[rollo tomasi]

That is a place with a large fully functioning military airfield and prepared areas for staging special ops into Iran.

There is one primary reason that overrides the interest you present, Muslim rage.

Any attack on Iran (Or any "fundamental" Islamic country) using Afghan as a staging point will paralyze Kabul, Bagram, and the rest of the air bases. Taxpayers will be subjected to perpetually pouring $$$ into a rat hole; what a strategic disaster this will be since resources drained will be monumental in this endeavor.

[bert]

You make an invalid assumption that Islam is homogeneous. It is not.

You assume that the fundamentalism of the Iranian Mullahs is universal. It is not. The Mullah’s beliefs are not even universal in Iran.

You do not consider the politics that drive the Mideast. Those politics while strongly Islamic, have an economic flavor. Recall if you will that Bin laden was a cast off, a shunned personna that was not liked nor accepted by the population of his own strongly Islamic country Saudi Arabia. He was literally driven out.

The leadership is in the GCC. The wealth and strong economic potential is in the GCC. If you are Afghan, the GCC is a better and richer ally than Iran.

Iran is the enemy, blood enemy of the GCC and they have no qualms at all about squeezing Iran till it hurts.

That by the way is the point. The bases and points of operation in Afghanistan are a real threat that puts the defensive squeeze on the Iranian generals. We have at least one good mind in the Joint Chiefs that is putting on the squeeze.