic and Christian extremism.)
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Here we are once again considering the terrorist nation of Iran. A nation that controls Palestine through Hamas, Lebanon and Syria though Hezbollah, and Iraq through the Mahdi army, untold numbers of insurgency and militant organizations and even Al Qaeda. Iran is closing in quickly on the ability to mass produce nuclear weapons while our politicians are arguing over whether or not they are even a threat to the region, and our own nation. Israel, as I have said before, does not have the luxury of debating this issue until the day it is confirmed that the Iranian nuclear program has in fact produced it’s first reliable weapon. Israel has nuclear weapons but will they use them? It is a strongly held belief that only the United States can deliver a conventional strike devastating enough to impact the Iranian nuclear program, however, if the United States does not do that and soon, Israel will be forced to consider the nuclear option as it’s only reliable means of ensuring it’s continued existence.
When considering the possible destruction of your entire population by nuclear assault, the nuclear option does not seem so terrible in light of the consequence of waiting too long, or conducting an inadequate conventional strike. European nations, Russia and China have prevented measures that could have reigned in Iran many times before. Creating a situation whereby the one entity that could have made a difference (United Nations), is instead provoking the inevitable destruction of either Israel or Iran or possibly even the destruction of both nations.
Iran has created a reality on the ground throughout the Middle East that provides the ultimate fallback. Iran’s arming, training and positioning of Hezbollah, Hamas, the Mahdi Army, and literally hundreds of other militant assets means that at a moments notice Iran could create complete chaos throughout the entire region. Imagine all of these groups being coordinated by Iran’s military machine causing the cessation of trade throughout the region, the deaths of tens of thousands of civilians in countries throughout the Middle East, and the successful overthrow of governments unable to respond quickly enough to such an unconventional enemy.
If the United States is unable or unwilling to confront Iran militarily within the next 12 months, world war three is almost a certainty. Because if Iran is able to get all their pieces in place before they are directly attacked, this chess game is over and no country in the world will be safe from the terrorist army they have been building up arming and training for over 30 years. China, Russia, Venezuela and many other countries have already chosen their allies in this struggle by supporting, supplying and defending Iran in it’s quest for nuclear weapons and undying support of terrorism in all it’s horrific forms and manifestations. Martin Sims(Quote)
Iran’s Tentacles « Samuel J. Scott // Nov 6, 2007 at 12:08