I feel better, a little.

North Korea has it’s ruling elite living the “good life” & not wanting to have that mucked up. They’ve also got no major problems with their neighbors.

You’ve got the Iranian President declaring that Israel has no right to exist. You’ve got them accusing American Hikers of being spies & holding them for years. You’ve got the American Embassy hostages of 1979. You’ve got the Marine. You’ve got the whole Sunni/Shia mess. I just see lots of Disaster Potential in South West Asia.

It’s true the saber-rattling is used internally by Iran to keep their people in line, just as it is over here, and that could be all it is — something to distract both the Iranian people and Americans from other bad news, or to head off dissent.

I don’t like Iran having nukes either, but if crapshit crazy North Korea has nuclear weapons and hasn’t used them, it’s unlikely Iran, who has not started a war with anyone since the Mullahs took power in the late ’70s, would use them. It’s Mutually Assured Destruction — the moment Iran launched a nuclear attack on another nation, especially Israel, the country would be a sheet of irradiated glass in about half-an-hour.

This is not to say Iran is incapable of doing something stupid and self-destructive but, really, what do they gain by committing suicide? The Mullahs leading the country don’t buy into that ’72 virgins in paradise’ nonsense any more than Pat Robertson believes in the Sermon on the Mount. They are hypocritical politicians disguised in holy robes, not men willing to sacrifice themselves for their cause — that’s strictly for the naive idiots they recruit to fight for them.

The US Troops in Israel are a missile defense unit, if I understand correctly. Hardly the stuff of offensive war, even if they expect to be engaged.

I’d also point out that the saber-rattling is coming as much from Iran as the US. Who has threatened to close the Strait of Hormuz? Who sentenced to DEATH an American (former) Marine whose greatest crime was visiting his Iranian Grandmothers?

I am scared by the possibility of Iran building an atomic weapon. I have no wish to start a war for it’s own sake. I equally have no wish to start a war alone. When/if the US, in consultation & concert with our Allies, decides that war is necessary; Then I see the need.

I’d like there to be a peaceful solution to the whole mess; but history shows us that it really takes two to negotiate.