Re: "Iran would move in and take over,"
Sezze WHO?
That *ain't* at all likely for MANY REASONS, including:
1) The combined populations & economic bases and military potentials of Iran's ENEMIES in the region (The Gulf Sunni States - who are repressing their *own* shia minorities, and Saudi Arabia, etc., not even mentioning the entire rest of Islam --- which is 80% Sunni at least) OUT-MATCHES whatever Iran can put forth.
Hell... Saddam's Iraq alone was enough to hold them down for eight years. You add the Saudis and others in and the military potentials are weighted in favor of the Sunnis.
2) 'Iraqis' (even the Shiite population that dominates in the South) are still largely ARABS --- a different ethnicity from the Persians. (And, that doesn't even yet consider the KURDS in the North, who have their own border with Iran... which is being shelled daily by Iran as we speak because the Kurds mount terrorist bombings inside Iran proper. :-) They *too* are NOT PERSIANS. And, they have their own reasons to piss-off Iran: 'cause the Kurds want to CARVE OFF PART OF IRAN TO INCLUDE IT IN THEIR NEW NATION - "KURDISTAN". Turkey (also with a border on Iran, and largely Sunni) does not want Iran to advance. The Russians though, would probably be happy to sell arms to BOTH sides. :-)
3) RIGHT NOW --- because of US actions --- IRAN probably has already reached near their zenith of power in the region... and we handed it to them on a SILVER PLATTER. They DIDN'T EVEN HAVE TO FIGHT FOR IT!
We knocked off their greatest Sunni enemy (doing Iran the best favor in decades...) and NOW they have a Defense Pact with the Iraqi Government, a Treaty of Friendship, a free trade agreement, cooperation between their Intelligence Services, Iranian agents are embedded inside Iraq's Interior Ministry and it's national police force, etc. WE GAVE IT TO THEM FOR FREE. Iran stands as the SINGLE GREATEST BENEFICIARY OF THE US WAR AGAINST SADDAM. While the US TAXPAYER gets stuck with the HALF TRILLION DOLLAR (so far) BILL --- IRAN GETS THE BENEFITS FOR FREE.
Re: "... do you want that?"
Do I 'want' Iran and the Saudis (and their allies) to get BOGGED DOWN IN A MASSIVELY EXPENSIVE AND FUTILE CIVIL WAR IN THAT ARTIFICIAL NATION CALLED 'IRAQ' - PERHAPS, ULTIMATELY, CAUSING *BOTH* SETS OF CORRUPT TOTALITARIAN REGIMES TO CAVE-IN FROM THE PRESSURE... AND LEAVE BEHIND CONDITIONS FAVORABLE TO THE ESTABLISHMENT OF RELIGIOUS TOLERANCE AND DEMOCRACY?
HELL YES, I DO, GZ! (Haven't you been listening all these years?)
And, for the life of me, I can't figure out why you *wouldn't* want something so very GOOD for America, and indeed good for freedom and Democracy and peace all over the world.
All I can come up with is that either your vision must be too narrow or stultified... (you just don't 'get' the plan), or else you actually *want* extremist Islamic regimes to stay in power. God only knows *why* you would want that though.... |
