Iranian leader WANTS to bring about the end of times?

[MaineDolFan]

The riots are out of control!  The middle east is pissed at us!  Iran is talking shit!  LET'S GO GET THEM!
 

[MaineDolFan]

"Dammit all to hell...now that we HAVE them, how to we DEPLOY them??"

[run_to_win]

You'll get your wish in 08! Well, at least, you'll get your wish of seeing a democrat back in the office cleaning up the mess of the current administration. Whether we will take on Iran is another story. If they truely have nukes and are a threat (and not an maginary, fabricated WMD threat like Iraq was) to use them, you can count on a tough US response (or initiative)

Tough response from a democrat???  When's the last time that happened?

Why shouldn't I assume that Dems will defer to the UN and the by the time action is taken the nukes will be hidden or used?

[MaineDolFan]

If I didn't know any better, I would smell a "wanna fight" all through this thread.

Statement 1:  "God I hope the Dems take the house in '08"

Statement 2:  "God the Dems suck."  And yes, I understand I am taking a liberty with that statement.

 

Crazy weather we're having, eh?

[run_to_win]

Here's the thing - YOU could have a nuke and I wouldn't worry about you "nuking us."  In order to "nuke" a country, the country wishing to get their nuke on needs one of two things:  (1) long range ballistic missle strike ability and / or a sub program.  Iran has neither.  You don't just walk into Wal-Mar and buy a ballistic missle that can travel far enough to "nuke us."

I wonder if Iran has a call into China or former members of the Clinton administration?  

Iran would be a geographic threat to their immediate neighbors.

I understand this (I hate to restate/rehash old information).  You know the scenario - the US getting involved due to an attack on, or a pre-emptive strke by, Israel.

I hope you understand the third world countries that already HAVE nukes?  Pakistan was going to nuke Israel if they got them.  Huh.  Never happened.  India was going to just start tossing nukes around like candy when they got them.  Huh...never happened.

India is about 80% Hindu - not such a threat to Israel.  They became a nuclear power in the 1960s because of China.  Pakistan, 97% Muslim, became nuclear in 1972 in response to India - not as a threat to Israel.

Worry more about nations developing a true risk to the United States directly.  Long range missles are much harder to come by.

The risk comes from our alliance from Israel, and the relationship between muslim governments and terrorists.

I don't think we disagree, and I don't think you've told us anything we didn't already know.  

[run_to_win]

This is a religious belief, and this guy believes that he's been notified by some supreme power that this 12th imam is on his way.  

This is not to be confused with "I'm going to end the world myself!"

Not everything to do with the middle east has to have a quick trigger attached to it.

If I'm reading this wrong, someone please enlighten me.

This was discussed on the radio here in Seattle yesterday - that's the only reason I knew to google the article.

I'm not familiar with Islam so please correct me if I've been misinformed. 

There needs to be some apocalyptic event for the 12th iman to return.  ALLEGEDLY, the President of Iran believes he can create this event.

I take "end of times" to mean the return of the 12th Iman/Christ and the resetting of the calendar - not necessarily the destruction of the planet.

You all know that I'm not smart enough to make these connections myself.  This is just what I heard on the radio so I thought I'd share.

[run_to_win]

If I didn't know any better, I would smell a "wanna fight" all through this thread.

Yes, I think we're having another "I don't speak your language" moment because I too got that feeling from reply #11.

Reply #8 was meant to be humorous (ie - democrats will only support a war started by a democratic president.)   Sorry if you did not find it funny.

[Brian Fein]

This was discussed on the radio here in Seattle yesterday - that's the only reason I knew to google the article.

I'm not familiar with Islam so please correct me if I've been misinformed.  

There needs to be some apocalyptic event for the 12th iman to return.  ALLEGEDLY, the President of Iran believes he can create this event.

That's not how the article reads.  According to the article, the dude shows up reigns for 7 years, then blows shit up.  Seems like either (a) he thinks he is the 12th imam or (b) he is waiting for him to show up.  If its (a), then we have reason to worry...  Otherwise, I don't understand why we're all equating some mental case having a religious experience with nuclear holocaust.

[run_to_win]

There needs to be some apocalyptic event for the 12th iman to return. <= from the radio discussion about the article.

[Brian Fein]

There needs to be some apocalyptic event for the 12th iman to return. <= from the radio discussion about the article.

OK, well the radio guys contradict the article, then.  Who's right, and who's wrong?

Ahmadinejad and others in Iran are deadly serious about the imminent return of the 12th imam, who will prompt a global battle between good and evil (with striking parallels to biblical accounts of "Armageddon").

[MaineDolFan]

Nope, I didn't find it funny and I don't think it was intended to be that way.  And I also take your cutting and pasting my entire statement as trying to pick a fight.  I know how countries came to be (nuclear power, wise) and I realize who is a threat to whom.  Trust me, I know it better than you.  That's not the point of YOUR thread.

You specifically said "nuke us."  Not our allies / interests.  Therefore you didn't take into account that Iran CAN'T.  Therefore striking them first, out of threat directly to us would be insane.

I can play that game too.  YOU SAID:

So your opinion is to not worry about it and let Iran nuke us?

MY RESPONSE is SIMPLE.  THEY CAN'T.  They don't have the ability.  So the direct answer to your direct question:  don't worry about it (1) and Iran CAN'T nuke us.  Period.  They don't have the ability.

[Phishfan]

I just want to jump in and say I feel Iran is and always has been more of a threat to the US than Iraq was/is. This goes to show one thing in my opinion, we need to pick and choose our fights wisely. Let's say this guy does become a major problem. What are we going to do about it? Iraq is no where near finished and we still have issues in Afghanistan. We do not have enough troops to police the world ourselves militarily (and recruiters are not meeting goals). I am not against war, I am for fighting the correct wars.

Did that take us off topic? To bring it around I hope this guy just turns out to be another Middle East loudmouth and that's all.

[MaineDolFan]

As a direct threat to the continental US, they are a ways off from being that.  As a threat to our allies / interests - they are up there.  Always have been.  There is this little matter of a 20 year war with Iraq that has left them weaker than a lot of people in the media account for, however.

[Phishfan]

There are also such things as dirty bombs that do not require a long range ballistic missile to deliver them. When you consider that, they very well could indeed be a direct threat.

[Brian Fein]

I did a little research...

Read this, in conjunction with the article.  I think the radio show you heard was simply trying to stir the friggin' pot (as apparently they have done here very nicely).

Muhammad al Mahdi
 
Arabic: 'abū l-q&#257;simi muhammadi bni hassan
 
(868- ?) Muhammad al Mahdi (the guided) is the 12th and last Imam of the Twelver Shi'i, and is also known as Muhammad al Muntazar (the awaited).
Very little can be said of him with any certainty. In fact, the non-Twelver might very well question whether there was an historical person associated with the name. Jafar, the brother of the Eleventh Imam denied the existence of any child and claimed the Imamate for himself. In fact, accounts of public appearances by Muhammad al Mahdi often involve his mysterious arrival at key moments to challenge his uncle's claims.
In brief, the Twelver Shi'i believe that he was born to a Byzantine slave named Narjis Khatun, and that his birth was kept quiet by his father, the Eleventh Imam, Hassan al Askari, because of the intense persecution of the Shi'is at that time.
Hidden since birth, he reappeared at age of 6 to assert his claim to the Imamate, only to then disappear down a well to avoid the sad fate of his father and grandfather. For the next seventy years he maintained contact with his followers through a succession of four assistants, each known as Bab (Gate), Uthman al Amir; his son Abu Jafar Muhammad ibn Uthman; Abu'l Qasim Husayn ibn Ruh an Nawbakhti; and Abu'l Husayn Ali ibn Muhammad as Samarri. The period when he used the 4 Babs as his form of contacting the Shi'is is known as the Lesser Occultation.
On his deathbed in 941 CE, the fourth Bab, as Samarri produced a letter from the Imam stating that there should be no successor to as Samarri and that from that time forward the Mahdi would not be seen until he reappeared as champion of the faithful in the events leading to the Judgement Day. Therefore, after 941 CE there has been no earthly expression of the Imamate. This period is known as the Greater Occultation. However, it is still possible to seek the Twelfth Imam's advice or intercession by writing him a letter and leaving it at one of the Shi'i shrines. To explain the doctrine of the Occultation, Shi'i theologians draw an analogy to the idea of the sun being occulted by clouds. While the sun is out of sight, it still exists and warms the earth.