But what then Dr. Lee?

Submitted by Max_Normal (United Kingdom), Jan 18, 2006 at 10:27

I am from the UK. After the London Bombings last July a selection of the vast number of UK muslims was interviewed as to thier opinion of the attack. A reasonable majority of muslims condemned the bombings, however, almost all muslims said that they would not give evidence about possible fundamentalists as they were "brothers in Islam". An example of passive support of fundamentalism by "peaceful" muslims. (Another example of this is the vast number of "good" American bible-belt christians who voted for Bush simply because he is a christian, but I digress).

Dr. Lee, if this is your prediction, what is your prediction for the aftermath? War with other "brothers in Islam" Arab states? An economic war followed by the collapse of western economy? (Oil producing arabs now have huge growth markets like China to sell oil to). A huge upsurgence in muslim fundamentalism across the arab world born of religous outrage and resulting in uncontrolled terrorist attacks upon the west, principally Israel? Who will protect Israel from an arab coalition army? Not the US without a general draft, and how would that go down back home in America?

If Israel strikes, there will be a huge escalation of war in the middle east and terror across the world. If they do not strike who knows what problems Iran will cause the world?

The US is militarily and diplomatically weak following the events post 9/11 and Iran knows that. What we need to do is decide whether Iran is trying to exploit this to establish itself as a world power for the arab nations rather than a regional middle-eastern power, or whether it really is trying to become a national suicide bomber. Considering the timing of the announcement of their nuclear intentions it is likely the former, otherwise why not just keep the development of WMD a secret until it is time to use them?

Ahmadinejad has made some very ill advised comments, but rhetoric of this sort is widespread amongst the population of the middle east, and remember that he styles himself as the "peoples president".

A knee-jerk reaction by (understandably) frightened Israelis or by some ideologically xenophobic and gung-ho Americans may be utterly disasterous for the world. At THIS point, the diplomatic approach favoured by Europe is without a doubt the way to proceed.

But if Iran wants to destroy itself and Israel, someone will have to strike them regardless, but only when we are absolutely sure of their intent.

If Iran wants to be a world power, we will have to decide which is best - living with that, or immediate war and destabilisation - Not an easy question to answer.

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