Paul'l, it seems hard for you to get the message that many historians believe that because Iran's historical record does show that apart from nasty rhetoric, Iran has never attacked another country, she is far less likely to attack than other so-called peaceful countries we know so well.

To be sure we are not in love with Iran, but especially in America's case, it is mostly sour gapes over the US embassy being held captive and the ridiculous way Donald Rumsfeld was allowed to help Iraq in the long 1980's war against Iran.

a war Iraq lost incidently, and which many historians say was too much urged on by the US.

Maybe you should listen to historians a bit more, Paul'l.

Bushbred,
The US was actually helping both sides during the Iran-Iraq war, supplying Iraq with weapons (conventional and chemical), satellite intelligence and money while secretly encouraging Israel to ship Iran arms in the early 1980s, and then began directly supplying weapons to the Islamic Republic in 1985 as part of the Iran-Contra affair.

The US goal of the was to weaken and destabilise Iran and limit its ability to undermine U.S. clients in the Gulf, while creating opportunities for increased American leverage in both countries while building up the U.S.'s direct military presence.

The motive, was to extend the war and keep either side from winning easily or, as Henry Kissinger said, "too bad they can't both lose."

As for Israel supplying arms to Iran, they had done this previously when the Shah was in power as well as supplying the Death Squads in Guatemala, the Nicaraguan Contras and also carried on large-scale military trade and training with Apartheid South Africa in spite of a UN Trade Embargo.

(Continued..)

Here’s some of interesting quotes for those with short attention spans -

“If I was an Arab leader I would never make terms with Israel. That is natural: we have taken their country. Sure, God promised it to us, but what does that matter to them? Our God is not theirs. We come from Israel, it’s true, but two thousand years ago, and what is that to them? There has been anti-semitism, the Nazis, Hitler, Auschwitz, but was that their fault? They only see one thing: we have come here and stolen their country. Why should they accept that?” - David Ben-Gurion, a founder of the state of Israel, in 1956, to Nahum Goldmann, president of the World Jewish Congress.

“Jewish villages were built in the place of Arab villages. You do not even know the names of these Arab villages, and I do not blame you because geography books no longer exist, not only do the books not exist, the Arab villages are not there either…. There is not a single place in this country that did not have a former Arab population.”
And “There is not a single Jewish village in the land which was not built on the site of an Arab dwelling place - Moshe Dayan, the commander of Israel’s 1967 war against Egypt, Syria and Jordan.

“The Egyptian Army concentrations in the Sinai approaches do not prove that Nasser was really about to attack us. We must be honest with ourselves. We decided to attack him.” - After the six-day war, Menachem Begin in a speech to the Israeli National Defense College.

Many thanks, wobbles, do not know whether you are also an historian, but we know for sure your above threads are spot on.

Certainly it so that only from prescribed academia where we should find historical truth -

and thus also justice - we hope?

Cheers - BB, Dockers' follower, WA.

Thanks for those quotes, Wobbles. The fact that you looked for and found them makes you either (a) a self-hating Jew or (b) a fuming antisemite. How dare you suggest that what's happening today is a result of what happened yesterday, and the day before that and before that and before that!

Young Steve, so you believe we don't need historians to clear the political air.

What'n blazes do we need,then? Another Hitler or Stalin.

BB-WA