[karajorma]

Of course the real irony in this is that the CIA gave the Iranians the plans for a nuclear weapon about 4 or 5 years ago.

I'm so sick of arming the world and then sending troops over to destroy the ****ing arms, you know what I mean? We keep arming these little countries then we go and blow the **** out of em. We're like the bullies of the world, you know. We're like Jack Palance in the movie Shane... Throwing the pistol at the sheep herder's feet: "Pick it up." "I don't wanna pick it up mister, you'll shoot me." "Pick up the gun". "Mister, I don't want no trouble huh. I just came down town here to get some hard rock candy for my kids, some gingham for my wife. I don't even know what gingham is, but she goes through about 10 rolls a week of that stuff. I ain't looking for no trouble mister." "Pick up the gun." Boom boom "You all saw him. He had a gun."

[IceFire]

if we (the U.S.) are going to war against iran...we'll have the rest of the arabs on our side...well beside syria

Iranians aren't Arabs.

Thats right...I think the vast majority of the population are ethnically Persians.  In the end its all really the same as far as physical human beings go.  Its just the culture and a few traits that get passed down from generation to generation that separates us but don't go telling that to people... (we're all the same bloody genetic code really).

I know its sort of hippocritical for the western nations to be wanting Iran to be nuclear free but when you look at the situation directly then you understand what the reasoning is.  Iran is very much run by a dictatorship and a religious fundamentalist one at that.  The normal underpinnings of protecting your people and advancing your nation sort of fall by the wayside if your only understanding is religion and something is religiously motivating.  I'm not really pointing a finger at any religion either.  The same would be true regardless of religion...and the same could be said of someone with no religion as well.

So when you have a leader who says in one breath that Israel should be wipped off the map and in the other breath is trying to build nuclear technology (whatever it may be for) you worry and thats a fairly legitimate grievance.  Hopefully it never comes to it...but I half expect that if the crisis continues, someone is going to launch an airstrike to prevent a further larger disaster from occuring.

[Rictor]

Not only are they not Arabs, Persians generally don't think much of Arabs and don't consider them to be a legitimate culture, or barbarians at best. Or so my Iranian friend tells me. Which is kind of justified, given that Persia had civilization way back in the day. Which is probably why you haven't seen more unity in the Middle-East. Not only do you havr the Shia and Sunnis hating on each other, you also have Arabs, Persians and a whole ton of other tribes who have no great love for each other.

[BlackDove]

Kurds too?

[Ace]

Yup, everybody hates eachother. Everyone claims that the others aren't legitimate and they were there first.

[IceFire]

Ok but is there a difference between that sort of thing and the rampant European nationalism that has been in place until maybe only very recently (and I'll question that too).  All of the wars fought over the last 500 years in Europe by European states...

Is there some sort of more fundamental difference or is ther hope that they too can pull out of this mess eventually.