Don't worry, where there's a will, there's a way!

who are you kidding?

of course there's going to be a shooting war!

except now it'll involve the Russians too.

dear t,

i thought it was "where there's a will, there's a war"?

--raf*

Erm, I dunno, the Iranians ain't that stupid. I assume they'll keep the knowhow of how to make centrifuges capable of enriching uranium to the level needed for a bomb, while allowing the Russians to do their enriching for them. Far as they're concerned, they've demonstrated what they've needed to. I'm quite sure they realize that even Bush isn't stupid enough to want to start a second land war in Asia when the first one has already proved the wisdom of Churchill. Besides, Iraq is a no-muss, no-fuss way of keeping us pinned down. Why interfere when your enemies are so intent on destroying each other?

Pantom,

Do not underestimate the stupidity of the U.S. Administration, or indeed most politicians in general. Iran does indeed seem to be betting that it can do whatever it likes because of $70+ oil and the Iraqi insurgency. It should not, simply because the U.S. political establishment still believes in its bones that its military might is such that it can still dictate terms to the rest of the world if push comes to shove. If not through ground troops, then through bombing.

Speaking of bombing, the Yorkshire Ranter has a neat canned history of the theory of victory achieved through airpower alone.

Hmm, so tequila, you're theory is: dumb, meet dumber. Only thing to settle is, are the US pols dumb, and Iran's dumber, or vice versa?