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Old 08-03-2015, 01:58 PM   #13 (permalink)
John Wilkes Booth
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Join Date: Jul 2013
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you have to look at actions as much as words. iranian politicians use inflammatory rhetoric to control a population that they keep under totalitarian rule, very much like the nazis, soviets, maoists, etc did before them. ultimately though, iran has demonstrated that they are a largely rational actor on the geopolitical plane. they act with the same strategic interests as every other geopolitical entity vying for power, and though this might seem counter intuitive, there is actually a bit of stability to be gained from that relentless mutual competition.

in other words.. the only real inclination that would lead any iranian in power to want to spark an actual nuclear war with isreal is religiously/culturally based, not based on geopolitical constraints such as territory, resources, etc. they resist the religious impulse for holy war based on their real world geopolitical interests. otherwise, if iran were solely determined to develop a nuke and nuke israel, they would have already done so. there is nothing really stopping them. they have the technological capability, the economic ability, etc. they really don't even need the west to lift the sanctions... the sanctions would never stop them from getting a nuke if getting a nuke was their only concern. yet they entered into a deal with the west to let UN inspectors in return for lifting the sanctions. why? because yea having a nuke is a nice piece of geopolitical leverage, but in this case their geopolitical opponents are making it so that a getting a nuke is less important than repairing their economy through lifting the sanctions.
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