There is an article over at TCSDaily that is worthy of the Village Idiot's approach. It points out things that we all know, and should have been keeping in mind, that gives evidence that it is Pakistan we should be worried about more than Iran. We get distracted by the noisiness and insanity of Ahmadinejad contrasted to the relative goodwill of Musharraf, and overlook the obvious.
It is the job of Village Idiots to notice the obvious and point it out. I should have noticed this myself; that's why I'm still the assistant.
Personally, I think Iran the more dangerous because of the hotheads at the height of government. Musharref is, at least ruthless enough to contain most of the bad guys and is ruthless enough to take on anyone that challenges his power.
ReplyDeleteThat said,perhaps we ought to take both seriously, not an either or proposition. That in itself is a scary thought. The TCS column makes excellent sense, but that should not mean we turn our backs to the Iranians (not that TCS was advocating that, it is just that most folk don't seem to have room in their minds for more than one existential fear.
Pakistan's government is too riddled with terrorists and narcotraffickers. They have nukes, they've been hosting bin Laden in their border areas, and they've never really backed off from supporting terrorism against India.
ReplyDeleteOh, yeah, Pakistan is more dangerous. Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, not Iran and Iraq.
I agree with gm roper that it is prudent to take both Pakistan and Iran seriously, but it wouldn't take much for Iran to be on our side in this. Pakistan is too tied in with Al Qaeda and Saudi Arabia.
Agreed that Pakistan is potentially and actually very problematic for us.
ReplyDelete"It wouldn't take much for Iran to be on our side in this."
It wouldn't be if Iran were not ruled by the mullahs.Twenty eight years of rule shows how the mullahs would ally themselves with the US.
The whole problem with Iran could disappear in a second with some simple moves by the mullahs. First, dispose of Amadinnerjacket, he just carries too much baggage. Second, invite us in to help develope their nuclear power plants.
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