re: Bolton giddy over prospects of war with Iran????

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Islam is a threat to us.

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Not Shia Islam. Iran's goals are regional. All the major terrorist groups in the world are Sunni. In the National Countererrorism Center annual reports, there isn't even a category for Iranian or Shia terrorism. The last real credible terrorist operations Iran has conducted against Americans, when not in an active warzone, was the Khobar Towers bombing. Of course, you can consider what Iran did to support its Shia allies in Iraq terrorism, but the context for me is different in a meaningful way.

Iran is a threat because they are really good at asymmetrical warfare, and they do a great job of working with groups with whom they have a historical and religious association.

No one likes to say this, but Iran's geopolitical interests would remain the same whether the Shah or the Mullahs or a democratic government were in power. In fact, the security apparatus of the Iranian state was an example of one institution that was carried over into the new post-revolutionary state. The Shah also had a secret police.

I'm in favor of confronting Iran, but I'm not willing to use American forces to do so. If the Israelis and the Saudis are so desperate to confront Iran, then they should do it themselves, with their own soldiers.