I Don't Understand the Middle-Eastern Mind...

[Bullaholic]

What can the leader of Iran, and Sadamm Hussein of Iraq before him, be thinking? All of this posturing and aggravation to what end---being the "mouse that roared"? Sadamm Hussein would still be in power in Iraq today if he simply would have let the UN inspectors do their job. Now this idiot in Iran thinks he is going to kick the Incredible Hulk in the kneecap and live to talk about it. Obviously, he is not a student of recent history.
The Israelis went to war in Lebannon, partly, because of the capture of 2 of their soldiers, what does the leader of Iran think the British will do to get 15 of theirs back, ultimately?


http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/meast/03/28/iran.uk.sailors/index.html

[Bullaholic]

nm

[3afan]

heck - i would say whatever they wanted me to if it meant getting the puck out of there (pardon my hockey euphemism)

[big daddy russ]

They're just looking for a fight. Iran's a loose interpretation of a theocracy (a combination of a theocratic state and a democracy) who believes they're standing up to the Great Satan.

What it really boils down to is the fact that they're idiots. If they wanted to develop their nuclear program for energy, that's fine. What everyone's worried about is the fact that the kind of nuclear research involved in making energy and making a bomb are entirely different, and nobody's really sure where their research is headed.

For example, during the Clinton administration, we came extremely close to bombing the crap out of North Korea. Within hours. Then former president Carter, along with a few Congressmen, made a hasty trip to visit with Kim Jong-Il and avert war in what has come to be known as the "Agreed Framework." Clinton said that he'd give DPRK food and oil (they were going through a famine) along with two nuclear reactors to help power the country. The reason he offered this to a non-nuclear, rogue country is because it wouldn't help out their quest for nuclear ballistics.

Granted, we never came through on our end of the bargain, but it was a nice little piece of paper that won Carter a Nobel Prize. With Iran, on the other hand, we have no idea what they're after.

[Bullaholic]

Originally posted by big daddy russ
They're just looking for a fight. Iran's a loose interpretation of a theocracy (a combination of a theocratic state and a democracy) who believes they're standing up to the Great Satan.

What it really boils down to is the fact that they're idiots. If they wanted to develop their nuclear program for energy, that's fine. What everyone's worried about is the fact that the kind of nuclear research involved in making energy and making a bomb are entirely different, and nobody's really sure where their research is headed.

For example, during the Clinton administration, we came extremely close to bombing the crap out of North Korea. Within hours. Then former president Carter, along with a few Congressmen, made a hasty trip to visit with Kim Jong-Il and avert war in what has come to be known as the "Agreed Framework." Clinton said that he'd give DPRK food and oil (they were going through a famine) along with two nuclear reactors to help power the country. The reason he offered this to a non-nuclear, rogue country is because it wouldn't help out their quest for nuclear ballistics.

Granted, we never came through on our end of the bargain, but it was a nice little piece of paper that won Carter a Nobel Prize. With Iran, on the other hand, we have no idea what they're after.

Good points, Russ. That is what is so hard to understand about regimes like Iran's. If you wanted to develop a clandestine nuclear arms capability, the last thing in the world you would want is the world's attention on your every move.

[olddawggreen]

You know, one of the most interesting explanations that I have seen of how these people think was actually given by a fictional charater in one of W. E. B. Griffin's books, By Order of The President. Basicly here it is;

The war is all about the Muslim getting left behind. Take away the oil reserves and what do they have? They once dominated the known world. Now, with the exception of their oil, they are completely unimportant-more to the point, powerless-in the modern world. They simply don't have the skills and the culture to compete in it. They gave the world mathmatics, and some of the most wonderful architecture-so long as the architecture is based on one stone laid on top of another.

All the skyscrapers in the Arab world were designed and built by the infidels. And their airplanes were were designed and built by the infidels. and their phone systems....even their sewers. And they need infidels to keep everything running.

This isn't the way Muhammad told them it was going to be. He promised them, in the Koran, that they would control the world. And they all know this because higher education in the Arab world consist mostly of men-only men-memorizing the Koran. And since nothing is their fault, it has to be someone else's-the infidels."


"The Muslim world is four hundred-maybe five hundred-years behind the western world. And adding to that problem is their religious hierarchy who likes it that way. People in power are never in favor of a system change that will see their power diminished. The Roman Catholic and Orthodox hierarchies-who also go around in medieval clothing-are as guilty of this as the mullahs. The difference is that as the influence of the Christian hierarchies on their societies has deminished over time, the Muslim hierarchies' influence has grown. "They have-as we see examples of just about every day-thousands, tens of thousands, perhaps many hundreds of thousands of faithful who are perfectly willing to sacrifice their lives because their mullahs tell them it will please God. And also send them directly to heaven, where they will receive the attentions of grateful whores.

Interesting:confused: