[lit-ideas] Re: Five Years Ago
- From: "Andy Amago" <aamago@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 13 Sep 2006 00:39:03 -0400
Iran's got Iraq one way or the other, so we may as well have them friend as
foe. Afghanistan has been lost for years. It's just ripening now, that's all,
and the horrendous drug trade, basically their only crop, is financing the
Taliban along with the war lords. My intuition tells me that Ahmadinejad talks
a good line the way Reagan talked a good line to give himself credibility and
A's just paving the way for the mullahs who are a lot more reasonable than we
give them credit for in our paranoid rants. They may not be a democracy, but
they're politically savvy and crafty. Certainly they're not insane, which is
what they would have to be to drop a bomb on Israel. The consensus is that the
Iranian people are passive and even supportive of the U.S. Of course attacking
their country will probably change that. The Saudis I'm having a harder time
with because they're allied with the U.S. more or less, and we've managed to
get ourselves reviled in the M.E. One of OBL's thin
gs is that the U.S. has to get out of Saudi Arabia. I have a less clear
understanding of that end of it and how it could be handled. The Sunnis are
the majority yet they're concentrated in Indonesia, Pakistan. In Pakistan
Musharif is basically walking a tightrope.
----- Original Message -----
From: Lawrence Helm
To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: 9/12/2006 11:59:33 PM
Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: Five Years Ago
You know, Irene I discussed these matters in a note to Eric yesterday. I
didn?t think it was too long for you -- not your anti-Bush and Leftist
maunderings, of course, but the approach toward Iran. Vali Nasr, purported by
some to be the greatest authority on political Islam implied that if we could
reach an agreement with Iran, that could go a long way toward solving the Iraq
problem. Iran has weight with Syria and if the two of them decided to stop the
insurgency from their countries that would be a major help. Then we would need
the Saudis to influence the Iraqi Sunnis and we?d be home free. Nasr said that
in Iraq the Shiites trust Iran the most, the Sunnis trust the Saudis the most
and the Kurds trusts the US the most. [a paraphrase from a CSPAN 2 interview
with Vali Nasr in regard to his new book The Shi Revival.]
Lawrence
.
From: lit-ideas-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:lit-ideas-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On
Behalf Of Andy Amago
Sent: Tuesday, September 12, 2006 8:08 PM
To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: Five Years Ago
Well, how about make peace with Iran and solve the Palestinian thing. That
would be huge steps forward. Iraq is dead in the water, and Iran can be a
powerful ally in settling them down. From what I can tell, Iran seems to want
to enter the 21st century. That's the motivation behind the desire for nuclear
energy. At this point, we don't have a choice, and now Afghanistan is on the
brink of going the way of Iraq. Of course we can always invade Iran and create
thousands and tens of thousands more jihadists and suicide bombers. That's
probably what they will do. Did you ever wonder, Lawrence, that there are no
leftists among the neocons that put this fiasco together? Want to reconsider
your opinion of leftists? And to think, for making such a mess, Wolfowitz was
given a job running the IMF. Does that not amaze you?
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