Israel just held an exercise that equalled a surgical strike on Iran.  I don't know how long the U.S. can talk them back from taking things into their own hands.  I would have a strange feeling that we would still support them no matter what they did.  That could turn really ugly.  China on the other hand, and their position toward Taiwan could escalate.  Plus, who knows who will be in office twenty years from now….

Iran provides too concrete a threat to the EU through its proxies(Hezbollah, Syria) or directly (a nuke) to have a chance of escaping unneutered. Suppose Ahm. pulls a Mughabe? what will the election matter? Those nuclear facilities need to be taken out before Jerusalem or Tel Aviv get bombed. If the Iran situation is dealt with, the trigger then becomes China/Taiwan...

I question whether Iran would even bomb Israel because that would be suicide,and I do not think they are suicidal.

You do realize that suicide in the pursuit of national and religious goals has a long and illustrious history with Muslims?  The Assassins are the earliest suicide attackers I can think of.  Iran will do whatever they think they can get away with and probably even some things that they know they can't get away with.  We are dealing with irrational people, it is a mistake to assume that they won't do something because it is irrational.  That is the mistake Chamberlain and Daladier made at Munich in 1939.  They did not recognize that Hitler was essentially an irrational actor and his motivations stemmed from irrational precepts.  Negotiating with Iran is repeating the mistakes of the past.  We cant truly know the motivation of Iran and so are ill-equipped to make judgment calls on what they will or will not do.  In this case I believe it is prudent to expect the worst and proceed on that basis.  This is why Obama's call to negotiate alarms me so much.

I am not talking about an entire Muslim country.  But if their leadership leads them down the path of ruin then the country is committing suicide.  Don't believe, ask the Nazi's what happened when they followed an idiotic leader.  Germany effectively committed suicide by following Hitler's lead even after it was clear that they would lose the war and go down in flames while losing it.You are trying to cherry pick my answer.  I did not say that they would all commit suicide.  I pointed out that suicidal actions have a long history within the Muslim faith, even suicide in the pursuit of political objectives can justified by faith under Islam.

When I say watch Iran, I don't mean watch what Ahmadinejad is doing…..I mean watch what WE are doing to provoke the war with them.  Iran is a recalcitrant nation who will not abide by the new globalist order that is emerging.  If they won't tow the line, they will be neutralized by pre-emptive strikes or engineered regime change via revolution or coupe de'tat.

So how long have you been working on Obama's staff? ;D ;D 😀Thank you very much, next show will be at 8:00

I was just reading today about one of the guys serving just under Petraeus who said that in 2006 we were on the verge of defeat, but that since then the surge has helped things turn around.  Verge of defeat?  I don't recall hearing that at the time.  I knew things were going poorly but I didn't know that it was considered that bad.

I think Petraeus is going to go down in history as one of the great generals. We'll see.

I think we are too close to events in both time and space to have any idea what the verdict of history will be about either Petraeus or the Iraq War.  Of course they are not armed, that is one of the beauties about authoritarian regimes. I do not think the evidence supports the notion that Iran is ripe for revolt.  I would guess the people want change, but from what I have read they want to achieve change at the ballot box.  Revolutionary change will only come when the majority in Iran are so fed up with the regime that any alternative seems preferable.  I think they are about as far from revolution in Iran as we in the United States.  The status quo is simply not intolerable enough yet.