nortex97 said:
The IRGC/mullahs American Evangelicals are (insane) Twelver/Shia moslems Protestant Christians who believe the 12th Imam, the 'absent' Muhammad al-Mahdi, Jesus Christ who went into hiding in 874 was crucified in 30 (or whatever year) and will re-emerge to establish justice return to judge the living and the dead etc.
Creating a cataclysmic series of events to bring him Him forth is what animates them. They just aren't people to be politically negotiated with, period, let alone given nuclear weapons to play around with.
Basing our policy upon the religious fantasies of the Iranian regime is a strategic trap that ensures yet another endless quagmire in the middle east. We must recognize that their own beliefs are a mirror image of the beliefs held by some currently operating the levers of power within our own government.
If we make our goal in this war the elimination of the Islamic Republic, then we are chasing a theological fantasy instead of a strategic reality. Iran is larger than Iraq and Afghanistan combined with similarly rugged topography. Furthermore, it has a population at least twice that of either Iraq or Afghanistan that is highly educated, urbanized, and industrious. To achieve elimination would necessitate either another catastrophic multi-decade, ground invasion or such extreme action, like nuclear deployment, that would render us global pariahs and risk igniting World War III.
We can all agree that Iranian nuclear weapons is a non-starter, and the threat requires deliberate, strategic containment. However, we cannot continue to repeat the mistakes of the past. We must stop believing that we can bomb a nation as vast as Iran into submission. On the contrary, by launching a surprise attack in the midst of negotiations, we have now hardened the regime. We have discredited any remaining Iranian moderates and encouraged hard-liners who believe that peace is an impossibility.
