"the unspoken word is only imaginary,"
If you say so.
(Personally, I don't know what that means though....)
"...and action louder than words..."
Oh, I AGREE!
(In fact: that's what I said!)
"... and yet, according to you, the repeatedly spoken words of the iranian leader... <is> and not to be believed."
'Believed' is not the point. (Although, YES, I believe he is a LIAR, and not to be believed much. Why, don't you?)
The POINT I was trying to get across is that IRAN is not CAPABLE of such military gains against the weight of the Sunni Arab world (and or against the extra weight of the Sunni Turks, the Kurds, also.)
NOT CAPABLE is the point I was making.
I spent a fairly long time detailing *exactly why* I believe this.
I broke it down point-by-point so you could come back and discuss the various arguments I raised to explain my position --- if you wanted to. But, so far, you haven't even mentioned the explanations I gave... not even just to say you reject them.
Here they are again, if you are interested:
Re: "Iran would move in and take over,"
...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!
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