[mmercier]

i apologize if i offended you. note that i said in the end we will likely "stand" them down, not "put" them down. i understand that most people are good, but those under the hand of the evil for so long, who have not risen to their own defense for so long, are unreliable as allies.

i have no confidence in another iranian revolution.

i have no confidence in american or british intelligence apparatus's ability to foment such an outcome.

i have only my bleak understanding of geopolitical interaction, and the patterns seem to indicate war, and only war as a means of resolution.

i love peace like anyone else; please try to recognize the historical reality that war is always required as a precursor to peace. in this case, it is going to come right down to the line, as stated above i have no faith in the iranian people or our political class... i pray i am wrong, believe that.

i feel like the skunk at the picnic.

mercier

[ValenB4]

Don't sweat it! You didn't offend me in the least!

There's nothing wrong with our intelligence whatsoever. Going into Iraq was a preordained thing, WMD or not. There's just so much information out there that it's hard for normal people to differentiate good news from propaganda. I highly recommend the writings of Jude Wanniski, Gordon Prather, and Juan Cole. Wanniski is a political-economist who is responsible for Ronald Reagan's supply-side thinking. Prather is a nuclear physicist who served in the Reagan administration. Cole is a lefty Middle East professor from Michigan, but very knowledgable. They all predicted well before the war that no WMD would be found. While I kept expecting them to be proven wrong, they were right. There's no good reason to go to war with Iran.