Text 22432, 59 rader
Skriven 2008-10-23 19:01:48 av Robert Bashe (2:2448/44)
  Kommentar till text 22419 av Michiel van der Vlist (2:280/5555)
Ärende: Loyalties
=================
Michiel van der Vlist wrote to Robert Bashe on Thursday October 23 2008 at
13:45:

RB>> Who would attack Iran

MV> The US? Israel?

If the screaming hate tirades and sabre rattling stopped and there were some
semblence of cooperation with the other countries of the area? Not bloody
likely.

RB>> if they were't constantly threatening their neighbors and preaching
RB>> murder and mayhem instead of sitting back and enjoying the fruits of
RB>> their oil income?

MV> You know what happens when you corner a cat and threaten it. It will
MV> hiss, growl and show fangs and claws.

Bad analogy. If Iran is cornered, it did a fine job of arranging that itself.
Nothing but fanaticiam, murder and hatred since 1973, when the "great Satan"
(Khoumani, who should have been shot when he lived in Paris) came home. Even
Saudi Arabia with its religious police is less radical in public than those
foaming-at-the-mouth maniacs in Teheran.

RB>> No, in that case the reason is probably more to use them as a threat
RB>> to gain political influence.

MV> I disagree, I think they really feel threatened and I think they have
MV> good reasons for that.

Scream and threaten others with mayhem and you don't always get understanding
smiles, Michiel. Some people resent that, and take such things seriously - and
take precautions to make sure that the screamers and threateners will suffer
greatly if they ever put their bluster into acion. If you think that
reprhensible, I'm sure you must be one of the very few to do so.

RB>> I was thinking more about smaller countries threatened by larger
RB>> ones. Nukes are also deterrents.

MV> And I think that is precisely why countries like Iran en N. Korea may
MV> want them.

Now you're talking about "poor, innocent" countries like Nazi Germany in 1938.
We were talking about places like Georgia - and of course the Baltic countries
- who have every reason to be mortally frightened of their imperialistic and
powerful neighbor, particularly now.

MV> For that reason Israel should never have been allowed to have them.

Israel is probably one of the best examples for the need to have nukes to
protect themselves via the threat of retaliation. How many other countries have
been attacked so often by their neighbors, with the explicit threat of "driving
them into the sea"? Even granting flamboyant Arab rhetoric, that's nothing to
laugh at.

Cheers, Bob

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