Troubles a comin'

[RIJIMMY]

Originally Posted by JohnR

Who knows if we started (and continued) talking to them 4-6-8 years ago when there was a less radical government things might not be so effed up...

Lots of "smart" people on both side of the isle were suggesting that but this may be another case of too little too late...

Ahhh, for the good old days of the Cold War

Or, if under Carter, we utterly destroyed them when they took AMericans Hostage on American soil? I think alot of things would be different, and honestly better for AMerica if we did.

[spence]

Originally Posted by RIJIMMY

Or, if under Carter, we utterly destroyed them when they took AMericans Hostage on American soil? I think alot of things would be different, and honestly better for AMerica if we did.

Yea, because what we really needed to pep up a depressed economy and a massive energy shortage was a good old war

You really can't discuss the hostage crisis, or even Iran for that matter without recognizing our influence, and the influence of Russia in the nation the past half century.

Iran today is in a large part a product of the Cold War.

The broader War on Terror is in a large part a product of the Cold War.

It's time we start looking at these problems for what they are, and not what some idiologues would like them to be.

-spence

[Mike P]

Originally Posted by RIJIMMY

Or, if under Carter, we utterly destroyed them when they took AMericans Hostage on American soil? I think alot of things would be different, and honestly better for AMerica if we did.

We didn't have the military capacity under Carter to utterly destroy them, short of going nuclear. Khomeini had yet to begin purging the Shah's military leadership. Iran's military was still pretty formidable and was equipped with advanced American hardware. Heck, even after most of their leading generals had been liquidated, they were still able to fight Iraq to a standstill.

Plus, without a nearby staging base, where would we have assembled the necessary couple hundred thousand troops and the required equipment to wage an invasion of Iran? Iran is a totally land-locked country, and at the time was surrounded by countries that were hostile to the US.

Remember, we were about 5 years removed from Vietnam, and the country as a whole didn't have the stomach for an all-out war, even if we had the capability to wage one.

[Raven]

it's coming....

iran's gonna be history.... soon.

as was once said......we'll bomb you back into the stone age...

oh yeah.... that was never said.