Posted on 12/29/2006 12:03:24 AM PST by DTAD
MOSCOW: Iran may become one of the top 10 features of the outgoing year for a number of reasons, including its nuclear dossier and the Holocaust conference, as well as the anti-Israeli rhetoric of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
In short, Iran has made others view it as a regional superpower and the key player in the Middle East.
Its nuclear program remains the top issue, with good reason, because it threatens the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
(Excerpt) Read more at defencetalk.com ...
There's no such thing as a "regional superpower".
'Super power' is misused in this application.
Last week I became a 'superpower' at the target range.
My child is a 'super power' at his school.
The new Burger King burger is a 'super power' in the burger industry......
'Iran is becoming a power in the middle east' is more than sufficient assuming its actually true.
Wonder how that happened?
Oh and I forgot their dim 'Holocaust conference' is making them look like a pack of fools to the rest of the World.
Can there be two regional superpowers? Israel is in southwestern Asia (the Middle East), and is stronger than Iran.
There are top countries in various regions: the United States traditionally in the Western Hemisphere; Japan or China traditionally in East Asia; India in South Asia; Egypt or Ethiopia in East Africa; Germany in Central Europe; Russia in Eastern Europe and Central Asia; etc.
Because the term "superpower" isn't applicable to regional realities. It's a global term only. Besides, to be a "superpower" (something beyond "power") regionally, the organization holding such a title wouldn't have serious competitors.
The traditional term applied to nations/empires like Britain, France, Germany, Austria-Hungary, Russia, Japan and the US in the 1800's and early 1900's was "Great Power." Between WW1 and WW2, every Great Power was either destroyed by those wars or bankrupt, with the exception of the US and Russia's successor, the USSR. Both of these countries (though the US to a greater degree) were far greater powers than all the rest were - they were continent-striding powers with great wealth and with truly global reach. For the 2 nations, the term "Superpower" was coined.
As for serious competitors, I seem to recall that the US had a serious competitor for quite a few decades. I would, however, find it hard to believe that there could be more than 3 Superpowers (the US, China and Russia being the only serious contenders for the title). Japan is, IMHO, ineligible because of its small physical size and relatively low population.
If they're not a world wide power, then they're not a superpower. They're just a regional power.
Oxymoronic headline alert.
Meaning inflation. It's an attempt by the inauthentic and powerless to bring the language down to their level.
Superb, superior, supercilious, supercalifragilistic, superstupid.
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