We can still afford to wait this one out.

Submitted by Peter Herz (United States), Nov 22, 2006 at 09:07

I say again that the most we should do to Ahmadinejad is have him arrested for the Embassy Invasion the moment he sets foot in a country with which we have an extradition treaty.

War with Iran should be avoided. Ahmadinejad is a loon, but no more loony than Mao Zedong and Kim Chong il, both of whom were and are aware, in their hearts of hearts, that when it comes to nuclear war, the USA really does have the capability to do far worse to them than they can do to us.

Ahmadinejad's imaginary playmate, aka the 12th imam, will not materialize. If one does, he will be a hoax and will be exposed soon enough. An Iran allowed to stew in its own juices over this thing without foreign invasion will, in 30 years time, be so fed up with the mad mullahs and their heirs that it will probably be hard for Ithna'ashariyya Shi'ism to maintain its hold on the populace. Already, Iranian Evangelicals of Muslim background are catching up with those of Armenian, Assyrian, and Gurjan background. This suggests that the right questions have already begun to be asked.

Conversely, we need to remember that in the 1930's, Japan invaded China to (1) lead the poorer nations of the world, (2) save China from Communism, and (3) rid China of an unpopular government. While the Japanese occupied all the best parts of China, they nonetheless found a million of their troops bogged down in nearly a decade of fighting--and at the end, they lost Taiwan (which they had taken from China in 1895). Why? The Chinese people faced dismal political choices; but the bastards were still their own bastards rather than foreign impositions.

And, while we're at it, we can also signal to the mad mullahs that we're ready for dialogue by revoking asylum given to all members of the Mujaheddin-e-Kalq and deporting them. They were, after all, the first ones into the "Nest of Spies".

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