Karnal wrote on Aug 25
th, 2010 at 12:41am:
aikmann4 wrote on Aug 24
th, 2010 at 12:39pm:
Why does Persia insist on its own arms industry anyway?
It is a tool for peace, Insh'allah. It is a gesture of friendship.
Muslims who insist on getting even with Uncle do not understand the key lessons learned from the US's recent history.
It's not about superior military might, Beating Uncle at his own game is about playing on your own home ground and understanding, as Mao so elegantly put it, that the "weak shall overcome the strong." You beat Uncle by being lighter, more flexible, and being in there for the long haul. The drone in the picture is just a propaganda tool.
Why on earth anyone would defend the creation of a new arms race is beyond me.
Do you know - I have never quoted myself before. Mere plagiarism and vanity.
However, I also hate to admit I'm wr..., but I certainly am in this case. It's not my fault, of course.
The fundamental flaw in the above post (and the tone of this thread, I'm afraid) is the assumption that Iran is sticking it to Uncle. It's not.
What Iran is doing, insh'allah, is sticking it to Israel. But more importantly, it's attempting to cement its new-found hegemony in Central Asia. It looks like Iran didn't get the nukes it was after, but the only reason to have nukes would be to counter Israel. Which is a complete abstraction, because anyone who nukes anyone else in the Middle East will nuke themselves, as Israel well knows. It's all about bluff.
Drones look like a much better idea. As the US has shown, drones are an excellent way to fight a short range war, long-distance. You can fight from any laptop in the world, I guess. I could be zapping people right now if I wanted.
I'm assuming Israel's got a couple of drones hanging about - they have all the latest gadgets, I'm told, so of course Iran would want them too. But Iran isn't chiefly in a tizz over Israel.
Israel is merely political.
Afghanistan and Pakistan, however, are geopolitical. This is where the US is playing with its drones. Now drones don't seem to me to be a particularly defensive weapon. You fly them deep into an enemy's borders. I can't see how they'd be that much good if you were using them to defend troops or populations. Anti-aircraft fire would wipe them out pretty quick, and there goes your latest investment.
Iran doesn't want to put its hand down Uncle's pants in Afghanistan right now. That would be madness. What Iran's doing is getting in on what Uncle grandiosely calls the War On Terror, but which we all know is just a futile waste of time doomed to finish in a couple of years or so. A war without means or ends.
But Iran will still be there. Afghanistan and Pakistan will still be there. Now what else would Iran be doing with a drone? Continuing the US's gripes?
Hardly. Iran has its eye on its own game-plan in the region. It's not defensive or friendly, or even about Uncle, who everybody knows, is on the way out.
The future in Central Asia is Russia, China and Iran. Amerika still has a big presence in the region, but it's time-limited. Amerika doesn't have hegemony anymore. It can only hold on for dear life. But the others...
Iran has its eye on the big picture. You could say it's Iran's way of "moving forward."