Is Bill right?

[Damocles]

It is long past the time we should have decided to stay out of the ME. At this point we've already gone way past the point of no return.

 

[Frank Booth]

It is long past the time we should have decided to stay out of the ME. At this point we've already gone way past the point of no return.

What does "stay out" really mean? No troops? No bases? No contact?

I long for the "glory years" of the early 1970s, when Dick and Henry propped up authoritarian men with mustaches who performed magic tricks like making clerics "disappear". Occasionally, they would get in fisticuffs and get the shit kicked out of them by the Israelis - always well worth the popcorn. They weren't bombing the western world, at least, and apparently Tehran was a swinging spot in those times. Bottom line, the place is far, far safer when led by a man in a military uniform and a mustache (exhibit A, Sisi's Egypt). It only falls apart when you add religion (or more properly, countries led by religious leaders) in the mix.

Half the world really needs secret police, 40% of the world lacks the organizational capacity to have them, and 10% is fine without. What the ME certainly doesn't need is more prayers and guns, like every dip-shit "conservative" commentator recommends.

 

[Legion Troll]

What does "stay out" really mean? No troops? No bases? No contact? I long for the "glory years" of the early 1970s, when Dick and Henry propped up authoritarian men with mustaches who performed magic tricks like making clerics "disappear". Occasionally, they would get in fisticuffs and get the shit kicked out of them by the Israelis - always well worth the popcorn. They weren't bombing the western world, at least, and apparently Tehran was a swinging spot in those times. Bottom line, the place is far, far safer when led by a man in a military uniform and a mustache (exhibit A, Sisi's Egypt). It only falls apart when you add religion (or more properly, countries led by religious leaders) in the mix. Half the world really needs secret police, 40% of the world lacks the organizational capacity to have them, and 10% is fine without. What the ME certainly doesn't need is more prayers and guns, like every dip-shit "conservative" commentator recommends.

The Shah's downfall was the first domino in the chain of events that ended the puppet strongman era.

We're not going to be able to unring that bell, and Arab nationalism is a fact.

I have a problem with American imperialism, also.