[rodguy911]

Good point on Ledeen! There is no question in my mind that short of lots an lots of force, all the talking in the world will not dissuade the Iranians from trying to conquer every infidel in the world and those who oppose them in any way.

They are truly the nut cases of the Middle East. Difficult if not impossible to deal with other than in a forcefull manner.

If we "are" ever successful in dealing with them, and I don't see it happening right now,it would go a long way to solving many of the problems we now have in the Mid-East. But like you said,fireside chats won't get the job done.

[kabar]

If you want a good analysis on the situation in Iran, I recommend Ed Luttwak's, "Three reasons not to bomb Iran - yet"

The worst thing we could do now is to make a premptive, overt attack against Iran. The Iranian regime is intentionally trying to create an external threat to deflect the widespread domestic opposition to the regime. Ahmadinejad's outrageous statements also help raise the price of oil, which helps the flagging Iranian economy.

[chiller]

I'm sure you saw, Rodguy, the story about Iran's faulering economy, rising gas prices, etc. because they've been unable to rebuild their oil production capabilities damaged 20 YEARS AGO ! They're the #2 producer in OPEC but still import 40% of their oil.....

....which made me think that damage to their nucleur program would set 'em back for a good long time.

What they hell are they doing with their money...fighting proxy wars or something ?