Lybia

[spence]

Originally Posted by JohnR

2) Rebels will fall under Iranian influence and follow the pattern somewhere along option one.

Why do you believe a bunch of Sunni Arabs would fall under Iranian influence?

-spence

[JohnR]

Originally Posted by spence

Why do you believe a bunch of Sunni Arabs would fall under Iranian influence?

-spence

Why would Iran try to expand its sphere of influence of Sunni Taliban in Afg? Why would Iran try to influence Sunnis in Turkey? Sunnis in Syria? Hamas?

[spence]

Originally Posted by JohnR

Why would Iran try to expand its sphere of influence of Sunni Taliban in Afg? Why would Iran try to influence Sunnis in Turkey? Sunnis in Syria? Hamas?

Because they''re trying to secure their borders for the most part. Hamas is certainly a marriage of convenience, but a proxy war with the Zionists is often good PR.

I'm not saying that Iran won't try to influence Libya, but I'm not sure the conditions really exist to get much in return.

-spence

[striperman36]

Well Iran doesn't have much oil. So takin Libya into a consolidated state would improve things.

Why doesn't the UN annex it and give it to the Palestinians?

[JohnR]

Originally Posted by spence

Because they''re trying to secure their borders for the most part.
-spence

Secure their borders

[justplugit]

WTH, Obama is turning the war over to a Political Steering Committee
and without us even knowing what our objective is.
Insane.

[spence]

Originally Posted by JohnR

Secure their borders

Huh?

Iran is most focused on neighboring states. Not sure where the joke is, unless you just took a long toke and need to giggle

-spence

[scottw]

Originally Posted by JohnR ....This is what I fear will happen.

Hopefully Col Q's military and Mercs flip on him. Of course at this stage of the game even if Q is gone and the rebels take over we'll have one of 3 things happen:

1) Rebels will go all fundamentalist anyway.

2) Rebels will fall under Iranian influence and follow the pattern somewhere along option one.

3) We might have some semblance of a modern democracy that remembers help from the west.

Don't expect the latter.

Originally Posted by spence

Why do you believe a bunch of Sunni Arabs would fall under Iranian influence?

Huh?

Iran is most focused on neighboring states. Not sure where the joke is, unless you just took a long toke and need to giggle

-spence

-spence

I'M DOUBLE sHOCKED!!!


Clinton says Iran trying to hijack Mideast revolts

Apr 15, 4:11 PM (ET)

MATTHEW LEE

(AP) US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton speaks during a press conference at the US Embassy in...

BERLIN (AP) - U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Friday accused Iran of trying to hijack democratic revolutions around the Mideast and warned Arab nations not to permit intolerance against women and religious minorities.

Clinton said Iran was clearly trying to use uprisings around the region to further its own goals and foment broader unrest while at the same time cracking down on its own reform movement.

"I think that that everyone(EXCEPT SPENCE) is aware if its efforts to exploit and even hijack what are legitimate protests. But certainly in an era of instant communication we hope that people will not be fooled by their tactics."

[scottw]

Triple....

April 17, 2011
Syria Heading from Bad to Worse By Neil Snyder

Typical newspaper readers and those with untrained eyes probably read past the report on Monday that Syrian Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohammad Riad Shaqfa declared support for anti-Assad protesters in Syria. Likewise, they probably failed to grasp the significance of a report on Tuesday that Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman, Ramin Mehmanparast, said that the protests in Syria are the result of a plot by Americans and Zionists -- that's Jewish people in general and Israeli Jews in particular.


Syria is a Muslim country, but it's not an Islamist state. Bashar al-Assad, Syria's president, is a Muslim, but he's not a Sharia law aficionado. Even so, he has allowed Hamas, Hezb'allah, the Muslim Brotherhood, Islamic Jihad, and other radical Islamist groups to set up field headquarters in Damascus, Syria's capital. Syria is a resource-poor country and a country that is still technically at war with Israel. Assad thinks that he's using these Islamist groups as leverage to maintain influence in Lebanon and to keep pressure on Israel, but the worm has turned. Iran has assumed the leadership position in the dark world of radical Islam, and Iran is using these and other Islamist groups to dislodge non-Islamist Arab leaders -- including Bashar al-Assad -- throughout the Middle East and North Africa.

Under the best of circumstances, Islamists can't be trusted. Lying is as natural to them as breathing is to normal humans. They don't even trust each other, and if it were not for the fact that they view Israel as their common enemy, they would fight among themselves until the bitter end. Bashar al-Assad, like his father before him, knows these things, and still he opened his arms to radical Islamists, believing as he does that the enemy of my enemy is my friend.


Iran is a game changer. The Iranians came to the party with a strong military, oil, money to burn (and radical Islamists love money), and a lust for transforming the world into a caliphate under Sharia law. From the radical Islamist groups' perspective, it makes perfect sense to dump Assad and embrace Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.


That explains what's happening in Syria, but what about the Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman's remark about Americans and Zionists? Does he honestly believe that these groups are responsible for the unrest in Syria? The answer is a resounding "no." Why? It's because Iran is stoking the fires in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Yemen, Jordan, and Syria. From Iran's perspective, Assad was a good partner as long as radical Islamist splinter groups were relatively weak, but when they became stronger and more beholden to Iran, ditching Assad was a no-brainer.