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Where are we going? And why am I in this handbasket?

Well there's only one way to find out.

to another war which I will have to oppose - making ready the fodder, getting them used to the idea.

Another note of caution for my American brothers - dont mess with the Persians. They have not undergone the requisite ten-year, sanction induced privation and want. They will be mean about accepting 'liberty', I would suspect.

Careful what you talk yourselves into, over there.

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"A man's work is nothing but this slow trek to rediscover, through the detours of art, those two or three great and simple images in whose presence his heart first opened."

No question. Countries living under Sharia law are not easy to convert.

I was not suggesting we start dropping bombs, it was just an observation that nothing is "bomb proof" if you drop a big enough bomb. More observational than political really.

Sort of like nothing is idiot proof if you have a big enough idiot.

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Where are we going? And why am I in this handbasket?

The only altrnative is to allow them to develop nukes.

They are basically daring us to bomb them. They wont be the first nation to underestimate us.

At this stage, conversion is not the goal. If we can locate their facilities, we can bomb them at little risk (or expense) to ourselves.

Well we dont really know that now do we. We'll have to test it.

This looks like a job for those mini-nuke bunker-busters we've been developing.

O Sadistic One - have you tossed-out any notion that International Law might have to be complied with? By Iran, and the US, under the range if different circumstances which might yet present themselves? Or do you consider that International Law no longer applies, that we have somehow 'got beyond all that'?

Im curious.

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"A man's work is nothing but this slow trek to rediscover, through the detours of art, those two or three great and simple images in whose presence his heart first opened."

If we do anything of the sort Iran could very likely invade Iraq, making life very, very complicated for our troops. Talk about total chaos.

Luckily, Iran is supposedly a ways off from having anything close to a nuke, so we have plenty of time.

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Where are we going? And why am I in this handbasket?

It would be really stupid for Iran to waste their resources like that. We are already there in force and entrenched. If they ARE going to attack Iraq, I would prefer they did it while we are ready.

As I said, a nuclear Iran would still be worse. So it is an empty threat.

They would not invade Iraq because they care about Iraq. They would invade Iraq because it would force our troops to stop worrying about insurgents and rebuilding and security and stability in Iraq. It would be solely to create chaos. And it likely would. Iraq would become a complete mess. We'd be fighting terrorists, insurgents and Iranians. All with troop numbers barely able to handle their current job. Sure, they may do nothing, but if I were them that's what I'd do.

But like I said, they are supposedly way off from having a bomb, so at this point it does not matter.

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Where are we going? And why am I in this handbasket?

They are not going to throw themselves on a sword and risk their own annihilation simply to get back at us. They risk losing most of their military by doing that...making them vulnerable to overthrow from within. They cannot gain from such a scenerio.

And regardless, Iran + nukes = unacceptable. One North Korea is enough.

Of the alternative is allowing Iran to arm themselves with nukes, then it is a mess we will have to deal with.

Then I guess we have to hope they are not as suicidal as you seem to be.