As I sit and watch the Israeli/Hezbollah crisis on TV each day I can't help think, "Man! Iran is smart!"


Iran's one and only contribution to the world and only real source of income is oil. Yes, I know they make great carpets, but due to embargoes and other reasons, Persian carpets have stayed out of my house.

If you have watched just 5 minutes of the crisis on the news you will learn that Hezbollah is being controlled by Syria and Iran. I would say Syria's motives are to kill Jews because they really don't have an oil export market. But Iran has everything to gain from this crisis and little to lose.

First, if the world is watching Hezbollah, then the world is not watching Iran and their nuclear progress. This crisis will extend Iran's "compliance" by several months. Iran's goal is to develop a nuke and wipe Israel off the map. They are swimming in oil and a nuclear reactor is a waste. This is like having a swimming pool created in my backyard in Hawaii. I am surrounded by beaches!

Second, oil prices have spiked yet again due to this crisis, therefore increasing Iran's income by 100s of millions of dollars. My second point helps fund my first point. How many businesses wish they had Iran's business model? Tell some thugs to kidnap someone and fire some rockets and within days my product increases in value by 5%.

Additionally, as oil prices go up so does Iran's bargaining power with some major world powers. Iran dangles oil in front of China and Russia much like Iraq dangled oil in front of France and Russia just a few years ago. Is there any wonder that China and Russia become more entrenched with Iran as the price of oil goes up?

Iran is smarter than the rest of the world. While Israelis die, the Europeans drag on talks for years Iran gets richer, develops nukes and controls two of the world superpowers, Russia and China.

This is how I see the Iranian President watching CNN.

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Good point on how while the world focuses on Israel/Lebanon, Iran is free to do what they want. But hey, we both know thats not true, right mike? Seriously though, have you seen how Iran is trying to remove various "western" worlds from its peoples vocabulary. Words include "cabin" -- a small room, "chat" -- a short talk, and "pizza" -- elastic loaves, just to name a few.

I so heart fanatics!!! hahahahahaha

-Ghost

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To know that we know what we know, and that we do not know what we do not know, that is true knowledge. -Henry David Thoreau

Knowledge is power.

On the surface it looks like Iran has most of the cards in its deck but I'm not sure I would say they are so smart. There are many parallels between the old soviet block and the Iranain sphere of influence today. Iran does of course have oil in the market, but if they are so religiously blinded that they do not figure out how to use that wealth for the betterment of their country, they will eventually fall apart just as the soviet block did. Right now they are blinded by the goal of creating their version of a religious utopia. They are spending a high percentage of their wealth on every military application they can. This is what the soviet block did. It is the age old guns and butter conundrum. Communists were just as zealous in many ways about communism as many Islamists are about Islam. True, Islam has thousand years of culture behind it where communism did not however, eventually people who are not getting what they think is their fair share will turn on the government who spends the national wealth militaristically without any thought for the society. Given all this, I'd say Irans chances of out smarting the west geo-politically are 50/50 at best. It all hinges on how we are able to keep weapons of mass destruction out of their hands. They have obvioulsy figured out, along with the little bastard in the north, that such weapons will change the odds very rapidly.

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They are making a lot of troubles

Itaewon mentioned an Iranian site earlier. Looking at it, it seems that lots of Iranians don't agree with their elected leader....
I was surprised at 100% unity in the UN? We'll see...

Because, from what I can read in the Qur'an, it appears that Christianity and Islam ar polar opposites in some ways.
It looks to me that there is little tolerance for Christians; That A Christian may be tolerated up to a period of 12 years, that it is OK to lie to him for the purpose of conversion,but if he has not converted by then, he may be killed. That leads me to want to live in a separate part of the world from those who believe that.

Christianity in its coldest light can be harsh,also. Basic tenets say that unless you follow Christ, you cannot be saved. There are more recent attitudes that have been put forth, that softened the blow. It seems more converts can be gotten if you follow the "Once saved, always saved" theory. That makes it really nice. Punishment is removed, and you can sin as you wish, after you have declared Jesus as your Saviour, because you were saved once. Nowadays the 10 Commandments have been softened to be the 10 suggestions.
In any event, killing someone who does not see it your way, seems to be enough to alienate me from fundamentalist Islam.
The key seems to be-everyone is not 100% fundamentalists in their beliefs.
Everyone does not want to kill everyone else that does not believe as they do. Sounds like a better way to get along-tolerate the differences.

I should have put these comments in"Politics and Religion" in the Lounge, but it seemed appropriate. Any comments to these last three posts that are more appropriate to religious discussion please reply in that Category.