Post by Joe UserThat is very interesting. The map you linked
was interesting.
But, it contradicts my experience. I went to
college years ago with Iranian students, and I
got the impression of a cohesive culture.
Iran has maintained a Persian identiy for
thousands of years.
Yes, but that is only the Persian part of Iran. The most
recent addition to Iran is Baluchistan, which has remained
in an almost perpetual state of civil war alternatively
against Iran and Pakistan ever since its division.
To be truly inclusive to Iran, could include territories
reaching all the way into Libya, and though not part of
their original empire, even up into Lebanon.
These are all part of the "Shiite Crescent", the unification
of which is one of the "pipe dreams" I mentioned earlier.
Essentially a religious, not geographical empire based in
Qom, Iran. But none of the Shiites, and certainly none of
the Sunnis outside of Iran want anything to do with this
Shiite Crescent idea, and would fight it bitterly.
The Iranians you knew were -most likely- exclusively only
ethnically Indo-European, middle class Shiites or upper
class Zoroastrians. It is much less likely that Iranian
Arabs, Kurds, Baluchs, or many of their other minorities
would be allowed, or could afford to leave Iran and study
in the US.
In the time of the Shah, the Zoroastrian upper classes
controlled the military and much of the secret police, and
still continue to exert much influence despite the bitter
hatred between them and the Shiites. Except for the fear
the Shiites have of them, they would have destroyed the
Zoroastrian holy sites and impoverished them years ago.
Again, for their part, the Zoroastrians consider themselves
to be the "real" Persians, with the Shiites as inferiors.
The oil money is divided between the two, with everybody
else getting little or nothing. The Arabs feel terribly
exploited, as it is "their" oil paying for it all, yet
they get nothing out of it but repression.
With the establishment of an autonomous Kurdistan in Iraq,
the Iranian Kurds no longer hold any pretense as to loyalty
with Iran. The separatist violence there now equals that
happening in the Arab territory. Just today there is a
report that two pipelines were attacked in Pakistani
Baluchistan, but several assassinations of Revolutionary
Guards leaders have taken place in recent weeks in Iranian
Baluchistan. The entire region is chaotic, and the Pak army
is actively forcing Baluch fighters across the border into
Iran.
Politically, the conservative faction has driven most other
political parties out of the country, but many expats look
forward to their eventual return with the fall of the
conservatives, and actively work to this end. Even the son
of the late Shah is working for their overthrow.
But the bottom line may be wholly external. As I suggested,
their biggest problem is that the typical Iranian man on
the street wants nuclear weapons, having unrealistic
expectations about what "the pricipal" of having nukes will
do for their country. Overnight, they will no longer have
their perpetual fear of invaders. They will have their
"place in the sun" economically and militarily. No more of
being "bullied" with threat of economic sanction.
But instead, they can be the "bully" themselves. If other
nations don't do what they want, then they can push them
around. Threaten to cut off their oil, or threaten them
with their nukes. A juvenile attitude towards international
politics.
This is the one and only reason to partition them. Not for
any other sins or because it would be more balanced for their
minorities to be with their own people. Not because we want
to "keep them down" economically or surpress their religious
desires or steal their oil.
It is solely because they, down to their least citizen, just
do not "get" what nuclear weapons are. For them it is the
djinn in the lamp who makes all their wishes come true. All
power and no responsibility or risk. The easy way.
In truth, Iran *should* be a major power. Eventually, Japan
*did* become the world's second largest economy, and WWII
didn't help it, it slowed it down by decades. Were Iran to
just behave itself, and *not* be paranoid or xenophobic, or
try to force others to do its bidding, it could have much of
what it wants, given time.
And given also that they embraced real democracy, not a stupid
theocracy full of corrupt and grasping Mullahs, led by a kook.
So that is why there will be war. And why eventually Iran
must be partitioned. The only other alternative will be for
them to see the horror of nuclear weapons firsthand. To know
how very wrong they were in a way that cannot be ignored or
rationalized away.
It is not cruel to spare them, and their neighbors about them,
friends and foes from this horror. It will not be a whimsical
game to partition their nation and annihilate selected parts
of their military, but necessity.
The alternative is that someday they will use one of their
weapons. And the consequences of that, from some far less
forgiving adversary, would be catastropic. Would the Russians,
or even the French, even consider committing their armies to
the conventional prophalaxis, or would one of their cities
first be forfeit, followed by a salvo of death for the entire
nation of Iran?
--
Be Sure To Visit the 'SubGenius Reverend' Blog:
http://slackoff.blogspot.com/
***********
Anyone with a gun pointed
at you is the government.
--nu-monet