Khamenei calls elections a victory for Iran

UncleTrvlingJim said
Kind of like not buying Dixie Chicks albums is the new censorship... :)

Seriously, how is this worthy of discussion? You've mentioned several times that it is important to note that our enemies our paying attention to what we say... ok... why is that important? What should we do about it, etc....

Again, I don't really care what Ahmadinedjad's analysis of our domestic politics really is. I care more about what tak's own opinions are, and why, then I care about some foreign enemy's opinions.

Remember, the terrorists were excited about 9/11 -- they thought it was great. And what happened to them immediately after? Their base of operations was destroyed, finances squeezed, and they were sent scattered to the winds. Oops... looks like they weren't particularly astute at gauging American response. So, now all of the sudden they've become experts at American foreign policy?

I could also point out they were ecstatic about the Iraq invasion. They believed that it would allow them to regroup and help them regain their street cred after they were so thoroughly whipped in Afghanistan. Does this mean we should have listened to them then? Again, my answer is no. In this case, I think they were partially correct, and they may be partially correct again regarding the Democrats... however, we don't base our decisions on their analysis. We base our decisions on our own analysis.

So, exactly why is it important to listen to their propaganda? The only thing I can think of is so that we know where to focus our own propaganda... but no one has made that point.

On some strategic level Al Queda will be disappointed if we leave Iraq.

Keeping us tied down there indefinitely forces us to spend heaps of money, which over the long term will have potentially dire effects for the U.S. economy. Our deep pockets are the thing that has allowed us to sustain the world policeman role.

If they can play a role in undermining our economy over the longer term, they can undermine the thing that sustains the force levels that allow us to intervene in their countries. They are conscious of it. Bin Laden has commented on this benefit of having us in Iraq.

Since they can never defeat us straight up, their only hope is to drain us over time and they've got a good start on that. Add up all the expenditures in blood and treasure so far and compare that to what Al Queda has expended and I think their assymetric strategy is working to some extent.

Already the Chinese are getting nervous about our financial state. China is holding $1 trillion in reserves earned from trading with us. They have nothing to do with those $$$ other than loan them back to us to support our spending.

But they are beginning to believe that on the present course we will bankrupt ourselves and that they will be left holding worthless paper. So they are talking about moving some of those reserves out of $$$ and into gold and Euros.

This is a signal to us.

If we persist in ruinous policies the dollar might be routed, and that would make Al Queda very happy because we could be forced to return home across the oceans for lack finacial resources.

http://www.thestreet.com/_yahoo/mar...ml?cm_ven=YAHOO&cm_cat=FREE&cm_ite=NA

http://www.thestreet.com/_yahoo/mar...ml?cm_ven=YAHOO&cm_cat=FREE&cm_ite=NA