Many people are unaware of the many issues playing out the in the Middle East right now, particularly those involving Iran. They tend to lump all Muslims together, and to consider the Middle East a cohesive whole, which it is not.
The most fundamental thing to understand about Islam is that there are two main branches; Sunni and Shiite. Without going into tedious detail about the differences between them, suffice to say that it's a bigger deal than Protestant or Catholic in the Christian world. In extreme cases, they try very hard to murder each other for being apostate.
Iran is one of the few majority Shiite Muslim nations (also Iraq, Azerbaijan, and Bahrain). The rest are predominately Sunni.
Prior to our invasion of Iraq, although Iraq was majority Shiite, it wasn't run that way, as Saddam Hussein was Sunni, and he enforced a peace between warring factions of Sunni, Shiite, and Kurds (yet another sect of Islam). In fact, he was very much like Tito; the country remained peaceful because he was more brutal than anyone.
With Hussein gone and a shaky Iraq government in, Iran began to move against the Sunni in Iraq to consolidate power and give the Shiite an edge. They funded and trained a lot of insurgents, and they even sheltered and supplied and trained Sunni insurgents against Iraq, under the 'the enemy of my enemy is my friend' theory. Their goal was to destabilize, run a war of attrition by proxy, and get the US to leave Iraq. They won, we left (I'm not arguing that we should have stayed or that we should or should not have been there in the first place, just that we were out-maneuvered).
The current Iraqi PM is Shiite. No sooner did we leave Iraq than he issued an arrest warrant for the VP, who is Sunni. The King of Saudi Arabia has flat-out stated that the Iraqi PM is an agent for Iran.
Given Iran's position in the Middle East as a minority Islamic power, they want very much to consolidate power in Iraq; they have essentially taken it over already, but they want to complete the acquisition.
Iran also wants to not be seen as an enemy by the Sunni Muslim world, and to this end, they have supported the Palastinians, primarily Hamas and not Fatah, and mostly since Arafat's death. It is reported that most of Palestine's weapons and monetary support come directly from Iran. As long as eyes are on the Israeli/Palestinian issues, people don't pay attention to Iran, and of course Hamas supports the destruction of Israel.
Now Iran has been building a nuclear program for years, just like North Korea (with whom the cooperate), and they have made it perfectly clear that they intend to build nuclear weapons. Most of the world's intelligence services believe this and have said so; even in Russia, although the President said no, the PM said yes. The only people who believe Iran is not engaged in building nuclear weapons are the seriously uninformed and ignorant; it's not a matter of left or right wing politics, it's simple fact.
Given that Iran has repeatedly stated that the nation of Israel must be utterly eradicated and destroyed, it is clear what Iran will do with those weapons the moment it has them. They will attack Israel with them. Israel knows this full well and won't let them do this; however, they have stayed their hand overtly (they do work covertly) at the pleading of the US, their strongest ally.
Iran is now moving their enrichment program underground and deep into mountains. Iran is not like Iraq; it is not a big desert. It's mountainous, more like Afghanistan in that sense. They know perfectly well that they can't be invaded in the traditional sense like Iraq was; there are too many places for them to hide. They do not fear destruction from the USA or Israel. In fact, they believe that if attacked by either, the rest of the Middle Eastern Muslim would would come to their rescue, even the Sunni nations; especially if Israel attacked them. Some say they would not risk war, because they are not stupid. It's stupid to think they won't risk war if they can detonate a nuke in Tel Aviv. They'll do it the instant they have the capability.
Europe is about to start sanctions against them which will hurt them financially. In retaliation, they've done various things, like block the Strait of Hormuz and threaten to deny US warships entry, arrest various US nationals inside Iran and sentence them to death, etc. All sword-rattling. All diversionary and delaying tactics. All brinksmanship.
The bottom line is that Iran wants to eradicate Israel, to complete its conquest of Iraq, and to develop nuclear weapons to make it a power in the region so that it no longer faces threat from Sunni Muslim nations or non-Muslim nations. All other considerations are secondary to completing work on nuclear weapons.
I fully suspect that in the near future, Israel will take unilateral action against Iran; we'll be dragged into it of course. Or, alternatively, we'll barge our way past the Iranian Navy and sink a few of their boats. I would not even be surprised if a US-flagged vessel were attacked and sunk by the Iranians (even if faked by us) to give us a pretext for bombing the crap out of them.
In any case, Iran must not have nuclear weapons. I don't particularly care what it takes to keep that from happening.
The most fundamental thing to understand about Islam is that there are two main branches; Sunni and Shiite. Without going into tedious detail about the differences between them, suffice to say that it's a bigger deal than Protestant or Catholic in the Christian world. In extreme cases, they try very hard to murder each other for being apostate.
Iran is one of the few majority Shiite Muslim nations (also Iraq, Azerbaijan, and Bahrain). The rest are predominately Sunni.
Prior to our invasion of Iraq, although Iraq was majority Shiite, it wasn't run that way, as Saddam Hussein was Sunni, and he enforced a peace between warring factions of Sunni, Shiite, and Kurds (yet another sect of Islam). In fact, he was very much like Tito; the country remained peaceful because he was more brutal than anyone.
With Hussein gone and a shaky Iraq government in, Iran began to move against the Sunni in Iraq to consolidate power and give the Shiite an edge. They funded and trained a lot of insurgents, and they even sheltered and supplied and trained Sunni insurgents against Iraq, under the 'the enemy of my enemy is my friend' theory. Their goal was to destabilize, run a war of attrition by proxy, and get the US to leave Iraq. They won, we left (I'm not arguing that we should have stayed or that we should or should not have been there in the first place, just that we were out-maneuvered).
The current Iraqi PM is Shiite. No sooner did we leave Iraq than he issued an arrest warrant for the VP, who is Sunni. The King of Saudi Arabia has flat-out stated that the Iraqi PM is an agent for Iran.
Given Iran's position in the Middle East as a minority Islamic power, they want very much to consolidate power in Iraq; they have essentially taken it over already, but they want to complete the acquisition.
Iran also wants to not be seen as an enemy by the Sunni Muslim world, and to this end, they have supported the Palastinians, primarily Hamas and not Fatah, and mostly since Arafat's death. It is reported that most of Palestine's weapons and monetary support come directly from Iran. As long as eyes are on the Israeli/Palestinian issues, people don't pay attention to Iran, and of course Hamas supports the destruction of Israel.
Now Iran has been building a nuclear program for years, just like North Korea (with whom the cooperate), and they have made it perfectly clear that they intend to build nuclear weapons. Most of the world's intelligence services believe this and have said so; even in Russia, although the President said no, the PM said yes. The only people who believe Iran is not engaged in building nuclear weapons are the seriously uninformed and ignorant; it's not a matter of left or right wing politics, it's simple fact.
Given that Iran has repeatedly stated that the nation of Israel must be utterly eradicated and destroyed, it is clear what Iran will do with those weapons the moment it has them. They will attack Israel with them. Israel knows this full well and won't let them do this; however, they have stayed their hand overtly (they do work covertly) at the pleading of the US, their strongest ally.
Iran is now moving their enrichment program underground and deep into mountains. Iran is not like Iraq; it is not a big desert. It's mountainous, more like Afghanistan in that sense. They know perfectly well that they can't be invaded in the traditional sense like Iraq was; there are too many places for them to hide. They do not fear destruction from the USA or Israel. In fact, they believe that if attacked by either, the rest of the Middle Eastern Muslim would would come to their rescue, even the Sunni nations; especially if Israel attacked them. Some say they would not risk war, because they are not stupid. It's stupid to think they won't risk war if they can detonate a nuke in Tel Aviv. They'll do it the instant they have the capability.
Europe is about to start sanctions against them which will hurt them financially. In retaliation, they've done various things, like block the Strait of Hormuz and threaten to deny US warships entry, arrest various US nationals inside Iran and sentence them to death, etc. All sword-rattling. All diversionary and delaying tactics. All brinksmanship.
The bottom line is that Iran wants to eradicate Israel, to complete its conquest of Iraq, and to develop nuclear weapons to make it a power in the region so that it no longer faces threat from Sunni Muslim nations or non-Muslim nations. All other considerations are secondary to completing work on nuclear weapons.
I fully suspect that in the near future, Israel will take unilateral action against Iran; we'll be dragged into it of course. Or, alternatively, we'll barge our way past the Iranian Navy and sink a few of their boats. I would not even be surprised if a US-flagged vessel were attacked and sunk by the Iranians (even if faked by us) to give us a pretext for bombing the crap out of them.
In any case, Iran must not have nuclear weapons. I don't particularly care what it takes to keep that from happening.