Quote:Given those conditions, I'm rapidly approaching the opinion that we ought to just give 'em both a set of figurative boxing gloves, then stand back to keep everyone else from jumping in, and just let them go to town on one another, duke it out, and tell them "the last man standing wins".
I would be perfectly okay with swords. Again, until one bloodied, near-corpse, prevails.
Quote:The main problem with that scenario is that, in the case of an Iran win and the elimination of Israel, then in 15 years or so we'd just have to go in and bomb the crap out of Iran's nuclear program again to keep the rest of the world safe from their aggressive tendencies. Remember, their ultimate goal is "to make all the world for Allah and Islam"... so, once Israel is gone, they'll just turn to the next target, and keep on chugging along. Furthermore, as a Shi'ite nation, all Sunni moslem nations are on the menu, too. "Making the world for Allah and Islam" also means the elimination, eventually, of Sunni Islam as well.
Having lived among a Muslim culture in a Muslim country for several years myself, I have no misgivings or fantasies about how some of these people operate in real life. The more secular and extremist they become, the more savage they become. I don't harbor any utopian fantasies about what some people 'say'. I've seen them operate in real life, in actual practice. I've had to sit across negotiating tables from them. I've seen the lies first hand, and there's no fantasy or 3rd-hand wives tales there, just pure personal, in person, experience. These people will lie, cheat and do anything to 'save face' and to agree to nothing less than something which makes them "look" like they 'win' under any and all circumstances. (There are countless ways around this, but that's a different discussion).
Further, one side of Islam loves to make the other side of Islam look like "they" are the violent extremist ones, but your point was dead-on...these people do not truly believe in peace for all eternity UNLESS it is on their terms and their terms ONLY. Anything less is worth a fight to the death if it comes down to it. 90% of the time it's about psyching the 'other' guy into believing you are more committed than the other guy. It's like 90% mind-fk, and 10% reality. And, in certain situations, it can get to the point where whatever the issue is is silly to the point of laugh-ability (to an outsider), but it's deadly serious to them.
Believe me, I make no excuses at all for the Muslims and the Muslim cultural values (values in particular). This is why I hope people understand I make no excuses for any culture and/or cultural values. From a moral perspective, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to see the gaping chasm between morally right, and morally wrong. And, I believe this is one of the biggest single factors which brought western culture into the modern age, when cultures such as the Muslim culture remained in the dark ages even up until the mid 21st Century (i.e. late 2010's and early 2020's). When I first went over to SE Asia, back in the mid '90's, it was still a 3rd world country and region. Thailand was much further along than areas further south where I was in Malaysia.