Liz, were you asking me or someone else...? I already answered though I suppose I should not be suprised if you keep asking until you get the answer you want.


You make the mistake that people throughout the world make...they often assume others are as they are. That is seldom the case. The Iranian leadership truly DOES NOT care what the rest of the world thinks, Liz. They think the rest of the world is filled with vile infidels sure to suffer the righteous fury of Allah. Public opinion is not only irrelevant but ascribing any relevance to it is blasphemy because the only thing of relevance is the will of Allah as expressed to his Prophet and recorded in the Koran.

As I said earlier...I do not believe the Iranians are engaged in a simple show of force. They are engaged in a deadly serious effort to obtain weapons they think will render them immune to Western attack and at the same time move them into a primary position fo influence in the region. Success in that effort would increase their influence as a nation and as the representatives of their sect of islam.

No, I was asking you, since you had said,

in one sentence and then,


The NY Times said that the war games were 'bluff and deception' and not really as menacing as they appeared--but they did 'rattle' the oil market which resulted in raising the price of crude from $136/barrel to $147/barrel. If that price is sustained, it would bring millions into the Iranian coffers.

While I don't believe Iran made its show of force in order to raise the price of crude, I found it interesting that a leading newspaper would drop such a pebble into the stream of conjecture and misinformation.

Well...I am not normally suprised by what the NYT does...nor am I suprised that you took two quotes out of context when if you read the entire post things are rather clear. The discussion is about what the Iranians likely think, liz, not about how things necessarily are in reality.

Ha! the pot calling the kettle black.



The Iranians don't care what other Arab nations think, Iran doesn't care what the West thinks. Where is Iran's recognition of reality?

Where is Iran's recognition of reality?

Where is Pat Robertson's? Delusional thinking isn't exclusive to Iran, although it is probably more institutionalized in Muslim countries than in western ones.